‘Only Murders in the Building’ Creator Shares 4 Other Killer Candidates for Season 2 Finale
Only Murders in the Building recently premiered its season 2 finale on Hulu. The series had another shocking revelation of who the killer is, and many did not see it coming. Part of the fun of this show is trying to solve the mystery with the characters, and viewers had plenty of options for who the killer might be. Only Murders co-creator John Hoffman says many characters could have been Bunny Folger’s killer, but only one was the correct choice. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The ‘Only Murders in the Building’ season 2 finale revealed who killed Bunny Folger
Season one of Only Murders in the Building ended with Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short), and Mabel (Selena Gomez) being arrested for the supposed murder of Bunny Folger (Jayne Houdyshell), the former board president of the Arconia. Through a series of investigations involving an explicit painting and glitter, the murderer was finally revealed in the season 2 finale.
While the penultimate episode of season 2 had fans believing rival podcaster Cinda Canning (Tine Fey) killed Bunny, it turned out that her assistant, Poppy (Adina Verson), had done the deed and was assisted by detective Kreps (Michael Rapaport). While Poppy had little connection to Bunny, Poppy wanted to create an incredible new story for a true crime podcast, so she killed Bunny and attempted to frame the trio to gain the trust of Cinda and get her own podcast.
‘Only Murders’ co-creator reveals other possible candidates they almost chose as the killer
In an interview with Variety, Hoffman shared that there were other characters who the writers were considering for the killer. This included Cinda, Theo (James Caverly), and possibly Jan (Amy Ryan), the killer from season one. Ultimately, the writers went with Poppy because they believed that it paired better with the themes of season 2.
“We made tracks for many characters,” Hoffman said. “We thought of Cinda. We wondered about Teddy — Teddy [Nathan Lane] certainly had a motive. We thought of Theo [James Caverly], who had a motive. We thought of Jan [Amy Ryan], even in prison, finding a way to make that happen. I definitely liked the notion that because they were sister seasons, they were necessarily tied, that it’d be a character we knew already. Making Poppy the killer also allowed this season to delve deeper into the culture of true crime podcasting. There’s a critique running through the episodes about this obsessive consumption of death.”
“That is central to why we chose her as well,” Hoffman added. “The show is built that way; it’s all a meta-commentary on what we do with these stories. They’re built into my psyche because I was dealing with a murder mystery in my own life. Asking [myself], ‘Am I OK to be doing this? And how far can we go? How close to the bone is this?’ And then hiding that little bit.”
The creators provided hints that Poppy was the killer
Another shocking twist in season 2 was that Poppy is Becky Butler, the allegedly missing woman who became the inspiration for Canning’s All Is Not OK in Oklahoma. Hoffman told Variety they gave clues for this reveal in season 2, but only the most observant fans could have found these hints.
“There’s a shot that opens Episode 6,” Hoffman shared. “It’s Poppy narrating, sitting on a bench by an elevator in the office that she works in with Cinda, and the poster directly above her head is All Is Not OK in Oklahoma. The headline is ‘Where’s Becky Butler?’ and she’s directly underneath that poster.”
The season 2 finale of Only Murders in the Building ended with another shocking moment when the series introduced Paul Rudd just to kill him off in a new stage production directed by Oliver. Season 3 will most likely be moving away from the Arconia, and it will be intriguing to see what it’s all leading to.
Only Murders in the Building Season 2 is streaming on Hulu.
