The Residence (2025) s01e08 Episode Script

1
[Angie] How are you feeling?
[Wynter] Like I'm gonna win.
[Angie] You never win.
But I'm feeling like I'm gonna win.
Ha! How'd you get so bad at this?
[both laugh]
- [Angie] Ah.
- [Wynter sighs]
Practice. You won't believe this
but when I was a kid,
I had a magnetic backgammon set
I used to play in the car.
I would lose to my father
while he was driving.
[chuckles] He couldn't even see the board
and I would still lose.
I definitely believe that.
Why wouldn't I believe that?
His birthday today.
Your dad?
Yeah, just realizing that.
Well, happy birthday, Papa Wynter.
- Run it back?
- Mm-hmm.
He'd be
157?
[sarcastic] Thanks.
- [chuckles] I'm just doing the math.
- Great.
How long ago did you lose him?
54 years. This March.
Ah, shit.
- [poignant music playing]
- I'm sorry, A.B.
How old were you?
Eleven.
He and my mom
died in a car crash when I was 11.
[Angie sighs sadly]
It wasn't the backgammon. Don't worry.
They were good parents.
[sighs softly]
You're always giving me shit.
"Why don't you have a family?"
That's why.
I had
a family.
Why were you always letting me
run my mouth like that, A.B.?
- So you'd feel terrible.
- Well, I do. I do.
I should probably hold
on this one, actually.
Got to go make this night happen.
Try not to kill someone. Or get killed.
Hey.
You do have a family.
You know that, right?
All of this here.
All of this here.
[Wynter breathes deeply]
[brisk instrumental music playing]
Mr. Wynter.
[Wynter] George. George.
George.
- No allergies?
- She said no allergies.
Excellent.
[phone ringing]
Who are you?
[Tripp] I want A.B. Wynter up here now!
Because my fuckin' toilet's clogged!
[robotically] You are old man robot
from Planet Usher, so [fades]
- [TV volume increases]
- [Wynter] I'm sending up an engineer.
- To fix the toilet.
- Thank you.
And I'm gonna talk to your brother
in the morning.
[Tripp yells]
I am trying to do something great,
but you have never understood that.
And if you get in my way again,
I am going to kill you!
[Lilly] Helen, no, do not fuck with me.
I have half of fucking Australia
coming to this party.
I need Harry Styles here tonight.
We're screwed!
Nobody wants to play in this shitty house.
[guests chattering]
[music continues]
[phone ringing]
- Yes?
- [Haney] We have a problem on the floor.
Valentina Motta.
Lorenzo, please let me handle this.
- Just let them go.
- It is against White House protocol.
- Who fucking cares?
- I care.
Did I just hear
we don't have a musical guest?
Please pardon my interruption.
We have a cancellation.
- Uh, yes, okay.
- I'll arrange it. The Lincoln Bedroom.
[Melody sneezes repeatedly]
- [Melody sneezes]
- [Jeffrey] Bullshit!
I follow every single protocol.
I asked you about no allergies.
Get these flowers out of here.
- Why do I have to clean up Tripp's mess?
- Would you give us a moment?
Why am I Eddie could have
I was pulled out of my son's birthday
this is what I talk about when
- [overlapping speech]
- fucking job
- [music continues]
- [Wynter sighs wearily]
[Lilly] Rollie, switch.
Actually, Rollie, switch these two.
Excuse me. Thank you.
A.B., there's a crash
outside the South Gate.
right over there. We have
agents on it now checking it out.
- Sheila's sitting
- [Rollie] What is she doing?
- You're off the floor.
- You know what? Fuck you, A.B.!
[music continues]
There's a problem with the kangaroos.
You are not going to take away
my kangaroos!
- I haven't taken anything away from you.
- Not you.
Him!
- [knocking at door]
- [music pauses]
[Wynter yells] not going to talk to me
like that! No! I'm going to expose you!
- I am going to tell them everything!
- [music resumes]
Everything!
[Harry sighs]
[Wynter sighs]
Oh, the man I wanted to see.
I spoke to Marvella about the desserts
I'm not leaving.
I can't leave the house like this.
Not after tonight.
[music continues]
Elsyie, A.B. needs you to prep
the Lincoln Bedroom for Kylie Minogue.
- Okay.
- Thank you.
Mr. Foreign Minister, everything okay?
[phone ringing]
Hello? Give me five minutes.
I am going to be dead
by the end of the night.
You need to get off the floor now.
Don't worry about it.
Get it later. Let's go.
[music continues]
- [phone vibrates]
- [Wynter sighs]
- Hello?
- [Wynter] Meet me in the Yellow Oval Room.
You are old man robot
- I am going to kill you!
- Nobody wants to play
- This is what I talk about
- Not you. Him!
Fuck you, A.B.!
[Wynter sighs]
[music continues]
[Park] You think it happened here
in this room?
[Cupp] I am now convinced of it.
[music continues]
[music fades]
[Filkins] Detective Cupp? Are you ready?
I have to catch a flight.
Yes, I understand.
We're ready if you're ready.
It's a Giant Antpitta.
What's a Giant Antpitta?
- The bird I'm going to see. My flight.
- [Filkins] Oh. Okay. Great.
That sounds like, uh,
such a very large Antpitta.
Huge compared to
the other tracheophone suboscine birds.
It it's big.
I appreciate you appearing before
this committee today, Detective Cupp.
As you know,
we've been looking into the death
of White House Chief Usher A.B. Wynter.
I've heard.
When we began these hearings,
the investigation was closed,
and officially,
Mr. Wynter's death was ruled a suicide.
In fact, we learned over the course
of some difficult hearings
Senators!
for which I accept full responsibility,
that the story of Mr. Wynter's death
was much more
[Filkins inhales]
complicated.
Unfortunately, we also learned that
a little late as you had already left.
[Cupp] To find a Giant Antpitta.
The largest of
the tracheophone suboscine birds,
as I understand it.
- Yes.
- [Filkins] But now you're back.
And you agreed to come here today
on your way to the airport,
to report that a suspect
has been detained in your investigation.
- That's correct, Senator.
- And the name of this suspect?
[Cupp inhales]
We are in a closed session here,
Detective Cupp.
Given the sensitivity of the proceedings.
Yes. Okay.
But don't you wanna hear
how I figured it all out?
[curious music playing]
[music intensifies]
[music fades]
[sprightly music playing]
Something's missing
from the Yellow Oval Room.
- Yes.
- A vase. One of a set.
French porcelain. From 1823.
You haven't seen it since October 11th.
The night Mr. Wynter was found dead.
That's right.
And you won't. It's broken. I'm sorry.
Detective Cupp, that's not the only thing
missing from the room.
Oh, I know.
I'm looking for a clock.
Okay. Sure.
Hmm. Oh.
How about this one?
No. A specific clock.
Oh. Oh, I see.
Every room has as a clock on the mantel.
But not in the Yellow Oval Room.
Oh, that clock? The Franklin clock?
- No. It's gone.
- Do you know where it is?
- No. We looked everywhere.
- Do you have a picture?
- That's a big clock.
- Yes.
- Can I take this?
- No.
- The yellow roses?
- In a large vase by the door.
Yes, I remember those. Of course.
They were distressed.
- I wouldn't say distressed.
- What would you say?
- I would say burned.
- Burned?
Those were beautiful fresh flowers
and they were fully desiccated
two days later.
- Burned.
- What would do that?
Something violent.
Contact herbicide.
- Paraquat, maybe.
- Paraquat?
- That'd be my guess.
- Is that something you keep here?
Do I keep industrial weed killer
in my small flower shop
where I make pretty bouquets?
