‘The Thursday Murder Club’ Ending Explained – How Multiple Cases and Killers Connect

WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS

There’s quite a lot bundled up in the ending of The Thursday Murder Club. Not one whodunit but technically two, there aren’t just a couple of killers to uncover but also the fate of Coopers Chase itself to determine. The cosy retirement village that hosts the titular club – and makes for a lavish setting in Netflix’s absurdly well-cast adaptation – is on the cusp of being turned into luxury flats by an unscrupulous landlord, which is arguably a more pressing problem than the murders.

All of this is connected, needless to say, and requires a bit of unpacking. How does a long-cold case from the 70s relate to Coopers Chase’s ownership, and potentially Ron’s ex-boxer son and Elizabeth’s dying friend, Penny? What does the new groundsman have to do with it? How does Richard E. Grant factor in? All of this and more below, dear readers.

Who Killed Tony Curran?

The present-day murder in The Thursday Murder Club is that of Tony Curran, one of the co-owners of Coopers Case, along with the unscrupulous Ian Ventham and, it’s later revealed, criminal Bobby Tanner. After pledging to prevent Ventham from selling the place off, Tony was found beaten to death in his home.

Through Bobby Tanner, the club finds out that the Coopers Chase owners were sourcing cheap labour from other countries, bringing workers over and then taking their passports. Most of the time, the passports would eventually be returned, but Tony was inclined to keep them. This is precisely what happened with Bogdan, Coopers Chase’s new Polish groundskeeper.

While playing chess with Bogdan, Elizabeth’s husband, Stephen, confronts him, since he has figured out that he was the one who killed Tony. Bogdan confesses, but explains he only did so in self-defence after Tony attacked him when he tried to get his passport back. Luckily for Bogdan, Stephen has dementia and promptly forgets the conversation. But, unluckily for Bogdan, he also records all of his chess matches so he can study his opponent’s strategy later, so his confession is taped.

Who Killed Angela Hughes?

When The Thursday Murder Club opens, the gang is working on a cold case from the 1970s, in which a woman named Angela Hughes fell out of a second-floor window with a knife lodged in her body. The stab wound killed her, but only because she was left to bleed out by the man who discovered her body. The affair is dubbed “The Woman in White”.

This relates to Elizabeth’s friend Penny Gray, a former police officer who was also a member of the Thursday Murder Club before a stroke left her in palliative care. Penny would provide cold cases for the club to solve, but she saved the matter of Angela Hughes until she was on her deathbed. There’s a very specific reason for this.

Angela was killed by her boyfriend, Peter Mercer, who was subsequently let off, so Penny killed Mercer and buried his body in Coopers Chase’s cemetery. The bones dug up by Bogdan as part of the redevelopment belonged to Mercer and threatened to expose Penny’s guilt in his murder. Which is precisely why…

John Killed Ian Ventham

The Thursday Murder Club knows things are getting serious when Ian Ventham also drops dead, leaving Tanner as the only living owner of Coopers Chase. Ian was killed by Penny’s husband, John, a former veterinarian who administered a lethal dose of fentanyl to prevent him from going to the police about the bones and exposing Penny’s crime. As a man who felt utterly powerless to heal his dying wife, he instead acted rashly to protect her reputation when she could no longer do so herself.

Elizabeth confronts John, but also allows him a final moment alone with Penny, during which he injects her and himself with fentanyl. Elizabeth suspected this would happen and allowed it to, allowing Penny and John a measure of peace, while also believing that justice had been done.

Coopers Chase Is Saved

The matter of Coopers Chase itself is the final one to handle. With Tanner as the only remaining owner, he’s not keen on keeping the place going, but has yet to find a suitable buyer. Elizabeth sees an opportunity to introduce him to one in exchange for keeping quiet about his use of illegal labour. The buyer is Joyce’s hedge fund manager daughter, Joanna.

So, Coopers Chase remains open, and all of its residents flourish in their personal relationships. The stage is capably set for another mystery to be solved, which I’m sure will be showing up in a sequel sooner rather than later.