Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Only Murders in the Building Season 4 Episode 2.

After a star-studded return last week, Season 4 of Only Murders in the Building slows things down a bit with Episode 2, keeping things mainly in the Arconia and its neighboring building, as the trio investigates potential suspects in Sazz’s (Jane Lynch) murder. While it’s certainly slower than the previous episode, there’s more room to digest what’s going on and feel the emotional beats. The aptly titled “Gates of Heaven” has a more somber tone than the show usually goes for, but it works exceptionally well as Charles (Steve Martin) grapples with the loss of his best friend. Oliver (Martin Short) and Mabel (Selena Gomez) take on the brunt of the detective work this episode, uncovering new clues that might hint at what happened to Sazz, and who the real target was.

Charles Can’t Say Goodbye in ‘Only Murders in the Building’ Season 4 Episode 2
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The episode begins with a flashback of Sazz on the set of Brazzos, which we know is where she and Charles met, given that she was his stuntwoman. She explains that when she was a kid, when most parents would tell their children to keep out of danger, her father encouraged her to run toward it. This sets the tone for the episode, as we learn more about Sazz, particularly her and Charles’s friendship over the years. Cut back to the present day, and we’ve reconvened in Charles’s living room after the ending of last week’s episode, where they discovered Sazz’s ashes. His hands are still covered in her ashes, but he refuses to clean them as he doesn’t want to wash her down the drain — to which Oliver quips that if he doesn’t wash them he’ll just have “permanent Sazz hands.” Charles decides to wash his hands into a bowl, which he’ll then transfer into a mason jar, where he’ll let the water evaporate, and then Sazz’s ashes will be left untouched and he can figure out what to do with them later. It’s around this time that Charles also begins seeing Sazz’s ghost, as his mental state begins to deteriorate from both the stress and sadness of the situation.

Meanwhile, Mabel and Oliver are recreating the murder scene themselves in an attempt to figure out where the bullet came from. They narrow it down to four apartments but have no way of telling for sure, as they don’t know where exactly Sazz’s body had been lying. To aid them in this task, Charles suggests they use Luminol, which will light up any bodily fluids, including blood, even if they’ve been scrubbed away. If they can see where Sazz was lying, they’ll be able to determine which apartment the bullet came from. Mabel and Oliver decide to investigate the apartments and the tenants within but refuse to let Charles come with them, as they believe he was the intended target — something he takes offense to. As Mabel points out, Sazz was in his apartment and was dressed like him. Begrudgingly, Charles stays behind, with only his hallucinatory version of Sazz to keep him company.

The West Tower Is Filled With Suspects in ‘Only Murders in the Building’
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Before Oliver and Mabel head to the West Tower to investigate, Charles gives them a rundown of their suspects. First up, there’s Stink Eye Joe (Richard Kind), who Charles says is always looking into his building and giving him the stink-eye. Next, there’s the Sauce Family, who are always stirring some sort of sauce at all hours of the day while looking over and into his apartment. Next, there’s Christmas All The Time Guy (Kumail Nanjiani), who is the oddest of them all, as he never takes down his Christmas decorations and wears a Christmas sweater all year round. There’s also an apartment in the middle that Charles says never has the blinds open. He’s seen the lights turn on and off a few times but has never spotted an actual person inside.

With our suspects introduced, it’s time to do some interrogating. The first stop is at Stink Eye Joe’s apartment. Oliver and Mabel explain that they’ll be filming a movie and might need to use his apartment for shots, and they want to see if there’s a good view of the Arconia from here. They’re let inside but ultimately discover that Stink Eye Joe’s windows are painted shut. Lucky for them, though, he’s already on his way to the neighbors for a game of cards, and they’re welcome to tag along. Those neighbors are the Sauce Family, and they’re immediately more suspicious. Inez (Daphne Rubin-Vega) is Charles’s super-fan and even admits that he is her hall pass, while her husband makes questionable comments about how he used to think he’d have to “take Charles out” because of how much his wife likes him. This immediately puts Oliver and Mabel on high alert. To make things even weirder, throughout the card game, they all get up to take “hits” in the bathroom, which is later revealed to be a piece of ham hanging from the shower rod, which they all take turns stabbing. If that’s not a red flag, I don’t know what is.

