[This story contains major spoilers from the season one finale of Netflix‘s The Residence.]

Sometimes it only takes a blink to tell a detective everything — or at least it does for Uzo Aduba’s Cordelia Cupp and Randall Park’s Edwin Park in the finale of Netflix’s The Residence.

Throughout the eight-episode Netflix series, the murder mystery is maintained until the very end, as the audience eagerly waited to learn who killed White House chief usher A.B. Wynter (Giancarlo Esposito). Though red herrings and multiple suspects appeared to be at fault for the murder — including housekeeper Elsyie Chayle (Julieth Restrepo), engineer Bruce Geller (Mel Rodriguez) and even the rising White House assistant usher Jasmine (Susan Kelechi Watson) — the actual killer was revealed in the season finale to be (spoiler alert!) Lilly Schumacher (Molly Griggs), the White House Social Secretary.

While taking her likely suspects on a tour of the events of the murder, Aduba’s Cordelia assessed the group while pointing out clues along the way. The suspects then gathered for a conversation in the Yellow Oval Room, where Cordelia pointed to a sealed door and missing murder weapon, two important details to solving the mystery. After Grigg’s Lilly admitted she had the door sealed, she told everyone she did it only to “protect” White House staff members Elsyie and Bruce, who are the lead suspects. However, Cordelia’s right-hand man Edwin (Park) caught the “blink” that Cordelia had cautioned him to be on the lookout for (i.e. the moment the culprit accidentally reveals themselves), and they then applaud Lilly for her performance as they pinpoint her as the actual killer instead.

It’s ultimately revealed that Lilly sealed the door to hide the clock she used to bludgeon Wynter. But why did the social secretary commit the crime? Because Wynter was onto the other crimes she was already committing. After analyzing his journal, Cordelia was able to decipher the diligent log Wynter kept of each criminal statute and ethical code that Lilly broke during her tenure at the White House, which included stealing money, trading favors and securing shady contracts.

“I had to really think: Who’s the person that would engender the most kind of hostility among the widest range of possible people?” showrunner Paul William Davies tells The Hollywood Reporter. “One of the things that struck me in reading the book [The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House] and then doing more research, was this friction in the house between the established, resident staff and the people that stay there for four years but then move on.”

Though Davies says he considered other murderers, including switching the plot to have the chief usher murdering the social secretary or even having the first gentleman playing a part, he ultimately “wanted to root the whole story in the house, and [Lilly and Wynter] emerged as the two best kind of oppositional figures.”

In the conversation below with THR, Davies talks about that killer reveal, the Easter eggs placed throughout, that final scene with Cordelia back in the White House and where the series could go next for a possible season two.

***

So, I was not correct with my guess on who the killer would be. I was convinced it was Jasmine, played by Susan Watson.

That’s exactly what it should be because you meet her and it’s a little sketchy. She’s real mad in that elevator [with Giancarlo Esposito’s A.B. Wynter]. She seems real nervous. She’s the one who shows them everything, but she also disappears for a long time. Susan did such a brilliant job of being suspicious, and then just bearing that for extended periods where you really were like, “Oh yeah, she’s our reliable narrator.” It was a real credit to her that she pulled that off. She’s amazing. So it actually makes me really happy that she was your pick. It was kind of designed to feel that way.

Now we can say that Lilly Schumacher was revealed as A.B. Wynter’s killer. At what point did you decide it was going to be them and what their motives would be?

Right at the very beginning. I thought about what I wanted the tone [to be] and the world. But once I did that, the first order of business really was both figuring out who the killer was, but also the victim. I had to really think: Who’s the person that would engender the most kind of hostility among the widest range of possible people? Searching for the victim was always tied in with who the killer would be. One of the things that struck me in reading the book, and then doing more research, was this kind of friction in the house, sometimes between the social secretary and chief usher, but really more between the established, resident staff and the people who stay there for four years, but then move on. I wanted to root the whole story in the house, and they emerged as the two best kind of oppositional figures.

Was there anyone else you considered, or was it always going to be Lilly?

I did kick the tires on lots of the other folks, honestly, and there was even a point where I had it switched, where the victim was going to be the social secretary and the murder was going to be the chief usher. It was going to be born out of a similar conflict, that the chief usher was driven to kill the social secretary, who he felt was ruining the house, and then it was going to be covered up. I have these memos I wrote to myself where I’m like, “What if it’s the reverse, and how would that play out?” So that was ironically the other leading contender. Probably, at some point early on, I was thinking, what if it’s the president? The first gentleman I did think about at one point seriously, because it’ss similarly situated to the social secretary in the sense that they often have this tense relationship with the institution in the house. But I wanted to be more rooted in the house. It felt like it would just get too in that orbit.

Can you talk to me about crafting how the murder was executed? I loved the homage to the classic Agatha Christie poison, but there were quite a few items and sequence of events involved to lead up to the actual murder.

