The Biggest Unanswered Questions In Only Murders In The Building Season 2

Warning: This article contains spoilers for "Only Murders in the Building" Season 2

While Season 2 of "Only Murders in the Building" was still unfolding, Hulu gave this comedy show a huge vote of confidence. The streaming service announced that it had greenlit Season 3 before Season 2 was even over, which has got to be a dream-come-true for any TV show creator.

It's a good thing they renewed it, too, because Season 2 leaves a lot of loose threads dangling. For one, Charles (Steve Martin) and Mabel (Selena Gomez) still have some secrets to unearth about their parents. Beyond that, the show leaves a couple of romantic storylines open-ended (including one character's possible secret crush). Not to mention that there's a hole in the killer's plan that doesn't quite add up. Heck, there are still some questions from Season 1 that still haven't been answered. Sure, Jan (Amy Ryan) took a wild guess at how Howard's cat Evelyn might have died, but nothing was ever confirmed. What if there's a Sixth Street Kitty Killer on the loose?

However, we'll leave that question for the superfans like Marv (Daniel Oreskes) and instead tackle some bigger questions that Season 2 left unresolved.

At the end of Season 2, a huge MCU star joined the cast of "Only Murders in the Building," only to drop dead minutes later. Unlike the last murder victim, however, we know next to nothing about Ben (Paul Rudd), except that he and Charles hated each other. As such, it may be too soon to start placing bets on this whodunnit.

However, if Season 3 is anything like Season 2, then it may have already planted the suspect in Season 2. If you're only going by the characters who have already been introduced, the list of suspects is relatively small. It could possibly be Charles' new girlfriend Joy (Andrea Martin), though we doubt the showrunners will play the "girlfriend" card again. Also, we wonder if Will (Ryan Broussard) is upset that his father Oliver (Martin Short) withheld the DNA test results from him -– maybe so upset that he'd want to sabotage his father's show? And what about Naomi Jackson (Wakeema Hollis)? Perhaps the actress who played Brazzos in the reboot was worried that Charles would upstage her on the new show, especially since his character no longer has dementia. Maybe she decided to frame Charles for murder so he'd be written out of the show — permanently. Tagline for a podcast, anyone?

For all we know, it could be Charles' stunt double Sazz (Jane Lynch). If she's trying to frame Charles, she does have one handy advantage: she can pass for him in a lineup.

It turns out Oliver was right about Alice (Cara Delevingne) being the killer. That is, he was right that Alice had been holding the "killer" card when she played "Son of Sam." Sure, when Oliver confronted her, Alice showed him an Innocent Blonde card, but the end of the episode revealed a crumpled Son of Sam card stashed in Alice's bag, suggesting that she cheated. This begs the question: how did she manage that sleight-of-hand?

Alice wasn't carrying her bag during the party game, so she couldn't have stashed it there until the game was over. She did, however, keep her right hand in the pocket of her coat for much of the game. Of course, pocketing the card wouldn't have worked unless she had an Innocent Blonde card to replace it with. Maybe Alice happened to already have another deck of cards and borrowed the Innocent Blonde from that deck? She did say she'd played the game before, except the version she played was called "Jack the Ripper," whose cards probably had a different design. 

More likely, Alice just snatched one of the cards from a player who had been eliminated in a previous round since they no longer needed their card. Still, Alice must've been a talented magician indeed to snatch a card from the lap of an eliminated player all the way across the room.

Episode 2 ("Framed") teases that Charles' father (Ben Livingston) had been tangled in something big. After all, he was featured in the stolen Rose Cooper (Shirley MacLaine) painting, and a flashback from Charles' childhood showed his father slipping away to the Arconia and coming out in handcuffs. Season 2 definitely explains the mysteries behind the painting and Rose Cooper's disappearance — she faked her death to escape an abusive husband and to spark more interest in her art. However, we know nothing about Charles' father except his affair with Rose Cooper.

"He tried to keep me safe from a rage-filled husband," Rose Cooper tells Charles, which does give us some idea of how their affair must have played out. Yet it still doesn't answer the question of why he got arrested. Since people can't be arrested just for infidelity, Charles' father must have done something else to run afoul of the law. Was he simply arguing with Rose's husband after the affair was exposed, and their fight took a violent turn? Or was he arrested after Rose had "disappeared" because Rose's husband suspected he had been involved in her disappearance?

It's worth noting that when Charles says, "I don't know a lot about my father, but I don't think he was a good man," Rose never officially denies this observation. She just says that the man loved his son very much. It's still possible that Charles' father loved his son but was also involved in some shady business.

If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.

By the end of Season 2, viewers will feel like they know Lucy (Zoe Colletti) well, and they will at least know a little about Lucy's mother. However, Lucy's stepfather is a bit of an enigma. All we know is that Lucy didn't like her mom's new husband, and for this reason she refused to attend her mother's wedding. To be fair, her dislike of her stepfather is pretty self-explanatory. Lucy's stepfather could be the nicest guy in the world, and she'd still hate him simply because she's fond of Charles and is upset that her mother won't let her visit him. Still, we can't help but feel curious about Lucy's family drama, and we hope we'll get to see some of this in Season 3.