Is that the question?
Unfortunately, yes.
No. I do not.
But I do know where you can find it.
Paraquat? No, not something
we're allowed to use here anymore.
Basically, any chemicals.
We were told a year ago we had to
completely detoxify all of our gardening.
- We're just "Conscious Landscaping" now.
- What does that mean?
I have no idea.
All I know is we had to get rid of
all of our pesticides like paraquat.
But now that I'm saying that,
I don't think anybody ever came by
to collect any of that stuff.
If I had any of it left,
it would be over here--
Oh, I guess it is still here.
- You know, that's really weird.
- Yes.
- [Emily] You know what I'm gonna say?
- I do.
So weird.
The night Mr. Wynter was killed,
when we were all out here together.
I felt like something had been moved
over in this area. You mentioned that.
And there is something off
about that shelf back there.
You don't know what it is,
but it's bothering you.
- There's something different.
- Oh, that.
Yes! [chuckles]
[Park clears throat]
[intriguing music playing]
[glass smashes]
Can you come with us?
[music continues]
[music fades]
Oh my God!
- Do you recognize this?
- Yes, it's from my desk. Why--
- It's hard to explain.
- I wondered where it went. Can I have it?
- No.
- It's mine.
- It has paraquat in it.
- Oh.
My sister made that for me.
Well, now it's kind of a murder weapon.
Okay.
You can keep it.
I'm I'm gonna leave.
Thank you, Emily.
[curious music playing]
- Where are we?
- We're in the Yellow Oval Room.
No, I mean, what are we doing?
We're looking for clues.
I guess what I mean is, what is that?
It's a little tumbler.
- You see what I'm getting at?
- No.
- Generally?
- No.
[sighs]
Last night,
you had Bruce and Elsyie right there.
You were deciding between
Bruce and Elsyie.
Did Bruce kill A.B. Wynter, or did Elsyie?
And now we have a little tumbler
and no Bruce and no Elsyie.
And I'm wondering
are we getting any closer?
To what?
To figuring out who killed A.B. Wynter.
Oh. Yes.
Yes!
Someone went out to that shed
the night of the State Dinner.
I think looking for poison.
I think they brought a real glass.
I think that glass fell or broke--
I don't know why--
and then they grabbed this.
They found the poison--
the paraquat-- and poured it in here.
And then they picked up the phone
and called A.B. Wynter in his office.
And then they came here.
Well, there. And then here.
I saw two glasses that night.
One on the coffee table.
And one on that end table.
I suspect the one on the end table
had the poison
and was poured on the flowers.
Some of that Wynter probably ingested.
Someone threw a vase.
I think it hit this wall.
That vase is now gone.
The other is right there.
And there are indentations here.
My guess is that
it was intended for Wynter,
and that's why he had little cuts
on his face.
And when that didn't work,
that person picked up something heavy.
Possibly the candlestick,
but I don't think that was heavy enough.
I think that candlestick fell
when Mr. Wynter
[gasps] stumbled into this table
after drinking the poison.
I think the heavy object was the clock.
There is no clock.
Exactly. And I think this is why.
- You think the clock is the murder weapon?
- Yes.
You said the tumbler
was the murder weapon.
I said it was "kind of" a murder weapon.
- So we need to find the clock.
- We do.
Do you think you know where it is?
No. But I know one place
they definitely didn't look.
[Tripp] A clock?
No, I I'd say no.
You know? I mean,
not like a traditional "clock clock."
Why are you putting that in quotes?
What is a "clock clock"?
- I don't wanna get in trouble.
- It's okay. We're the police.
All right.
Well, I I do have a nice piece in here.
More of a sculpture of a dude
with clock-like elements.
Uh [groans]
Ah.
Why do you have that?
I took it from the Library, all right,
a while back.
And then I heard Mr. Wynter
was looking for it,
and he was already pretty upset with me
about a few things, and
so when I heard he was leaving,
I thought, I'll wait until then
and then I'll, like, put it back.
And then that didn't happen.
So here we are.
I still can't tell if it's cool or not.
You can't?
- What do you mean, he was leaving?
- What?
You said Mr. Wynter was leaving
and then he didn't.
- Leaving the house.
- Retiring?
- I guess.
- When was that?
I dunno. Sometime since I've been here.
What's that? A couple months?
- You've been here a year.
- Fuck, really?
- Where did you hear that?
- I don't know. Out on the floor?
Out on the floor?
Do you have a floor meeting or something?
I don't know, man. Maybe the old lady?
Or that asshole that works for my brother.
- That could be a lot of people.
- No, I'm talking about the asshole.
The world's biggest asshole.
What? I don't know
what the fuck he's talking about.
That dude is crazy.
You know that, right?
- You never heard A.B. Wynter was leaving?
- No.
But I'm not really dialed in
to Residence staffing
because I'm trying to help
President Morgan run the fucking country.
Are you close?
Because you asking me
about Wynter's retirement plans
doesn't feel like we're close.
Wait, hold on.
Actually, the night he died,
when she came up here,
and I asked her to shut everything down,
and she said no--
- Who are you talking about?
- Jasmine. Jasmine Haney.
She went on some rant
about working here 11 years
And yes, I want to be the Chief Usher,
and I thought
I was going to be the Chief Usher
but it was made very clear to me tonight
that I am not going to be the Chief Usher
anytime soon.
Basically told me to go fuck myself
until I showed her Wynter was dead.
I don't know
if that's related to him "leaving."
On the night Mr. Wynter died,
he dropped a bomb on Jasmine.
Jasmine Haney was going to be
the next Chief Usher of the White House.
Everybody knew that. She knew that.
Mr. Wynter told her a year ago.
He was going to retire.
She was going to take his place.
But over the last year,
we all started to feel it slipping.
He never set an exact date,
but whatever it was
seemed to keep getting pushed back.
First, it was the holidays.
Then the terror attacks on March 4th.
Couldn't leave after that.
Then Easter.
- Then the Fourth of July.
- Holidays are coming up again.
I could feel Jasmine getting frustrated.
I told her to hang on,
he just needed time to let go,
that it would happen soon enough,
and I believed that.
I think she believed that.
Until that night.
I'm not leaving.
I'm not retiring.
For at least a couple of years.
A bomb.
And she was pissed.
[yelling]
[Sheila] I know. I know
Years?! I have been waiting years!
I'm not waiting years.
You just need to talk to him.
I am done talking, okay?
Talking hasn't gotten me shit.
Walking around by his side,
yes sir, no sir,
let me take care of that for you, sir.
Cleaning up his fucking messes.
She tried talking to him again,
but it didn't amount to anything.
It wasn't much of a talk.
Then she never got another chance.
- Jasmine Haney?
- Yes.
Did that surprise you?
I'm not easily surprised.
But I will admit,
it did make things more interesting.
I'd previously identified
a number of people
who I believed might have played a role
in Mr. Wynter's death.
And now I had one more.
This is it.
She is it.
She's the one with the cleanest, clearest,
most powerful motive. We just heard it.
And she had the access.
And it makes complete sense.
She's the one who told us everything.
Showed us everything. Shaped everything.
We're talking about
all these other people. But
sometimes it's the thing
right in front of you.
It's the thing hiding in plain sight.
The obvious thing.
The thing you're staring at.
You just didn't see it.
Yes, I agree.
But how exactly?
And when? And did she act alone?
Obviously, everything makes
much more sense
if there were other people involved.
I know this is, uh, weird.
But. Did you see
"Murder on the Orient Express"?
- The new one?
- Or the old one.
I haven't seen either one.
- Then why do you care which one?
- I read the book.
Well, I haven't read the book.
