Double Time

"**Double Time**" is the ninth episode of the first season of *Only Murders in the Building.* It originally aired on Hulu and Disney+ on October 12, 2021.

## Short Summary

With the residents growing upset at the building's negative publicity, the trio faces a revolt. Charles is visited by an old colleague who sheds light on his past.

## Full Summary

Jan plays her bassoon on stage.

Jan grips Charles's fingers as he calls for help.

Charles brings Jan home.

Charles brings Jan tea and sees her trying to move on her own. She insists she's fine, but he can see her wincing. He says there's no way she can play tomorrow's concert. She reminds him that all she has to do is sit and blow. Charles wants to kill whoever stabbed her. If it's Howard, he wants to snap off Howard's leg like he did with the cat's. Jan doesn't know that story. Charles says Jan should have mentioned Howard to the cop, but Jan says you need some proof to do that and she never saw the person who stabbed her. Charles is upset that he let himself get distracted. Jan reminds him that they solved one murder, just not Tim's. She picks up the Daily Dispatch, which has Teddy on the cover. Charles says Jan could have gotten killed because Oliver and Mabel needed to rush out a podcast. He wants to tell them he's out. Cutting people loose isn't one of his things. Jan's supportive, but says the podcast and Oliver and Mabel mean a lot to him. He says that's true, but she means more. As he goes to answer his phone, Charles says he wants to take her away to someplace sunny. It's Lester on the phone, telling him he has a visitor: Pataki, his stunt double from Brazzos. Pataki makes it a point to stop by every year when the big stunt awards are in town. He forgot it was this week. It's bad timing, which is a Pataki thing. He's going to make it go away. He opens the door and Sazz Pataki walks in. Sazz spots Jan and flirtatiously asks who she is.

Mabel listens to Oliver's correction that Teddy and Theo didn't kill Tim as she paints a portrait of the two of them on the wall. The good news is that the episode wasn't their finale after all. Mabel sees a paper get slipped under her door and goes to pick it up. It's a flier saying there's a building meeting to discuss the podcast. Oscar comes in and asks if he's the only one happy the Dimases got accused of something they didn't do. Mabel likes that, too, but there's still the question of who killed Tim. There was a note on Jan's door before she got stabbed. There was a note on Oliver's door before his dog got poisoned. Someone's out there, running around leaving notes and then stabbing and poisoning. Mabel suddenly realizes that Oscar has shaved. He says his dad is taking him upstate to meet a lawyer who can get his name cleared. Mabel's not sure she likes it. She leans it to kiss him and then says she likes it.

Oliver comes home to find a notice of eviction on his door.

Sazz tells a story about herself and Charles, one she's surprised Charles hasn't already told Jan. Jan says they've only known each other for a few weeks and she's spent half that time recovering from being stabbed. Sazz think it's nice that they're getting together just as Charles is heating up. And he'll need Sazz by his side for the resurgence. Sazz gets a call from her agent. She tells him they'll probably have to age her up a little so she can play Charles. Then she takes it into the next room to talk to him about her next gig. As she leaves, she asks Jan to get some coffee around. Jan is charmed by her and Charles says everyone always loved Sazz. She was always more popular on set than he was and better than him at everything. His ex-girlfriend, Cookie, left him for Sazz. Then he had to spend three more seasons with Sazz while she shacked up with Cookie. Jan doesn't like her anymore. Jan gets up to answer a knock at the door. It's Mabel and Oscar, who asks how she's doing. Jan says she has the best caretaker and Mabel compliments what she thinks is Charles, only to learn it's Sazz. Charles introduces her and then offers everyone coffee. Sazz has looked at their evidence board and has some thoughts.

Jan opens the door to find Oliver. He has all of his things with him because Bunny changed his locks and only let him in to get some things. Oliver goes to tell Charles he needs to stay for a few days, but runs into Sazz. He says he doesn't know what work Charles has had done, but it's too much. Charles then appears, shocking Oliver.

Mabel doesn't understand how any of it connects to Howard. Oliver says they know Tim threatened Howard with a gun because Howard's cat kept going into Tim's apartment. Sazz says they're missing a big thing: motive. She thinks it was a crime of passion because Tim was drugged and then shot. It was premeditated. Mabel shows Sazz the suicide notes. Jan says when she offered to help, everyone sent her home to get stabbed. Oliver says that Sazz, as a stunt double, knows what she's talking about. Sazz reads one of the notes and says that's not what you write to cover a suicide. The note is an accidental confession from a lovelorn murderer. Mabel and Oliver both find Sazz charming. Sazz also finds some glasses which had bourbon in them. She's sure that's the source of the poison. They need to find the person in love with Tim. That's the murderer. Charles says they never found evidence that Tim was seeing someone, which Sazz finds is a failure on his part. Charles says he can be very passionate with the right person and stands over Jan. Oliver says he's currently homeless and can only get his place back by beating Bunny at the meeting. They need to paint themselves as the heroes. Sazz offers to stay with Jan and watch her so Charles can go.

