Tim Kono

**Tim Kono** is a recurring character in Season 1 of *Only Murders in the Building*. The first season centered around the mystery of his death, investigated by Charles, Mabel, Oliver, and the police department.

He is portrayed by Julian Cihi.

## History

### Meeting Mabel

Tim's family is from Japan, and he grew up at the Arconia. He met Mabel at the age of 10 while she was staying with her aunt, and they became friends. Later, their group, which they called The Hardy Boys, grew to include Oscar Torres and Zoe Cassidy. Oscar's father was the superintendent and Zoe talked him into copying his father's keys so they could get into people's places while they were away.

On New Year's Eve 2010, the four of them attended a party on the roof together. At the party, Zoe and Oscar got into a fight. Tim then later saw Zoe fighting with Theo Dimas, who accidentally pushed her off the roof to her death. When Oscar was arrested and sent to jail, Mabel begged Tim to tell the police what he saw, but he refused, saying he didn't know what she was talking about.

He stayed at the Arconia into his adulthood, living in Apartment 9A. Tim became an investment banker and worked for Sting's investment firm Wright and Ogilvy. He was fired due to mismanaging Sting's funds. The day after he was fired, he was poisoned then shot by Jan due to her jealousy. The body was later sent to Japan, where the rest of his family lived.

### Reconnecting with Mabel

When Mabel returned to the Arconia as an adult to remodel her aunt's apartment, she tried to reconnect with Tim. She told him Oscar was getting out of prison and pressured him to make things right by telling someone what really happened that night, because she knew he'd seen something and refused to tell the police. He told her he wouldn't and to pretend like she didn't know him if they saw each other in the hallway.

### Video for Oscar

Before he died, Tim recorded a video in which he talked about wanting to take the Dimases down in order to make things right with Oscar, who had been wrongfully imprisoned for ten years. It was his way of saying sorry to Oscar.

### Relationship with Jan and Death

At some point, Tim started seeing Jan Bellows. This relationship lasted for a while before he ended things. She lured him back to her place with the excuse that he needed to pick some things up that he'd left there, though he didn't remember leaving anything, and took the opportunity to invite him to share a drink, which she had poisoned. Once they'd had their drink, Tim left with a garbage bag, which he put in the chute on his floor. The poison started to affect him as he got back home and Jan came in. She watched him die from the poison and then used his gun to shoot him to make it look like a suicide.

On the day Tim died, he called Bunny about a package he was waiting for that had been misdelivered to her. He was upset that that kept happening.

Tim's body was discovered after the majority of the residents of the Arconia had evacuated due to the fire alarm going off. Detective Donna Williams was one of the cops called to the scene. She looked around his body and his apartment and confidently said it was a suicide.

## Personality

As a child, Tim was very blunt, and not very good at dealing with people and emotions. After becoming friends with Mabel and the others, he became better at talking to people, though he still had a slightly awkward way of speaking. According to Mabel, he "always made the sensible choice", although his loneliness later led him to a relationship with Jan Bellows when they impulsively kissed in the elevator. Mabel describes him as observant and robotic, but kind if you looked at him the right way. She also says that he never lied, except once; this lie happened when Tim incriminated Oscar in Zoe's death due to Teddy's threat to him. In Mabel's imaginary conversation with him, he is shown to be somewhat sarcastic and makes deadpan jokes.

## Relationships

### Mabel Mora

Mabel and Tim met at the Arconia when they were 10 and became friends, bonding over their shared love of mysteries and reading. Oscar and Zoe later became friends with them, and they formed the Hardy Boys group. After Tim saw Theo Dimas push Zoe from the roof, he was threatened by Teddy Dimas to keep his mouth shut or risk harm to himself or Mabel. Tim's silence caused a rift between him and Mabel, as she was unaware of Teddy's threats. When Mabel returned to the Arconia 10 years later, Tim said to her: "act like you don't know me. Because you don't". In a surreal sequence, Mabel talks to Tim after his death and they seem to have returned to being friends. Tim tells Mabel that he always enjoyed seeing her figure things out.

### Jan Bellows

Jan and Tim first met in the elevator, where they impulsively kissed due to their respective loneliness. They later began a relationship; Jan later claimed to Charles that Tim never put her first in this relationship, but it is unknown how accurate this is due to Jan's twisted perception of events. Jan believed Tim was seeing another woman after finding an emerald ring he bought from Angel Inc. Tim broke up with Jan for an unknown reason (possibly due to her jealousy) on January 14th. Two days later, she invited him to her apartment to collect some of his possessions, then proposed a drink "for old times' sake", in which she put a lethal dose of secobarbitol. He left her apartment with the trash bag she gave him, which he later threw in the trash chute, and made it up to his apartment before the poison kicked in. Jan came up to his apartment and found him lying on the floor and unable to get up due to the poison. She placed the gun in his hand in order to make it look like he had killed himself, and shot him. Tim was later discovered by somebody after the building had been evacuated.

## Career

Tim was an investment banker, and worked at Sting's firm Wright and Ogilvy before being fired for mismanaging Sting's funds.

## Notes and Trivia

* Tim's surname was originally Lee, but when Julian Cihi was cast in the role, his surname was changed to Kono to reflect Cihi's Japanese heritage.
* According to Oliver, Tim had "naturally pleasing nail beds".

## References

1. ↑ The tox report (seen in Fan Fiction) states that Tim was 27 when he died.
2. ↑ The date of Tim's death is seen on the tox report in Fan Fiction
3. ↑ "Who Is Tim Kono?" (2021). Season 1, episode 2.
4. ↑ "The Boy from 6B" (2021). Season 1, episode 7.
5. ↑ "Who Is Tim Kono?" (2021). Season 1, episode 2.
6. ↑ "Fan Fiction" (2021). Season 1, episode 8.
7. ↑ "Open and Shut" (2021). Season 1, episode 10.
8. ↑ "True Crime" (2021). Season 1, episode 1.
9. ↑ "True Crime" (2021). Season 1, episode 1.