That's not the point.
- The point is, what hap--
- The book is good.
Okay, I'm sure it is.
Someday I'll read the book.
Right, uh, okay, that's weird.
Anyway, if you remember,
it turns out they all did it.
All the suspects.
And it makes me wonder
Wait. You're agreeing with me?
What?
- When I said it was hiding in plain sight.
- Yes.
You've agreed with me before,
but I realized you were making fun of me.
Yes.
Yes. So you were making fun of me before,
but you're not making fun of me this time?
No.
I'm just going to go back
to where I started.
Sometimes it's the thing
right in front of you.
The thing hiding in plain sight.
The obvious thing.
The thing you've been staring at.
You just didn't see it.
Yes.
I agree.
- Is that?
- Yes.
[Filkins] A.B. Wynter's journal?
[Cupp] Right there on the shelf,
in a room nobody else cared about.
Because where's the one place
nobody ever looks?
I use, uh, one of those cans
that looks like a Coke can,
but you can screw off the bottom.
Anyway, that's not what you meant.
The room with the books.
Nobody cares about
the room with the books.
I should have realized this earlier.
It was all there.
His notebooks, his journals,
they were like old-fashioned books.
He wrote everything down in them.
[Haney] The Library.
Mr. Wynter's favorite room.
He stopped by first thing every morning.
And it was always the last place he went
before he left for the night.
I just didn't see it,
which is precisely why he did it.
Did you read them?
I tried.
[Filkins] And?
[Cupp] And they were funny,
erudite, self-critical,
unexpectedly generous, poignant.
He was candid with some of his feelings,
many of them positive, some negative.
He had a particular disdain
for Lilly Schumacher,
which didn't surprise me at all,
but the intensity of it did.
His relationship with Mr. Gotthard
had clearly soured. He did not like Tripp.
He thought it was a really bad idea
to have Marvella around all those knives
and Sheila around all that vodka.
He kept a curious ledger
with acronyms and numbers
that made no sense to me at the time
but which has since proven
highly revealing.
So they were helpful?
Very. And that's even before
I got to the last page.
What was on the last page?
Nothing.
The suicide note.
Yes. But it wasn't a suicide note.
Well, except I didn't know that.
I'm sorry.
It it might've been a suicide note?
I believed from the beginning
that Mr. Wynter did not die by suicide.
But this note.
It did read like one.
But now,
in the context of the larger page,
it clearly was not one, not originally.
I couldn't explain it. Not yet.
- Did he rip it out himself?
- Or did someone else do it?
- Accidentally?
- Or intentionally?
Did someone know
these books were here the whole time?
- Who?
- Angie.
- Jasmine.
- Why did he have it on him though?
- How did he have it on him?
- What do you mean?
If he was killed in the Yellow Oval Room,
why does he have a suicide note on him
in the Game Room?
Was it just coincidence?
And what did you decide?
I didn't decide anything,
because that's when all hell broke loose.
[door opens]
Upstairs. Now.
[intense beat playing]
Hey, it's me. I'm just doing my thing.
[music intensifies, then ends]
I'm not happy, Detective Cupp.
Well, that's not good.
Because you're, like,
the most important person in the world.
Why are you not happy?
What are you doing here?
Who let you back into this house?
Do you want to take that?
[sighs] Well, okay, yes,
before everybody starts pointing fingers--
- Harry--?
- It's not like one person decided.
It was a decision among various parties.
- You called me.
- Harry!
Yes! Yes. Okay.
I asked Detective Cupp to come back.
Mr. President, I do think it's important
that this gets resolved.
The damage that came out
of those Senate hearings
You didn't even tell me.
You don't live here!
It's the White House.
I'm the President. Did he tell you?
No.
He didn't tell me either.
And we have jurisdiction.
What the fuck?
You don't have jurisdiction.
The fucking campground attendant is here?
The jurisdiction of
the National Park Police--
- is the Grand fucking Tetons.
It's a common misperception.
The MPD has jurisdiction.
That's why I'm here.
- Do you see the uniform?
- Yeah, we can't miss it, Chief.
Always with the fucking uniform.
You sleep in that thing?
Okay, it gets respect, no matter when.
[men arguing indistinctly]
[curious music playing]
[music intensifies]
[indistinct arguing]
[music continues]
This painting was in the Red Room
on the night of the murder.
[Park] Okay.
And the paintings that were in here
are now in the Green Room.
The painting that was in the Green Room,
where one of those paintings now is,
is now in the Red Room.
So many colors. Is this important?
- Yes.
- Why is this important?
Because now I know precisely how
A.B. Wynter was killed.
- [Filkins] You had solved the case?
- [Cupp] No.
I had solved part of the case.
A very important part.
I knew how it was done,
but I didn't know who did it.
But now I knew how
to figure that part out too.
I told the President I needed two hours.
If he gave me two hours
and could collect the people
on the list I gave him
and meet me with them in the East Room,
I would tell him who killed A.B. Wynter.
- And?
- [Cupp] And he agreed.
What did you need the two hours for?
Birding mostly.
And to tie up a few loose ends.
[Dokes] Elsyie Chayle. That's correct.
Detective Cupp wants to see you
in the Foyer, and, um,
it's probably a shoes-on situation.
Yeah.
Excellent choice.
And I needed to secure from you immunity
for someone to appear at the White House.
In exchange for which
you agreed to come here.
That's correct, Senator.
[quiet, intriguing music playing]
Is she here?
Where is she?
She's on-site.
[birds chirping]
Come on!
[Cupp] Whoo!
Got the Fish Crow and the Downy Woodpecker
and the Saw-whet Owl.
And I know Chief Dokes is excited
about that one.
- Always good when you get an owl.
- [Cupp laughs heartily]
Okay. Thank you all for coming.
I appreciate everyone taking time out of
their busy day to join me here.
Particular shout out
to the most powerful man in the world.
Thank you, Mr. President.
You've gotta be fucking kidding me.
[attempts Australian accent] G'day, mates.
Mr. Doumbe. Appreciate you being here.
I'm Cordelia Cupp.
I'll be your host today.
A couple things before we get started.
First, just wanna make sure
everyone's here
for the murder of A.B. Wynter.
If you're here for another murder,
that's, like, a huge problem.
So please do let me know.
Please do not touch any objects or artwork
as they might be valuable
and/or contain the fingerprints of
the murderer standing next to you.
I will be taking questions.
We're gonna start
up in the Game Room on the third floor
and then work our way down.
I'll explain. So, hopefully,
everyone's wearing comfortable shoes.
Or just any foot-like covering at all
would be great.
- Okay.
- [Morgan sighs]
The last thing, and this is important.
Lots of detectives, even real ones,
do this kind of "summation"
when they already know who did it.
Which I've always thought
was a little weird.
But I'm here to tell you right now,
I do not know who killed A.B. Wynter.
[murmuring]
I know he was killed.
I know he was killed
by someone in this room.
I hope the President told you this
when he invited you here.
But I don't know who.
I am positive, though,
that by the time I'm done, I will know.
So. If you killed A.B.,
I'm sorry, you can't leave now. I'll know.
And if you did not kill A.B.,
I'm sorry, you can't leave now.
Because I'll think you did, and probably
have evidence to prove it. Or something.
Because you definitely did
something awful.
So buckle up.
No exit.
I'll see you in the Game Room.
- Is that really true?
- [Cupp] What?
- That you didn't know?
- Absolutely true.
And you thought you'd just
figure it out along the way?
I knew I would. There's a bird
A mockingbird does this thing.
It knows there's an insect nearby,
but it doesn't know exactly where.
So it suddenly flashes its wings open.
