Review: Only Murders in the Building, “The House Always” | Season 5, Episode 10

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When a mover attempts to take the murder board out of Oliver’s apartment in the fifth-season finale of Only Murders in the Building, he’s right to assume that it’s not being used. “It feels like it’s all questions and no answers," he says, delivering one of the least-irritating lines of meta dialogue in “The House Always.” Again, he’s not entirely off-base: The many cork boards devoted to finding the murderer (or murderers) of Lester Coluca and Nicky Caccimelio have come together in a jumble of index cards and photographs—the epitome of season five’s all-over-the-place, multiple-genre-exercise, Arconia-threatening nature. Now knowing who took the finger out of Charles’ freezer but no closer to learning who it belongs to, it feels like the trio will need a miracle to bring things to a tidy conclusion. And while I wouldn’t go so far as to call “The House Always” miraculous, it does bring a choppy Only Murders whodunit to a satisfying end.

There’s a tremendous amount of payoff in this episode, picking up season-five strands that go beyond Lester and Nicky’s untimely demises. (Though the detailing of those demises, especially Nicky choking on the ledger page, is a highlight of the finale.) I had long ago written off the mob-backing of Newark, Newark as a throwaway gag, and then, “BAM”: The “only show to receive a formal complaint from the state of New Jersey” inspires a trap whose lack of sophistication doesn’t keep it from snaring a murderer. As part of that trap, the tough-guy act intended to sell the Caccimelio boys’ podcast in the premiere comes back, sending off those lovable lugs with one final flurry of make-‘em-ups and boneheaded quips. Even the befuddling, seemingly dead-end storyline involving Charles’ testosterone trial contributes to the climax.