Whatever happened between Lucy and her mother, it must have been pretty big if she completely skipped her mother's wedding. Her aversion toward her stepfather seems to go beyond mere discomfort at watching her mother take her fifth husband. Lucy's home situation must be pretty rough if she'd rather spend the night holed up in a secret passage than at home. Viewers are probably wondering what Lucy meant when she said, "As hard as it can be to go back, sometimes you have nowhere else to go."

While we think it's safe to say that Charles is not the killer, it's clear that he and Ben have a history. And by history, we mean bad blood. Right before Ben's death, Charles tells him, "Be smart. Stay away from her." And whenever Ben tells Charles to shove off, Charles replies, "Ben. I know what you did." So even though Charles didn't commit murder, it's possible that he's not above a little blackmail.

So what exactly were Charles and Ben referring to? "Her" must be somebody Charles cares about, obviously. Most likely, it's Lucy, Joy, or Mabel, but we wouldn't rule out Charles' ex-wife since there's a chance he still feels protective toward her even after the divorce. We suppose he could also mean Sazz, but Charles doesn't seem that attached to her.

It's feasible that Ben is a married man who was making passes at Joy, so Charles simply threatened to tell Ben's wife that he was being unfaithful. Or maybe Ben is Lucy's aforementioned stepfather, and Charles has realized that Ben was being abusive. It's also possible that Charles is telling Ben to stay away from Jan because he knows she's nothing but trouble. Maybe Jan already persuaded Ben to commit a crime, and that's why Charles says he knows. 

Who knows? Maybe Ben is actually the child of Rose Cooper and Charles' father. If so, then the rivalry between them no doubt stems from the fact that Ben never knew his father and Charles did.

If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.

When Season 2 dropped the bomb that Teddy (Nathan Lane) was Will's biological father, it seemed likely that the blast range would be enormous. Yet it all turned out okay in the end. Thankfully, Oliver didn't strangle Teddy in the elevator. Instead, he forgave Teddy, and pretty soon they were drinking together. Even Will seemed to take the news well. However, there's still one more ticking bomb, as there is still someone who might take the news badly: Theo (James Caverly).

Obviously, this kind of revelation won't hit Theo as hard as it hit Oliver. Theo's a pretty chill guy. Still, if he finds out that Teddy discovered this secret and then hid it from him, it might be the final straw in Theo's already-strained relationship with his father.

In Episode 4 ("Here's Looking at You"), Theo told his father, "I have no life anymore." If anything, that is doubly true for Theo now. The affair is yet another shadow from Teddy's life that looms over his son. And this time, Theo can't escape it simply by getting his own lawyer.

In "Only Murders in the Building," it felt like everybody except our three heroes already knew about the secret passageways built into the Arconia. It seems that Bunny (Jayne Houdyshell) used them on a regular basis. Lucy had been using them for hide-and-seek for years before her father found out. Even Marv, a podcast superfan who had no connection to the Arconia, knows about this secret, thanks to a mold-inspection job he'd done in the past. Still, there's one character whose prior knowledge of the secret passages doesn't make sense: Poppy White (Adina Verson), aka Becky Butler.

It doesn't quite add up. Sure, the show gives us a glimpse of Poppy telling her accomplice Detective Kreps (Michael Rapaport) about the passageways before the murder, but there's no real explanation for where Poppy got this information. Why would a podcaster from Oklahoma know anything about the Arconia? We suppose that if anybody would have the sleuthing skills to discover some secret passageways that were kept secret for generations, it would be Poppy, who loves listening to true crime podcasts. 

Who knows? Maybe Poppy always conducts extensive research before every podcast, so when Cinda Canning (Tina Fey) decided to cover the murder of Tim Kono (Julian Cihi) in Season 1, Poppy was one step ahead of everyone. Still, it's an awfully convenient coincidence, and it's another loose end we wish had been tied up.

Fans are dying to know the real reason Mabel's father (Mark Consuelos) died, as it's a tantalizing mystery that Season 2 deliberately leaves hanging.

Given the details dropped in Episode 7 ("Flipping the Pieces"), we don't know a lot about Mabel's father. We know he wasn't a perfect father -– he let her watch "The X-Files" despite her mother's wishes and didn't keep his promises –- but he loved her very much. We know he had a job that required him to change his plans at the last minute, and that job was the reason he moved out. We also know that Mabel found him dying in a hospital bed, supposedly of stomach cancer. Mabel admitted, "I knew something wasn't right, but I was happy to play along." Beyond that, he's a big question mark. Her father's secret could be something relatively innocuous (like the affair between Rose Cooper and Charles' father), or it could be something downright earth-shattering (like Teddy's jewel-smuggling business). Either way, we are eagerly awaiting answers in Season 3.

