Only Murders in the Building Season 5: Who Dies in the First Three Episodes?
The hit whodunit wastes no time—Season 5 kicks off with a jaw-dropping reveal, and we've got all the spoiler-packed details on who doesn't make it out alive.
Only Murders in the Building is back, and the new season wastes zero time tossing the gang into another mess at The Arconia. If you just want the headline: a new body turns up in the first three episodes, and it belongs to Nicky Caccimelio. If you want the why and the weird of it, keep reading.
Where Season 5 picks up
Season 4 ended on a cliffhanger with Charles, Oliver, and Mabel finding Lester the doorman facedown in The Arconia fountain. Cut to Season 5, and the police shrug it off as an accident. The trio does not. Naturally, the Primetime Emmy-winning whodunnit leans right back into what it does best: amateur sleuthing, one chaotic brainstorm at a time.
A severed finger, delivered like room service
During one of those brainstorming sessions, something truly gross shows up: a finger, plated like a snack, appears in Charles apartment. At first, they assume it is Lester's. It is not. That detail becomes the breadcrumb that points them toward Sofia Caccimelio, who tried to hire the trio last season. Yes, the plot immediately gets very inside-baseball Arconia.
There is a casino under The Arconia (because of course there is)
Charles and Mabel end up discovering a hidden casino beneath the building. Meanwhile, Oliver wanders to a nearby dry cleaners and stumbles onto a corpse, because only Oliver could turn a laundry run into a crime scene. The body is Nicky Caccimelio, Sofia's mobbed-up husband.
Episode 2 connects a lot of dots
In Episode 2, "After You," we learn Nicky has been part of The Arconia's shadow economy for decades. He ran that illegal casino under the building for years and paid Lester to keep it quiet. So yeah, Lester and Nicky knew each other, and the money flowed both ways. Also, this casino is not exactly a penny slots situation — it quietly ropes in some of the city's richest players.
Episode 3 doubles down at the tables
In Episode 3, "Rigor," our trio sneaks back into the underground casino hoping the killer slips up. The last moments drop a very specific clue: someone on-site is missing a finger. Given the earlier delivery to Charles apartment, that is not subtle. Did our mystery nine-fingered guest take out both Lester and Nicky? The show is clearly nudging us in that direction without saying it out loud.
- Who dies in Episodes 1-3: Nicky Caccimelio, Sofia's husband and longtime Arconia-connected mobster.
- Lester: Found in the fountain at the end of last season; police say accident, the trio says absolutely not.
- The big clue: A severed finger sent to Charles, later echoed by a casino patron missing one.
- Inside-baseball detail: There has been a secret high-roller casino under The Arconia for decades, and Lester was paid to keep it buried.
Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez are back doing their self-proclaimed detective thing, and the show is already setting up a clean line between that finger and at least one of the bodies. Episode 4 drops next week, so expect the nine-finger mystery to stop being coy.