Spoilers ahead, this is finale territory here.
Only Murders in the Building can never let the residents of the Arconia live in peace. Rest in peace, certainly.
In the Season 4 finale, which Mashable’s Belen Edwards has unpacked in detail, the series dropped another murder on us in the final few minutes. After all, it’s now tradition for the show’s finales to tease a new chapter.
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Sadly, the doomed resident this time is the Arconia’s true heart: poor Lester (Teddy Coluca), the doorman. And his death is foreshadowed in the same episode.
After Oliver (Martin Short) and Loretta’s (Meryl Streep) gorgeous wedding in the Arconia courtyard, Oliver, Mabel (Selena Gomez), and Charles (Steve Martin) are wandering through the remaining decorations recording the final words of their podcast. It’s then that they find Lester, murdered and lying in a fountain that’s now filled with blood.
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“All he does is let in murderers!”
Earlier in the episode, on their way to rescue Mabel from the killer, Charles and Oliver encounter Lester in the hallway; the doorman has news that Oliver’s chuppah had arrived for the wedding ceremony. Flustered, Oliver tells him to handle it, but adds, “I trust you completely, but just know, if you get anything wrong, I will destroy you.”
When Charles protests, Oliver scoffs, “What? All he does is let in murderers!” Yeah, Oliver’s going to regret that one.
Whether or not Lester let his own murderer into the building will be the mystery of Season 5. Not just a longtime doorman, Lester has a major connection to the Arconia and the fountain he ends up dead in, telling Charles and Oliver he was married to his wife Lorraine in the courtyard in an evening ceremony “with just the stars and the fountain as our witness.”
Teddy Coluca as Lester in “Only Murders in the Building.”
Credit: Disney / Patrick Harbron
We’ve learned very little about Lester over the last four seasons, aside from his deep knowledge of everyone at the Arconia. We’ve heard tiny mentions of Lorraine throughout the series, with characters like Bunny Folger (Jayne Houdyshell) giving her regards. In Season 2, during the blackout, when Lester is taking a breather in board president Nina Lin’s (Christine Ko) apartment, he mentions he connected with his wife over his love of the chat and her hatred of awkward silences — “Says with me, she never has any.” We find out Lester and Lorraine have two children, May and Frank; one at SUNY Stony Brook and one doing improv.
There’s a mysterious side to Lester, too. In Season 1, he indicates he knew Sting and The Police back in the day, then demands no one say anything about it again. In Season 2, when the trio are staging the confession trap, Lester says he graduated from Juilliard. “Started out off-Broadway with Tracy Letts. We were rivals. Hand to God,” he says. “I stopped getting hired, developed a drinking problem, and was homeless for a while. Almost died, cleaned up, took the first job I could get, and I’ve been stuck here ever since.”
Poor Lester, it’s also where he’d see the end of his days — and Season 5 will get into who’s responsible.
Only Murders in the Building is now streaming on Hulu.