A New Lease on Death

Maddy Saint Marie (Awkwafina) lives with her grandmother Anne (Lauren Tom) in Brooklyn. Anne meets and begins dating a younger woman named Kate Forster (Alia Shawkat), and two weeks later Kate moves in with them.

Maddy asks her friend Ricardo to investigate Kate and discovers she is Amelia Peek, a felon with three arrest warrants in Minnesota. Realizing that "Kate" is only dating Anne to take advantage of their rent-controlled apartment, Maddy warns her to leave, or she will report her to the authorities. Amelia asks for one last day with Anne to say goodbye, which Maddy accepts. Instead, Amelia orchestrates an accident in the laundry room, setting up a bottle of bleach to fall into a puddle of descaler while Maddy is locked in the room, which kills her with the resulting chlorine gas.

A few weeks earlier, Charlie moves into Good Buddy (Steve Buscemi)'s apartment in the same building. She avoids superintendent Otto (David Alan Grier), who does not allow subletters. While picking up groceries, she runs into "Kate", identifying her as a liar trying to scam refunds from the store owner, Abdul. She meets Maddy when a defective lock traps her in the laundry room, then befriends both her and Anne.

After learning of Maddy's death, Charlie comes to visit a devastated Anne and is surprised to see "Kate" in the apartment, claiming that she and Anne will soon be engaged. When Charlie investigates the laundry room, Otto tells her that he repaired the door prior to Maddy's death and that the current lock on the door is not the one he installed. Charlie asks Abdul who bought the new lock, and he tells her it was the woman who asks for refunds on food.

Amelia threatens Ricardo into staying silent and pulls the fire alarm to prevent Charlie from questioning him. When she learns that Anne wants to move out of the building, due to the painful reminders of Maddy, a desperate Amelia decides she must marry Anne immediately to get control of the apartment. When Amelia returns with the marriage paperwork, she finds Charlie talking with Anne. While Anne is out of the room, Amelia pushes Charlie out a window. However, Charlie lands safely on an air cushion that she asked a firefighter to set up for her. Anne and her lawyer have recorded the whole incident, leading to Amelia's arrest. As Anne packs her belongings, she gives Charlie a poetry book to thank her for her help.

The series was announced in March 2021, with Rian Johnson serving as creator, writer, director and executive producer. Johnson stated that the series would delve into "the type of fun, character driven, case-of-the-week mystery goodness I grew up watching."^[2] The episode was written by executive story editor Tea Ho and producer Wyatt Cain, and directed by Adamma Ebo. This was Ho's first writing credit, Cain's third writing credit, and Ebo's first directing credit for the show.^[3]

Awkwafina, Alia Shawkat, and Lauren Tom guest star in the episode.

The announcement of the series included that Natasha Lyonne would serve as the main lead actress.^[2] She was approached by Johnson about working on a procedural project together, with Lyonne as the lead character.^[4] As Johnson explained, the role was "completely cut to measure for her."^[5]

Due to the series' procedural aspects, the episodes feature several guest stars. Johnson was inspired by the amount of actors who guest starred on Columbo, wanting to deem each guest star as the star of the episode, which allowed them to attract many actors.^[5] The episode featured guest appearances by Awkwafina, Patti Harrison and Alia Shawkat, who were announced to guest star in November 2024 and February 2025.^[6][7][8] Lauren Tom also guest stars, having been introduced to the series through executive producer Adam Arkin. When she was offered the role of Anne, she accepted it, saying "I just thought, 'Oh my gosh, I'm gonna have so much fun working with my friends!’ Also, meeting Awkwafina because I had never worked with her before, so I was super jazzed. And, I got to do my first lesbian sex scene!"^[9]