Only Murders in the Building season 3 episode 7 recap & review: CoBro

Open Go TV / September 12, 2023 / Reviews

Only Murders in the Building season 3 episode 7 follows Mabel as she tries to figure out who killed Ben on her own while Charles and Oliver find out that fixing their friendship is the best option. The episode is streaming on Hulu.

Recap

Uma talks about her distrust for people and her preference for material objects as they are less fickle. She is then seen eyeing the handkerchief that Ben was clutching at the time of his death, suggesting that she took it.

She goes to the diner where she always visited with Bunny and Charles walks in a little bit later by himself. She beckons for him to join her and they talk about his broken friendship with Charles and Mabel.

As she’s leaving, he notices the hankie in her bag but she rushes off and says that there’s no way he’s getting his hands on it. Mabel is packing up the stuff in her apartment with some help from Theo.

He suggests talking to Dickie about the murder since he was close to Ben and must have some insight that could prove useful. Oliver is having auditions to replace Charles with Donna and Cliff sitting in but it’s going terribly.

Cliff decides to reach out to a friend of his as a last resort and jumps with joy once he gets confirmation. Charles notices all the old lookalikes and is surprised that Oliver is recasting already.

He sneaks into Oliver’s apartment just as Cliff’s friend, Mathew Broderick, nails his audition. Oliver and his producers are thrilled and Charles gets caught eavesdropping as they send him off.

Mabel and Theo head up to Ben’s apartment where Dickie is hosting a silent auction for his CoBro merch. She tries to ask Dickie about Ben but he lets his anger out on her, claiming that everyone is still trying to profit off of Ben even after his death.

Oliver is excited to work with Mathew Broderick but soon realizes that he is overindulgent and is stuck rehearsing with him as Mathew keeps giving his own input on a very small role.

Mabel apologizes to Dickie and he does the same. He says that he’s just stressed because taking care of Ben has been his entire life, ever since they were children. He always felt that Ben got the credit while he did the dirty work of keeping Ben’s image clean.

Charles visits Uma to get the hankie from her but she says that she sold it in the silent auction for a huge payday. Charles decides to apologize to Oliver and goes to his apartment in the middle of the night.

Oliver has enough and tells Mathew that he has to leave just as Charles is at his door. Charles apologizes and Oliver immediately accepts, firing Mathew and giving Charles his role back.

Mabel works with Tobert and Theo on the podcast as she comes to terms with the fact that she’s doing it on her own. She’s very distracted and Tobert has a tough time getting through to her.

Charles and Oliver discuss how they can get back in Mabel’s good graces. Oliver shows Charles the book he found in Loretta’s place and he gets the advice to just talk to Loretta about it.

Charles suggests using the book as a peace offering to Mabel but by the time they get there, Mabel has already moved out. Right then, the latest episode of their podcast drops with Mabel mentioning that she’s going solo.

Detective Biswas listens to the episode and while he admits that the investigative trio is quite annoying, it does convince him to reopen the case. Dickie is shown crying while holding onto the bloody hankie that Uma sold him.

Review

Despite what the hit piece published recently says, Martin Short is a fantastic actor, and this episode showcases that perfectly. His exasperation at Mathew Broderick is wonderfully entertaining to watch.
However, the earlier health scare Oliver had doesn’t seem to be playing a part in the narrative ever since even though it was made to look like it would. It certainly must have been overlooked for a reason.
The appearances by Mathew Broderick and Mel Brooks are also delightful, as is the return of Theo, who is at this point a likable character to bring back.