Only Murders In The Building Recap: “Cuckoo Chicks”

This week on Only Murders in the Building, the boys go to therapy and the girls have a Ladies’ Night at the Arconia’s secret underground casino. This season has delicately balanced its numerous guest stars, with the trio of billionaire suspects (Renée Zellweger, Logan Lerman, and Christoph Waltz) popping up now and then, as well as Meryl Streep, Bobby Cannavale, and a slew of other recurring faces, but this week puts the focus squarely on the Oscar-winning Zellweger’s delicate-but-ruthless would-be casino magnate, Camila. The episode also features the return of Oliver’s wife, Loretta (Meryl Streep) in her second appearance of the season. Hey, she’s an Oscar winner, too! You know what, let’s bring in a third, with Da’Vine Joy Randolph joining in on the fun.

After learning about Ladies’ Night from Thē, Mabel, Lorraine, and Detective Donna, plus Lester’s widow, Lorraine (Dianne Wiest), go undercover to try and see if they can pin the murder on Camila. By the way, Wiest has two Oscars of her own. That mean the scene at the card table with Randolph, Streep, Wiest, and Zellweger has a combined total of no fewer than eight Oscars. That’s nuts, man.

Detective Donna goes undercover as a card dealer (what happened to the real Kristy?!) and tries to influence the mood of the table by rigging her Blackjack deck. Unfortunately, Lorraine and Mabel have terrible poker faces. The acting in this scene is hilarious, with Dianne Wiest in particular shining with her squeaky falsetto voice and seething anger towards Camila. “I should strangle you with this jaunty scarf” is an all-timer. Her outburst leads to Loretta calling an audible and kicking into action a new plan to pretend to be a psychic like her old roommate and win the favor of Camila. Shockingly, it works. She basically sacrifices Detective Donna, calling out her cheating in order to win Camila’s trust.

Eventually, after a little coaxing, Camila reveals that she had a crush on Victim #2, Nicky (Bobby Cannavale), and they were planning to turn the Arconia into a casino together, a joint venture… And that she has a bone to pick with “that fu*king doorman,” for reasons unknown. It’s also revealed that Nicky’s wife (Tea Leoni) was having an affair, but it’s unclear if it was with said doorman, or why else Camila might have a grudge against either the deceased Lester or his successor, Randall (Jermaine Fowler).

Meanwhile, a defeated Detective Donna sits in on an impromptu therapy session with Charles and Oliver against their neighbor, Dr. Grover (Russell G. Jones). He’s a therapist who’s agreed to sell his apartment to Camila, and they successfully talk him out of it… But too late. I don’t know what escrow is, that’s for people who get to own property, but they’re minutes past the deadline. Camila’s plan has succeeded. She owns enough apartments to shut down the building and rebuild it as a casino.

At their shared lowest point, Mabel and Lorraine share some weed by her open window. I don’t love Lorraine sitting so precariously close to an open window. What if she falls out? I’m not neurotic or paranoid or anything, but still, it puts me on edge. Like watching people shave. I’m always scared they’re going to cut themselves! Anyway, Mabel shows Lorraine the gang’s box of evidence to Lester’s murder. Lorraine plays a bird whistle. Wacky neighbor Vince (Richard Kind) gets a message from his app and finds the gang. It turns out, Lester’s whistle activated a camera pointed towards the fountain where Lester died, a camera that can’t be manipulated by those shady billionaires!

And, as it turns out, Lester blew the whistle as he lay dying, and the camera captured Randall picking up the missing elevator crank, Lester’s prized memento, which Loretta found in Nicky’s office. How’s that for a cliffhanger?

Zak’s Thoughts (I’m Zak)

Did Randall kill Lester with the elevator crank and then hide it in Nicky’s office in an attempt to frame the gangster?

I love the style of acting on this show. It’s elevated but still believable. Everyone is some degree of eccentric, but Renée Zellweger takes the cake, knowing how to get the most out of every facial movement and stretch every single one of her lines into a delightfully unhinged performance. She knows just when to give “crazy sexy eyes,” which most people probably see as just “crazy eyes,” but enough about me and my sensibilities.

Mabel trying to smile is another feather in the “Selena Gomez playing awkward” cap. It’s one of my favorite caps.

I love the revelation that Loretta is a wee bit crazy. Oliver is more than a bit crazy himself, so of course they’d be attracted to each other… I do hope she’s not Jan levels of crazy, though.

I’m surprised Thē didn’t show up at all during Ladies’ Night. She was more of a plot device this episode than an actual character. She’s not my favorite or anything, but I felt like she and Mabel finally had a breakthrough last week, so I was expecting a bit more from her this week.

You couldn’t have picked a more obvious song than Ladies’ Night? Wait, did you see Selena Gomez’s gold dress? What was I talking about again?

I love Meryl Streep’s bangs more than anything else in the entire world.

Martin Short’s TMI throw-away anecdote of the week: “I broke my pickle once. Do not date an acrobat!”

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