ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING - “Nail in the Coffin” - While investigating Lester’s mysterious “accidental” death, the clues lure Charles, Oliver, and Mabel out of Manhattan — and straight into some dangerous new “old” territory. (Disney/Patrick Harbron) MARTIN SHORT, SHEA BUCKNER, CORY JEACOMA, DANE DILIEGRO, EVAN MULROONEY, AARON DEAN EISENBERG
Originally posted on September 9, 2025 @ 10:46 pm
Only Murders in the Building Recap for Nail in the Coffin
It is the season five premiere of Only Murders in the Building! Last season, we saw Lester the doorman die during a cliffhanger finale. Mabel, Charles and Oliver discovered his body and called 911.
The episode opens with the trio reading his obituary, which upsets Oliver. Charles and Mabel are upset that the death was deemed accidental.
As they eat four day old wedding shrimp, Howard comes in to complain about his loneliness. The topic switches to Lester’s death and the new hot employee. Since it is accidental at this point, the trio realizes there is no podcast.
One of the shrimps Oliver is eating turns out to be a severed finger. He freaks out.
The trio try to figure out who the finger belongs to and if they have another murder on their hands.
The topic switches to Sofia Caccimelio, a mob wife looking for her missing husband Nicky. Oliver is upset they turned down the case and tries to look into it….until Mabel tries to get them back to the business of the finger. They wonder if it could belong to Lester and proceed to crash the funeral.
Mabel thinks this is where they find out Lester is a Kennedy since there are so many people. A random dude reads the eulogy. He reminds people to vote, which makes me wonder if he is a politician.
The trio tries to investigate with Mabel and Oliver talking to Lorrianne the widow while Charles looks to see if Lester has all his fingers.
Mayor Tillman, the dude who gave the eulogy fanboys about the podcast and wants to collaborate. Charles investigates but makes a fool of himself.
Lorrianne calls Oliver the cuckoo chick since he was so needy, saying
that that is what Lester called him.
Charles continues to cause a ruckus, so Mabel tells a story about her birthday Lester made special….only for Uma to call out Charles.
The trio discover Lester and Nick exchanged an envelope and text Howard and call Sofia to find the connection. Oliver is out since the mob is involved due to his past. Mabel says she and Charles will do the podcast on their own….and then Oliver changes his mind and decides to help.
Time to visit the mob! A bunch of brothers come out, Johnny, Tony, Mikey, Vinny and Braden….and a nonna who grinds meat. Oliver thinks they look like they are auditioning for the community theatre production of Grease.
The brothers talk about the Gambino family torching a house and proceed to scare the crap out of Oliver. They tell them to always listen and say yes to the mob. Cue the mob brothers singing!
Oliver is confused, Charles think they are singing the theme song to kill them, but the brothers are just promoting the podcast. Mabel shows them the finger, causing them to freak out, while nonna says to keep the finger out of her gravy.
Sofia comes home talking about 3D Doritos and is confused at the scene she sees. She talks about the mob, the podcast and Scorsese…and how her husband moved them into the Godfather house. She has no idea about the finger since it is not hairy enough to be Nick’s and kicks them out, despite wanting to hire them to find Nick. She talks to Charles alone and seems to want a little something with him. He doesn’t mind….unless he killed Lester. She leaves him with a deck of cards Nicky left behind.
After the trio separate, Charles looks into the cards over a glass of wine and discovers a map. Mabel looks at the video footage from the night Lester died. Oliver mourns over Lester being gone. They all go to investigate and realize they are given clues to all the blind spots, which can be seen through red. Since Charles drank the red wine, Mabel uses her lipstick to help look for clues.
Charles and Mabel find a closet and another secret passage while Oliver finds a dry cleaning place and goes to investigate.
Oliver finds a uniform belonging to Lester while Charles and Mabel find…..a casino? Is he working with MeMaw from Young Sheldon? The numbers on the card Charles has leads to them finding the envelope Lester had….filled with cash.
Oliver finds Nicky’s dead body as the episode comes to an end.
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