Gets the insect to blink.
Watch for it.
[elevator bell dings]
The blink.
Let's back it up.
To the night of the party.
This case began
when your mom next door heard a thump
- [muffled thump]
- came over here, found Mr. Wynter dead.
[screams]
When I arrived on the scene
30 minutes later,
you all believed he had killed himself.
Especially you.
We believe it's a suicide.
I told you almost immediately
that you were wrong and I was right,
and that has been our relationship
ever since.
[groans] This is gonna be a long tour.
You can leave.
[curious music playing]
Soon after I arrived,
I told you all specifically
why I knew it wasn't a suicide.
There's no knife.
But it wasn't just the knife.
The blood on the shirt
that Mr. Wynter was wearing,
that was not his.
That was Australian Foreign Minister
Rylance's blood and his shirt,
which Mr. Wynter had graciously exchanged
with Mr. Rylance
in his office an hour before.
The reason for the exchange
- [lively music playing]
- [both moaning]
[music stops]
while fascinating, is irrelevant.
Can I leave?
Sure.
[curious music resumes]
Other curiosities took longer.
But the first and most relevant business
was the missing knife.
And that led me to discover that
there had, in fact, been a knife here,
a good knife,
and that it belonged to you, Mr. Gotthard.
And that you removed the knife from
this crime scene. And tried to destroy it.
You have admitted this.
[quietly] After all this is over,
I wanna talk about getting my own office.
A single leaf
from the Cedar of Lebanon tree
and a lot of lying
finally led me to Ms. Cannon,
who was in this room
around the time Wynter was killed,
drinking vodka that she was supposed to be
delivering to Ms. Cox.
- [Morgan groans]
- You were bringing mother vodka?
Can I smoke in here?
Uh
No.
Was Ms. Cannon involved
in Mr. Wynter's death?
I do not know.
Not yet. But she was here.
Mr. Gotthard and Ms. Cannon
were both in this room.
And then I learned another important fact,
this time from one of the few people
who did not lie to me that night,
medical examiner Anne Dodge.
Ms. Dodge confirmed
what I already suspected:
Mr. Wynter likely died of
blunt force trauma
to the back of the head.
And he did, in fact, ingest poison.
And he was dead
before his wrists were slashed.
Meaning he did not slash his own wrists.
Because he was dead.
Oh. Okay, got it.
Thanks.
He is a strange little man.
I had already come to believe that
Mr. Wynter was dragged into this room,
of course, and this report
from Anne Dodge sealed it.
Mr. Wynter did not kill himself
in the Game Room.
He was not killed in the Game Room.
He was dragged in here.
- From where?
- From here. Room 301.
On the night of the State Dinner,
Room 301 was undergoing renovation.
A fake renovation ordered by
President Morgan and Elliott
so that Harry Hollinger's sister
couldn't stay in the White House.
My first clue that this room
was involved in the night's events
was that the door had been taped,
which struck me as unusual.
Even more unusual
was that there was a smell of paint
because, remember,
this was a fake renovation,
staged only to keep Harry's apparently
unbearable sister out of the house.
Can you stop, please?
She's really a nice person.
Beneath the paint,
I found blood. Fresh blood.
And then, another extraordinary turn:
A precocious young detective
staying across the street
at the Hay-Adams hotel
saw a flashing red light in this room,
soon after Mr. Wynter had died.
A light I was able to trace
to the wrist of Tripp Morgan.
This fucking watch. I've been having
so many problems with it lately.
[Cupp] I was convinced of
Mr. Morgan's involvement
but had to wait for him
to reveal it to me,
which he has now done
with remarkable detail. So, thank you.
- Thank me for what?
- For explaining what happened.
I never told you anything.
- Did he tell you something?
- Yes.
Oh shit.
Detective Cupp wants to see you.
I knew Tripp was in this room
because of the precocious young detective.
But I didn't know much beyond that,
and I was sure he wouldn't talk to me
any more than he already had.
- By the piano?
- Yeah.
But he is a talker,
and sometimes you just have to
put together the right combination.
George McCutcheon. The George McCutcheon.
Nah, I'm just kidding.
I know there's three of you.
What up, George?
Only one Tripp. Thank God for that, right?
[Tripp whoops, sniffs]
Yo, you seen that detective?
Looks like Indiana Jones and shit.
"Best Detective in the World."
I dunno.
I guess I'm supposed to meet her here.
She's been badgering me, George.
I'm telling you, I have nothing to do
with this whole thing.
With A.B. Dude. Fucking nothing.
Dude comes to my room
acting all crazy and shit,
but that's fucking it.
You know what I mean?
You're looking at me funny.
Can I tell you something, G? Okay?
That night. That night of the dinner.
I'm like fucked up.
You used to party, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know.
So I'm having a fucking party, right?
'Cause my absolute shitbird brother
won't let me come to this one
with the Australians
who know how to actually fucking party.
So I go to the room
at the end of the hall, right,
so all these assholes will leave me alone,
and, dude, I fucking crash out, right?
Fucking crash out.
And then I wake up
We're good, right?
McCutcheon, this is just, like,
fucking you and me talking. Right, dude?
Okay. So, dude, I fucking wake up,
and A.B. Wynter
is on the ground next to me.
Fucking dead. Dead!
I'm like, "Oh fuck!"
I lose my shit 'cause I'm like, I was just
fighting with this guy in my fucking room,
and there's this fake electrician in there
who knows we've been fighting.
So I go and look down the hall,
and I see that crazy drunk butler lady.
She's fucked up too,
but I don't think she sees me.
So I go back in, and I get A.B.
Dude. I'm not proud of this.
Right, George?
Not proud. But, like,
I just fucking lift him up
and just start dragging the guy
all the way down the fucking hall.
I don't even know where I'm going.
I take him to the Game Room, and I'm like,
all right. I just leave him there, right?
And then I run back down
to the other room,
and I see this fucking blood.
So I take some paint.
Yes, dude, seriously.
And I fucking paint this thing over.
Real fucking expert, you know?
You get that adrenaline.
You can just do shit.
Dude, turns out I can fucking paint!
So I'm, like, done now, okay?
This shit is over.
And, dude, I look down on the ground,
and I see this fucking set of keys,
and I'm like, what the fuck, man?
So I go back down the hall,
fucking running fast, right?
But real light-footed, like a panther
'cause I don't wanna wake up
fucking Elliott's mommy.
I take the keys.
I put them back in A.B.'s pocket,
and I feel this piece of paper
in his jacket.
I pull it out.
Dude, it's a fucking suicide note.
A.B. fucking killed himself.
Fuck!
I'm like, well,
I just fucked that up, right?
Had I left him there,
it would've been fine.
What am I gonna do now?
Drag him fucking back?
What if somebody sees me?
And I'm gassed anyway.
This is where
I might've fucked up a bit, right?
'Cause I'm fucking going crazy.
Heart like a hamster, 500 beats a minute.
So I'm like, all right, this has to
look like a suicide right here.
So I open the door next door.
I go into the German pastry dude's office
'cause I know that creepy fucker
keeps his knives there.
I borrow that guy's knives all the time.
I just take 'em for random shit.
One time, I had to trim the belt
off one of these robes.
I just grabbed his knife
and just fucking sawing away.
So, anyway, I grabbed the knife,
I go back into the room,
and I just fucking did
the fucking dirty deed, G.
Cut the wrists. Dropped the knife.
Put the note back in and took off.
And that's, like, all I did.
Like I said, dude,
I have absolutely nothing to do
with any of this.
I don't think she's gonna show up.
Good talking to you, G. Late.
[quirky music playing]
[music fades]
[all talking at once]
That's bullshit!
