Note: The following contains spoilers for “Only Murders in the Building” Season 2, Episode 8: “Hello Darkness.
“Only Murders in the Building” finds its happy place in happy mediums: the juxtaposition of humor and grief, laughter in between the tears and generational divisions that actually work to bridge disparities.
In its sophomore season’s eighth episode, the show once again plays with opposites, illuminating the central mystery that’s clouding the trio’s (Selena Gomez, Steve Martin and Martin Short) lives amid a New York City–wide blackout that’s affected their building. For co-creator, showrunner and executive producer John Hoffman, “Hello, Darkness” paradoxically yet intentionally offers rays of light and clarity — all framed against the backdrop of the stately (if overpriced) Arconia’s gloomy hidden passageways.
“It’s basically their rock bottom when they drop down and they say, ‘We’re lost in our own building,’ and feel at a loss between the three of them,” he told TheWrap. “They’ve been pummeled by new information. They’re trying to find their way out of this investigation that’s pointing to them, that’s now pointing to someone Charles cares so deeply about [his daughter Lucy, played by Zoe Colletti], and it just feels like this moment for them where they have to stop and get a hands up.
“Hello, Darkness” picks up in the immediate aftermath of the events of Episode 7, following Mabel (Gomez), Charles (Martin) and Oliver (Short) as they attempt to track down Lucy, whose photograph had been found in the killer’s backpack. The episode allows “Only Murders” to slow down and take a breath, building out the interior lives of Arconia characters like Howard (Michael Cyril Creighton), his budding love interest Jonathan (Jason Veasey) and Arconia board president Nina (Christine Ko), all of whom showcase the series’ capacity for embracing human connection. In one lovably ridiculous Broadway-inspired moment, Howard and Jonathan lead a song that lifts the trio and residents’ spirits.
“[There’s] this lovely moment of song breaking through their home that kind of opens up their world to just let it be for a moment, and listen to the sounds of silence. And right after that, everything opens up, both investigatively — Lucy arrives — and then the lights are shortly on thereafter that illuminate back in, so it feels like they’ve done their time in some way while walking through everything to get through a very dark night,” Hoffman said.
In TheWrap’s conversation with Hoffman, the showrunner discusses the role music plays in the series, all the twists and turns of the season thus far and the revelation behind Glitter Guy’s identity.
TheWrap: Music plays such a role this season, with everyone singing Howard’s duet. Why was that important to include, and how does music help move the narrative forward and symbolize aspects of New York Broadway culture?
Sid[dhartha] Khosla, our brilliant composer, and I really have great dialogue about the tone and the ways in which music makes so much of your life while you’re in New York. I used to live in New York in a building right across the street, actually, from the Belnord [the Arconia’s facade] — much less grand, much less beautiful building — and I looked at the Belnord much like Charles and his father looked across the street at it in Episode 2. I’ll never forget those days, and they were every week, [where] I had someone who taught opera singers in my building and out the window were these glorious voices. They were doing scales, and they were doing practices, and then sometimes they do an amazing piece. But you’re there just in the middle of your day, and I might turn off Maury Povich or whatever was on TV and would just listen to the opera out the window.
That kind of thing just being around you, the culture of New York and the music that’s on the street, the music that is in our scenes — Sid has this great mix of music going on. I think while there’s a great ear worm and a great theme that he created for our show that’s so perfect and beautiful, there’s great dimensions to the way in which he came to it that really includes everything from a Home Depot bucket that you’d find someone playing on the corner in New York to other dimensions he found within the actual artists that play the music.
So it’s very purposeful, to bring in New York and, more than that, to let music be a shared experience in the show that stops things, that binds people. I think of the concertina and bassoon duet that happens out the windows in Season 1 between Charles and Jan [played by Amy Ryan]. Things like that only happen in New York, in those buildings, in that kind of setting. I’m really into the connective force of music.
Speaking of music, Howard gets so many good moments this episode with his date and meet cute, which was so unexpected and endearing. Can you talk about the genesis of that in the writers’ room?
