Note: This story contains spoilers from Season 3, Episode 9 of “Only Murders in the Building.”
After photos of Selena Gomez in a wedding dress went viral on social media in March, Only Murders in the Building fans began speculating how it might fit into the Hulu comedy’s plot for a third season.
Tuesday’s new episode answered that question: Mabel donned Joy’s (Andrea Martin) mother’s wedding dress left at Charles’ (Steve Martin) apartment while the trio raced to the courthouse to clear Loretta Durkin’s (Meryl Streep) name after discovering Donna DeMeo. (Linda Edmond) will become the latest suspect in the murder of Ben Glenroy (Paul Rudd).
Showrunner John Hoffman told TheWrap in an interview conducted under WGA guidelines and with the assistance of his personal publicist that the idea for the wedding dress came up later in the planning of the third season, and that the trio was filmed outside the Belnord apartment complex in New York. was added at the last minute.
“It was just a few weeks ago, and then it all unfolded like, ‘Wow, this is going to be the day and the paparazzi are going to get ahead of it.’ So we had to come to terms with that and think, ‘Well… here’s a big clue to where we’re going this season,'” Hoffman said. “It seemed normal to me because one of the discussions we have in the writers’ room is, ‘Go home tonight.’ Think about what moments from the trailer you want to see this season…” and one of the moments was Selena Gomez in a wedding dress. And I immediately thought it was a fascinating image.”
In terms of its impact on the third season’s narrative, Hoffman described the wedding outfit as a moment of “coup” that allowed the trio to get to the courthouse on time, and was also the perfect way for Mabel to fulfill her 30th birthday wish of solving murders with Charles and Oliver. This also gave the writers the opportunity to add a Father of the Bride reference.
He stressed that the series plans to film additional footage of Gomez in a wedding dress, but noted that the third season of the Hulu comedy is already a massive undertaking in terms of production.
“There was a point in our schedule where she spent a couple more minutes portraying her in that wedding dress, making her way through the crowd and up the stairs of the courthouse on the outside, which was a little more grandiose in our desires and dreams. But that’s the nature of production, a lot of times it’s either time or money… but I was still in awe of how our amazing editor Peggy (Tachjian) and everyone else put this spread together with this dress; and Dana Covarrubias finding the perfect wedding dress that made Selena Gomez feel great… and come on, I loved those paparazzi that day because they took some amazing pictures of her… I thought, “Well, it’s a gift to tell the world about this and people look and share this photo.” “
In addition to finally connecting the dots on the wedding outfit, Episode 9, titled “Thirty”, revealed how Ben Glenroy was poisoned and who he talked to in his dressing room before passing out on stage. It turns out that this was his guilty pleasure all along – Shmakari cookies.
The idea came from writer Sas Goldberg, who is friends with the owners of Schmakary’s.
“Anyone who’s worked on a Broadway show knows those cookies are there and they haunt you throughout the day and they’re incredible,” Hoffman said. “So with that in mind, we’re always looking for weakness or a sense of what might cause one of our victims or protagonists to crumble.”
He noted that the cookies provided an opportunity to become “a vessel of poisoning that felt different.”
“Also, I was really drawn to the simple ridiculousness of it as we were teasing and then pitching the idea of him having an almost sexual relationship with the cookies,” Hoffman added. “So this feeling of a temptress that he cannot get rid of is contained in a little well-cooked sugar and flour and (it) can destroy him in such a brutal way that everything seems right.”
Hoffman praised writer Elaine Coe and director Cherien Dabis for taking on the challenge of delivering the penultimate episode, which was intended to be interesting in a departure from previous seasons, bringing the central trio together and setting out the chronology of the Glenroy murder.
“We knew we wanted to achieve this in a number of ways—mostly through telling a mystery story—but also through deepening the character of Ben Glenroy and understanding what was really going on with him: the damage, the regrets, the attempts to connect with him.” what he’s doing, Ben’s sweetness. And then that really screwed up night he had just went crazy,” he added.
When asked about the upcoming season finale, which airs Tuesday, Oct. 3, Hoffman remained tight-lipped but teased that “there may still be twists and turns in some of the realities of what happened.”
“I think there will always be new twists and turns,” he continued. Hopefully there will be big moments that people hope to see and some good shocks.”
“Only Murders in the Building” was created and written by Hoffman and Steve Martin. The executive pair will produce the series alongside Short, Gomez, This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman and Jess Rosenthal. The series is produced by 20th Television, part of Disney Television Studios.
New episodes of “Only Murders in the Building” air Tuesdays on Hulu.