“You don’t even know baseball. For example, ‘kickoff’ is a Rockettes term.”
Last week, a suspicious Randall (Jermaine Fowler) leaving the scene of Lester’s murder with the latter’s prized elevator crank. This week’s episode rewinds the clock and gives us the perspective of a different kind of doorman. It begins with Lester and janitor Miller (David Patrick Kelly) opening a box containing the new robot doorman, L.E.S.T.R., but the human workers at the Arconia aren’t exactly fans. They basically lock him in the basement… Until Lester’s murder. This episode mostly follows the POV of robot LESTR as it wanders about, unnoticed by the building’s human denizens.
Courtesy of Hulu
Our trio of heroes confront Randall, but he runs away. Oliver and Charles are too old for a high-speed foot chase, and Mabel is wearing spiky sexy boots, so they just kinda let him run off. After the opening credits, we get a warning from LESTR about the impending closure of the Arconia, but the 19-day timer quickly turns to 8 days, and then one night with little in the way of progress on the case. We do get a scene that shows that LESTR can’t climb stairs, which will surely come into play in next week’s finale.
This is mostly a character-driven episode that moves pieces into place and sets up all the inevitable resolutions that will take place next week. It’s not a plot-heavy episode, but there’s nothing wrong with that. We get funny gags about Charles considering moving to a fancy new apartment without realizing that it’s actually a nursing home, and we see on social media that Randall has absconded to Cuba. Case closed… Or is it?
In a bit of a contrivance, Mabel and Detective Donna find a new clue in the Arconia’s secret casino, which reveals a secret passage to the Italian drycleaning store owned by the dead gangster, Nicky. It turns out that Randall is not actually in Cuba. He’s actually just squatting in a vacant apartment. His “Cuban” backdrop is just a painting in the basement of the drycleaning store where he was hiding out before moving to the apartment. The gang confronts him… But he just runs away again, and, well, Charles and Oliver are still old, and Mabel, despite her youth. is not remotely athletic. I dunno, I saw the Taki Taki music video, I know she has moves.
A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to reintroducing Nathan Lane’s Teddy Dimas (and his hot deaf son, Theo (James Caverly). We haven’t seen Teddy since Season 2, and Theo since Season 3, which makes me wonder if they’ll tie into the finale in some way. In a lucky break, Randall crashes into Theo, allowing the gang (and the rest of the building’s tenants) to conduct a rapid-fire interrogation.
Unexpectedly, LESTR winds up saving the day, corroborating Randall’s innocence with his video recording of Randall and Lester. Randall didn’t kill Lester. But it seems Lester killed Nicky using the elevator crank and entrusted the murder weapon to Randall. He also planted the human finger (the owner of which is still unknown) in the case of wedding shrimp for Oliver, knowing that its discovery would kick off an investigation to uncover the truth behind Camilla White’s plan to turn the Arconia into a casino. These revelations are enough to spur the whole building into rallying to solve Lester’s murderer before they’re all formally evicted from the building… But not before Oliver throws a Last Supper-themed dinner party with himself as Jesus (natch).
Logan Lerman’s Billionaire Jay shows up at Mabel’s door in an attempt to take her on vacation to The Maldives. I don’t know where that is. Rich people sh*t, I assume. Mabel, distraught with the circumstances of the case, had texted Jay that she might be willing to try her hand as a “boat bit*h,” but thanks to the events of the episode so far, she rejects him and rebukes him for his casino plan. Sure, he didn’t win the casino game, but if he had, he would be ruining other people’s lives the way Camila is ruining those of the Arconia tenants. LESTR is watching,
But there’s one last clue, and it’s the one that cracks the case. Way back, when the mysterious severed finger was stolen from Charles’ kitchen, a scuffmark was left outside of the refrigerator. They initially think it was from LESTR, but Howard points out that it’s not the case. It’s actually from a motorized scooter, much like the one his own mother used to use. Who else on the show uses a motorized scooter? There’s only one character, and it’s Nicky’s mother, “Nonna,” played by Elizabeth D’Onofrio. She and at least several of her grandsons are the ones who stole the finger. But does that mean they killed Lester? And what the heck is the finger even used for? We’ll get the final answers next week, since that’s the season finale!
Zak’s Thoughts (I’m Zak)
Teddy has my favorite line in the episode. In reference to Howard’s robosexual relationship with LESTR, he asks, “Howard, are you fu*king that thing?” He also gets a great jab in when he says of the podcast, “You should have been cancelled after Season 2,” a nice nod to the fact Nathan Lane was only a regular on the first two seasons of the show.
There are some truly tremendous character moments here that don’t fit neatly into the “recap” part of this article but are absolutely worth mentioning. My favorite is Oliver admitting that doing the podcast with Charles and Mabel has been the most personally rewarding experience of his professional career.
Lester doesn’t directly admit to killing Nicky. I wonder if that means he didn’t actually do it? Was it one of the billionaires? I can’t imagine Lester caring enough about them to cover it up. I bet it was Lester’s wife. Who else would he love enough about to go so far as to cover up a murder?
I like the budding romance between Uma (Jackie Hoffman) and Vince (Richard Kind). It makes me wonder if they’re going to be the season-ending dead bodies, assuming this season ends with the same kind of cliffhanger as previous seasons.
At first, I didn’t like LESTR. I thought it was maybe a bridge too far for this show. I know it’s not exactly ‘realistic,’ but it just seemed like it was pressing just a little bit too far into silliness for me. However, between Paul Rudd’s voice work, the way LESTR ties into the case, and its non-gimmicky thematic significance throughout the season, I’ve come around to LESTR. I mean, I don’t like him the way Howard does, but I’m glad he’s around in the show. I hope next week’s finale doesn’t end with LESTR sacrificing itself to save the heroes at the last second.
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