Our wonderful writer Madeleine George penned Episode 8, and it was in real concert with our room. [Executive producer] Dan Fogelman had some great thoughts on this one, too. It was a great opportunity for showing different sides of people. Everything stops, the lights go out and you reveal things that you didn’t expect to see. Howard, [played by] Michael Cyril Creighton, who is just beloved by everyone on our set — and particularly by me, as a writer, who watches an actor make every line sing in a comedic way that keeps me on my toes and that I didn’t see coming – is just a gift from heaven. He was someone we knew we wanted to give something to, and then we partnered him with Jason Veasey, who’s unbelievable, and let everyone around him create a story that dimensionalizes people in ways that you are not expecting, hopefully. That’s another New York experience.
It’s like, who are you sitting next to on the subway? You might have an assumption about what they’re going to be like based on what they’re wearing, what their attitude is at that moment, what’s happening. And then boom, you’re in a conversation with them when they’re revealing a completely different side than you would have thought.
So there was an opportunity here in this building to connect to people that you’ve been watching in the hallways, in the elevator, and now we’re in a new situation where we need each other. It allows for Howard to reach out in a way that he would not otherwise do if not for the circumstances. And he’s so charming, and the absurdity of his yodel shop group being the thing that ultimately led to this big connected moment just felt sweet and particular to the show and its style and humor.
I was curious, I had to ask this: Is there a connection between Jonathan, the Broadway singer, sneezing because of his allergy to cats, and the fact that Lucy heard the killer sneeze, or am I just extrapolating too much?
Natalie, hang tight. [Laughs] Hang tight is all I want to say. That’s a perfect question. You’re not extrapolating, and I promise answers in a very exciting way. I can’t wait for everyone to see these last two episodes.
There’s a bit of a fakeout with Bunny’s killer, both in this episode with Marv and earlier with Nina and others. Was there any sort of throughline coloring this season, in terms of red herrings?
Excellent question. Yes. So much about Season 1 that leads to Season 2 and drops our trio right into the stew is that they were poking a true crime beast, and they were doing it for good reasons and because of their desires to connect, so there was a pure interest and drive to redeem and to find justice for Mabel’s friend Tim Kono. But they are still dancing in territory that’s very tricky, and it opens up a lot. That was intended, but it was also very disorienting for the characters to walk through that. They have their heroine podcaster making a podcast about them as the subjects, they are the suspects in a murder case and they have fans from their own podcast, who are involved and wanting more but not understanding the things that are happening to the trio make it very difficult to podcast about because it either points directly to them or exposes secrets they’re finding out to the killer who may still be out there.
But I think we have to keep coming at them with these elements and watching them try and still get out from under the cloud of this investigation. By the end of [Episode] 8, you know [Marv’s] been well intentioned, and it’s actually ultimately helped a situation that was terrifying. These are red herrings, in a way, but I think anyone in a situation as intense as this is going to have things happening that make real and deep, big connections to the case they’re following and trying to solve. And then some things are more random and some things have been started like a domino effect by them. So sorting through all of that helps where we’re going, and I think you’ll find there’s real resolve by the end.
What can you tell me about Det. Kreps’ motives? I think viewers get the sense that he’s a little off and creepy from the get-go, but I definitely wasn’t expecting that twist of him being Glitter Guy.
Oh good! The whole season is about reframing many things — there you have a painting in a frame, and the second episode is called “Framed.” But for all of them personally, the trio is constantly having to reframe their own personal histories, many around fatherhood, and reframing what that means to them and who their fathers were and how that relates to what they’re doing today.
In this case, too, Det. Kreps is in the very opening of our first episode in Season 2, in the second scene we’re shooting, and he comes on strong, comes on hard and gives a strong take on an interrogation. Michael Rapaport is so brilliant, first of all, being square in the center of that, but the hope was that we could reframe what feels like just a comic interrogation from a more than over-the-top typical New York cop. We’ll get there, but this is the big first domino push that’s happening at the end of Episode 8. Like, what’s really going on with Det. Kreps?
What can you reveal about what’s next? Is anything you could say about other characters’ involvement, like Dee Williams and Alice?
I love all of them so much. There was great care taken by our writers’ room to bring it all home and together in these last two episodes, both emotionally and on the case and keeping it as combustible as we could. I guess the one thing I would say is that Season 1 and Season 2 are more partnered in certain ways that feel very exciting and that feel very connected.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and concision.
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