Breaking Down the Twisty Ending of the New Knives Out Mystery Wake Up Dead Man

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When a seemingly unsolvable crime happens at a church in rural New York, detective Benoit Blanc starts investigating. This time, he teams up with Father Jud Duplenticy, a former boxer who is now a junior pastor, to unravel the mystery. However, Jud himself becomes a key suspect in the murder of the church’s stern head priest, Monsignor Jefferson Wicks.

Rian Johnson, the director of Knives Out and Glass Onion, is taking a different approach with the new Benoit Blanc mystery, Wake Up Dead Man. Unlike the previous films which were inspired by Agatha Christie, this one explores the complex and often sensitive topic of religion in America. Johnson told Gold Derby that the idea wasn’t based on a mystery novel at all, but rather on creating a fun whodunit that could honestly examine faith in the country today. Having grown up Christian but no longer identifying with the religion, he wanted to tackle this complicated issue in a way that was thoughtful and genuine, avoiding both judgmental preaching and overly cautious handling of the subject.

Johnson compared his book, Wake Up Dead Man, to a classic crime novel, but said John Dickson Carr’s 1935 book, The Hollow Man (also known as The Three Coffins), was a closer match than anything by Agatha Christie. He explained that Carr was a contemporary of Christie’s and a major influence on him, particularly for his expertise in “locked-door mysteries” and the gothic, Edgar Allan Poe-like atmosphere of his stories. Johnson specifically mentioned that Carr’s influence is reflected in the movie adaptation of Wake Up Dead Man and that he feels indebted to Carr’s work.

Now available on Netflix after a short run in theaters, Wake Up Dead Man presents a complex mystery. The story begins on Good Friday: after delivering a harsh sermon, Wicks is found dead in a locked room right off the church altar. Jud steps in to continue the service, and during a brief nine-second period when he’s out of view, Wicks is stabbed with a knife. This makes Jud the prime suspect. Although Jud disliked Wicks’ aggressive preaching and how he treated people, he insists he didn’t do it, and detective Blanc appears to believe him.

But if Jud didn’t do it, then who did? And perhaps more perplexingly, how?

Who killed Wicks?

Let’s quickly recap the main characters before revealing who committed the crime. We have Glenn Close playing Martha Delacroix, who has managed the church for years; Kerry Washington as Vera Draven, a lawyer unhappy with her current situation; Daryl McCormack as Cy Draven, Vera’s half-brother and a former politician with far-right views; Jeremy Renner as Dr. Nat Sharp, a local doctor battling alcoholism after a divorce; Andrew Scott as Lee Ross, a science fiction author whose book about Wicks is meant to revive his career; Cailee Spaeny as Simone Vivane, a talented cellist whose career was cut short by a nerve problem; and Thomas Haden Church as Samson Holt, Martha’s partner and the church’s groundskeeper.

Although anyone in Wicks’ congregation could have wanted him dead, it was ultimately Dr. Nat who committed the murder. Blanc discovered that a second devil’s head ornament was missing from the bar, revealing Nat had stolen it. Nat had secretly filled one of the ornaments with a small amount of fake blood and sewn it onto Wicks’ vest. He also put a tranquilizer in Wicks’ flask to knock him unconscious. Once Wicks was out, Nat used a remote control to activate the fake blood device, making Jud think Wicks was already dead. While pretending to examine the body, Nat swapped the original devil’s head for another one he’d rigged with a knife, fatally stabbing Wicks. However, Nat overlooked one crucial detail: the drugged flask. Jud had hidden it, hoping to help Wicks’ followers by concealing his drinking problem, and this ultimately provided the key evidence.

Who else was involved?

Having revealed Nat as the killer, Blanc planned to deliver a conclusive explanation of the events. Instead, he unexpectedly cleared the way for Martha, the true person behind everything, to step forward and confess herself.

Martha knew the church well, having attended since childhood. She was the only person James Faulkner – the founder of Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude and Wicks’ grandfather – trusted with the location of the Eve’s Apple diamond, which represented his entire fortune. He’d hidden it inside his own body. After James died and was entombed in the mausoleum, Wicks’ mother, Grace, desperately searched the chapel for the diamond, hoping to escape a shameful and abusive life at the church, but she died during the search.

When Jud came to the church, Martha finally told Wicks where the diamond was hidden. However, she discovered his plan to rob his grandfather’s tomb, hoping to find the diamond, sell it, and use the money to become more powerful with Cy—who turned out to be Wicks’ son, not Vera’s father’s. Martha, with help from Nat and Samson, then plotted to kill Wicks and stage his resurrection, hoping to bring back faith in the church.

Martha planned for Samson to pretend to be the recently deceased Wicks, rising from his coffin with the Eve’s Apple diamond hidden on him. The church’s security camera would record this fake resurrection, and Nat, disguised as Samson, would witness it. However, Martha hadn’t anticipated Jud arriving during the staged event, nor Nat giving in to his greed. Nat knocked Jud unconscious, then killed Samson and stole the diamond, leaving Jud to wake up believing he had accidentally caused Samson’s death.

When Martha discovered Samson was dead, she suspected Nat was involved and went to his house. There, she found out he and others were planning to dissolve Wicks’ body in acid, confirming her fears. Nat attempted to poison Martha’s tea and steal a diamond, but Martha realized what he was doing and secretly swapped the teacups. She then cleverly positioned Wicks’ body to make it appear as though Nat had fallen into the acid himself.

After Martha admitted everything, she just broke down in my arms, telling me she’d actually taken some of the poison herself before going back inside. It was heartbreaking. In her last moments, she begged for forgiveness, not just for her own mistakes, but also for how she’d treated poor Grace – Jud gently reminded her to ask for that one specifically. Thankfully, Jud and Blanc managed to stop Cy from getting the diamond, and Jud ended up hiding it somewhere no one would ever find it – inside the new crucifix he built for the church. It felt like a fitting end, honestly.

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2025-12-13 01:07