‘The Residence’ Creator Unpacks Netflix Mystery’s ‘Mischievous’ Resolution

Note: This story contains spoilers from Netflix’s “The Residence.”

“The Residence” took Netflix viewers through an elaborate tour of the White House — via a complicated but comedic murder mystery.

Created by Paul William Davies and based on the non-fiction book “The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House” by Kate Andersen Brower, the mystery of who killed White House chief usher A.B. Wynter (Giancarlo Esposito) was revealed by the end of Episode 8. Detective Cordelia Cupp (Uzo Aduba) found that Lilly Schumacher, the President’s social secretary played by Molly Griggs, was the person responsible for the murder.

Things get complicated from there, as at least five of the 157 potential suspects had a hand in moving Wynter’s body from where the murder took place, to where Nan Cox (Jane Curtin) first found him and kicked off the investigation.

“[‘The Residence] is crazy and silly and preposterous on one level, but there’s an internal logic to it,” creator Paul William Davies told TheWrap. “I fought hard, mainly with myself, to make sure that the logic was there.”

TheWrap spoke with Davies about resolving this elaborate mystery, finding the right killer and where the story could go next.

TheWrap: “The Residence” finale was so impressive, and really used every minute to give us all the answers to this intricate crime. You threw a lot of clues and threads at us in the first seven episodes, how did you approach bringing it all together for this satisfying ending in Episode 8?

Paul William Davies: This is definitely inspired by and hopes to be a part of a great legacy of big all-star cast murder mysteries. I really wanted one of those classic big summation moments. Get everybody in the room and go through it all, and I really wanted it to be where you didn’t know who the killer is until that last moment where person’s identified. There’s all kinds of different ways that great mysteries are told, but I always love that particular version of it, where you’ve just got everybody in the room at the end.

One of the ways I wanted to achieve that, in a way that didn’t feel like it was a cheat to the audience, was to make it so Cordelia Cupp herself did not know. So it was not just that I was keeping something from you, because that’s always a little frustrating. She needed to find out. She kind of knew how it was done, but she didn’t know who did it so she used the summation to figure it out.

That was genius, and adds to the comedy of the show too, because she’s essentially asking the suspects to help her solve the crime — and they stay because it’s in their best interest to see where the investigation is going since it could be anyone by the time Episode 8 starts.

This show is crazy and silly and preposterous on one level obviously, but there’s an internal logic to it. I fought hard, mainly with myself, to make sure that the logic was there. When she says early on in the episode, “You know you can leave,” it makes it so they actually can’t leave. There’s no real exit [until we learn who the killer is.]

Lilly Schumacher turned out to be the killer all along, which makes a lot of sense now that all the cards are on the table but it really could have been any of the suspects. Why make her the killer and was that your plan all along?

It was my plan after I’d come up with a plan. In other words, I never changed it once I came to the realization I wanted to do this as a murder mystery. I sat down to really figure out, who is the right victim? And who is the right killer? They were related pursuits, and I spent a lot of time kicking the tires on who it could be and what would be the most satisfying.

It was really important to me that the conflict between whoever those two people ended up to be was really rooted in the house — and then I settled on the chief usher and the social secretary. I wanted that conflict to matter to the context in which it appears … I wanted it to be driven by the house and how it was run and what it looked like. I realized that those two positions would probably best embody that conflict, because it is a real thing. Obviously nobody’s killed each other in those roles, but there is real tension there. And as much as they all work together, it’s always a bit jarring for permanent, longtime staff to be faced with somebody who wants to come in and redo a lot of stuff, and conversely, for somebody who wants to come in and has ideas to deal with a staff that does not necessarily want to change the way things are done. There’s an inherent tension in that. Usually that gets worked out and can lead to beautiful things. Sometimes it can lead to more conflict. But I liked the idea that the tension was at the root of this crime.

Then it was a question of “How do I establish her as a viable suspect without giving too much away?” But also not so buried that at the end you’re like, “Wait, I’ve never heard of that person before.” So in almost every episode, there is a conflict that you see with Lilly, but it’s often peripheral to the main one of the episode. There’s this whole thing about Christmas, there’s this whole thing about the musical guests, there’s a whole thing about the flowers, there’s all this evidence. But really, you’re kind of focused on other characters. But in all of those things, there’s always Lilly.

How did the conversation with Molly go and when did it happen? Did she always know it’d be her?

I told Molly after she joined the cast, because I thought it’s important for her to know that this is where her character is headed. She’s a brilliant actress, she’s absolutely nothing like Lilly Schumacher. And it’s really an incredible performance, because she just inhabits it so distinctively and authentically

The thing about Lilly is that, in a lot of those scenes, she was genuinely mystified about where this A.B. Wynter was. So when she goes up to Cupp in Episode 1, it’s the genius of Molly’s performance where she’s like “Wait, have you seen him?” But she’s asking for a different reason. Molly just gave us something beautiful in every episode that was so great … It’s just a great performance.

Then there’s the piece of the mystery that involves Bruce (Mel Rodriguez), Elsyie (Julieth Restrepo), Tripp (Jason Lee) and Didier (Bronson Pinchot) involved in moving the body from the yellow oval to the game room. Why add that into the mystery?

It’s part of the fun. It got more people involved, but I liked this idea of referencing things like “Murder on the Orient Express,” which Randall Park mentions in Episode 8, where everybody did it.

I liked this idea that a lot of them unintentionally were involved in [the murder], but they didn’t actually do it … It’s preposterous in a way, but also the internal logic of it all worked. I wanted to design something as intricate and kind of mischievous as possible, but also to keep it defensible. That was a fun challenge for me from the start.

I love that Cordelia checks in on Nan at the end of the show, a full circle moment since she was the first person she interviewed for the case. Why end things there?

I didn’t intend to do that from the start at all. That was really born out of Jane and Uzo being together and watching how vibrant and dynamic and fun they were together. I was like, “Oh, I need to do more with them in general.”

I think that Cordelia really respects Nan. There’s an honesty to her and an insight that she has about people in her that I think really resonates with Cordelia. They’re very different people, but that honesty and sense of perception that Nan has, Cordelia also has. So there’s a bond there. You don’t see Cordelia particularly impressed with anybody, but I think she does find something impressive about Nan.

She’s the one person at the very end that Cordelia feels she has to go tell her that she figured it out. And Nan goes, “I knew the whole time.” That had a big impact on me and I was like, “I have to end the show that way.”

The mystery has been solved and Cordelia is off on her next birding adventure. You have told me you have ideas to continue the story somehow if Netflix gives the green light. Which storyline have you thought about following up with the most, Cordelia or the White House staff?

Probably Cordelia. Not that there’s not great stories to tell if we were in the White House, there clearly are. I have so much respect for those folks, and also I love those characters in that world. I do think probably the natural trajectory in terms of storytelling is to take Cordelia and possibly Edwin or Larry (Isiah Whitlock Jr.) — but certainly Cordelia and Edwin — somewhere else. There’s so much more to talk about with Cordelia and to see her do something else that’s fun and invigorating.

I think there’s lots to learn more of if we were lucky enough to do it.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

“The Residence” is now streaming on Netflix.

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