You used my knives?
- My mommy?
- Shitbird?
- Oh, I'll show you a crazy drunk butler.
- Fake electrician?
That is seriously fucked up, Tripp.
Well, maybe you should have invited me
to dinner, bro.
Did Tripp do it?
Did Tripp kill A.B. Wynter?
I will not answer that question. Not yet.
But I will say,
Mr. Wynter was not killed in here.
In fact, he had been dead
for nearly 20 minutes
by the time Tripp dragged him
down the hall.
So once again,
we are faced with the same question
we entered the room with.
From where and by whom?
And this time, it is even more incredible
and unexpected.
From where?
From down there.
[all muttering]
On the night of the State Dinner,
Kylie Minogue found blood
in the Lincoln Bedroom.
I believe Mr. Wynter was brought into
the Lincoln Bedroom, but only temporarily.
As a brief resting place
for the person who had dragged him
from the Yellow Oval Room
and who would carry him
up those stairs to Room 301.
Now, why do I say he was dragged
from the Yellow Oval Room?
Because that's what you said you saw.
Under oath.
I looked down the hallway,
and I saw him dragging a body
out of the Yellow Oval Room.
So. From there. The Yellow Oval Room.
But by whom?
You saw that too, didn't you, Mr. Doumbe?
[tense music playing]
On the advice of counsel, I--
You don't have to do that, buddy.
Who did you see dragging Mr. Wynter
out of the Yellow Oval Room?
[music intensifies]
Him!
[Cupp] Aha!
Bruce Geller. The grumpy,
but apparently quite lovable, engineer.
Who had been fighting
with Mr. Wynter and Tripp that night
and who Lilly saw in the Yellow Oval Room
some 30 minutes later.
But when you saw him, Mr. Doumbe,
he was dragging A.B. Wynter
down this hall.
Why?
Well, that's more complicated.
In Bruce's mind,
because he was covering up a crime
he believed had been committed
by the woman he loved.
Elsyie Chayle.
[Tripp] Damn.
Bruce and Elsyie
had been in a relationship.
And on the night of the State Dinner,
Bruce found Elsyie right here, distraught
because of a recent fight she'd had
with Mr. Wynter in the Yellow Oval Room.
While Mr. Wynter stayed in that room,
Bruce tried to comfort her,
but she wouldn't have it.
I am going to kill him.
Bruce left Elsyie right here
walked down the hallway to the elevator,
but then, worried about her,
he turned back around
only to see Elsyie
now running out of the Yellow Oval Room.
When he went into the room himself,
moments later, he found Mr. Wynter dead.
And so, as any good man does,
he cleaned it up,
which included moving Mr. Wynter
out of the room.
That's what Mr. Doumbe saw.
Now, it's important to say here that
Elsyie has a very different perspective.
She believes that Bruce killed Mr. Wynter.
She insists that
when she came back in the room,
Mr. Wynter was already dead.
And she didn't see Bruce when she left.
Bruce had his own issues with Mr. Wynter,
and she knew he was mad
at the way Mr. Wynter had treated her.
Either way,
whether you believe Bruce or Elsyie
- Elsyie.
- Elsyie.
Bruce.
Either way, Bruce moved Mr. Wynter.
Dragged him to the Lincoln Bedroom,
left him there while he went upstairs,
and taped the door to Room 301
to make it easier to enter
when he came back carrying Mr. Wynter.
And then he carried him up
and left him there.
I know you did because you were the one
dragging him down here.
And you're probably the only person
who could carry Mr. Wynter
up those stairs.
And those were your keys
that Tripp found in that room.
And so,
now we are here
where it all began.
Because I do believe it was in this room
that Mr. Wynter was killed.
Which means we're down to one question:
Who did it?
[music intensifies]
Well, it has to be him, right?
Bruce, the engineer.
- I mean, I guess it could be her.
- It's not her.
- No, I don't think so either, Margery.
- Mm-mm.
I mean, it is one of them though, right?
Bruce or Elsyie?
You have made this very dramatic.
Thank you. Yes, that's what I thought.
It must be Bruce or Elsyie.
But the minute I thought that,
I allowed myself to consider the opposite,
which one should always do.
What if it's not Bruce or Elsyie?
Is it possible that they both
could be telling the truth?
Is it possible that
neither of them killed Mr. Wynter?
That in that time,
Elsyie stood by that closet,
and Bruce stood by the elevator,
a third person murdered Mr. Wynter
in the Yellow Oval Room.
Is that possible?
- Yes!
- No!
What do you mean "a third person"?
- Who?
- How would they get in here?
[Sheila] Right through that door.
- [Marvella] Could somebody do that?
- Someone did do that.
Him.
The Third Man.
He said he was in that room.
I heard him in that room.
And I saw him come out of that room
into the hallway.
I have immunity.
I knew it!
I I knew it!
Oh, that whole, ah shucks, I'm just
a dumb sales guy who likes Australians,
and I stumbled into the White House.
He's that guy from that movie.
Ed Norton. "Primal Fear." So good.
It's an act. He's full of shit.
He's an assassin.
[suspenseful music playing]
And I work for you.
[music intensifies]
No, I'm just kidding.
[Doumbe chuckles]
That was good though.
[Doumbe laughs]
Right, everybody?
[Australian accent]
Well, he's the next Russell Crowe.
- [Doumbe chuckles]
- [angry muttering]
I have considered this scenario.
That it was Mr. Doumbe.
Mr. Doumbe has admitted
to being in that room.
He could've come in here,
killed Mr. Wynter,
and returned to the room
when he then called his mom.
Aunt.
This is possible, and I don't discount it.
But let's assume
that it is not Mr. Doumbe.
Just for a moment.
Could it be anyone else?
Someone who threads an even finer needle.
A fourth person.
Who comes into that room
before Mr. Doumbe,
slips into this room after Elsyie leaves,
and then kills Mr. Wynter
before she returns.
Is that possible?
- Yes!
- No!
No! Impossible, right?
And yet. And yet. Even as I recognize
the seeming impossibility
of this scenario, I cannot let it go.
Because as I spent time
in this room last night,
I discovered things. Curious things.
A large clock missing from the mantel.
A missing vase.
Flowers burned by poison.
Things that cannot be explained
by Bruce or Elsyie or Mr. Doumbe.
Things that suggest
the presence of another person.
But you have a person. Right here.
Two people. Three people.
And if you really need a fourth,
throw him in.
Not cool, bro.
Why are you working so hard
on something so incredibly unlikely?
It is an excellent question,
Mr. Hollinger.
- Really?
- Yes.
And that surprises me
as much as it surprises you.
It's the question the birder asks
about everything she sees.
Why?
Why would I even consider this?
Why would I go to the most outrageous,
the most extreme,
the most improbable of all
possible resolutions to this mystery?
And my answer to you is
the passenger pigeon.
That's your answer?
It is not the answer I expected.
The passenger pigeon was once
the most abundant bird in the world.
In the early 19th century,
there were billions of them.
Billions. And by the late 19th century,
they were virtually extinct.
In fact, they were thought to be.
In the wild.
And then, in 1907,
a small flock
was spotted in rural Virginia.
This was the last known credible sighting
of a passenger pigeon in history.
And do you know who saw those birds?
You.
Him.
Alexander Hamilton!
[all talk at once]
[Cupp] Teddy Roosevelt.
President Teddy Roosevelt
was the last person
to see a passenger pigeon in the wild.
And when he did, he couldn't believe it.
It seemed impossible.
It defied logic.
The great birder,
and Teddy Roosevelt was a great birder,
looks for context,
understands relationships, history.