Part of it was driven by wanting to have as much fun with the genre as possible. The poison was absolute. I’m like, “I cannot do this if I don’t have poison!” I didn’t know how exactly was going to be used. I had the realization about that door, because my assistant Eileen and I noticed at one point that that was sealed off and when we were looking at research photos, I was like, “Oh my God, the idea of there being a disappearing passageway, that’s actually real?” That just felt too fun. I liked the idea of moving the body around. I liked the Murder on the Orient expression of a lot of people involved, and yet they weren’t actually responsible for it. That was a way to riff off of that book/movie. There were a lot of people weirdly responsible, but they didn’t actually do it.

Uzo Aduba in The Residence. Jessica Brooks/Netflix

You said that you told the actor who would be playing the murderer right off the bat before filming. What was Molly Griggs’ reaction to learning who their character really was?

She was great! She was totally game. She’s like, “Yeah, that’s fun. I’ll delight in that.” And, she did! I think that I did not tell her until she was actually in the show, as opposed to auditioning for the show, because we didn’t want anybody to know.

What conversations did you both about how to portray Lilly throughout the show, and then how that would change once the reveal happens?

We talked about how it’s walking that line. A lot of that was less on Molly and more on me in terms of how I cut it, how long we lingered on things. We really had to be careful about making sure that she popped, which she did with her pink dress on the night of murder (laughs). I just had to be careful working with all of the editors. I always knew at the end that I was going to have to calibrate everything to make sure that nothing popped too much. I always thought of this as an eight-hour movie, all interconnected. I knew as I got to the end that I would have to make sure, whether it’s the different clues or the suspects or Molly, that everything felt like it was balanced so you could follow along and play along, but that I wouldn’t give too much away. She [Griggs] gave us an incredible performance with levels that we could dial up and down to make sure we were hitting it all, and not revealing too much. She’s an incredible actress.

There are choices that are intentional and obvious to anyone in the know that viewers are kept in the dark about until the end. Looking back, were there any moments you debated about being too obvious?

It’s a great question, because it was the constant anxiety that I had about making sure that balance was right. If you go back and watch the pilot, there’s a scene towards the end where they’re in the Blue Room, after the news has gotten out that there’s a body, and Cordelia says, “There could be a murder out there or in here.” There’s a moment where the president is taking that in, he looks up and double takes at Lilly, who’s standing next to him in this pink dress. I’m like, is that giving away too much, standing here in this room with this pink dress? He looks at her right after that line. But I kept that in.

Going back to Molly’s performance in [episode eight], until we get to the moment that she’s revealed, she never says anything. She’s the only person in that whole tour through the house that literally never says a word until she says, “It was me.” That was intentional, because I’m like, why would she be speaking up? But it also always scared me, because I was worried somebody would say, “Well, everybody’s saying something or being addressed and she never does, and she’s just reacting.”

In that big doll house shot in the pilot, all of our characters are doing little things in there that you would have to really freeze and watch. You can see Elsie coming down the staircase, Sheila in the butler’s pantry looking anxious. And if you really look closely, you can see Molly’s pink dress in the second floor yellow Oval Room, opening the door. There was a point where that was much more conspicuous. It was hard to know exactly how to dial that all in a way that that wasn’t too much or too little. I feel pretty good about where we got to.

Are you able to break down some of the Easter eggs where a viewer could go back and see the connections to Lilly?

You see she was the one who was consistently having these butting heads [moments] with him [Wynter] about all of this stuff, more than the other folks who had conflict with him. It’s just pieced out over more episodes. I think the other thing that I think worked out well about her as a suspect is that, because of the crazy way that happened, where Bruce cleaned that scene up and she went back up there, she was mystified herself and panicked — not because she had just killed him, but his body is gone. When she goes in and meets Cupp for the first time, she is genuinely like, “Where is that guy?” And that really threw Cordelia off, because as good as she is and as powerful as her instincts are and her ability to read people, she was seeing somebody genuinely [being] like, “I’m trying to find this person.”

Molly Griggs in The Residence: “When she goes in and meets Cupp for the first time, she is genuinely like, ‘Where is that guy?’” Erin Simkin/Netflix

The story feels like mysteries within a mystery given there are so many staff stories. But I also felt like A.B. Wynter was a mystery, because we only get bits and pieces of him. What did you want to get across with who A.B. Wynter was and did you feel he was alienated from everyone given their personal issues with him?

I do think you don’t really ever get an objective view of him, other than at the top of [episode] eight, which was kind of the point. You got all of these fragments of bits with him, and people’s perceptions of their interactions with him in the heat of a very traumatic event, where they’re also trying to protect themselves, and they’re under the microscope or the binoculars. You really got his point of view of who he was and what he was trying to deal with, and all of the stuff that was being thrown at him.

I think he was a reserved person. He was kind of old school. He had a real sense of right and wrong. He had a very strong work ethic. He could be a tough boss, but I do think there was immense amount of respect for him in the way that he ran that house and the love he had for the house and the institution and the people. I think some of the perceptions of him were slightly distorted by the context in which they were given. You could see that emotion from people who worked in the house at the end, about about how he was. The very first thing in the show is seeing him go through his night, but you don’t really have much context. In the end, it’s much more developed. But beyond that, you’re getting other people’s perceptions of them, and only trying to be able to figure it out yourself through those perspectives, which aren’t totally reliable in the moment.

