Only Murders In The Building Boss Breaks Down [Spoiler]'s Return And Charles' Visions Of Sazz In Episode 2
Warning: The following contains spoilers from Season 4, Episode 2 of Hulu's Only Murders in the Building.
Charles receives a most unwelcome visitor during Tuesday's Only Murders in the Building.
Season 4, Episode 2 marks the return of Tim Kono's killer, Jan Bellows, who escapes from prison using a mix of parkour and psychosexual manipulation (!) and enters Charles' abode via the Arconia's secret passageways — the same secret passageways audiences first became privy to during the Season 2 investigation into the murder of Bunny Folger.
Naturally, Charles assumes that he's in danger — we here at TVLine had Jan at the top of our murder board at the end of Season 3; the bullet meant for Charles came from across the courtyard, not far from Jan's former place of residence — but Jan promised Sazz that she wouldn't hurt him. She's here because she wants to know if Charles has heard from her girlfriend, and is heartbroken when she discovers that Sazz is dead.
"We always did feel we had to [rule Jan out early]," series co-creator John Hoffman tells TVLine. Though Amy Ryan hadn't been seen on the show since Season 2, Jan's relationship with Sazz was "brought up again in Season 3," and not in just any episode. Audiences were reminded of their entanglement in Episode 5, the same episode that saw Sazz warn Charles about a potential target on his back.
"There are a couple of things that are brought up [in that scene] that point towards things that will be essential clues," Hoffman reveals. "She's having a conversation with Charles about a ham radio, about some stuff that's coming up on there...." And at one point, Charles mentions that he and Sazz have "shared a lot of things," including "a signature look and two girlfriends" — first Cookie, then Jan.
Hoffman was also eager to bring Jan back to witness "the deliciousness of the performance that Amy Ryan brings every time. How do you resist? Luckily, we don't have to because the narrative is telling us that if we're going in this direction, it makes perfect sense [to have Jan back]."
While Jan appears in the flesh, Sazz appears throughout the episode as a figment of Charles' imagination. Steve Martin and Jane Lynch's scenes together culminate in a melancholy conversation between TV's Brazzos and his former stunt double, who he now realizes was his oldest (and best) friend.
"The whole season is about reflections — whether that's on film, a representation of yourself on film, a representation of yourself on the page of a script, or [an actor] who is going to be playing you in a major motion picture, standing in your living room, telling you what they think [of] you," Hoffman says. "All of these reflections spawn from what is going on at the heart of the story, which is a murder mystery about what happened to this ultimate doppelgänger [Sazz], and reflecting on the depth of that friendship.... If you're Charles-Haden Savage exploring what happened, and if you had potentially played a part in her death, how much of a struggle would that be?"
Having Sazz appear as Charles' subconscious also follows something of a tradition for Only Murders. "Paul Rudd [as Ben Glenroy] appeared to Mabel in Season 3... Tim Kono appeared to Mabel in Season 1.... We have a motif of losing our minds a little bit with these characters," Hoffman points out. The EP also tells us that he was determined to have Lynch in as much of Season 4 as humanly possible. "Making her a real part of it felt very right, psychologically, for Charles," he says. "And deepening that relationship for our audience felt like a huge opportunity."
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