What you are seeing needs to make sense.
And that flock of wild pigeons
made no sense.
They were extinct.
But. You also have to trust yourself
because you know what you are seeing,
even if everything else says,
no, that's not it.
You know. He knew. I know.
Know what?
Know that the murderer
came through that door
with a glass of poison. Paraquat.
That the murderer
tried to get Mr. Wynter to drink it,
and that Mr. Wynter did drink it,
just a little, and tossed it
on the flowers next to him. Burning them.
That the murderer
threw a vase at Mr. Wynter but missed.
That this vase shattered on this wall,
and that the shards of that vase
hit Mr. Wynter on the forehead.
That the murderer then picked up
a large clock on the mantel,
the biggest, heaviest, most accessible
murder weapon in this room,
and hit Mr. Wynter
over the head with it. Killing him.
I know that.
[music fades]
But that is impossible.
It's incredible. It's not impossible.
It's impossible.
You're saying someone comes in that room.
- Before Mr. Doumbe.
- Yes.
Then comes in this room
while Mr. Wynter is alone.
- After his fight with Elsyie?
- Yes.
- And then kills A.B.?
- Yes.
- Then what? Where do they go?
- Out the door.
What door? There were people
on the other side of these doors.
Mr. Doumbe was right there.
Talking to his mom.
- Not that door.
- Then what door?
- [Haney] Oh my God.
- [Harry] Oh shit.
That door.
[quiet, suspenseful music playing]
Yeah, I still don't see it.
Because it's not there, Mr. Doumbe.
Not anymore.
But on the night of the murder,
there was a door there.
A passageway between
the Yellow Oval Room and the Treaty Room.
I must've seen it myself,
but it made no impression on me.
Even when I spent time here earlier today
and discovered other curious things,
I missed it.
It's only when I realized
various paintings had been moved,
and this one brought in here
specifically to cover a now larger space,
I figured out what had happened.
That the door had been sealed,
hidden, replaced by this wall.
A door that makes the impossible possible.
And makes
every single one of you a suspect.
- No!
- No!
[all talking at once]
- Absolutely not. Not me.
- That's right.
Yes. You.
All of you.
The possibility that someone
could slip in here, kill Mr. Wynter,
and then slip out that door
means all of you could have done this.
Even you. And you.
And you.
Because if I'm wrong about this,
then one of you definitely did it.
Nobody here has a solid alibi
for that brief window
in which we know Mr. Wynter was killed.
And the fact that you did other bizarre
and terrible shit later
does not mean you did not do this.
In fact, it increases
the likelihood that you did.
That you did kill him.
You all certainly seemed like
you wanted to kill him.
You all fought with him that night.
- Fuck you, A.B.!
- Feel like you have something against me.
There's broken glass!
I'm not leaving.
This is my dessert.
And it is going to be served my way!
Mr. Wynter, please, I'm begging you.
You screamed at him.
[yelling]
You threatened him.
Keep your fucking mouth shut.
You openly mused about killing him.
He won't fire me if he isn't here anymore.
Some of you even said
you were going to kill him.
I am going
to kill him.
And then one of you did.
So. Tell me:
Who sealed that door?
[tense music playing]
[music intensifies]
Jasmine Haney
ordered the door to be sealed.
[woman] What?
I saw the work being done,
and I thought it was odd,
since the President and Mr. Morgan
aren't living here anymore.
I asked and I was told it was Jasmine.
Oh.
Were you going to mention that, Ms. Haney?
No, I wasn't, Ms. Cupp.
Detective.
You really think
I had something to do with this?
You wanted this job more than anything.
You thought he had betrayed you.
You fought with him, so yes.
Maybe.
Did you seal that door?
- Yes, I did.
- [others gasping]
[murmuring]
But it wasn't my idea.
- It was an order.
- Whose order?
[quietly] He called me
and told me to take care of it.
- Who?
- Him!
- What?
- [others gasping]
That's a lie.
Perry, that's a lie.
Perry?
[hesitates] Yeah. Jasmine?
Detective Cupp.
You never called?
- Called Ms. Haney to seal off a door?
- Yes.
No! What are you talking about?
You called me. I talked to you.
This is the second time now
you said you didn't make a call
someone else claimed you made.
I I know. These things didn't happen.
She's lying.
And Agent Rausch was lying when she said
you ordered Secret Service
off the second floor at the State Dinner?
He called at 9:22 p.m. I spoke to him.
Yes, it's insane!
Perry, please.
Yes. Yes.
I agree.
[quietly] Did you have
any issue with A.B.?
What? No! Why are you asking me that?
I mean, not really
[Morgan groans]
- I didn't do this, Ms. Cupp.
- Detective.
You have to believe me.
Oh, I definitely don't have to.
[tense music playing]
[music fades]
There's a bird on your wallpaper in there.
In your bedroom.
Looks almost like
a Malaysian Rail-babbler.
I'm not sure it is,
but that would be fitting.
The Malaysian Rail-babbler
is a wildly elusive bird,
but not in the traditional way.
It's not just hard to spot.
It's hard to identify. Even what it is.
It's called a Rail-babbler,
but it's actually not a rail.
It's not a babbler.
It has a song that's almost ventriloquial.
Like it's coming from somewhere else.
Maybe
it wasn't you.
Maybe it was an order.
Maybe someone did call.
And maybe it wasn't you.
Maybe it was only
someone pretending to be you.
Using your voice.
Disguising theirs. Hiding.
That's possible.
This
is
um
tricky.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Lilly] It was me.
I did it.
I ordered the door sealed.
I faked Elliott's voice.
I'm good at it. You know that.
Elliott is indecisive.
[as Elliott] "Uh
Well, uh, uh, that's that's tricky."
I can do it. I did it.
- What?
- Why?
[Lilly sighs]
Mr. Wynter and I had gotten in a fight
earlier that night, about the night.
He had said some terrible things about me,
and in the heat of it,
I grabbed his journal.
I tore a page out. I felt bad about it.
I went looking for him later,
and that's when I heard the fight
between him and Elsyie in here.
I left, but I came back immediately
because it was so violent.
And that's when I saw him.
Right there.
Dead.
They had killed him.
Who?
Them.
- No!
- No!
[soft, tense music playing]
They were both here in the room.
And it was exactly like you said,
Detective Cupp.
She and Wynter were fighting.
She threw a vase at him.
It missed. It cut his face.
Bruce came in after that
and hit him with the clock.
This is what they told me.
What about the poison?
That was for her husband.
He was ruining her life.
He wanted me to lose my job,
wanted to destroy my life.
And she did plan to kill him.
I did want to kill him!
[Lilly] That's what she said.
She had gone to the shed that night
when she assumed no one would be around,
and she found the poison.
She called Mr. Wynter from the shed
because she had to tell him
she was going to be late
cleaning the Lincoln Bedroom.
And when she got up here
a few minutes later,
and Mr. Wynter confronted her,
and she realized she was going to
lose her job, she lost her shit.
That's when she threw the vase.
The poison came after.
Because there wasn't much blood,
they decided that
they could make it look like a suicide.
That was his idea.
They staged it.
Again, exactly like you said.
Or close.
They got a glass from next door.
Poured some poison down his throat.
Then tossed the rest in the flowers.
That's fucked up.
But I saw two glasses.
The other one was mine. I needed a drink.
Because of the note.
Because of the note.
I didn't know what to do.
I felt terrible for them.
I know this sounds crazy,
but she looked so
terrified.
She has a daughter.
He was just trying to protect her.
The page I accidentally ripped out
of Mr. Wynter's journal?
It read like a suicide note.
I'm sure that's not what it was,
but that's what it sounded like.
