Only Murders Hid A Tiny Clue About Ben's Real Identity & You Prob Missed It

Spoiler alert: This post contains spoilers from Only Murders in the Building Season 3, Episode 8.

One big secret finally came to light on Only Murders in the Building, but a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it detail seems to be suggesting a surprising new twist to Ben’s real identity. In Season 3’s eighth episode, Loretta confirmed a theory that many fans had already put together: she is actually Dickie’s mom. Or is she? Although the reveal was definitely a satisfying twist, a close examination of Loretta’ bus ticket as shown in the closing credits could flip the script yet again. Loretta might not be Dickie’s mom, but Ben’s. Here’s why fans think the two brothers pulled an identity swap.

The new theory is that Ben Glenroy, the actor who was murdered, was actually the older Glenroy brother Dickie, and the person we know as Dickie has secretly been the real Ben all along. This all sprouted from a suspicious date on the bus ticket that Loretta used when she first moved to New York to pursue her acting career. Both Loretta and Dickie confirmed that Ben’s parents adopted her son before they had Ben. However, there’s an issue with this timeline, because Loretta said she gave her baby up for adoption right before she left for New York. Her bus ticket reveals she left for NYC in 1976.

But at Ben’s funeral, his birth year was listed as 1973.

This doesn’t add up with Loretta’s story, as fans were quick to point out online. And the misaligned dates sparked a new theory that Ben may have actually been Loretta’s son. There are a few different guesses at how this may have happened, mainly revolving around the two brothers swapping identities at some point early in their lives. This was already alluded to when Dickie confessed to Mabel that he was fed up with Ben always getting all the credit for his work — this adds a new layer to the idea that he may have given his brother his identity and been relegated to the background.

If this theory is true, then one of the season’s climactic reveals could be that Dickie was actually born Ben Glenroy all along, and the person everyone thought was Ben was actually his older brother Dickie, whom Loretta gave up for adoption. It’s still not totally clear how this possible switcheroo may fit into the murder plot, but it’s definitely going to change up some prominent fan theories about who murdered Ben/Dickie.