With strong female characters, secrets revealed, and fun guest stars, this episode has a lot going for it.
It doesn't feel like we've gotten any closer to discovering Tim Kono's killer, but we do get some significant character development, along with the answer to one of the show's burning questions who is Lucy? Despite the fact that we get a whole scene with Sting (more on him later), the women steal the show this episode. At first, it was just a pleasant surprise to have Tina Fey narrating the episode, layering the action with vague aphorisms about second chances. But to have her actually appear in the episode as Cinda Canning, interacting with the trio, is a joy. Her brand of comedic delivery meshes well with the rapport Gomez, Short, and Martin have going. Canning's asides with her two clone-like assistants were pure Power Boss. No wonder the trio worships her! The final scene, with Cinda recording her podcast, was definitely a jaw-dropper. What does this mean for the trio? Will they all make it out alive? Isn't it a bit meta to make a podcast about a podcast? Will we be jumping back and forth through time for the rest of the series?
Every episode seems to bring up twice as many questions as it answers. But, to be fair, we're not even halfway through the season. Their date doesn't go well. Ryan's Jan is genial and vulnerable but never comes off as inappropriate. She doesn't believe she's oversharing, but Charles is clearly uncomfortable, but Jan doesn't seem to realize how much. It's when she presses him, and he divulges nothing, that things turn sour. Only later, when Charles realizes that he must be truly vulnerable, he lays his soul bare to Jan and shares his "wounds," manifested in the form of Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig (whom we later learn are cruise ship performers). Bugs and Porky haunt him with the failure of his previous relationship -- and Lucy. The Lucy reveal is lovely and frankly unexpected this early in the series. By making her not an ex-girlfriend or a lost love but a young child in need of stability, we see Charles trying to break the cycle of his past and his unkind father. This means Charles was definitely lying to Mabel in Only Murders In the Building Season 1 Episode 1. Charles stated that he had lived alone at the Arconia for twenty-eight years. If Emma (his ex-girlfriend) and her daughter Lucy lived with him, that doesn't count as being alone.