Oscar, Mabel, Oliver, and Charles arrive at the meeting. They spot cops, which disturbs Oscar, though Charles finds it reassuring. Oliver reminds him that the cops missed a lot. Charles spots Howard standing nearby and says he may hurt Howard or at least speak to him sternly. Oscar doesn't think Howard could be the killer. Bunny calls the meeting to order. The first item on the agenda is that Tim's death has now been ruled a homicide and someone in the building did it. Also, Mabel, Oliver, and Charles have violated their privacy by making them characters in a podcast. Oliver says their podcast revealed a murderer in the building. He tries to sell them some hoodies. Uma says she bought a 12-pound brisket for a dinner party, but no one wants to come because they're the "murder building." She comments that it would be smart for the murderer to investigate the murder. Grover says four of his clients have cancelled therapy this week because they're afraid to come to the Arconia. Amy says her kids are too scared to sleep in their own rooms. Charles says not to worry. They're done with the podcast anyway. Oliver and Mabel are surprised to hear that. He says it's getting too messy, so it's done. Bunny says it's too late for that. If eight or more tenants file a complaint about another tenant, that tenant can be evicted. They've already taken action on Oliver, but perhaps they should take a vote on Mabel and Charles. Mabel says she can't evict her aunt. Bunny says no, just Mabel. Bunny asks for a show of hands and gets many who want the three of them out. Howard says he's actually grateful to them. Their work might lead to his answer. He got the toxicology report back on Evelyn and she was poisoned with the same poison that killed Tim. And one of Evelyn's legs was missing when he removed her from the freezer. He believes the killer broke in and tried to steal her body to cover their tracks. Ursula asks why they would just take a leg. Howard says she had some gams on her. Bunny tells Howard he's had six complaints against him for noxious odors coming from his apartment. She suggests he keep his head down and put his hand up, which he does. Ndidi calls Bunny out for bullying Howard into agreeing, but Bunny ignores her and calls for a vote to evict them. She gets several takers and says she'll start the process today. She tells everyone else if they're a murderer to stop murdering.

Oliver says it'll all be fine once they solve the case. Charles wants him to stop talking about the case. Oscar leaves to run errands as they get on the elevator. Mabel says that didn't go well, but if they find the murderer, the board will have to reconsider. Charles says the two of them never stop. His girlfriend has been stabbed and now he's losing his home. Oliver and Mabel feel terrible about Jan and admit they shouldn't have dismissed her ideas. Oliver says the fan comments about Jan have been surprisingly positive. Charles says he's done. He doesn't do dangerous things. That's why he has Sazz. He doesn't like getting hurt and since meeting them, all he does is get hurt. Mabel says that's opposed to doing nothing. Charles finds that remark mean. He and Oliver should have known better than to rush into the podcast, but Oliver rushed into things like he always does and took the two of them along with him. It's *Splash 2*. Charles wants Oliver and all his things out of his place. He wants it all gone because he's out. Charles says he just wants to take care of his girlfriend for his last few days in his home of 30 years. Once his apartment is gone, Jan will be the only good thing in his life. They walk in to find Sazz helping Jan remove her shirt.

Jan says she needed her bandage changed. She wonders what Charles thought was happening. He says that.

Jan knows that Sazz pushes Charles's buttons, but she's shocked that he thought she'd cheat on him. Charles thinks anyone great would cheat on him. Sazz doubled him for sex scenes as well. His hip motions weren't natural. He though between that and the stabbing, Jan had plenty of reasons to look elsewhere. Jan says she likes his hip motions. She's packing her things because she has a big solo tomorrow and she's going to spend the night at her place. She's a New York broad who's been stabbed, so she feels safe enough that she can handle anything. Charles apologizes again. Jan's sorry Charles might be losing his place. She thinks there's something seriously wrong with Bunny. Maybe Bunny is the killer and this is her trying to stop the investigation. Charles asks if he could come see her play tomorrow. He's dating the first chair bassoonist and he's never even seen her play. She suggests coming another time because knowing he's seeing her not at her best would make her nervous. Jan leaves, saying she'll call him.

Jan practices her piece late at night.

Oscar and Mabel sleep together in her bed. Oliver is asleep on the couch nearby. He looks up and makes eye contact with Mabel. He asks her not to do anything in there. Mabel says that'll be hard because it's a pretty arousing setup.

