WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the first three episodes of Only Murders in the Building, now available on Hulu.
Hulu's Only Murders in the Building is a comedic whodunnit that tries to solve the death of Tim Kono in the Arconia hotel. While it seems like suicide, clues have been garnered by Mabel (Selena Gomez) and her fellow sleuths, Charles (Steve Martin) and Oliver (Martin Short), hinting that foul play's involved. However, as they run their podcast to unearth the truth, Oliver's dark past may make him a suspect.
So far, we've learned Mabel was friends with Tim, although she's keeping it secret as he didn't rub everyone the right way. As for Charles, after his acting career tanked, it looks like he just settled into a boring life, wondering what could have been. But Oliver seems a bit too ambitious and overzealous when it comes to the podcast, with certain signs popping up to indicate that his ulterior motive might be to find a scapegoat and deflect blame away from himself.
Flashbacks reveal Oliver's playwright career went up in flames when his musical, Splash!, ended up missing the mark. Critics panned it before it opened, plus a stage malfunction meant divers dove into the board protecting a pool as it didn't open up. Settling the injuries in the case bankrupted Oliver, and to make it worse, he used up all his son's college funds, ergo why his family kicked him to the curb.
It's why he's hard up, begging his son for cash. He can't pay for dinner or building fees, so he's close to being kicked out of the hotel. Desperately, he even hits up his former producer, Teddy Dimas (Nathan Lane), to fund the podcast so they could connect with a social media generation. Eventually, he convinces Teddy to sponsor, branding the podcast with Teddy's deli after getting $30,000 for the project, but this reeks of sleaziness.
Charles is pissed as he didn't want to launch the first episode in a rush, but Oliver sent it live as Teddy needed to advertise new sandwiches ASAP. While he may be exuberant, this could be Oliver misdirecting attention away from him. It's known that Tim, an investment banker, lost clients money so it could be Oliver invested his last money with him, only to lose too. Now, while the timeline's sketchy and it doesn't seem like Oliver actually committed the crime, there's a chance -- due to his theatrical and creative genius -- he orchestrated a real-life play and got someone to do his dirty work, whether it be a failed embezzlement or murder.
This would give him an alibi, especially as Charles is already suspicious of a dude with a tie-dyed hoodie that didn't evacuate the building with them when Tim was found dead. There's even Howard, who Mabel thinks could be the main suspect as Tim threatened his dead cat. In other words, Oliver has persons of interest and to ensure no one thinks of him, it'd be smart to get word out early by sullying other folks' reputations.
There's also a chance Oliver could have discovered the skeletons Tim had in his closet, as he and Mabel were involved in a conspiracy as teens. Ultimately, Oliver's quite sneaky and disarms people by playing the victim, working their sympathies. The last sign comes in how he's insistent they stick to solving murders in this building and nowhere else in the Big Apple, hinting there's a hidden benefit to the murder-mystery. As such, this podcast could set the chessboard up to remove himself from the equation and throw public eyes onto others.
See Oliver continue scheming in the first three episodes of Only Murders in the Building, now on Hulu, with subsequent episodes available on Tuesdays.