Summary
Steve Martin is hilarious in “The White Room,” using his comedic expertise to turn blackouts into absolute comedy gold. The mystery keeps moving forward at an entertaining pace, disregarding one suspect and zoning in on another. This can be a little formulaic, but it’s still expertly crafted.
We recap the Hulu series Only Murders in the Building Season 3 Episode 4, “The White Room,” which contains spoilers.
The podcast trio has their first suspect in the Ben Glenry (Paul Rudd) murder case, and it happens to be fellow cast member Kimber Min (Ashley Park).
Episode four, “The White Room,” explores the interrogation of this first suspect while Charles (Steve Martin) has a mental breakdown and Cinda Canning (Tina Fey) makes her unceremonious return.
Only Murders in the Building Season 3 Episode 4 Recap
Mabel starts the installment looking for a new apartment to rent. She is constantly hounded by an anonymous caller, though, someone who Mabel seems to know personally.
Later we discover that this secret caller is actually Cinda Canning, the infamous podcaster.
She has undergone a spiritual transformation in her podcasting absence but wants to get back into the true crime world once more.
Cinda offers Mabel a serious amount of money to work in a partnership with her, but Mabel refuses to accept the deal. She’s still loyal to her best friends, Oliver and Charles.
How could Kimber have killed Ben?
Mabel continues her sleuthing, bringing her first suspect to Oliver’s attention. Oliver is annoyed by this target, as he likes Kimber, who can sing and is extremely popular, with a huge online following. Mabel suspects Kimber because she is missing her handkerchief gift from Ben and because she could have easily poisoned Ben using the anti-aging serums that she sells online.
Kimber herself reveals that Ben was her unofficial spokesperson for the anti-aging serum. The product is so popular that any new customers would have to go onto a waiting list.
Meanwhile, Charles’ long-term girlfriend Joy finally moves into his apartment, bringing with her an enormous collection of pet fish.
Charles is stressed by this life-changing alteration and the difficulties of learning a patter song for Oliver’s musical; this all leads to a memorable and meteoric breakdown.
What is the White Room?
While performing the patter song to the cast during rehearsals, Charles has a full-on breakdown. He gets rather angry and abusive, before blacking out and disappearing to his happy place, which happens to be visualized by a white room. When Charles wakes from his breakdown the rehearsal space has been vandalized and the onlookers are visibly in shock.
Charles tells Joy about the breakdown. She suggests that he cooks to take his mind off of it. While making an omelet, Charles manages to deliver the entire song perfectly from start to finish.
The cooking seems to have relaxed him. Joy may know Charles well, but she comes across as totally unhinged in this episode, mentioning how she would protect Charles from Ben, whatever the cost. Here comes our second suspect.
READ: Will there be a Season 4 of Only Murders in the Building?
Mabel decides to investigate the serum angle in more depth by breaking into Kimber’s dressing room. She manages to persuade Howard to hand over his theater keys so she can snoop around in secret.
Mabel and Oliver then break into Kimber’s dressing room later that day, but they are shocked to find the actress working there.
Why doesn’t Kimber have her handkerchief?
She is running her beauty empire from the dressing room and has made herself a copy of Howard’s key for easy access. Kimber admits that Ben used the serum on opening night. Mabel delves into Kimber’s relationship with Ben a little further. Kimber admits that she wanted Ben’s endorsement of her products, but he refused to help her out. Kimber retaliated by selling Ben’s handkerchief online. This explains why she doesn’t have it anymore.
The actress also mentions how Ben had a red mark on his face on opening night. He brought a professional in to get rid of the mark, but they didn’t know who it was.
Meanwhile, Charles and Oliver break into Ben’s dressing room. Inside they find a suspicious note on Ben’s mirror, written in lipstick.
The message calls Ben a pig. Mabel bags the lipstick as evidence. The trio now have another clue in the case.
During the next rehearsal, Charles tries his omelet idea while delivering the patter song. Oliver hates it and forces him to try the song again without using his hands.
This turns into another mental breakdown, and Charles returns to his happy place in the white room. Oliver fears that Charles is struggling due to all of his stresses.
Only Murders in the Building Season 3 Episode 4 Ending Explained
Oliver tells Charles that he may not be ready to move in with Joy just yet. Charles returns home to break up with Joy that evening. While they are chatting, Charles panics and disappears to his happy place once again. When he wakes up, he finds himself proposing to Joy instead of breaking up with her. And she says yes!
The episode ends with Oliver and Mabel walking in on this rather strange engagement. They awkwardly congratulate the couple. Joy then notices her lipstick in Mabel’s pocket and nabs it.
Yes, it looks like Joy is the new suspect now that Kimber is out of the running.
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