TL;DR:
The trio thinks they’re closing in on a billionaire suspect, only to be outplayed, outmaneuvered, and corporately silenced. Episode 4 blends farce, satire, and heartbreak in a way that reminds us why this show still works.

We’re five seasons into Only Murders in the Building, which in streaming years is practically senior citizen territory. Most shows either flame out by Season 3 or mutate into a shambling parody of themselves (cough late-stage Dexter). So imagine my surprise when Episode 4 of Season 5 — cheekily titled “Dirty Birds” — reminded me that Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez still have the ability to pull the rug out from under me, even while tripping over wine glasses and side-eyeing robot doormen.

This episode doesn’t just keep the whodunit alive; it shakes the entire snow globe of the show’s formula. What starts as a typical clue-hunt spirals into a satire of tech billionaires, a masterclass in banter, and a corporate twist so on-the-nose about the state of podcasting in 2024 that I felt personally attacked.

Billionaires, Birds, and Banter

The cold open sets the tone: three billionaire archetypes delivering their personal life mottos like they’re auditioning for a TED Talk about late capitalism. Camila (Renée Zellweger), a lifestyle mogul who weaponizes charm like a machete; Bash (Christoph Waltz), a longevity-obsessed AI guru whose entire vibe screams “man who owns several cryogenic tanks”; and Jay (Logan Lerman), the nepo baby turned reluctant philanthropist, bodyguarded into oblivion.

The brilliance here isn’t just the casting coup (though seeing Waltz monologue about collagen baths while slicing carrots next to Charles had me howling). It’s how the show reframes these billionaires not as untouchable masterminds, but as eccentric birds in a cage of their own making — quite literally, since Lester’s ledger has been disguising them under avian code names. Oliver and Vince decoding the ledger like deranged birdwatchers, complete with impressions, is exactly the kind of tonal whiplash that keeps this series fresh.

The Robot Doorman and the Death of Old New York

Meanwhile, the Arconia gets its own subplot: the arrival of LESTR, a robot doorman who looks like he was ordered from the same catalog as Boston Dynamics’ nightmares. Charles, in peak curmudgeon mode, calls it the end of Old New York, while Howard gleefully embraces his new mechanical overlord. Uma, naturally, predicts Skynet.

This isn’t just comic relief. It’s thematically sharp. Only Murders has always been about the tension between tradition and modernity — between the Arconia’s aging grandeur and the digital age crashing in. The robot doorman is both absurd and weirdly chilling, especially when it casually tells Mabel their podcast listenership is down 24%. Nothing like being roasted by an algorithm in real time.

Dinner with Murder Suspects

The heart of the episode, though, is the trio’s dinner with their billionaire suspects. This sequence is pure Only Murdersmagic: equal parts drawing-room farce and psychological chess match.

Charles, of course, insists on duck à l’orange, because he treats every dinner party like he’s auditioning for Julia Child: The Musical. Oliver wants caviar and bubbly, which is less about cuisine and more about showing off his latent Gatsby energy. And Mabel — once again the only adult in the room — just wants to interrogate a potential murderer without being sidetracked by interior design critiques.

The billionaires arrive one by one, each armed with their quirks and weapons: Jay with beers and surfer-dude nonchalance, Camila with a candle and passive-aggressive interior decorating, Bash with his entire Spectre-adjacent wardrobe and a trio of bodyguards. What follows is a masterclass in ensemble timing. The trio tries to divide and conquer, only to realize too late that their guests have already formed a united front.

By the time Camila has redecorated Oliver’s dining room into a beige hellscape and Bash is casually pulling up Regis & Kelly clips from the dawn of Charles’ career, the audience knows: the podcasters aren’t in control anymore.

The Finger and the Fallout

The supposed smoking gun — or smoking finger, rather — turns out to be a red herring. Mabel and Charles are convinced Jay must be guilty, because hey, he’s missing a finger and they’ve literally got one in a box. Except… it’s from the wrong hand. Classic Only Murders: taking what looks like a slam-dunk clue and twisting it into nothing more than a setup for humiliation.

The real twist, though, is corporate. In the middle of all this chaos, the trio signs a shiny new podcasting deal with Wondify — without reading the contract. A mistake so painfully relatable I nearly screamed. And wouldn’t you know it, their new parent company is owned by the very billionaires they’re investigating. Their podcast is now legally muzzled, their hands tied tighter than Oliver’s pants after a dessert binge.

This isn’t just a clever plot turn. It’s a brutal satire of the modern media landscape. Independent voices swallowed up by conglomerates, true crime commodified into clickbait, and the illusion of free speech weaponized against the very people chasing the truth. It’s smart, sharp, and depressingly on-brand for 2024.

Mabel, THĒ, and the Ghosts of Middle School

I’d be remiss not to mention the side plot between Mabel and her former bestie Althea (aka THĒ), which at first feels like a throwaway gag but deepens the episode’s themes of betrayal and reinvention. Mabel’s flashback to their goofy middle-school show “Sunny and Cloudy” is a gut punch of lost innocence. It’s a reminder that Mabel, beneath the eyeliner and the murder boards, is still the girl who lost friends to death, distance, and betrayal.

The fact that THĒ now treats her with podcasting condescension while LESTR blares her songs? That’s salt in the wound. It also gives Mabel’s chemistry with Jay a little more depth. She’s always been the one with her guard up, but here we see her not just as an investigator, but as someone quietly yearning for connection — even if it’s with a suspect.

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A Show Still Capable of Surprise

What I love about “Dirty Birds” is how it balances the absurd with the profound. On one hand, we’ve got Bash casually referencing Dorothy Parker taking his virginity while basting duck. On the other, we’ve got the trio realizing that their beloved podcast — the very lifeline that pulled them together — has been co-opted by the billionaires they set out to expose.

That final image of them walking out of Wondify’s offices, defeated but not destroyed, hit me harder than I expected. It’s not just a twist for the plot; it’s a meta-commentary on how creative independence gets strangled by corporate interests. And honestly? That’s scarier than any mob hit.

Final Thoughts

Five seasons in, Only Murders in the Building could easily be phoning it in, repeating its beats, and banking on Martin Short’s facial expressions to carry the weight. Instead, Episode 4 proves the show still has bite. The humor lands, the mystery deepens, and the commentary on podcasting and billionaires feels sharper than ever.

This isn’t just a good episode. It’s a reminder that Only Murders has grown into something rare: a comedy-mystery with staying power, self-awareness, and the guts to turn its own premise inside out.