And I realized what it could do.
For them. To sell the story.
[sniffles]
I gave them the note.
He tucked it
into Mr. Wynter's suit jacket
and carried Wynter away.
He came back down. Cleaned it all up.
I helped him.
Picked up pieces of the vase, vacuumed.
He forgot the glasses.
- [Lilly] Mistakes were made.
- And the clock?
He took it away.
Said he knew how to get rid of it.
Then they came up with their stories.
Perfectly inconsistent.
And the door?
Why did you seal the door?
Panic.
When you were on the third floor
that night, investigating,
I wasn't concerned.
I thought this would all go away.
But when you came down here,
before you left, I got worried.
Even after you left,
I was scared you'd come back.
Or somebody would.
I just wanted the room to look different.
To feel different. Somehow.
I was trying to protect them.
I feel terrible for Mr. Wynter.
And I honestly feel terrible for them.
Still.
I'm sorry.
[cries softly]
- Blink.
- Yes.
Watch for it. The blink.
What?
You were so close.
So close.
I am so unexpectedly impressed
by you, Lilly.
So smart. So quick-thinking.
Such an incredible performer.
Today. On that night.
So much more diabolical
than I even imagined.
What is going on?
You could've done it. I would've
found you some way. I'm sure of it.
But you were close.
Undone by that single question
the birder asks relentlessly.
Why? Why did you seal
that passageway up, Lilly?
- Just to make it all feel better? No.
- I
[Cupp] You needed
something better than that.
Because there was another reason.
Because you were hiding something.
Something with your fingerprints
all over it.
Something that proves
you killed A.B. Wynter.
[shocked gasping]
[tense music playing]
- [screaming]
- Oh!
- [gasping]
- Detective Cupp!
I'm really sorry about this,
Mr. President.
[gasping]
[music softens]
Fuck yeah!
[Tripp laughs]
[Cupp grunts]
[soft, tense music continues]
[string music playing]
[door clicks]
Oh.
I need to call my dad.
Why?
Because of the clock.
Why did you do this, Lilly?
Oh, I can take that, unless?
Or why don't I start,
and then you can jump in?
She did it because she hates you.
And by you, I do mean you, Mr. President.
But I really mean all of you.
The house. Like, the actual house.
Like, the physical space. Have you seen
what she's done to the Blue Room?
You don't do these things
unless you really hate this place.
But also, like, the house as an idea.
As an institution. She hates it.
The history. The traditions. The staff.
What it represents--
America, I guess? She hates it.
And she hated Mr. Wynter most of all.
Because he represented what it represents,
and he was in her way,
and he had been for a long time.
He sabotaged Wellness Christmas.
She wanted to "reinvent the White House"
and to her that meant tear it down.
Maybe literally.
And he loved the house
and cared about the house,
about the people and the plumbing
and the artwork and the budgets.
And he cared about you, Mr. President,
and you, Mr. Morgan,
and the ordinary Americans
who came from all over the country
to visit here,
and that was all just
really stupid to her.
Am I doing okay?
She killed Mr. Wynter
because she hated him,
but also because she feared him.
You want to know why? This is why.
Because she found out
on the night of the State Dinner
he was going to expose her.
That was the fight that Mr. Gomez heard
in Mr. Wynter's office.
It wasn't Harry Hollinger in that room.
It was Lilly Schumacher.
And she just told you that it was.
She admitted it.
That's the crazy genius
of this wild attempt
to frame Bruce and Elsyie just now.
So much of what she said was true.
She and Wynter got in a fight,
he said some terrible things about her,
she ripped a page from his journal.
That all happened.
What do you mean "expose her"?
I mean, tell you and Mr. Morgan every last
selfish and absurd and abusive thing
she had done since she got here,
none of which you probably knew about,
all of which he had meticulously
documented in his journal.
All the lies
and misrepresentations and indulgences
and general shitty behavior was all here.
And that scared her.
Excuse me.
I'm sorry. Really?
That's it? That's all you got?
Yes, we fought.
I admit it. We did fight.
Everybody fought with A.B.
And yes, he was worked up, and so was I.
You think I'm going to kill him
because he was going to expose
my "shitty behavior"?
Seriously?
What do I care if he says crazy shit
to Perry and Elliott?
They're never gonna believe him over me.
That's not the way the world works.
And second, I don't care.
I'm rich.
Here's a secret, everybody:
Rich people don't give a shit!
I'm not gonna miss my $114,000 "salary"
or whatever the fuck it is,
which I give to charity by the way.
I'm doing this as a public service, okay?
Okay, guys?
So fire me.
Yes, Lilly, I think
that's going to happen.
So. Thank you.
And you do make some excellent points,
you really do.
The thing is, though,
it wasn't just your shitty behavior.
Mr. Wynter was smart enough
to know he needed more than that.
And it wasn't hard to find.
There are a couple of pages here
in his journal
that I didn't know
what to make of at first.
It's a blizzard of numbers and letters.
Almost like a puzzle.
Probably deliberately so.
To kind of hide his work.
But I figured out what it was
because I'm, like, really good at puzzles.
It was all the money you misappropriated.
Stole.
Where's the money gonna come from?
You don't have the budget for this.
Where does the money ever come from, A.B.?
It comes from another pile of money.
That's how money works.
You're rich, but here's another thing
about the way the world works.
Rich people steal money. All the time.
In some cases it's even why they're rich.
My guess is your theft had more to do with
laziness, arrogance, and contempt
for the system, but who knows?
And it wasn't just money.
These numbers?
It was all the various criminal statutes
and ethical codes
Mr. Wynter knew you had violated.
In the way you had secured contracts.
In the favors that you traded
with different vendors.
In the people you had invited
into the White House
and who advised you
on moving American government officials
around at a State Dinner.
I think Mr. Wynter told you all this
in his office.
[Wynter] I am going to
tell them everything!
And I think you really, really,
really, really, really gave a shit.
And I think that's why
you tried to grab his journal.
And I think that's why when you walked
out of his office that night,
and stood in the hallway,
and read that page
that you accidentally ripped out,
you decided to kill him.
To stage his suicide.
Would you have killed him
if you didn't rip that page out
and realize what you could do with it?
Maybe. It's impossible to say.
And irrelevant.
All criminal activity
is motive plus opportunity.
And you saw an opportunity.
All of your problems would go away
'cause Mr. Wynter would go away,
and then you could redo all the rooms
and fire all the staff,
and it would be great,
and you wouldn't have to sit
in some shitty fluorescent-lit courtroom
for the next two years
while your really good lawyer
made some of it go away a different way.
This was easier. And more fun.
And clever.
- [clicks fingers]
- And that was it. The die was cast.
Everything else we know.
You were the one leading the non-toxic,
chemical-free,
"Conscious Landscaping" initiative,
whatever the hell that is,
so you went to the shed
with your glass that broke,
picked up Emily's sister's little tumbler,
filled it with paraquat, fine choice,
and you called Mr. Wynter and said,
let's meet in the Yellow Oval Room.
Let's see if we can talk. I apologize.
Whatever you needed to say.
- And he agreed.
- Give me five minutes.
Even though I have a strong sense
he knew something bad might happen,
just like birds have this thing
where they can sense
a change in barometric pressure
when a storm is coming.
I am going to be dead
by the end of the night.
- You called the Secret Service as Elliott.
- He called at 9:22 p.m.
- Had them clear the 2nd floor.
- We were told to stay off the floor.
Then you carried the poison
into the Family Living Room,
waited for Elsyie to leave,
and then you came in here
with your drinks.
Scotch for you.
Paraquat and scotch for A.B.
