Only Murders In The Building “Gates Of Heaven”

So, I should have known that this show would find a way to keep Jane Lynch in the series, even if it is for one last season.  Besides, I see Richard Kind and Kumail Nanjiani are also on this season, so the series is still bringing in all kinds of recognizable comedic actors.

But this episode, this one is about mourning.

That is essentially what Charles does this episode.  The trio have figured out that Sazz was probably shot by someone from the Arconia’s West Tower, a place of oddballs and weirdos that are kept out of the East Tower because they are oddballs and weirdos.  Charles has never been over there, but he’s suspicious of a lot of people over there, giving them nicknames like how thinks one guy (Kind) keeps giving him the stink-eye (the guy, Vince Fish, has pink eye), the Sauce Family that are always stirring  sauces (the mother has a crush on Charles, the father puts up with it, and the daughter is embarrassed by the whole thing), and a fellow (Nanjiani) who is always working out in a Christmas sweater.  Plus, there’s a mystery place that’s always locked.

Now, Oliver and Mabel (plus the Sazz hallucination that Charles is having) all seem to think Charles, not Sazz, was the target, and Charles for his part would rather not think that despite the fact that someone dressed like him was killed in his own apartment.  Plus, Charles’s psycho ex Jan managed to make her guest appearance for the season by sneaking in to Charles’s place while he’s on hold waiting for 911 to get back to him.  There were a lot of people ahead of him…

Actually, the comedy here is largely how Mabel and Oliver find the people they see in the West Tower actually are pretty friendly, but just a little off or something.  Yeah, the closed up apartment just had a small pig inside a bathtub, but Vince and the “Sauce Family” actually invite Oliver and Mabel to play a card game.  Yes, there are disturbing moments involving a knife in the bathroom, but no one is getting killed in there.  It’s just a slightly-off tower full of weirdos, and the East Tower isn’t exactly sanity center.

But really, Charles is the one having a crisis even before his murderer ex-girlfriend appears in his closet.  It takes some time, talking to the hallucination of Sazz in his apartment, for Charles to realize that Sazz was his first and closest friend in many respects, someone who always looked out for him in ways that suggest she was that sort of stunt double in that she didn’t just do the dangerous stuff for Charles on-set but also the things that helped him maintain some sanity and mental well-being in ways that no one else did.  Sure, he has Oliver and Mabel now, but those two are fairly new friends.  He doesn’t seem to have too many old friends, and he’s a somewhat lonely man as a result.  Mabel finds a love interest every season while Oliver still has his son and grandchildren.  What does Charles have aside from the daughter of an ex-girlfriend (an ex who didn’t murder anyone), and I don’t know that we’re going to see that child again any time soon.

Basically, Charles is going through the loss of a good friend and the idea that he might have been the target.

There’s still the Christmas sweater guy to check out, though.