WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Only Murders in the Building Season 1 finale, “Open and Shut,” now available on Hulu.
In Season 1 of Only Murders in the Building, there’s been a carousel of suspects linked to the death of Tim Kono at the Arconia in New York. As Mabel (Selena Gomez), Oliver (Martin Short) and Charles (Steve Martin) kept stringing together the case, it became difficult to really determine why Tim’s suicide was faked, but come the finale, we finally discover who killed the banker and why.
Who Killed Tim Kono in Only Murders in the Building?
The penultimate episode revealed Tim had a bassoon cleaner, hinting that he had an affair with the older musician, Jan. However, as Charles comes back to the hotel, he dispels the notion as he doesn’t want to ruin the first relationship he’s had in years. More so, Jan doesn’t have proper reason to kill Tim, who was caught up in black market jewelery and such.
It leads to Charles and Jan having drinks, while Mabel and Oliver secretly search her apartment. There, they find Zoe’s ring, poison and all the clues confirming Jan was indeed the murderer. Jan shockingly confesses to Charles to placate her ego as she knocks him out with a sedative of her own. It turns out, she enjoys killing folks, but admittedly, she didn’t want to have to end Charles as she really does like him.
Why Did Jan Kill Tim Kono?
Jan and Tim had an illicit affair, but he got tired of it and wanted out. It might have been stress from work, the age difference or the fact he needed to use the ring to bring down the Dimases in Zoe’s murder years ago. Either way, Jan didn’t take nicely to the news, thinking she’s second-best in Tim’s life as she assumed the ring was for another woman.
She invited Tim in for drinks, poisoned him and then pulled the building’s fire alarm, recounting scenes from the show’s premiere episode. Jan then got into Tim’s apartment, placed a gun in his hands, put the barrel in his mouth and pulled the trigger. It’s all due to an inferiority complex as she never got to actually be first chair in her orchestra, so this rejection is something she needs to make Tim pay for. The fact that she even faked her own stabbing to get off the suspects list best sums it up.
How Is Jan Stopped by Mabel, Charles & Oliver?
In the present, Jan leaves Charles immobile and heads to the basement below, tampering with the furnace to send gas throughout the building. Once folks turn their fireplaces on, the Arconia will blow up. But luckily, Mabel and Oliver take the evidence from Jan’s room and rescue Charles in the hallway. They confront her in the basement, with Oliver and Charles distracting the demented musician.
It allows Mabel to punch the gun-toting fiend out, with Tim’s ring ironically on her hand to knock Jan unconscious. The cops arrive and arrest her, with the sleuths then getting reinstated to the Arconia for solving the case. Charles is hurt, but later on, with Oliver and Mabel at his side, he knows he’s ready to move on now that the real villain has been put behind bars and he has a family again.
All 10 episodes of Season 1 of Only Murders in the Building are available now on Hulu.
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