The Thursday Murder Club ending explained: Who was the killer?

Based on Richard Osman’s novel, The Thursday Murder Club on Netflix has been making headlines with three murders having happened at the retirement community, Coopers Chase. Finding out the killer was the ultimate goal of The Thursday Murder Club’s members, which includes a retired spy Elizabeth (Helen Mirren), a new joinee and retired nurse, Joyce (Celia Imrie), a retired union leader Ron (Pierce Bronson), and a retired psychiatrist Ibrahim (Ben Kingsley). 

These armchair detectives have a keen interest in solving cold murder cases, and the old files were given to them by their ex-group member and police officer, Penny. What started as digging up the murder case of Aungela Hughes (1973) led the bunch of senior citizens to solve the real recent murder case of Tony Curran (co-owner of Coopers Chase).

His partner Ian Ventham, was willing to sell the retirement community and wanted to start a new project.

However, Tony was not in favor of this as his Aunt Maude lives there too. 

Ventham called another guy named Bogdan, as a replacement for Tony’s position. Having seen the heated argument between Tony and Ventham, it was obvious for them to add Ventham to the suspect list when Tony was found dead in his apartment.

But, a few days later in the protest, Ventham was killed with a lethal dose of fentanyl. 

After the murder of two people in the village, a skeleton was found by Bogdan when he was digging the area for developing a new project.

This was brought into attention by him to Elizabeth and all the signs were now pointed towards the dangerous and third investor of Coopers Chase, Bobby Tanner, who ultimately becomes the sole owner of the community. 

Elizabeth confronted Bobby, but he confessed that he was not the murderer, and the only illegal activity in which he was involved with Tony was taking passports from immigrants and making them do a lifetime of labor without a chance to escape.

Bogdan was one of those labourers who was hired from Poland, and Tony confiscated his passport. 

Each murder in the village has some ties to the others. Were all of them killed by a single person with the same motive?

After all these murders, here’s a breakdown of who killed whom in The Thursday Murder Club

Tony Curran’s murderer was Bogdan

Tony Curran was found dead in his apartment, and initially, his presumed murderer was Ventham. While joining the dots, Elizabeth noticed that at Tony’s apartment, there were documents messed up and which made her doubt Bogdan, who was an immigrant, and Tony could have possibly taken his passport.

To visit his ailing mother in Poland, Bogdan went to get his passport, and he confessed that he accidentally killed him while stealing it from him. 

Ian Ventham’s murderer was John (Penny’s husband)

Ventham’s murder was linked to the Angela Hughes case. When Penny was investigating the killer of Angela in 1973, she suspected her boyfriend, Peter Mercer.

However, the other men officers did not consider her point and agreed with Peter’s statement that she was killed by a masked intruder. Penny was, however, convinced that Peter was Angela’s murderer, and she killed him in spite.

Penny’s husband, John, helped her to hide his body and buried him. Years later, his remains were found by Bogdan.

However, John wanted Ventham to stop digging that area, and thereby he killed Ventham to save him and Penny from the cold murder case happened years ago.

In Peter Mercer’s murder, John and Penny were both involved. 

After admitting to the murders, John tells the group that he knows they’ll have to call the police, but he asks for a few private moments with his wife, Penny.

He looks at some fentanyl syringes by his bed, and Elizabeth notices, realizing he plans to end his life. As a former MI6 agent, Elizabeth understands that life is complicated.

She and John share a look, and she quietly agrees to let him have that final moment.

The movie ends with John and Penny’s funeral, where Joyce officially becomes the newest member of The Thursday Murder Club.