Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I'm welcome to stuff I Never told you, a production
of iHeartRadio, and welcome to another edition of Fictional Women
Around the World.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Our sub sub sub sub segment.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
This one will have a light spoilers for the show
Only Murders in the Building.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Oh yes, which.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I just watched the most recent episode, as We Come Out,
which was episode nine of season four. Things are happening,
but I'm not going to go too much into it,
but there will be spoilers. So today we are talking
about Mabel Mora. Mabel Mora is a character on the
show Only Murders in the Building, played by Selena Gomez.
(00:56):
She stars opposite Steve Martin and Martin Short in a podcast.
The show is about them making a podcast, and you
were actually the one who introduced it to me. Yeah,
because I was like looking for shows about.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Podcasts and this is one. It's quite funny. This is one.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yes, it is essentially the three live in this building
in New York called the Arconia and they bond over
their love of true crime podcast. It's especially a show
that is very much making fun of cereal.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
This love and a Murder in the Building.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Eventually leads them to starting their own podcast called Only
Murders in the Building. Through the podcast, they get to
the bottom of a death from Maple's past and uncover
other murderous activity. Enough for five seasons, because we're on
season four, but they have already announced the fifth season,
which I'm very confident is going to be a continuation
(01:53):
of this current season.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Oh really, I haven't watched it recently, so I don't
know exactly what's going on, but at this point, and
I'm like, y'all just need.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
To like, y'all are have some bad luck.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
I would not be your friend or acquaintance and I
would not live there.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Well, no spoilers, but yes, but it is interesting because
even though there's four seasons, it's actually the amount of
time that passed isn't that much.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
So this is happening pretty quick.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Like maybe you can say, like, oh, okay, well, surely
there won't be another murder.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
But alas but alas al.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
And yes, they were definitely poking fun at Cereal, the
NPR podcast that really kickstarted a lot of the podcast
growth that we've seen, which is hosted by Cindy Canning
played by Tina Fay, who does appear in multiple seasons,
even going so far as to offer Mabel a job.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
So okay. Mabel is usually.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Described as a millennial who doesn't know what she wants.
She lost her father as a child. They used to
do puzzles together before he died of cancer while she
was young. After he died, she watched Girl Cop to Cope,
which is the show that starred Ben Gilenroy slash Paul Rudd.
When she was growing up, she would spend her summers
(03:24):
with her rich aunt in the Arconia, and through this
she met a group of friends, and they went on
to call themselves the Hardy Boys. One of the group
was Timkono, the murder at the center of the first season.
Another's Another of the group's father was the superintendent in
the building, and his son made a copy of his
(03:45):
key so they could get into any apartment in the building.
Their group was broken apart after one of them fell
off the roof and died. One of them went to
jail for it, and one of them, Timkono, claimed he
saw what really happened, but wouldn't say what it was.
After a decade, Mabel's aunt asked her to come renovate
her apartment and live there while she was doing it.
(04:07):
Mabel is an artist and embarked on this journey to
paint a mural of the Arconia and all the residents.
This is where she met her podcast buds. At first,
she hit her relationship with Tim and the Hardy Boys
from them, but they eventually found her out and they
had a heated conversation about it and agreed not to
(04:28):
lie to each other anymore.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Eventually they solved the case, or did they? Did they?
Speaker 2 (04:36):
While celebrating their triumph, Mabel finds Bunny, apartment board president,
stabbed in her apartment. She also stabs her with knitting
needles because she believes she's being attacked and is framed,
earning the nickname Bloody Mabel. The second season revolves around
them trying to solve Bunny's murder and exonerate themselves. Through this,
(04:56):
she meets and briefly dates artists Alice played by Care DeLavigne.
The trio has some arguments Charles is dating the person
who killed Tim. Still, Mabel cut off a witness's finger
when she was younger and didn't tell them about that.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
They seemingly get to the bottom of this murder as well.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Mabel then goes to see Oliver's play Death Razzle Dazzle.
At first it's Death Rattle and then it's Death Razzle Dazzle,
which stars Ben glen Roy, who she's a fan of
of from that show, and he dies opening night or
did he? Mabel felt left out of the trio since
(05:38):
she was the only one that wasn't in the play,
and she was annoyed that they were ignoring the podcast
and Ben's death because they believed it would interfere with
the play. They didn't really care about Ben and she did.
This culminated and then breaking apart from each other and
Mabel doing the podcast without them. She did bring in
her new boyfriend, Talbert, who I have talked about before.
(06:03):
She moved out of her aunt's apartment after it was
done being renovated and it was sold, and in with
one of the hardy boys, THEO. The crew eventually came
together to solve this murder.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Or did they?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Then, of course, another murder happened. It was someone close
to the trio and involved with a movie getting made
about their podcast. Mabel negotiated her life rights and started
to get used to the title of podcast producer. Her
character is played by Eva Longoria, who plays her as
a much more assured person Amabel. This influenced Mabel's own
(06:42):
decisions and she started like being more aggressive. I guess
based on Eva Longoria. She started squatting the apartment where
the murderer may have lived and without spoiling at this
about brings us to where we are, so themes when
(07:13):
I think about this character, She's the one that actually
seems to really care about not only the podcast but
the people involved.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
It's always sort.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Of like Steve Martin and Martin Short doing their thing
and her being like the adult in the room and saying,
you know, someone has died. We need to figure this out.
That dynamic has slightly changed in the recent season because
it was somebody actually close to them that died, so
it's a little bit different. But she's always been the
one that is like driving this podcast, is trying to
(07:45):
get to the bottom of it. She's definitely the best
interviewer because the other two are extremely awkward. She's very
adaptive in the interview style too, like in the second
season she boxed with somebody she was interview She's just
as good at finding the way or the place that
(08:05):
will get them in a place where they'll open up
to her, which is interesting because she is a lone wolf.