And then you gave him
the page from his journal back--
the suicide note--
and watched him put it into his pocket.
And then you went to work.
Tried to charm him.
I doubt he was charmed.
But Mr. Wynter
also wasn't a cynical person.
I don't think he believed
someone could be so malevolent.
But he'd seen a lot. Knew a lot
of pettiness, cruelty, arrogance.
Probably more
than any of us could ever imagine.
But even after everything,
he was still willing
to give you the benefit of the doubt.
It cost him his life.
Wynter drank the poison,
realized immediately what it was,
and tossed the rest onto the roses.
But paraquat works fast
and is devastatingly painful,
and he was rocked.
I'm sure you don't know
that much about poison, Lilly,
but you probably knew enough
to know that what he drank
wasn't going to kill him.
So you threw the vase--
that missed,
but startled him even further--
so you went for the clock.
And that was it.
A.B. was dead.
But now you had to move quickly.
So you grabbed the clock
and escaped into the passageway.
But this damn clock, right? What to do?
It's huge and weird and bloody and cracked
and you couldn't walk around with it
or put it down anywhere.
Now Elsyie and then Bruce
were in this room finding the body,
and you had no reason to believe
that they would so tragically
misinterpret the actions of the other.
For all you knew, Secret Service was gonna
come in 30 seconds, and you'd be caught.
So you stuffed the clock
in this storage drawer
in front of you in the passageway,
waited for them to clear the hall,
and then sped out
through the Treaty Room
and down the Grand Staircase.
And you were free.
You rejoined the party.
But that clock was eating away at you.
What if they're up there?
What if they find it?
And then, as time went by,
and you realized nobody
was saying anything about a dead body,
and trust me, there would be a big to-do
about a dead body in the White House,
especially on the night of a State Dinner,
you decided to go back up
and see what was going on.
Move the clock if you could.
But you get up here, and there's nothing.
No Wynter. No broken vase. Nothing.
Only engineer Bruce Geller,
looking for a leak
from Tripp Morgan's room.
What the hell was going on?
Was Wynter alive? What happened?
You were genuinely confused. Worried.
And that's what everyone saw
from that point forward.
I was looking for him everywhere,
in every room.
- She seemed worried.
- Concerned.
Not panicky, just genuinely worried.
[Cupp] What I saw.
I still haven't found A.B.
[Cupp] Yes,
turns out you are a great actress,
but that's not what it was.
You were panicked.
When I arrived, and all of the details
of what had happened to Mr. Wynter
started to come out,
that he apparently killed himself
in the Game Room,
yes, it was absolutely staggering to you,
mind-blowing, but it was great.
You were off the hook.
And then,
when I started to bring the investigation
down to the second floor,
well, like you said,
you started to get a little worried.
But I was gone soon enough,
and the minute I was, you took
the final step to bury the evidence.
Seal it in. Hopefully forever.
It was a brilliant plan,
and you deserve a lot of credit,
but you really only made it
as long as you did
because of the bizarre miscommunications
and regrettable behavior
from so many other people in the house.
So team effort here.
You really owe them a lot.
Even though you hate them.
[poignant music playing]
This is the man who died.
Right here. In this room.
I heard a lot about him from you.
You can learn a lot about someone
from what he writes and reads.
He was a complicated person:
flawed and difficult, fiercely loyal,
smart and thoughtful,
an enormous pain in the ass,
and endlessly generous in his thoughts.
He had suffered in his life,
and he had persevered,
and I am sorry
I never got the chance to meet him.
He loved this house.
I didn't know him, but I know that.
Loved the people who work here.
Respected them. Understood them.
Appreciated them. Saw them.
Saw who they were, where they came from,
what they had given up to be here,
why they were here.
And there's that question again. Why?
Why are they here? Why was he here?
For you, Mr. President.
And for you, Mr. Morgan.
- [Morgan mouths silently]
- For everyone here.
For all of us.
It wasn't "us versus them" for Wynter.
It really wasn't. It was just us.
One house. One family.
One imperfect union.
Trying to make it work. Enduring.
He believed in that, in this.
And look, I'm just the detective,
but I think
this is really worth believing in.
And she does not believe in this,
and that is why she really, really sucks.
Also, she's a murderer.
I'm still a little unclear
on who has jurisdiction here,
so whoever it is, take her away.
- That would be me.
- Yeah. Relax, gentlemen.
- It's a Bureau thing. I got it.
- No, no.
[indistinct chattering]
Lilly Schumacher.
She wasn't even in my top three.
I had the Swiss Guy, the Salt Guy,
and the Water Guy.
And you?
Let me guess.
- Yep.
- [Bix] Ride or die.
What about Harry?
What about him?
Did he play any role in this?
No. I mean, Tripp Morgan was right.
- He is an asshole.
- Okay, so.
[Cupp] He was incredibly rude
to Mr. Wynter,
he did try to kick me off the case,
he did inappropriately search
Mr. Wynter's office.
I think that was more in the spirit
of being an anxious political animal
as much as anything.
But the conspiracy stuff,
that was all bullshit. Sorry, Senator.
Nah, don't worry.
We're in a closed session.
To his credit, he did bring me back
and let me solve this.
People are complicated.
Why did Lilly
try to frame Bruce and Elsyie?
It was a Hail Mary.
She knew I was onto her in the end.
She knew.
When did you know?
I knew when I knew.
I don't mean that as a riddle.
At some point, you go from
not knowing something to knowing it.
To seeing it.
When is that exactly? I don't know.
I had my suspicions about Lilly
when she first told me
she saw Elsyie and Wynter fighting
in the Yellow Oval Room.
I was in the hall, and I saw him arguing
with someone in the Yellow Oval Room.
Elsyie told me
they fought behind closed doors.
He told me to close the door.
[Cupp] She had no reason to make that up
and it was consistent with what
everyone had told me about Wynter.
That he always tried to have
his disagreements behind closed doors.
[Rollie] He definitely didn't like
to fight in public.
He'd always try to avoid that.
He'd bring you in, close the door.
How could Lilly see them from the hall
if the door was closed?
It was suspicious.
She did see it, because she was watching
from the Family Living Room
where she was mixing her poison.
And when Jasmine said
the call to seal the door
came down from Elliott,
I had a strong sense that it was Lilly.
I had heard her impersonation.
And I never suspected Elliott.
And then she blinked.
Not because of the clock,
though that was the clincher,
but when she said she saw Bruce
put the note in Wynter's jacket.
Lilly wasn't in the Game Room
when I removed the note that night.
She couldn't have known where it was
unless she saw Wynter
put it there himself.
Which she did.
Well, time to departure?
Wheels up in three hours.
Reagan or Dulles?
Dulles.
Well, you better get going, then.
Thank you, Detective Cupp.
I've been doing this a very long time.
I've never seen anyone like you.
[intriguing music playing]
I got you something.
For the trip. Do not open in here.
I feel really bad for the person
sitting next to you on that flight.
Thank you.
For everything.
I need to make a quick stop.
You sure? Do we have time?
We have time.
Five minutes.
I solved the murder.
- The one next door?
- Yes.
Oh great. I thought you might have been
coming about Clive.
No.
Does that mean my son's husband
will be moving back in?
- The President of the United States?
- Yes.
He is.
Oh, it was so nice around here.
I'm sorry.
Who did it?
Wait. Don't tell me.
That snotty girl with the attitude?
Yes.
You could've just asked me.
Detective Cupp?
I'll have them send up vodka, Ms. Cox.
You are good.
Yes. I am.
The best.
[intriguing music playing]
[falcon squawks]
[music intensifies]
[music ends]
[solemn instrumental music playing]