Oliver wakes up in pain. Oscar kisses Mabel good morning. He's dressed up to go see his lawyer. After he's gone, Oliver says Charles isn't really done. Mabel says he seemed pretty over it, but Oliver's convinced he's not really done. Mabel says the only way to fix this is to solve the case. Tim gets justice and they get to keep their apartments. Oliver wants their final episode to be better than the *Jinx* guy confessing in the pisser. He's been thinking about Sazz's crime of passion theory. They shouldn't presume Tim's lover was a woman. He wonders if the sex toys will reveal anything and opens the box. He pulls one out and asks Mabel what she thinks. All she knows is that it goes into a hole somewhere. She wants to start at the beginning. She goes over the sequence of events of the night Tim died. She notices that the trash bag Tim had in the elevator had blue straps, while the ones Mabel got from his apartment have orange straps. It wasn't his trash. They wonder if it was his lover's trash. Mabel says they haven't interviewed Tim's next door neighbor, Ndidi, yet. She might know if he was seeing someone.

Charles finishes cooking, then answers his door to find Sazz, who is checking on him. She's sorry she upset Charles and says she would never make a move on his girlfriend again. She takes his food and sits down to eat it. She tells him that Cookie left her as well after twenty years. Sazz tried to keep things interesting, but she couldn't keep it up. Sazz says both of them deserve someone like Jan. Sazz asks if he's going to Jan's concert. He says Jan asked him not to come. He thinks she might be pulling away. Sazz says she knows Charles. She spent twenty years mirroring him, learning everything about him. One thing she never understood was how someone as wonderful as he is could think so little of himself. Jan is the girl for him. She felt it instantly and she has a very big moment tonight. And he's at home. Charles gets up to go to the concert as Sazz cheers him on.

Mabel and Oliver go to see Ndidi. They ask if there's anything she can tell them about Tim, if she saw someone come in and out. Ndidi never saw anyone, but she heard a late-night visitor. Tim was seeing someone, but Ndidi never saw her. She never heard a woman scream like that, though. She hated Tim, but he clearly knew what he was doing.

As Charles finds his seat, musicians on the stage are warming up. He spots Jan and smiles.

Oliver can't believe they never found anything that pointed to Tim having a girlfriend. Mabel remembers the first engagement ring and says maybe they've been following the wrong ring this whole time. Oliver wants to know what the sex toys are for, saying it might give them a better idea of who she is. Mabel thinks one of them looks like a cat toy. Oliver swings it around and then looks and sees it came from eXotic Instruments. He asks Mabel to look that up.

Charles talks to the boy sitting next to him, who is excited. The kid says he's there to see his girlfriend. Charles says he is as well. The boy says his is a prodigy. The lights dim and the conductor comes out, saying they're breaking tradition to give special mention to their soloist, the youngest first chair bassoonist in their history, Allison Tipton. As Allison walks out, the boy says that's his girlfriend.

Mabel says eXotic Instruments doesn't sell sex toys. They sell musical instruments. She questions why there's a bassoon cleaner in Tim's box of sex toys.

Jan looks out to the audience and spots Charles, who has a nosebleed.

## Cast

### Starring

* Steve Martin as Charles-Haden Savage
* Martin Short as Oliver Putnam
* Selena Gomez as Mabel Mora
* Aaron Dominguez as Oscar Torres
* Amy Ryan as Jan Bellows

### Guest Starring

* Vanessa Aspillaga as Ursula
* Michael Cyril Creighton as Howard Morris
* Jackie Hoffman as Uma Heller
* Jayne Houdyshell as Bunny Folger
* Jane Lynch as Sazz Pataki
* Zainab Jah as Ndidi Idoko
* Russell G. Jones as Dr. Grover Stanley

### Co-Starring

* Jeena Yi as Amy Huang
* Salem Murphy as Conductor
* Alex Vinh as Teenage Concertgoer

## Notes and Trivia

### General

* The Easter egg in the opening credits is in Charles' window, showing two of the hats he wears in the show. This is a reference to his stunt double, Sazz Pataki, who appears in the episode.
* This episode focuses on Jan; the opening sequence shows her playing the bassoon while she provides a voiceover.
* The concert sequence was filmed with a live orchestra, during the COVID-19 pandemic. When the instruments started playing, Amy Ryan (playing Jan) teared up due to the emotion of hearing so many people play together after the months of lockdown.

### Cultural References

* Getting "Tarantinoed" is a reference to American director Quentin Tarantino, whose film *Pulp Fiction* revitalized John Travolta's movie career
* Face/Off is a film where one person's face is transplanted onto another person.

## Media

### Episode Stills

Photography by Craig Blankenhorn for Hulu.

## Navigation

 **Season 3** | "The Show Must..." · "The Beat Goes On" · "Grab Your Hankies" · "The White Room" · "Ah, Love!" · "Ghost Light" · "CoBro" · "Sitzprobe" · "Thirty" · "Opening Night"