Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery ending explained: Who was the real killer of Wicks?

Rain Johnson’s Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is the third installment in the Knives Out film series, with Daniel Craig coming back to reprise his role as private detective Benoit Blanc. The film is already available in select theaters from November 26, 2025, and its twisted mystery has once again made the third sequel stand out. The story keeps moving back and forth in time. First, we learn the history of a special diamond. Then we see how the search for this diamond in the present day leads to the deaths of not just one person, but three.

By the end of the film, Blanc solves the mystery for the audience, but the people in his town still believe a miracle happened. Even though he knows who the killer is, he chooses not to seek legal justice. Instead, the film shows that faith, forgiveness, and redemption can help individuals confront their guilt and learn from their mistakes.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery ending explained: What is the mystery behind the diamond, and who was the killer?

The church, Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude, is led by Monsignor Jefferson Wicks and Jud Duplenticy, who join him to seek redemption for whatever he did in the past. But here comes the twist. Jud observes that there’s a missing church cross, and Wicks says that his mother, Grace, had turned the church upside down in the past. Later, through he flashbacks, it is revealed that his mother was desperately searching for a diamond when Wicks’ grandfather died. Grace’s father was not in favour of letting his daughter inherit the wealth, for him, she was a “harlot whore.”  To hide it from his daughter or to stop it from falling into the wrong hands, he swallowed the diamond. Only Martha knew this secret. But Martha told Wicks, and Wicks then wanted to take the diamond.

To protect the diamond, Wicks’ grandfather has assigned Martha Delacroix to hide the secret, but in doing that, she killed two people: Wicks and Dr Nat Sharp. To protect his priceless treasure, Martha even faked the resurrection of Wicks, scaring people across the town. To kill Wicks, Martha and Dr Nat were both involved. 

Martha first mixes Pentobarbital into Wicks’ flask. During the crowded church service, he falls through a mysterious door and disappears. At the same time, Dr. Nat kills him with a knife that belonged to Jud, so the police start suspecting Jud of the murder. Dr. Nat’s reason for killing Wicks was that Wicks was a rude man who threatened people by exposing their secrets, and Nat didn’t want his own drinking problem to be revealed. But Martha had her own plan.

During the funeral, Martha’s husband, Samson, secretly replaces Wicks’ body. In the fake resurrection scene, Samson rises from the tomb, making people believe that Wicks is alive again. During this chaos, Martha takes the diamond and hides it. But then Samson dies because Nat had secretly planned to take the diamond for himself. Martha is heartbroken to see her husband dead, and when she confronts Dr. Nat, he intends to kill her by drugging her drink. But Martha switches the cups, which leads to Dr. Nat’s death instead.

So, Nat, Wicks, and Samson all died, and the secret of the diamond stayed safe. To protect herself, Martha made it look like Wicks and Nat had poisoned each other with the same drug. She placed Wicks’ body next to Nat’s body, which was already dissolving in acid.

Before Blanc could fully solve the case, Martha confessed everything on her own. She took the same drug she had used to kill Nat and Wicks, then went to give her final sermon. There, Jud performed the last rites, and Martha died peacefully. 

Soon after, the story jumps to one year later. Blanc keeps Martha’s secret about the diamond and the deaths. He does this so that people will remember her peaceful final moments and not turn against her. Martha had asked for forgiveness for everything, even for misunderstanding Grace the same way Wicks’ grandfather did. In the end, we learn that Grace was never given the respect she deserved, and her search for the diamond was not driven by greed, but by her profound pain and sadness.

Jud becomes the new leader of the church, and the diamond is now kept safely under the church’s cross, something Jud had noticed was missing at the beginning of the film.