Only Murders In The Building season 5 ending explained: Who killed Lester? Plus huge cliffhanger sets up season 6

*Warning - Major spoilers for Only Murders In The Building season 5 ahead!*

Answers have been finally revealed for the fifth season of Only Murder In The Building. After ten episodes, viewers have finally found out all of the secrets that were at play following the mysterious deaths of the Arconia’s resident doorman Lester Coluca (Teddy Coluca) and businessman Nicky Caccimelio (Bobby Cannavale).

Here are all the biggest revelations from the season five finale of Only Murders In The Building.

Who killed Lester?

In the finale episode of OMITB, we picked up where episode nine left off, when the trio realised that the missing finger that has been at the centre of the investigation since the start belongs to Sofia’s secret lover, who in turn was Lester’s killer.

This leads Mabel, Oliver and Charles back to billionaire trio of Bash Steed (Christoph Waltz), Camilla White (Renée Zellweger) and Jay Pflug (Logan Lerman). However, after confronting them at the gaming parlour and deducing that none of them were the owner of the missing finger, they make a sudden realisation.

This is when Mabel deduces that Sofia’s lover, and Lester’s killer, was in fact Mayor Beau Tillman (Keegan-Michael Key).

A flashback showed us that Nicky had confronted Mayor Tillman after learning about his wife’s affair, chopping off his finger. Lester killed Nicky amid the scuffle, saying that he had to do what he did to save his beloved Arconia. Mayor Tillman then killed Lester, who was attempting to flee the scene, in order to protect plans for the casino on the site of the Arconia.

Lester attempted to let the trio know who killed him via message, but this came out as a jumbled, autocorrected message that made no sense to the group at first.

Mayor Tillman admitted to killing Lester, but locked up Mabel, Charles, and Oliver with the help of corrupt policemen ahead of the press conference announcing Camilla’s casino. It was also revealed previously that the Arconia would be bulldozed to make way for the casino.

Althea and Howard help to free the trio during the press conference, where Mayor Tillman’s crimes are uncovered in front of the waiting press. Jay also confesses that he, Camilla, and Bash all colluded with the Mayor to cover up Nicky’s murder. All of them are arrested, which means that the Arconia is saved from its fate of becoming a casino.

What happened in the Only Murders In the Building season 5 cliffhanger?

In the final few minutes of the season, viewers are transported three months into the future. Lorraine, Lester’s wife, (Dianne Wiest) finally realises her dream of owning an apartment in the Arconia with the money she inherited with the help of Sofia, who has also moved to Positano.

Elsewhere, the trio are listening to the latest true crime podcast from Cinda Canning (Tina Fey), which is set in the UK. The story of the podcast centres on a red-haired woman in London who Cinda believes has been wrongfully accused of killing a royal descendant. We see a red-haired woman pushing her way through the streets of New York towards the Arconia, as Cinda’s narration explains that she had instructed her to go to the United States for help.

In a huge shock to viewers, the red-haired woman collapses and dies outside the Arconia, with her identity being revealed as... Cinda herself!

This massive cliffhanger sets a possible season six up for its next storyline, centring on Cinda’s mysterious death and possibly setting up a trip across the Atlantic to London for Mabel, Oliver, and Charles.

Disney+ has not yet confirmed whether Only Murders In The Building has been renewed for a sixth series. However, considering how big of a success the show has been and the huige cliffhanger at the end of the season five finale, it’s unlikely that we’ve seen the last of our favourite true crime trio.