In episode 7 of Only Murders in the Building, Mabel Mora's selective memory is explored.
When Mabel was seven years old, her father, played by All My Children and Riverdale veteran Mark Consuelos, passed away, according to a sequence of flashbacks. "They refused to inform me of the actual situation. They wanted to keep me safe, Mabel claims. "They claimed he needed to relocate for work. He died six months later of gastric cancer.
For years Mabel knew something wasn't right but she just played along. Surrounding her father's disappearance is when Mabel started to suffer from memory loss. When anything was too unpleasant or overwhelming she flipped the memories so she wouldn't have to remember them. However, now is the time to get her memories back if she is going to remember what happened on the night of Bunny’s murder.
A sense of how far back Mabel's pain goes may be seen in the scenes between little Mabel (Caroline Valencia) and her father (Mark Consuelos). Consuelos and Valencia share numerous touching scenes, particularly the one that takes place in the hospital. They expressed so much love, compassion, and suffering without using words.
After flipping her memories back, Mabel can now clearly recall what occurred the night Bunny passed away: She took off her coat and saw the attacker enter her closet. However, Bunny came up to her, smeared in blood, before she could grab her knitting needle (or even notice it was missing) and go after the intruder.
Mabel has experienced a great deal of trauma at such a young age. The most terrible parts of Mabel's story hit hard because Gomez keeps his composure and doesn't overact. There is true anguish present when Mabel breaks as Bunny passes away in her arms, and we cry with her.
Mabel believes she is a crazy psychopath who goes into coma states and stabs people before she flips the metaphorical puzzle pieces in her mind. Theo, who was on the same train as Mabel the night she stabbed Glitter Guy, however, affirms that Mabel did it in self-defence. The accusing matchbook was in her purse, which he managed to escape with, but he left a Coney Island security badge on the subway platform.
Naturally, Mabel and Theo seek information on Coney Island. Glitter Guy is present, but Mabel is able to get away from her assailant and snag his backpack as she leaves. She discovers her purse inside, but not the matchbook.
Theo appeared prominently in Only Murders In The Building Season 1 Episode 7, thus it was a good parallel to have him return in "Flipping the Pieces," the seventh episode of this season. It is troubling that Mabel has put her trust in him so quickly, but she must have connected with his desperation in some way. He agreed that he was a touch scary, but he was decent enough to take her home and care for her.
You almost fail to notice that James Caverly is portraying a tomb robber/quasi-murderer because of how tenderly he acts. Theo and Mabel, who shared a love for Zoe, eventually talked to one another about how her passing affected them.
The DNA narrative surrounding Oliver and Will seems to be being laboriously developed by the writers. It doesn't seem like it would be worth the emotional investment. There is a lot of affection between Oliver and Will, and it doesn't seem like the DNA results would alter that.
Additionally, Mabel unearths a current image of Charles and Lucy together, which makes us fear that Lucy is in great danger. Charles calls Lucy right away, but the line drops just as he's going to tell her to leave his flat. An all-city outage has just started.
This was a close-knit episode, with no scene containing more than three characters (four if you count infant Keith). This programme, as usual, performs best when it gives its characters room to breathe and reveals their full, tangled complexity. It'll be interesting to see what is going to happen after the blackout. An emotional episode that gave a deeper understanding to how complex Mabel is as a character.
Performance | 4.7/5 |
Enjoyment | 4.6/5 |
Overall Rating | 4.6/5 |