Perhaps Mabel's mother Silvia (Mandy Gonzalez) has some answers. We doubt she would be willing to just "play along" as Mabel did. It's possible that whatever Mabel's dad was doing scared Silvia so much that she wanted to shelter Mabel and make sure her daughter never knew. Or maybe the solution lies in Mabel's repressed memories, and she just needs to confront them head-on.

After spending a couple of episodes in Season 2 dating a known murderer, Charles sends Sazz to pass along the message to Jan that he's breaking up with her. While normally that's a big no-no, when your girlfriend turns out to be a serial killer, it's totally forgivable. At the end of Season 2, Charles starts a much healthier relationship with Joy, and he's presumably still dating her a year later. So that means he's put all this Jan business behind him, right?

Not necessarily. We suspect Charles' entanglement with Jan is far from over. For one, the breakup letter he writes for Jan doesn't sound very confident. One minute he's saying, "I'm not afraid anymore," and the next he's saying, "Well, I am still afraid of you." Although Charles tries to sound firm, he keeps slipping into nostalgic memories of Jan. What's more, the fact that Charles couldn't deliver the news to Jan himself indicates that he still lacks the courage and communication skills to end a relationship. He's still got a long way to go, and perhaps this will be explored in future seasons.

If Jan wants Charles wrapped around her finger again, she'll need to be craftier. However, if she does somehow manage to ensnare him once more, the stakes will be even higher because his relationship with Joy would be on the line.

In the final episode, Poppy's knowledge that Lucy was a witness to the crime proves to be her undoing. She lets this information slip at the killer reveal party, and in doing so she reveals the killer — herself. However, there's something we still don't understand: how did Poppy know the witness was Lucy?

According to Lucy's flashback from the night of the crime, Lucy was behind some planks of wood, completely out of Poppy's sight. Poppy couldn't have known what the witness looked like, much less known about her connection to Charles. Yet when Poppy and Detective Kreps take advantage of the blackout to kill the last witness, they seem to know exactly where to find Lucy. In fact, the two culprits must have been able to secretly obtain a photo of Lucy, because Kreps is shown to be carrying that photo in Episode 7 ("Flipping the Pieces").

Of course, maybe Poppy was smart about it. Rather than pursuing the witness through the tunnels, she could have waited outside one of the exits so she could get a good look at Lucy when she fled. Still, considering that Poppy was fleeing the crime scene herself, she probably wouldn't have had time for that. Once again, this is a plothole that already has some explanations, but we still wish Season 2 had taken the time to clear it up.

In Season 1, it was certainly disappointing to learn Charles and Jan's relationship was doomed from the start. Still, we think Mabel's breakup with Alice was arguably even more painful. Unlike Jan, Alice didn't try to kill Mabel. Their relationship wasn't just a game for her. Alice genuinely cared about Mabel -– she just didn't consider the consequences of trying to turn Mabel's trauma into artwork. 

The two actually had some sweet chemistry while it lasted, and it was nice to see Mabel thinking about something other than the murder. Still, their relationship probably would have come apart sooner or later. Mabel summed up their incompatibility perfectly when she told Alice, "I like you, Alice. But I don't trust you." So the odds of them getting back together again aren't promising.

However, that doesn't mean they'll be cut off from each other forever, and the season ends with them as tentative friends. Mabel is happy to let Alice help renovate her apartment, and she even trusts Alice enough to allow her to play a key part in the charade at the killer reveal party. Still, it's worth noting that, after the one-year time skip, we see Charles bringing his new girlfriend to the premiere, but Mabel doesn't seem to bring Alice -– or anybody else, for that matter. There's still a chance Mabel and Alice could rebuild their trust in each other in future seasons. Still, they can probably never go back to the way things were before.

Anyone can see that Theo is haunted by Zoe's (Olivia Reis) death and wants to make amends by helping Mabel with her investigation. However, Theo might have one more reason for helping: a puppy-dog crush. Of course, it's equally possible that he sees Mabel as a friend and is simply relieved she forgives him. However, there are definitely clues that point to romantic feelings.

The biggest clue is when Theo gives Mabel the prize from the claw game -– a plastic ring that resembles an engagement ring but also resembles the ring Zoe was wearing the night she died. We doubt Theo intended to make a mock proposal. He probably didn't know the prize was a ring, and he definitely didn't realize the ring would trigger bad memories for Mabel. Still, the way he bestows her with the prize certainly seems like a timid attempt at flirting. Fans will also notice Theo looking to Mabel for approval while playing Whac-a-Mole. Most important, however, is the way that the camera lingers on Theo fingering the plastic ring after Mabel leaves — it just seems too significant to be a coincidence.

If Theo does have a crush on Mabel, that could create some interesting complications in future seasons of "Only Murders in the Building." Mabel appears to be single at the end of Season 2, and there's certainly enough chemistry between them that we could easily see them as a couple. Still, if Mabel had trust issues with Alice, she'd definitely be slow to trust Theo.