Netflix’s The Residence is not your typical whodunit. What starts as a mysterious death during a glamorous White House state dinner turns into a chaotic game of Clue—where nearly everyone touches the crime scene, but only one person pulls the trigger (figuratively speaking). So… who killed A.B. Wynter? And why was his body moved across half the White House?
Let’s break it all down.
Who Was A.B. Wynter?
A.B. Wynter (played by Giancarlo Esposito) was the chief usher of the White House, managing the staff and maintaining tradition. On the night of a high-profile dinner for Australia, he’s found dead in the game room. It looks like a suicide—slit wrists and a note in his pocket—but Detective Cornelia Cupp (Uzo Aduba) quickly sees through the setup.
There’s poison in his system, cuts on his face, blunt force trauma to the head… and he’s not even wearing his own shirt.
So, Who Killed A.B. Wynter?
The killer is Lilly Schumacher (Molly Griggs), the White House’s social secretary. She clashed with A.B. over almost everything—decorations, vendors, and her modern ideas—but the real motive was darker.
A.B. found out she was misusing government funds and keeping a shady paper trail. When he threatened to expose her, she snapped.
How Did Lilly Kill Him?
Lilly’s plan was intricate. She:
- Stole a toxic herbicide from the White House garden.
- Tricked A.B. into a meeting in the Yellow Oval Room.
- Faked a call to the Secret Service to clear the floor (doing an impression of the First Gentleman!).
- Poisoned A.B.’s scotch, then finished the job with a clock to the head.
She hid the murder weapon behind a wall and later sealed the room, pretending to protect others.
Her slip-ups in conversation—knowing details she shouldn’t—eventually gave her away.
Wait… Why Was the Body in the Game Room?
Here’s where The Residence goes off the rails (in a fun way).
- Bruce, the White House engineer, found the body and moved it to protect Elsyie (the housekeeper he loves), thinking she might’ve killed A.B.
- Tripp, the President’s drunk brother, found it next, panicked, and moved it again to the game room. He even cut the wrists and staged the scene to look like suicide.
Two body movers. No logic. Just chaos.
The Blood-Stained Shirt?
That wasn’t even A.B.’s. He had swapped shirts with Foreign Minister Rylance, who had a nosebleed hookup with the chef outside. A.B. offered his own shirt to help the guy out. That’s just who he was—a man of dignity, even in death.
Final Thoughts
The Residence may be full of drama, twists, and absurd coverups, but at its heart, it’s a story about power, pride, and secrets in the most powerful house in the world. In the end, the real killer was someone driven by ambition and fear—but almost everyone played a part in turning a murder into a circus.
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