‘Only Murders in the Building’: All the Loose Ends from Season 1’s Mystery
Mabel Mora said it best at the end of Only Murders in the Building Season 1 — “Does anyone else feel like there’s still a couple of loose ends?” We sure do. The Arconia’s beloved podcast trio solved the murder of Tim Kono and then some in the season 1 finale. However, there are still some smaller threads to the mystery that remain untied. Now that Only Murders Season 2 has begun on Hulu, many viewers hope to finally receive answers soon. Here are the loose ends that have yet to be addressed.
[Spoiler alert: The following story contains spoilers for Only Murders in the Building Season 1.]
Why did Tim Kono have an engagement ring?
Before Tim Kono (Julian Cihi) died, he was gathering evidence to use against Teddy Dimas (Nathan Lane), a serial grave robber who sold his findings on the black market. Mabel (Selena Gomez) found all the hidden jewelry in Tim’s apartment. One such jewelry piece was an emerald ring that Zoe (Olivia Reis) had stolen from Teddy’s apartment 10 years earlier, just before her death.
But that wasn’t the only interesting ring associated with Tim. In an elevator ride with Mabel, Charles (Steve Martin), and Oliver (Martin Short), Tim spoke with someone on the phone about a very important missing package. The podcast hosts learned that Bunny Folger (Jayne Houdyshell) accidentally received the package, so they broke into her apartment to take it. Inside the box, they found a diamond engagement ring.
It’s entirely possible that this ring was just another piece of Tim’s evidence. However, many fans are suspicious that it could have been for another lover, if not for Jan (Amy Ryan). He already had so much jewelry to use against Teddy, so why did he need the engagement ring so badly?
Who left the threatening note on Jan’s door?
The season 1 finale revealed that Jan was Tim’s killer. They had been seeing each other for some time, and she murdered him because she thought the emerald ring was for another woman. Jan even went so far as to stab herself to throw Mabel, Charles, and Oliver off her scent (which obviously didn’t work in the end).
However, there’s still one loose end in Jan’s story on Only Murders in the Building: the threatening note on her door. She and other characters, including Oliver, received notes in season 1, but viewers never learned who wrote them. One could assume that Jan wrote the note to herself as another precaution. On the other hand, eagle-eyed Only Murders fans noticed that Jan’s handwriting didn’t match the other notes, as seen above.
“I’m very interested in whether there were two note-writers or not,” one fan wrote on Reddit. “A lot of people have pointed out the difference in handwriting between Jan’s lowercase notes and the ALL CAPS ones. I hope that gets paid off in season 2.”
Why was Tim Kono’s toxicology report not submitted?
The toxicology report for Tim Kono’s murder revealed poison in his system, which confirmed that it wasn’t suicide. However, that report was never formally submitted, as Detective Williams (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) realized. Thus, many fans have theorized that someone either inside the police force or with connections to the police made sure it wouldn’t go through.
The obvious person would be Jan, but who could she have a connection to? If not her, it could have been someone else at the Arconia.
“I thought Bunny because she’s obviously quite wealthy and could have bribed someone, but not sure what her motive would be. Cinda is an interesting idea, she no doubt has some police contacts that might tip her off. That might also explain why she was so fast on the scene when Bunny was killed,” one Reddit user wrote.
Who poisoned Oliver’s dog, Winnie?
As the Only Murders trio’s investigation heated up, Oliver walked into his apartment to find that someone had poisoned his beloved bulldog, Winnie. Sitting beside her was a chew toy covered in mysterious white powder. Thankfully, Winnie survived the poisoning with help from a vet, but it’s still unclear who poisoned her. Jan never admitted to the crime in her monologue.
It’s possible that whoever wrote the threatening notes is the same person who poisoned Winnie. It would be a relief to see those two loose ends tied up simultaneously. On the other hand, maybe it really was Sting.
Only Murders in the Building Season 2 is now streaming on Hulu. New episodes drop every Tuesday.
