Only Murders in the Building Season 5 Episode 4 Review: Dirty Birds

Only Murders in the Building Season 5 Episode 4, “Dirty Birds,” finds our trio scheming and making a move against Jay, but it turns out they are the ones being played.

Jay, Camila, and Bash — henceforth known as the billionaire trio — are a delightful addition to the season so far.

We catch a glimpse of their dynamic as they each show up at Oliver’s place. It’s too soon to really nail down what their relationships with each other are like, but what we know for certain is that they have each other’s backs, even if they don’t always get along.

While “Dirty Birds” focuses on our trio trying to elicit any kind of useful information from the billionaire trio at this makeshift dinner party, there was a different game being played that we were unaware of. This makes the reveal at the end so well done.

Naturally, we as the audience are focused on our trio. We’re invested in this case, and we want to see what they can get out of the billionaires.

We aren’t really looking at what the billionaires might be trying to get out of this dinner other than what they explicitly say they’re there to do — making sure Jay doesn’t reveal too much or incriminate himself.

Only Murders in the Building knows this about us, and they played us well. Like Charles, Mabel, and Oliver, we underestimate the billionaires, and the show proves why we shouldn’t have. Brava. 

There is one small thing about “Dirty Birds” that is a bit bothersome: how quickly the trio, specifically Mabel, signed the contract with Wondify.

When it came to a movie deal, Mabel was a bit more reticent to sign a contract. Perhaps the reason she’s not this time around is the podcasting world is familiar to her whereas life rights to a movie was something new.

However, it is still a little odd how quickly our trio signs up with Wondify seemingly without any research into them or what their contract entails.

Our trio being beholden to a company that is preventing them from doing the podcast they want to do is going to be a new challenge. It could be a fun way for the show to shake things up.

The podcast element is usually a background element of the show.

Naturally, we see our trio recording bits and pieces of it, but the focal point is the actual investigation. With the restrictions on their podcast, our trio is going to have to do something differently — the specifics aren’t clear yet, but it will be interesting to see how they adapt to this curve ball in their process.

Stray Thoughts

• I love that the billionaire trio immediately clock the illegal “autopsy” our trio did.
• Lestr is a very strange addition to the Arconia, and I’m not sure where this storyline is headed.
• I’d love to see more of Mabel and Jay.

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New episodes of Only Murders in the Building air Tuesdays on Hulu.

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