In Cordelia’s monologue to the group about A.B. and reflecting on the fact that, despite this goose chase, there was still a loss of human life and people tend to forget about that in a mystery, she says, “It wasn’t us versus them for Wynter. It was just us. One house. One family. One imperfect union.” Can you talk about that line and what you wanted to get across in that moment?

That really was how he felt about this place, and it’s also what Cordelia says right after, which is, “I’m just a detective here, but I think that’s really important, the way he viewed this and what this house means for this country and he really took that seriously.” I think she believes in that, too. So it was important to her to say that to everybody, and I think that meant a lot to him on a personal level. I think also on a broader spiritual level, this is an important place and it’s important that people come together and work together despite differences. That’s both practical for running, but it’s also symbolic for the country that the house represents. I think she was right in detecting that from him and and also expressing that herself.

We see Cordelia and Edwin bond and gain an understanding of each other by the end, in particular Edwin beginning to see more of how Cordelia is. Early in the finale, Cordelia cautions him to look for the “blink.” Was that a tell that Edwin is now onto Cordelia’s methods, or is it them being more on the same page in their detective dynamic?

A little bit of both. I think there was real growth in their relationship and the time they spent together. Despite what he does in episode six, they get past that and it was really important to me for that kind of betrayal, where he basically says there’s nothing here, he feels both bad about that and it was a result of a lot of pressure. I think she really did feel affection for him. I think she trusted him more at the end, and respected him. But there’s this gag about [how] he’s constantly not quite sitting right next to her. He’s always a couple inches back. He’s always standing behind her. I didn’t want to push it too far, because I wanted to give them lots of room to grow. And if we do more of the show with Cordelia and Edwin, then there’s lots more for them to figure out and to work out and and if we don’t, then I still think it’s a lovely place to end with how their relationship matures over the time that they spend together.

Uzo Aduba as Cordelia Cupp and Randall Park as Edwin Park in The Residence. Erin Simkin/Netflix

Speaking of another pair, Bruce and Elsie became important to the mystery because they not only were suspects but also people that Lilly tried to essentially frame. Was it just a matter of them being in the right place at the wrong time? Why did you want to center them more?

Part of it was fortuity. There was some very bad luck involved that they were there and how that unfolded, and what Lilly saw is that opportunity. Cordelia says in that summation, “all criminal acts are motive plus opportunity.” It really does make an enormous difference. She saw an opportunity, and that opportunity was born out of this misunderstanding that they had. It was misfortune on their part to be in that but on the other end, it’s like Bruce was doing it for the right reason. He really was trying to protect her and knew how all this would look to a certain extent. But he did clean up this whole thing, dragged his [Wynter’s] body away and I think that accounts for when they’re being framed in the moment. They can’t just say, “Oh no, I didn’t have anything to do it.”

That was another point of diabolical genius on Lilly, because she knew that they really would have a tough time defending themselves given how implicated they they were. But I really love the two of them as actors and that relationship. They both had real strong motives and I thought their relationship was really special.

Aduba’s Cordela visits Nan (Jane Curtin) in the final scene of the season. Jessica Brooks/Netflix

In the very end, we see Cordelia make a pit stop to the White House again to speak with Nan Cox (Jane Curtin) who tells Cordelia she knew it was Lilly and that she could’ve just asked her. Did she know all along?

I didn’t know I was going to end with that scene, but I loved the two of them together in the first scene they did. I thought it was so dynamic. I really could see how much Cupp respected Nan in a way, like her honesty and how perceptive she was. It was important for Cupp to go back to her and tell her of all people, because she recognized there was an insight and honesty to her that I think she understood and really embraced. The idea that Nan was like, “Oh, I could see that all the way. That woman was nuts.” That to me was just fun, because it is kind of believable, and I think almost believable to Cupp that she had that insight. The two of them were so delightful together.

When I spoke with Uzo and Randall about where they could see Cordelia and Edwin solve a mystery next, Uzo said the Seychelles and Randall said Bakersfield. Since you said you have ideas of where another season could go, can you tease what you would want to explore? What classics would you still want to reference?

I do think the two of them are so fun, and if you do it right, you could put them anywhere. I’d probably prefer the Seychelles over Bakersfield in terms of just the experience of it all, but Bakersfield feels fun, too. (Laughs) You really could do it anywhere. I think it’s fun to take them to places around the world, because Cordelia works as a consulting detective in Washington, DC. I think people know her from around the world. They know her work. She gets recruited to do things. She loves to travel. She loves to bird. So the idea of putting her in a place, far afield next time, if we were lucky enough to do it, would be great. Iconic places are fun. There’s subculture in so many institutions so they don’t necessarily have to be a brand building or whatever, but I do think there is a lot of fun there and learning about the environment of a big place. That to me seems appealing.

***

The Residence is streaming on Netflix now. Read THR‘s first interview with Paul William Davies about making The Residence, and with stars Uzo Aduba and Randall Park.