The last few days have seen some major details about Only Murders in the Building Season 4 emerge. The latest update on this front for should please Hulu subscribers who enjoyed watching Meryl Streep play Loretta Durkin in Season 3. It’s been confirmed that Streep will reprise her role in the next season of Only Murders, and now I’m eager to learn how she’ll factor into the latest mystery that one of the best Hulu TV shows is delivering.
This news was shared with outlets like THR, which clarified that Streep will continue recurring on Only Murders in the Building rather than being added to Season 4’s main cast. As such, she’s the second recurring actor to be added for this new season following Saturday Night Live vet Molly Shannon, who’s playing ““play a high-powered LA businesswoman who finds herself drawn into the world of the investigation in NY.” In Streep’s case, though, presumably she’ll continue being billed as a Special Guest Star, just like in Season 3.
Loretta Durkin was introduced in Season 3 as a struggling actress who finally caught her big break after decades when she was cast in Oliver Putnam’s murder mystery Broadway production Death Rattle. Loretta soon entered into a romantic relationship with Martin Short’s character, and while she was briefly considered to be a suspect and even confessed to killing Paul Rudd’s Ben Glenroy when she thought she thought her biological son/Ben’s brother, Jeremy Shamos’ Dickie Glenroy, did the deed, it was ultimately Wesley Taylor’s Cliff DeMeo who was exposed as the murderer.
When we left off with Loretta at the end of Only Murders in the Building Season 3, she told Oliver she and Dickie were moving to Los Angeles after she received several job offers, including for a Grey’s Anatomy spinoff. Since it was revealed earlier in the week that the beginning of Only Murders Season 4 will see Oliver, Charles and Mabel traveling to Los Angeles, that alone provides enough justification for Meryl Street to come back. If Loretta and Oliver are in a long-distance relationship, then obviously Oliver’s going to stop in to see his girlfriend.
That being said, Only Murders in the Building Season 4 won’t be permanently set in LA; eventually our starring trio will return to the Arconia. So then how does Loretta fit into the picture? Will she come back to New York with Oliver? If not, and knowing she’s expected to appear in multiple episodes, will we simply check back in with her in LA whenever Oliver calls her from across the country? More importantly though, will Loretta be in any way be involved with the investigation into who killed Jane Lynch’s Sazz, or will she only be around for whatever personal arc Oliver is going through?
Since Only Murders in the Building Season 4 doesn’t have a premiere date yet, it’s hard to say when these questions will be answered. Still, I’m glad to learn that Meryl Streep will be back, and fingers crossed more familiar characters will be unveiled for the coming season in the weeks ahead.
