‘The Residence’ Ending Explained: Who Is the Killer?

Note: This story contains spoilers for “The Residence” Episode 8.

“The Residence” followed as ace detective Cordelia Cupp (Uzo Aduba) put together the seemingly endless thread of clues for the murder of White House chief usher A.B. Wynter (Giancarlo Esposito).

Episode 1 saw as Cordelia ruled out the death being a suicide, after quickly realizing that A.B.’s wrists had been cut, but there was no knife. She also deduced that he had been moved into the Game Room, where the body had been found. Through the six episodes, Cordelia and FBI agent Edwin Park (Randall Park) worked together to interview the many staffers and guests at the White House to find the killer — as a Senate Committee assembled months after the death also looked into the facts of the controversial case.

By Episode 8, Cordelia met with the Senate Committee for the first time to tell her side of the story, and how she recruited the prime suspects on the case to help her find the person responsible for the murder. In the end, the answer was hiding in plain sight — but it’s far more complicated than you’d expect.

Who killed A.B. Wynter and why?

After piecing together many of the clues behind the case — and enlisting the staffers, the President and the first family to walk through the White House with her one last time — Cordelia uncovered that Lilly Schumacher (Molly Griggs), the President’s social secretary, killed A.B.

Through interviews with Lilly and other staffers, Cordelia learned that Lilly and A.B. had an adversarial relationship. He loved everything about the traditions and protocol of running the White House, while Lily wanted to reinvent the wheel and often failed in her efforts. The night of the state dinner, Lilly and A.B. had a massive fallout stemming from her failing to secure a performer for the event, forcing A.B. to enlist Kylie Minogue to take the stage — among other mistakes.

We learn that A.B. and Lilly had a closed-door argument in his office, where he revealed he was keeping a log of all of her sketchy activities as social chair, including cheating vendors, making false promises and stealing money. He intended to bring the evidence to the President (Paul Fitzgerald) and First Gentleman (Barrett Foa) so they’d fire her. In the middle of the argument, she tore half a page of one of the journals and took it with her.

Out of context, the page read like a suicide note, which gave her the opportunity to kill him and then make it look like a suicide. Things just got twister from there.

How and where was he killed?

As established in prior episodes, A.B. had arguments with maid Elsyie (Julieth Restrepo) and engineer Bruce Geller (Mel Rodriguez) the night of the murder. We also learn that Bruce had feelings for Elsyie.

A.B. and Elsyie’s argument happened in the yellow oval room — which Cordelia eventually deduced was the actual place where the murder took place. Lilly had snuck away after deciding to kill A.B. to snag some plant fertilizer and use it to poison him, on her way back she overheard his Elsyie and came into the room to do the deed.

She offered him a drink laced with the poison. A.B. drank some of it, but stopped just in time to be affected but not to be killed. Lilly then threw a vase at him to finish the job, but missed and it hit a wall. She ended up killing him by hitting him in the head with a massive clock — which then hid in a storage compartment in a hidden passageway in the room (which she later ordered sealed after impersonating the First Gentleman).

In the chaos, she left the body behind in the yellow oval room and stuffed the “suicide note” in his pocket. Unbeknownst to her, Bruce walked in and thought it was Elsyie who killed A.B. So he moved the body to try to take the scent of his beloved colleague. Later that night, after the investigation had begun and Cordelia was on the case, Lilly connected the dots of what happened and almost got away with framing Bruce and Elsyie for the murder.

How did A.B. end up in the game room?

Bruce dragged A.B.’s body from the yellow oval room upstairs to an empty guest room — which had been staged as undergoing renovation on the orders of the President so they wouldn’t have to host Harry Hollinger’s (Ken Marino) annoying sister for the night.

But the President’s brother Tripp (Jason Lee) was in there passed out from partying too hard alone, after his invitation to the state dinner had been rescinded. When he woke up in the room and saw A.B.’s body, he freaked out. As quietly as possible, he dragged the body to the game room and covered the tracks in the room. Then he found keys in the room, which he thought were A.B.’s but were actually Bruce’s, and ran back to put them with the body. Then he found the note and thought he’d found the perfect alibi, so he went into pastry chef Didier’s (Bronson Pinchot) office, grabbed one of his knives and used it to slit A.B.’s wrists before walking away.

Didier then stumbled upon the body and noticed his knife, so he took it, cleaned it and put it back where it was so he wouldn’t be involved in the scandal.

That set the murder scene that Nan Cox (Jane Curtin) stumbled unto while waiting for butler Sheila (Edwina Findley) to arrive with the vodka she ordered, setting off the investigation.

Is this the end for Cordelia Cupp?

After solving the case, Cordelia gets ready to head out of the U.S. on her latest birding expedition. On the way to the airport, Edwin gives her a gift, which he asks her not to open until she’s on the plane.

She asks for them to make a pit stop at the White House. She learns that the first couple is moving back in after the murder was ressolved, and she goes to see Nan — the first person she spoke to for the case. Nan tells her that she always knew the killer was “the snotty girl with the attitude,” so she should’ve just asked her in the first place. The show ends as she takes one last look at the game room.

While the show has not been renewed for Season 2, Series creator Paul William Davies told TheWrap he’s thought about ways for Cordelia to return for another case should Netflix give the green light.

“I think there’s lots of stories to tell with [Cordelia], and I definitely have a lot of ideas,” he said.

“The Residence” is now streaming on Netflix.

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