Only Murders in the Building Season 3 Episode 6 Review: Ghost Light
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist.
Only Murders in the Building Season 3 Episode 6, “Ghost Light,” takes a spooky turn as we learn about the haunted history of the Goosebury Theater.
There are ghost stories, a ghost light, and a killer fog machine. Overall, the trip to check out the theater and banish welcome Gideon’s ghost is a lot of fun. Howard’s frantic energy perfectly accompanies the chaos going on between our trio.
“Ghost Light” gives us a lot of drama all at once, but it’s been a long time coming.
Our trio and their relationships with one another haven’t been given the focus they deserve so far this season, so even though this episode ends with a huge fight between them, it’s such a relief to see it.
Charles, Mabel, and Oliver are why we tune in every season, murder mystery and guest stars aside. This season, they’ve been going through some growing pains, and we’ve had to sit and wait for when all the underlying issues would get brought to the surface.
The fracture between Mabel and her “olds” has been brewing all season. It still hurts to watch it happen, but we knew it was coming. What is really well done is all the little moments that happen in this episode that build into the big fight in
Charles and Oliver’s breakup, however, is unexpected. Sure, we’ve seen how Charles feels uncomfortable with his role all season, so it’s not out of character for it to happen, but man is it a sucker punch to have that happen while the Mabel fallout occurs.
The murder mystery itself doesn’t progress all that much — Jonathan has been ruled out as a suspect — but now our trio is all caught up on the fight between Loretta, Charles, and Ben on opening night. The only mystery lingering between them is Oliver’s suspicions about Loretta.
Oliver destroying evidence to protect Loretta does not feel true to his character, or, at least, we haven’t seen anything that indicates they are that in love with each other to where it makes sense that he would erase the message on the mirror. It’s too big of a leap for us to take.
What would have been more understandable is if Oliver continued to be skeptical of what he learned and continued to hide everything from Charles and Mabel while he dug a little deeper into Loretta.
Instead, we get Oliver essentially choosing Loretta over everyone, willing to do whatever it takes to keep her out of jail, which is a bit too drastic, even for Oliver.
Stray Thoughts
- Poor Charles is really going through it.
- I love Howard so much.
- Is anyone else guessing that we’ll be seeing Cinda and Mabel working together soon?
- President McKinley really goes through it.
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“Ghost Light” is written by Madeleine George and directed by Chris Koch.
What did you think of this episode of Only Murders in the Building? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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New episodes of Only Murders in the Building premiere Tuesdays on Hulu.
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Allison Nichols
Allison is in a love affair with television that doesn't seem to be letting up anytime soon. Slightly damaged fictional characters are her weakness. She loves to spend her free time curled up with a cat and a show to binge-watch. Allison is a Tomatometer-approved critic (Rotten Tomatoes).