Wake Up Dead Man ending explained: Who killed Monsignor Wicks?

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**Warning: Contains spoilers for Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.**

Rian Johnson is a master of modern murder mysteries, and his new film is the third installment in his beloved ‘Knives Out’ series, continuing his tradition of clever twists and turns.

In Wake Up Dead Man, Daniel Craig returns as the unconventional detective Benoit Blanc, facing his toughest challenge yet. The mystery is so complex that he initially believes it’s unsolvable – an “impossible crime.” The script draws inspiration from classic “locked room” mysteries, including John Dickson Carr’s novel The Hollow Man.

Josh Brolin plays Monsignor Jefferson Wicks, a priest in a small New York church. He’s gained a very loyal following through his strong and commanding way of preaching.

Everyone, including Police Chief Geraldine Scott (Mila Kunis), initially suspected Reverend Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor). The young Reverend, a former boxer, was sent to the town as a punishment after assaulting a deacon, and he quickly clashed with Wicks, creating a strong potential motive.

Blanc remains skeptical. After asking Jud to detail what happened, he gradually uncovers the truth about who really killed Wicks – and how they did it. However, each new revelation only leads to more mysteries.

Enjoyed the movie and curious about how it all wraps up? We’ll break down the ending of Wake Up Dead Man, but be warned: major spoilers ahead!

Wake Up Dead Man ending explained: Who killed Monsignor Wicks?

From the very beginning, this case is incredibly difficult. Things become even stranger one night when Jud witnesses something unbelievable: Monsignor Wicks seemingly coming back to life and leaving his mausoleum, where he’s met by the groundskeeper, Samson (Thomas Haden Church).

Of course, Jud was drawn to investigate the strange and unearthly event. But as he hurried closer, he was struck unconscious. When he awoke, he found himself lying next to Samson, who had been killed.

Trying to understand the strange events unfolding, he gets a call from the construction company he’d spoken with before. They tell him that Wicks had, while still living, requested the mausoleum be opened.

Jud can’t remember anything while he was unconscious and starts to think he might have killed Samson. He tries to confess to the police, but Blanc stops him, revealing he’s already uncovered some important clues.

He previously mentioned a devil statuette—the object used in the murder—was missing from a bar. Now, he clarifies there were actually two of them. The second one was stolen by Doctor Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner), a member of Wicks’s church.

When Jud and Blanc go to Nat’s house to arrest him, they discover an even more bizarre scene. They find Nat’s body – clearly deceased – dissolving in a bathtub, along with Wicks’s body. Shocked, Blanc immediately calls the police and gathers all the suspects at the church.

Even though Jud insisted on taking responsibility, believing he might be involved, the detective began to explain the truth. He revealed that Nat was the real killer, having cleverly switched one of the devil figurines for another. However, he admitted he couldn’t figure out the rest of the mystery and let the remaining church members go.

What does Martha confess in Wake Up Dead Man?

The situation is still unfolding. Now that everyone else has left, Martha Delacroix (played by Glenn Close), who used to be the Monsignor’s closest assistant, returns to the church and asks Jud if she can confess something to him.

I heard the most incredible story! Apparently, when she was a little girl, she witnessed Old Man Wicks’s grandfather – who used to be the local Reverend – actually swallow a famous diamond called ‘Eve’s Apple’ right before he passed away. He did it deliberately, because he didn’t want his daughter – Wicks’s mother, Grace – to ever have it.

After that, Grace became obsessed with finding the diamond, and in her frantic search, she wrecked the church – something we’d already seen happen in a previous scene.

Martha, sensing Jud questioned her loyalty to Wicks, told the Monsignor where the diamond was hidden. This is why he then instructed the construction crew to excavate the mausoleum, the final resting place of his grandfather.

As Wicks became more erratic and threatened to embarrass his followers, she realized she had to intervene and instructed Nat to eliminate him. She then enlisted Samson, a reliable associate, to pretend to be Wicks’s body and lie in the mausoleum. The plan was for Samson to emerge from the tomb after retrieving the diamond from the deceased elder Wicks.

The plan also involved Samson pretending to be Wicks and being filmed escaping the tomb. This would make people think Wicks had come back to life and vanished.

No one anticipated Jud unexpectedly arriving, which immediately made the situation more difficult. Martha also didn’t realize Nat would try to steal the diamond by killing Samson and then blaming Jud for the crime.

Honestly, it turns out Nat went way too far – he actually tried to kill Martha with poison! But she was smarter than he thought. She figured out his plan and switched their drinks at the last second, so he ended up drinking the poison instead. After that, she put his body in the acid bath with Wicks, which is what Blanc and Jud stumbled upon when they arrived. It’s just… shocking to realize how far he was willing to go.

Okay, so it totally hits me that she knew Benoit Blanc was figuring things out, and that’s why she downed the rest of the poison. It’s a really dramatic moment – as she’s confessing everything and asking for forgiveness, you realize she’s actually dying, right then and there. It’s heartbreaking, honestly.

It quickly becomes apparent that Blanc wasn’t actually puzzled by the mystery. He rarely is! He’d simply been kind to Martha, giving her an opportunity to admit what she’d done and potentially find forgiveness.

What happened to the Eve’s Apple diamond in Wake Up Dead Man?

The movie concludes with a quick look at what happens a year later, showing Cy Draven (Daryl McCormack), a former member of Wicks’s church, still searching for the diamond.

Jud claims he doesn’t know where it is, but the last scene reveals the object hidden on a new crucifix. This crucifix has been installed for the first time since Grace damaged the church in a fit of anger.

Cue the end credits, accompanied by Tom Waits’s Come on Up to the House.

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2025-11-28 15:08