Boobs on Your Tube: Mabel’s Not Tolerating Heteronormativity at Her Fake Wedding on “Only Murders in the Building”

Another week, another spectacular gaggle of posts from our TV Team! Drew’s wrote about how Sex Education showed us a better way. And she also wrote about how: We need more queer sex scenes on-screen! The heterosexuality of The Bachelor is a real tragedy. The Morning Show brought the lesbian ex drama this week. Perhaps you would like to prove you know your bicons with this bisexual TV character quiz? You’ve gotta watch this trailer for Kristen Stewart’s new gay ghost hunting show. Carmen wrote about Queen Latifah and Living Single’s same-sex wedding episode. And Drew shared some thought about the quietly subversive trans cinema of Something You Said Last Night.

Notes from the TV Team:

+ Reservation Dogs ended its run this week and joins the pantheon of all-time great shows in my book. The entire cast is brilliant but being exposed to new-to-me talent like Paulina Alexis, Elva Guerra, and Lily Gladstone, getting to see more of Jana Schmieding’s masterful comedic timing, and watching Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs’ talents continue to ascend…it’s felt like a revelation.

As a critic, I’ll continue to grapple what it means to have a show that feels inherently queer, while not being canonically so, and a show where I felt like I’ve never been represented more, while also not being represented at all. It’s an incredible show and I can’t recommend it more highly. — Natalie

+ Wendie Malick (who you probably know best as the voice of Eda Clawthorne from The Owl House) voices a very horny gay betazoid in this week’s episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks, “Empathalogical Fallacies.” It’s also, by far, the best Vulcan episode of the series. — Heather


Only Murders in the Building Episode 309: “Thirty”

Written by Valerie Anne

Mabel bursts into the courtroom with a wedding dress on

I’m glad the writers didn’t forget Mabel is bisexual.

After a very strange dream, Mabel wakes up by Oliver’s hospital bed. It is five days after his heart attack, and he’s being released. When they get back to the Arconia, Oliver is delighted to learn that Mabel and Charles have saved all the interview footage to watch together. They need to clear Loretta’s name by solving Ben’s murder once and for all.

Their first stop is Dickie’s, and they go in so sure they’re going to catch Dickie in a lie and prove he murdered Ben, but while Dickie did have motive and opportunity, he has an alibi for where he was that night.

Dickie’s confession leads them to a costume shop, where they meet Ben’s sewing circle, who helped him make the hankies he gave out. They play him an anguished voicemail, so the trio goes back to watch the interrogations and create a timeline of Ben’s last night.

Eventually they work out that the person Ben was talking to in the video Tobert found on his camera wasn’t a person at all: it was a cookie. And it was Ben himself who wrote “fucking pig” on his mirror. They also learn that the paper that had been shredded was the original review, which accused Ben of the show’s weak link, and that it was Producer Donna who likely saw the review, shredded it, and poisoned Ben’s cookie.

As they learn all this, they also learn that it’s Mabel’s 30th birthday. They ask her how she wants to spend it and this is how. So she dresses up in a wedding dress and they con their way into the courthouse for Loretta’s trial. (There’s a funny exchange with a guard where Charles tells her they’re the Father(s) of the Bride, and where Mabel scolds the guard for assuming it’s a groom waiting for her.)

They get into the courtroom and Oliver tries to tell Loretta that Dickie didn’t do it, but when she asks who did, the trio realizes that Donna is in the courthouse, too.

Before you go! Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our AF+ Members. If this article meant something to you today — if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen, will you consider joining AF and supporting the people who make this queer media site possible?

Join AF+!

Valerie Anne

Just a TV-loving, Twitter-addicted nerd who loves reading, watching, and writing about stories. One part Kara Danvers, two parts Waverly Earp, a dash of Cosima and an extra helping of my own brand of weirdo.

Valerie has written 606 articles for us.

Contribute to the conversation...

Yay! You've decided to leave a comment. That's fantastic. Please keep in mind that comments are moderated by the guidelines laid out in our comment policy. Let's have a personal and meaningful conversation and thanks for stopping by!