'Only Murders in the Building' Season 4 Episode 7 Recap: A Not-So-Safe House (2024)

Editor's note: The below recap contains spoilers for Only Murders in the Building Season 4 Episode 7.

After a spectacular return to form last week with Episode 6, “Blow Up,” Only Murders in the Building Season 4 continues the trend and delivers yet another entertaining episode. “Valley of the Dolls” is a little less heavy on the investigation, but unlike previous episodes, that’s not a bad thing, and it’s not all that noticeable. The episode sees Mabel (Selena Gomez), Charles (Steve Martin), and Oliver (Martin Short) take refuge in Charles’s eccentric sister Doreen’s (Melissa McCarthy) house after the threatening texts they received in last week’s cliffhanger. But despite getting the heck out of dodge (the Arconia), the trio can’t seem to disappear entirely.

It's the Island of the Dolls in 'Only Murders in the Building' Season 4 Episode 7

After fleeing the Arconia, Mabel, Oliver, and Charles seek refuge at Charles’s sister Doreen’s house on Long Island. Doreen is played by the hilarious Melissa McCarthy, making Season 4 of Only Murders the show’s most star-studded yet. When the trio arrive, they’re immediately put off by Doreen’s eccentric nature and her massive collection of dolls. The collection ranges from porcelain baby dolls to life-size mannequins – one even looks eerily similar to Loretta (Meryl Streep), which Oliver points out. We learn that Charles and his sister don’t have the closest relationship and that there’s actually quite a large age gap between them, something we discover when Charles explains that he's responsible for an accident Doreen had as a child.

The trio believe they’re safe at Doreen’s and plan to hunker down and solve their mystery, but that plan is quickly thwarted when Bev Melon (Molly Shannon) shows up the next morning, thanks to Howard (Michael Cyril Creighton) telling her where they are. She surprises Charles in the driveway, asking him if the Brothers sisters are the killers, because if they are, she has to fire them, but if there’s only a possibility and no proof, then she can spin it and keep them on.

Shortly after Bev arrives, so do the actors, and they’re not happy that they were left behind with a murderer on the loose. Mabel tries to comfort them by saying that the murderer isn’t after them, but Zach Galifianakis lifts up his shirt to show off his bullet wound as proof. Mabel relents and allows them to stay, so long as they put their phones away with the rest of them to try and uphold the safe house as best they can. And finally — because what is a safe house without a bunch of unwanted visitors? — Loretta shows up out of the blue (seriously, Howard is just giving their location out to everyone!) to have a chat with Oliver, and she ends up catching him in a very compromising, and misunderstood, position with Doreen.

Loretta's Back in Town in 'Only Murders in the Building' Season 4

After nearly an entire season spent with Oliver worrying about his relationship with Loretta, the couple finally reconciles and talks about everything, but not without some misunderstandings. As soon as the trio arrives at Doreen’s house, she immediately comes onto Oliver, claiming that she’s been attracted to him ever since she started listening to the podcast, even though she didn’t know what he looked like. She turns on the flirting hardcore, but Oliver is still hung up on Loretta — and sad, since he broke up with her through a text message on their way to Doreen’s. Since his phone has been turned off for safety reasons, he missed all of Loretta’s responses, and unbeknownst to him, when she received his breakup text, she hopped on the first flight she could get to come and see him, discovering Oliver and Doreen in that aforementioned position. But Oliver is quick to explain that he simply got caught in Doreen’s sweater when he was trying to stand up, so they go and talk out their differences.

Loretta asks Oliver why he broke up with her, specifically why he thought it was okay to do so over text. He explains that he called her the other day and poured his heart out to her, only to receive a “Ugh” in response, but she has no recollection of this phone call. Loretta asks him what time this phone call happened, and he says that it was lunchtime for her, and she suddenly starts laughing. For the scene she’s been filming, she has to be wrapped in gauze, and so does her stand-in, so the P.A. on set must have gotten the two of them mixed up and handed her stand-in the phone instead.

