‘Wake Up Dead Man’s twisty ending, explained

Million-dollar diamonds, priests with neck tattoos, full-on resurrection… These are all elements of the narrative puzzle Rian Johnson pieces together in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.

The latest Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) whodunnit transports audiences to the quiet town of Chimney Rock, where local church Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude has been rocked by a murder most foul, that of controversial Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin). Following a Good Friday mass, Wicks popped into a sealed room just off the altar, where he collapsed, stabbed by a dagger with a devil wolf head pommel.

The clearest suspect in this textbook locked-room mystery is Reverend Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor), a young priest who challenges Wicks’ prejudiced teachings. He’s also been caught on camera threatening to cut Wicks out of the church, so things don’t look great for him.

But of course, as in any Knives Out mystery, things are rarely as they seem. Although there was animosity between Wicks and Jud, it wasn’t Jud who killed him. Instead, the murder came from within Wicks’ own flock of religious followers. Was it lawyer Vera Draven (Kerry Washington) or her adopted son and incendiary political hopeful Cy (Daryl McCormack)? Wicks’ number-one devotee Martha Delacroix (Glenn Close) or sci-fi writer Lee Ross (Andrew Scott)? Doctor Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner) or cellist Simone Vivane (Cailee Spaeny)?

Let’s break down the killer’s twisted plot.

Who killed Jefferson Wicks in Wake Up Dead Man?

The ensemble of “Wake Up Dead Man” lays eyes on a murder.
Credit: John Wilson / Netflix

Not one, but two members of Wicks’ flock were behind his murder. It was Nat who dealt the killing blow, but it was Martha who set the whole plan in motion.

Before we get into Martha’s motive, let’s get into her and Nat’s methodology. It starts with the two devil wolf head lamp toppers from local bar Il Diavolo. Nat stole one, and Martha nabbed the other when Jud hurled it into the church in anger. She painted the heads red and sewed one into Wicks’ Good Friday vestments, which explains the red thread the police found by Wicks’ body. That head was also attached to a remote control device. When Wicks went into the side room to drink from his flask, Nat set off the device, which popped a squib of blood onto the robes. Martha and Nat also laced the flask with medical-grade tranquilizer, causing Wicks to fall unconscious.

That means Wicks wasn’t dead when Jud initially found him. His actual death came when Nat entered the room in order to investigate. Using Martha’s horrified reaction as a distraction, Nat stabbed Wicks with the devil wolf knife and got rid of the device. That’s how you pull off a locked-room murder in a church, folks!

Wait, why did Martha want to kill Wicks in the first place?

But hold on, why did Martha, Wicks’ ride-or-die disciple, want him dead? You think he’d be the last person she’d wish death on, right?

The answer is a tale 60 years in the making, and it all starts with Wicks’ mother Grace (Annie Hamilton), also known as “the harlot whore.” Grace remained under her father Reverend Prentice Wicks’ (James Faulkner) roof until his death, hoping to gain access to his hidden fortune — and a ticket out of her miserable existence in Chimney Rock. However, Prentice didn’t want Grace to succumb to the temptation of Eve’s apple, and so he passed away without telling her where he’d hidden it.

Turns out, Eve’s apple wasn’t just a metaphor for temptation. It was Prentice’s fortune: a literal diamond, worth millions, that Prentice swallowed as his final communion. He invited Martha to witness it, telling her that with the fortune gone, it would no longer be a corrupting force within his family.

Martha harbored this secret for 60 years, never once giving it up. (Although she certainly goaded a distraught Grace about it.) But when Jud questioned whether she or anyone in Wicks’ flock could actually confess their deepest sins at Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude, she decided to take him up on that challenge. She revealed the location of Eve’s Apple to the priest hearing her confession. The big problem? She thought she was talking to Jud, when in reality, she was talking to Wicks.

Knowing his grandfather’s fortune lay close at hand changed Wicks. He ordered a construction company to open his grandfather’s mausoleum so he could remove Eve’s Apple from his skeleton. After that, he planned to fly the coop and burn his flock in his wake, including busting Nat for treating patients while under the influence of alcohol. Following his grand exit, he would embrace the grander political aspirations of Cy, who is actually his son. For Martha, these were all signs of the corruption of temptation. Wicks’ covetous sin would bring the downfall of the church she’d worked to uphold for decades, and she couldn’t fail her duty to the church. Sure, she can excuse the bigoted rhetoric, but this is where she draws the line.

So how could Martha preserve both the church and Wicks’ image? By killing him, obviously. Oh, and then reviving him.

How did Martha “revive” Wicks?

Kerry Washington and Glenn Close in “Wake Up Dead Man.”
Credit: Netflix

In waking up dead man Wicks, Martha hoped to stage “a holy mystery, unsolvable and divine.” Of course, she couldn’t really resurrect Wicks. But she could enlist the help of a surprisingly accurate Wicks body double: her husband Samson (Thomas Haden Church).

A very alive Samson was entombed in the mausoleum, not Wicks’ corpse. When Nat sent him the signal, Samson burst out of the purposefully shoddy coffin he’d built himself, went digging in Prentice’s rib cage for Eve’s Apple, then opened the mausoleum’s Lazarus door from the inside. Anyone watching the security footage of Samson emerging into the night would see what looked like a newly revived Wicks reuniting with Samson. The reality of the scene was that Samson, dressed as Wicks, was reuniting with Nat, dressed as Samson.

From there, Nat, Samson, and Martha were supposed to dispose of Eve’s Apple. Samson would then tell the world his story of meeting the resurrected Wicks, who gave him his blessing before ascending to heaven. It would be Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude’s own miracle, one in the vein of the resurrection of Lazarus, or even Jesus Christ himself.

But Martha didn’t count on Jud stumbling onto the scene, or Samson knocking him out. Nor did she factor Nat’s greed into the equation. When he lays eyes on Eve’s Apple, it’s like Gollum catching sight of the One Ring for the first time. And just like Gollum, he jumps straight to murder. He takes out Samson, then stages the scene to look like Jud did it.

Nat attempts to continue his murder spree by poisoning Martha with a lethal dose of pentobarbital. Unluckily for him, she already knew about Samson’s death, so she pulled a Reverse Uno straight out of the Sicilian’s challenge in The Princess Bride, switching their tea cups so he drinks the poison instead. From there, all Martha had to do was stage Nat’s corpse to look like he was drowning Wicks in a vat of acid. Talk about improvise, adapt, overcome.

What happens to Martha in the end?

Josh O’Connor and Glenn Close in “Wake Up Dead Man.”
Credit: Netflix

Martha winds up confessing all of her sins of her own free will to Jud. She does so after taking pentobarbital herself, passing away in the church. Before she does, though, she finds forgiveness for those she harbored hate for in life, including Grace. Jud recites the Sacrament of Reconciliation and gives her the grace of forgiveness. I’m not sure I could look past the full-on murder or hero worship of a monstrous man in order to forgive someone, but then again, I’m not a priest, and Jud is just better than me.

As for Eve’s Apple, it officially “disappeared.” However, Jud cheekily hid it within the new crucifix he made for Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude. With that, the ugly legacy of the Wicks family, including Wicks’ nasty teachings and rants against his own mother, fades away, leaving the church in a better place. Yes, there are unfortunately still Wicks truthers out there who believe in the miracle, all based on Cy’s inflammatory videos. But in Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude itself, the future looks bright for Jud, who prepares to welcome everyone who steps through his doors.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is now streaming on Netflix.