They don’t end up making it to Christmas All The Time Guy’s apartment, but during the card game, Mabel learns that the person living in the shuttered apartment is someone called “Dudenoff,” just like one of Sazz’s notes says. After looking at Charles’s murder board, they determine that the random set of numbers may just be the code to the lockbox of Dudenoff’s apartment, and conveniently, it is. Oliver and Mabel sneak in, and it’s extremely unsettling. The place looks as if no one has been there in ages. It’s dusty and outdated, and the bed is downright nasty. But what matters is that there’s a footprint on the radiator by the window and paint chips on the windowsill, meaning somebody pried it open. Oliver also finds tinsel nearby, but he can’t dwell on this for long, as Mabel cries out from the bathroom. When Oliver comes in, he discovers a pig in the bathtub. Again, there’s no time to dwell on this as someone begins trying to unlock the door, which startles Mabel, Oliver, and the pig, who takes off when Mabel opens the door to look out into the hall — but there’s no one in sight, leaving Mabel and Oliver with nothing but a bad feeling.

Jan’s On the Loose in ‘Only Murders In the Building’ Season 4 Episode 2
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As Charles sits around his apartment waiting to get through to 911, he has some sweet heart-to-hearts with Sazz. One of the best is when Sazz comforts him and assuages his guilt by saying that even if he was the intended target, he shouldn’t feel bad; it’s part of the gig. “I take hits for my guy,” she tells him. But their sweet moment is interrupted by sudden knocking and thudding sounds coming from the closet, and when Charles opens it, he at first sees nothing but black combat boots. However, he doesn’t have to wonder for long who it is wearing the boots, as the coats are pushed aside and Jan (Amy Ryan) pops her head out. Yes, that Jan, as in Season 1’s killer, Jan. She’s decked out in a prison guard uniform, hinting that she did something drastic to escape from prison.

Charles is rightfully terrified when he sees her, and they chase each other around the kitchen island for a moment before she tells him she’s just worried about Sazz and wants to know if he’s heard from her. That gets him to let his guard down a bit — though he does put the entire block of knives in the dishwasher, far out of Jan’s reach. She explains that Sazz called her the week before and sounded upset, but that she hasn’t heard from her since. Charles then tells Jan everything that’s happened, and everything he knows, including the sniper. The two then share stories about Sazz as the ghost version of her sits between them, listening pleasantly. Jan even kindly tells Charles that Sazz is the reason she hasn’t killed him.

When Mabel and Oliver get back, Jan goes back into the closet, but when Charles tries to show them that she’s there, he finds that she’s disappeared. He knows that she was really there and he wasn’t hallucinating her, but he has no way of proving it. When he looks toward the ceiling, he finds an entry and exit spot, where he determines Jan has come and gone from. It’s no use explaining it though, because the NYPD have already learned of her escape and show up shortly thereafter to bust down Charles’s door. Detective Williams (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) tells Charles that they found very disturbing sketches of Jan doing messed up things to him, and were worried that she had come to kill him. He lets it slip that Jan was in the apartment, which puts an end to the trio’s investigation before it can truly begin. That’s the moment Charles finally gets through to 911, and he solemnly says he’d like to report a murder.

Charles Was the Real Target in ‘Only Murders In the Building’ Season 4
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As the NYPD is in the incinerator room, the trio decides now is the time to do the Luminol test; however, Charles says he needs a moment alone first. As he sits in his bedroom, he’s visited by Sazz once again. He tells her that he failed her because he was scared to leave the apartment, to which she kindly quips that he just needs a stunt double. Charles then recalls her first day working on Brazzos — he was eating lunch alone, as he always did, and he had no friends in the cast or crew. But that day, Sazz marched up to his trailer with some crew members in tow who thanked him for inviting them to a poker game that night. He hadn’t — that was Sazz’s little white lie — but he went with it and went on to host that very poker game every week for the next eight years, all thanks to her. “You took care of me in every way a person can take care of someone,” Charles says to her, and it’s almost as if it’s his way of making peace with her being gone, as difficult as it is to do so. But the focus on their friendship is much needed for the episode’s big reveal.

When Charles walks back into the kitchen, Mabel and Oliver spray the floor with the Luminol and not only discover where Sazz had been lying but also find that she had written something in her blood: “Tap in.” Mabel asks Charles if he knows what it means. Earlier in the episode, we learn that during Brazzos, the director would yell “Freeze,” Charles would freeze, and then Sazz would come along and “tap in” for the stunt portion. It’s become even clearer that Charles was the intended target of the murder, something even he comes to realize by the episode’s closing moments when he says, “We’re not investigating Sazz’s murder anymore. We’re investigating mine.”

Only Murders in the Building is available to stream on Hulu in the U.S. New episodes premiere every Tuesday.

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