She said in this season to Eva Longoria, because all
the actors are like following the characters are supposed to play,
and she says to Evil Longoria, do you want to
know about Mabel?
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Mabel works alone. So she's got that kind of very
lone wolf y.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
But she's also a very empathetic person. As I said,
she's very uncomfortable with attention. She had a kind of
panic moment when she had to act in a recent episode.
She also was learning asl so she could better communicate
(08:53):
with THEO, who's one of the hardy boys. She is
a millennial. They make jokes about that a lot. I
do appreciate she isn't in touch with the us. She
they often describe her as like an old soul. So
it's funny when she she knows how to work technology,
but she's not in touch with like the lingo or
(09:16):
anything like that. And so it's funny when she gets
thrown situations where everyone expects her to to know what
to say and she does not. This season, it has
been a good arc seeing her kind of coming in
her own of being like, oh, I'm a podcast producer
(09:37):
and trying to go after that and secure the money
through contracts that she wants and just telling people that,
getting the confidence to tell people that. Also, there's a
lot to say about her not having a love interest
in this current season. She's had on every season but
(09:59):
this one, and they're almost always like it just didn't
quite work. It wasn't like bad, it just kind of
felt shoehorned end almost, And it is pretty rare. I
read an article about it. It's pretty rare for mainstream
comedies that a character like her would not have a
love interest. And there's also the contrast with Martin Schwortz
(10:20):
character having a love interest just so like an older
couple getting together versus Mabel who just doesn't seem that
interested in it.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
So wait in the show, is Merle Streep and Martin
short together because I haven't seen this yet.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Spoilers, Yeah, yeah, that translated into real life keep going maybe.
And Mabel's she's having a real moment of introspection about
what she wants and it's been fun to kind of
see comedically through Eva Longoria or who have you her
(11:03):
coming to that realization. Also she's by I kind of forgot,
but yeah, she's by rare in TV. Also, she is
certainly the adult. Another joke they make a lot in
the show, and it was it is one of my
things that I still get hung up on sometimes is
(11:24):
like she's so young and they're so old, and like
it's a running joke and it is funny. But also
so many the other women have been younger, like way younger,
so sometimes I do like think about that. But she
is the one that's like giving relationship advice to Martin
Short who got a little paranoid on the Instagram as
(11:49):
she had talk him down. She is definitely the one
with a tech tech as I said, She's also got
like great fashion. They make fun of her for it,
but she's got some solid sweaters. And I was reading
about like the color palette they chose for her and
why they did, and it was really interesting. But it
(12:12):
has been really fun to see the progression of her
character and to get to see Selena Gomez get to
do a bit more with her because she's kind of
like dead pan most of the time, but she's definitely
gotten more space to do stuff this season for sure,
(12:32):
So that's been cool. And I am very excited to
see what happens in the finale next week and in
the next season because I have come this close. I
have a theory, and I have come this close to
posting it on Reddit, and that says something because I
don't like Reddit.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Wow, you're really invested.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
I didn't think you would be that invested.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
I like guessing mysteries, and I just feel like I've
got an idea that I haven't seen anyone else say.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
It's probably going to be not that at all.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
That's the fun part, but we'll see.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Well, you know what I think about the age difference
with them, because they do it in such a wholesome way,
as well as the fact that in real life they're
really like like friends in life and the way you
see them on the show, they really are in actuality,
and I find that really endearing, especially when we talk
(13:33):
about Hollywood and shows like that that doesn't give uh,
not just like that, just whole shows in general that
doesn't give much leeway and personality to older actors now
unless they're really legendary, and they are legendary. I know this,
I know this, but like giving them like romantic plot
lines and storylines is so unique that instead of just
being like, oh, they're all elderly and sad and curmudgeon. Like,
(13:57):
don't get me wrong, wrong, I love a good curmudgeon,
but I really like this aspect. I say this as
a person who hasn't watched the last two seasons, but
I did enjoy that.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Well, and the episode that came out today, I was
thinking about it too, in terms of there's a really
moving scene between Steve Martin and Martin Short where they
were talking about essentially like talking about their friendship and
how Steve Martin felt like, oh, now you're getting married
and I thought I thought we were going to like
(14:27):
grow old together and I thought we were gonna but
now I'm gonna be the weird third Will. And I
was just like, you know, you don't really see that
much either, So I do appreciate. I appreciate that a lot.
But it is pretty funny. The reason slenyk has was like, wait,
why Eva Longoria, why did they cast you? She's like,
(14:50):
you're wondering why I'm so much older. It's because everyone
thought it was creepy.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
It I wondered about.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
I was like Eva Longoria like, yeah, said well at
least a decade older than her. That's interesting, well gorgeous
Allegedly the creators.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
I think they've said they read the reddit.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Oh, or is that why you want to post on Reddit?
Speaker 1 (15:19):
That is not it at all.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
I'd be horrified because I'm almost It's some of those
things where I'm like, this would be so cool if
I was right, but I'm almost certainly not right.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
But it is a theory I haven't seen, and it
would be cool.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
But let's just say, for everyone who's listening, they're definitely
bringing back an idea I think from the second season.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
It's all gonna come together in the fit.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Yes, yes, but we'll see and listeners, if you have
any theories you would send, then send them. So I'm
the one that usually sees the listener mail for so
Samantha won't be safe.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
I won't be spoiled.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
You won't be spoiled those Send those our way. And
if you have any thoughts about this character, please let
us know. You can email us at Stephanie mom Stuff
at heeartmedia dot com. You can find us on Twitter
at mom Stuff podcast, on Instagram and TikTok at stuff.
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(16:24):
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