The Season 1 finale of Netflix’s newest series, The Residence, features more twists and turns than the birds the eccentric main character, Detective Cordelia Cupp (Uzo Aduba), is obsessed with.
Executive produced by Shonda Rhimes, the series takes viewers into the White House for a Clue-like investigation to solve a murder that occurs during a chaotic state dinner aimed at smoothing over relations with Australia.
In the first episode of this eight-episode series, Cupp is called in after A.B. Wynter (Giancarlo Esposito), the chief White House usher, is found dead. While the president’s pushy yet misguided best friend, Harry Hollinger (Ken Marino), is eager to dismiss it as a suicide based on a questionable note found with Wynter’s body, Cupp remains unconvinced, leading to a wild chase for answers.
Who are the primary suspects in ‘The Residence’?
As the interrogations begin, Cupp insists that President Perry Morgan (Paul Fitzgerald) and First Gentleman Elliot Morgan (Barrett Foa) secure the house, declaring that everyone, including Australian pop star Kylie Minogue, is a suspect.
Cupp’s level-headed partner, FBI agent Edwin Park (Randall Park), does his best to keep her focused as she interrogates every staff member and guest who has turned into a suspect. The list includes the volatile executive chef Marvella (Mary Wiseman), the knife-wielding Swiss-German pastry chef Didier Gotthard (Bronson Pinchot), the vodka-swigging butler Sheila Cannon (Edwina Findley), the president’s feng shui-obsessed social secretary Lilly Schumacher (Molly Griggs), the president’s loser brother Tripp Morgan (Jason Lee), the lovable maid Elsyie Chayle (Julieth Restrepo), White House engineer Bruce Geller (Mel Rodriguez), “third man” Patrick Doumbe (Timothy Hornor), and Jasmine Haney (Susan Kelechi Watson), the White House assistant usher who later becomes A.B.’s replacement.
The first seven episodes alternate between a congressional meeting and flashbacks of each suspect’s whereabouts leading up to the incident, all aimed at helping to clear their names.
What happened in the Yellow Room?
The final episode, “The Mystery of the Yellow Room,” begins with Cupp taking some much-needed time for bird-watching before returning to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to solve the case. She and her partner gather the likely suspects in the Yellow Room to review the events of A.B. Wynter’s last night and finally identify who was responsible for his murder.
Cupp starts her investigation with Bruce, the engineer who moved the body, believing that his secret love, Elsyie, had killed A.B. because he discovered she had lied on her résumé. Before A.B.’s body could go cold, it was moved again when Tripp woke up from a drunken night next to A.B.’s lifeless body and relocated him to another room. In the process, Tripp found a suicide note and, using Didier’s knife, slashed A.B.’s wrist to ensure no one would suspect him.
Despite the seemingly damning scenarios, Cupp remained unconvinced that any of the suspects were responsible for A.B.’s death. After a dramatic unearthing of the missing murder weapon — a large, ornate clock that had been hidden behind a replastered wall — the actual murderer was finally revealed.
After putting on a teary-eyed performance detailing the fight that social secretary Lilly had with A.B. earlier that night and how his alleged suicide note was an apology letter she wrote to give to him, Lilly attempted to blame Eylsie and Bruce for A.B.’s demise, but Cupp wasn’t buying it.
So, who killed A.B. Wynter on ‘The Residence’?
With tears still in her eyes, Lilly listens to Cupp reveal her as A.B.’s murderer.
After her fight with A.B., Lilly had attempted to make amends with him with a drink, making sure to spike his with paraquat, a toxic herbicide. Once A.B. took a sip of the drink and realized it might be poisoned, he poured it into a nearby vase of yellow roses. Filled with rage that her plan didn’t work, Lilly bashed him over the head with a large clock to finish the job.
She left A.B. lying on the floor of the Yellow Room, stashed the murder weapon and secretly slipped back into the State Dinner through a hidden passage as if nothing had happened. This is when the multiple moves of A.B.’s body began.
Cupp revealed Lilly’s motives for doing away with A.B. as well.
She wanted to prevent him from exposing her unethical activities, including embezzlement and trading favors, and she harbored a deep-seated hatred for the White House and its values, which A.B. embodied and upheld. She felt the White House was a “museum” that needed to be renovated (even if that meant stealing money), and A.B. was just a roadblock in her way.