The pair laugh the misunderstanding off and are golden for a little while — that is, until Doreen gets involved again. After a few too many vodka Crystal Lights, she comes out donning a pair of pigtails in an attempt to seduce Oliver once again. It doesn’t work, obviously, and instead, Oliver and Loretta have a very sweet conversation where he admits to her that he almost proposed in Los Angeles. However, the moment is brief, because Oliver, being Oliver, doesn’t quite know when to stop talking, and ends up revealing that he made a fake account to get close to Loretta. This upsets her deeply, as she says she had gotten close to Ronnie and even took screenshots of her motivational words.

Everyone Makes Amends in 'Only Murders in the Building' Season 4 Episode 7

After learning that Oliver is Ronnie, Loretta has to step away to compose herself, but there isn’t much time to dwell on it because Doreen is back, claiming she wants to apologize before starting a fight with Loretta. Luckily, Loretta knows how to fight back, thanks to learning stage combat, and the pair duke it out in a hilarious fight sequence. It's made even better when Eva Longoria starts shouting directions at them from the sidelines. Afterward, Loretta and Oliver must face their issues again, and we finally get to see Oliver's truly vulnerable side. He tells Loretta that it has been over a decade since he’s been in a real relationship, and if she can’t handle his crazy, then he understands if she wants to run. Instead, Loretta proposes to him — which he, of course, accepts.

It isn’t just Oliver and Loretta who make amends; Doreen and Charles also mend their relationship. At the beginning of the episode, Doreen tells Charles that she’s kicked her husband out of the house and that her children have grown up and moved out, hence the doll obsession. She’s a very lonely woman, something she tries to mask but doesn’t do a great job at. She misses her brother deeply, and makes it known that he doesn’t come around often. Doreen admits that their mother wasn’t always the best mother, and then reveals to Charles something she’s always kept to herself: She remembers so vividly seeing him in his first play because it was also the first and last time their mother ever held her hand. Their mom was always so distant, and then she was gone, and now Charles is distant as well. He promises to visit more.

Everything Comes Full Circle in 'Only Murders in the Building' Season 4 Episode 7

As soon as the actors arrive at the safe house, they immediately get under Mabel’s skin, begging her to let them help with the case. Mabel finally relents and goes over all the evidence, but tells the actors to work in one room while she works in another. The next morning, everyone in the house is woken up by the actors, who claim they have closed the case. They sit everyone down and show off their “murder wall,” which they say is much better than a murder board, and Eugene Levy drops the bomb that the mystery goes all the way back to Season 1.

The actors point out that the trio never truly investigated who poisoned Oliver’s dog, Winnie, because they just assumed it was Jan (Amy Ryan). Additionally, the note that was left on their door — the one that read “End the podcast or I end you” — had to have been written by someone left-handed, due to the smudge on the paper. Jan, the actors point out, was not left-handed, something they determined by looking at the way she held her bassoon. Their final argument is that the note that was left on Jan’s door said “I’m watching you,” just like the text messages the trio received in Episode 6. Thus, the actors reveal that the murderer has been after them since Season 1. Charles points out that Sazz knew all of this, and brings up all the notes they found that point back to these same clues brought forth by the actors. He believes this is what Sazz wanted to tell him — she knew they were being targeted.

Dudenoff’s Killer Is Revealed in ‘Only Murders in the Building’ Season 4 Episode 7

While the trio is at Doreen’s, Howard is at the bodega trying to find out who has been cashing Dudenoff’s checks. He notices that multiple people have been cashing checks under Dudenoff’s name due to the different signatures for each one, but interestingly, they all have the same phone number listed. He ends up getting the surveillance footage, where he sees five familiar faces signing the log: The Westies. Howard decides to call the listed phone number, just to be certain, and when he does, Vince Fish (Richard Kind) answers the phone, saying “This is Milton Dudenoff.” Howard promptly hangs up, having gotten his answer, and Vince looks over at the table where his fellow Westies are sitting, simply saying, “They know.”

Only Murders in the Building Season 4 is available to stream on Hulu in the U.S. New episodes premiere every Tuesday.

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Only Murders in the Building

Charles, Mabel, and Oliver hide out in Charles's sister's house, but are interrupted by surprise visitors.

Pros

• Loretta and Oliver have a long-awaited reconciliation.
• Melissa McCarthy is incredible and hilarious in her role as Doreen.
• The twist of the mystery being connected to Season 1 is unexpected.

WATCH ON HULU