Only Murders in the Building season 5 narrows its endgame window with Episode 8, “Cuckoo Chicks,” a pivotal hour that splits the trio and turns a velvet-room ladies’ night into a pressure cooker for clues. At the same time, the season’s final two dates are now locked: Episode 9, “LESTR,” arrives on October 21, 2025, and Episode 10, “The House Always,” lands on October 28, 2025—both on Tuesday, keeping the show’s weekly cadence on Hulu (and on Disney+ for connected accounts). With two hours left in a 10-episode run, “Cuckoo Chicks” functions as the classic set-up chapter: the moment when suspects, motives, and leverage finally collide.
What Happens in “Cuckoo Chicks” (Episode 8)
The episode’s official description frames the mission and the mishaps: “Mabel gathers a ragtag group to crash an exclusive ladies night. While trying to save the Arconia from being sold, Charles and Oliver accidentally end up in couples’ therapy.” In practice, that means undercover sleuthing for Mabel Mora and Loretta at a women-only event tied to the Arconia’s new money power network, while Charles-Haden Savage and Oliver Putnam pursue a paperwork-and-pressure play that lands them in a therapist’s office at the worst possible time.
On the floor, the ladies-night incursion tightens the thread between social capital and real capital. The show has been building toward a casino push inside the Arconia, and the velvet-room scene clarifies how those alliances move. The night is also the most efficient way to keep Mabel working a room without Charles and Oliver at her shoulder, which allows the script to draw a straighter line to the episode’s big takeaways: who’s trying to lock down control of the building, and how that control intersects with Lester’s death and the fallout from Nicky’s disappearance.
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Release Schedule & Where to Watch
The clock is now visible to the day. Two episodes remain in the season’s 10-episode arc, with the next steps dated and titled:
- Episode 9, “LESTR” — October 21, 2025
- Episode 10, “The House Always” — October 28, 2025
New episodes drop on Tuesdays. In the U.S., stream on Hulu; if your account is linked, you can also watch on Disney+. The Tuesday cadence continues uninterrupted into the finale, which keeps momentum steady after a September premiere that launched the mystery at speed.
Key Movers & Motives in Episode 8
- Mabel Mora leads the ladies-night infiltration and turns social small talk into investigative leverage. Each conversation lines up with the season’s core objective: keep the Arconia from falling under a single hand long enough to expose what really happened to the building’s doorman, Lester.
- Loretta becomes both cover and catalyst inside the room. Her presence broadens Mabel’s access and gives the duo a plausible reason to mingle in places a podcaster-turned-sleuth normally wouldn’t be welcome.
- Charles-Haden Savage and Oliver Putnam get waylaid into couples’ therapy while chasing a transactional solution. The detour is comic on the surface—this is a Martin/Short two-hander, after all—but useful in a narrower sense: the session surfaces immediate stakes for the sale of a specific apartment and the larger push to consolidate power.
Cast & Characters You’ll See (Season 5)
The anchor trio—Steve Martin (Charles-Haden Savage), Martin Short (Oliver Putnam), and Selena Gomez (Mabel Mora)—remain the through-line. The season’s casino-and-control arc cycles key players into Episode 8’s orbit, including Meryl Streep as Loretta and Da’Vine Joy Randolph as Detective Williams. The expanding circle around the Arconia also features recurring and guest turns from Renée Zellweger, Christoph Waltz, Logan Lerman, Keegan‑Michael Key, and Beanie Feldstein, among others—names that matter because the velvet-room guest list and the Arconia’s ownership math are now inseparable.
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Why “Cuckoo Chicks” Matters
Structurally, this is the last chapter designed to add variables rather than resolve them. By splitting the team, the episode can tighten two lanes at once: inside access (Mabel/Loretta) and leverage (Charles/Oliver). The casino bid for the Arconia, the unresolved questions around Lester, and the loose edges of Nicky’s story all press against each other here—so the reveals in “LESTR” can stick. The pacing echoes earlier seasons: a penultimate setup followed by a finale that flips whatever card we’ve all been staring at for weeks.
Episode 8: Five Specific Takeaways
- The title is “Cuckoo Chicks,” signaling an episode framed by Lester’s old bird-nickname bit and by who “belongs” where inside the Arconia’s new social map.
- The undercover ladies-night setting is not a one-off stunt; it’s the cleanest route to the money-and-influence circle now steering decisions inside the building.
- Charles and Oliver’s couples’ therapy is awkward, but it’s also a plot valve: personal hang‑ups force practical choices about an imminent apartment sale that could decide control.
- The season keeps its Tuesday weekly release, which means momentum is baked into the calendar heading into “LESTR.”
- Two stamped dates—October 21 and October 28—are now the only days that matter for resolution.
What’s Next for Only Murders in the Building Season 5
The penultimate hour, “LESTR,” by design corrals suspects, consolidates motives, and tees up reversals. Expect familiar faces to cycle back in, old frictions to resurface, and one or two scenes to reframe what we think we know about who benefits from the Arconia’s sale. The finale, “The House Always,” carries a title that all but promises a casino‑tinged payoff—either in who holds the keys to the building or who walks out with the bigger story.
Quotes & Official Synopsis
Two lines stand out as compact signposts for Episode 8’s shape and the season’s timeline:
- “Mabel gathers a ragtag group to crash an exclusive ladies night. While trying to save the Arconia from being sold, Charles and Oliver accidentally end up in couples’ therapy.”
- “Episode 9, ‘LESTR’: October 21, 2025” and “Episode 10, ‘The House Always’: October 28, 2025.”
How the Season 5 Calendar Shapes the Mystery
With the endgame dated to two consecutive Tuesdays, the series can concentrate its reveals rather than scatter them. There’s no gap week, no streaming pause, and no late‑season holiday interference. That matters because Season 5’s central questions—what really happened to Lester, what “control” of the Arconia enables, and how Nicky’s disappearance ties back to both—thrive on the immediate recall that weekly television used to guarantee. The show is using that rhythm to keep each new clue within reach of the last one.
Bottom Line
Only Murders in the Building season 5 turns “Cuckoo Chicks” into a two‑track sprint: a social‑engineering op in the velvet room and a therapy‑bench stakeout that pokes holes in a sale that would decide the Arconia’s future. The result is a sturdier runway to “LESTR” on October 21 and “The House Always” on October 28—two titles, two Tuesdays, and one last chance to square the ledger.
Full Season 5 Cast & Creators
- Steve Martin — Charles‑Haden Savage
- Martin Short — Oliver Putnam
- Selena Gomez — Mabel Mora
- Meryl Streep — Loretta
- Da’Vine Joy Randolph — Detective Williams
- Renée Zellweger — Camila
- Christoph Waltz — (season 5 guest)
- Logan Lerman — (season 5 guest)
- Keegan‑Michael Key — (season 5 guest)
- Beanie Feldstein — (season 5 guest)
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