Warning: the following contains spoilers for Glass onion: a mystery at loggerheads.

It’s official: Glass OnionRian Johnson’s sequel to Knives out, is a killer thriller. Johnson guides us through a maze of twists and turns before bringing us to a strong and satisfying conclusion.

But before we reveal the ending, let’s review the premise. Tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton) invites his closest friends to his private island for a mystery party. Her friends include Congresswoman Claire Debella (Kathryn Hahn), brilliant scientist Lionel Toussaint (Leslie Odom Jr.), former model Birdie Jay (Kate Hudson), her assistant Peg (Jessica Henwick), right-wing streamer Duke Cody ( Dave Bautista), and his girlfriend Whiskey (Madelyn Cline). World-class detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) and Miles’ ex-business partner, Cassandra “Andi” Brand (Janelle Monáe), are also on board. Everyone on the island (minus Benoit) has a reason to want Miles dead, and with tensions higher than ever, it’s only a matter of time before we witness a shocking murder.

Like the titular glass onion, this mystery has layers. But also like the titular onion, this mystery is pretty transparent about its culprit. We just have to fight our way past all distractions to see the killer for who he really is. Let’s put our best Southern slogs in honor of Benoit Blanc and break it down.

who dies in Glass Onion?

RIP Duke.
Credit: John Wilson/Netflix

Miles may have invited his friends to his island to solve his murder, but he’s not our victim. No, that honor goes to Duke, who collapses and dies after mistakenly drinking from Miles’ glass instead of his own. Miles panics, claiming that someone is trying to poison him. Then, to make matters worse, all the lights go out. In the ensuing panic, someone shoots Andi, causing our body to count to two.

Except Andi isn’t even Andi — it’s Helen, Andi’s identical twin sister in disguise. Not only that, Helen is not dead. The bullet lodged in one of Andi’s journals she was carrying, allowing her to survive the attempted murder.

Our body count remains at two, however, because Andi is truly dead – she died before the invitations to Miles Island were sent out. All the while, Benoit and Helen have been trying to solve his murder, but Duke’s death is an added complication. A donut hole within another donut hole, if you will.

How did Andi die in Glass Onion?

Andi deserved better.
Credit: John Wilson/Netflix

Authorities believed Andi died by suicide. However, after going through Andi’s diaries and emails, Helen has a hunch that her sister was murdered by one of Miles’ relatives.

Andi and Miles were business partners in the tech company Alpha, but when Miles wanted to launch a new volatile power source named Klear without any testing, Andi walked. In the ensuing lawsuit, Miles kicked her out of Alpha altogether, claiming he came up with the main idea for Alpha. His proof? A cocktail napkin on which he wrote his plans. However, it was Andi who originally detailed her ideas on a cocktail napkin from the Glass Onion bar, where the “Disruptors” gang all hung out. Unfortunately, she couldn’t find the napkin in time for the trial – because honestly, who keeps track of napkins that are years old? – giving Miles the opportunity to fake his own. He tricked their friends into perjuring themselves in his name, with the promise of funding ventures like political campaigns or sweatpants companies.

Cut to the aftermath of the trial. Andi finds her original cocktail napkin and emails Claire, Lionel, Birdie, and Duke informing them of her discovery. Helen suspects that one of these four drugged her, stole her cocktail napkin, and staged Andi’s suicide, because if Andi revealed Miles, they would all fall too.

So who killed Andi?

Helen (not Andi) searching for her sister’s killer.
Credit: John Wilson/Netflix

In a twist, none of Helen’s original four suspects killed Andi. Instead, the culprit was none other than Miles, who learned of Andi’s email via a fax from Lionel.

As Benoit points out, it’s almost too obvious, but it makes the most sense: who has more to lose from Miles’ exposure than Miles himself? Like the glass onion, the truth always hid transparently in plain sight.

Wait, so who killed Duke?

A murder planned in real time.
Credit: John Wilson/Netflix

Believe it or not, also Miles! Everyone who received Andi’s email rushed to find her, but only Duke saw Miles speeding away from the crime scene in his iconic Baby Blue car. Throughout his time on the island, Duke kept implying that he had seen Miles leaving Andi’s – the word “pancake” made a plot to lift heavy here – and try to leverage Miles for a spot on Alpha News. When news of Andi’s death spreads online, Duke secretly reports it to Miles and forces his hand.

Is Miles concocting an elaborate poison in order to dispatch Duke? Not exactly. He’s just taking advantage of Duke’s pineapple allergy, announced in the scene where all the guests are given a potential COVID cure before arriving on the island. Miles hands Duke his own glass, containing a tropical cocktail with hints of – you guessed it – pineapple juice. Then all he has to do is convince everyone that Duke simply made a mistake by picking up Miles’ drink, turning out the lights, and shooting Helen (who he believes to be Andi) with the gun. which he stole from Duke. In short, Miles has to gaslight, guard the portal, and get away with it.

Benoit is obviously upset by the multiple murders, but hilariously, he’s almost more enraged by the fact that Miles’ guilt was hiding in plain sight. He practically gave Miles the idea that the lights go out and someone gets shot. And to top it off, pineapple juice used as a murder weapon? Ridiculous! But that’s Miles for you – a tech billionaire idiot who never had a brainchild in his life.

Does Miles face justice for the murders of Andi and Duke?

Jail!
Credit: Courtesy of Netflix

There really is a point where it looks like Miles is going to get away with his crimes. Helen finds Andi’s cocktail napkin, but Miles burns it. Afterwards, all the guests on the island say they don’t remember seeing any evidence of her killing Duke. Of course, they side with the richest person in the room…even if he’s a convicted murderer.

But Helen won’t back down until Miles pays for what he did to Andi. She destroys her elaborate glass statues in a mostly cathartic scene, then sets her house on fire. Keep in mind that Miles bragged that his entire house was powered by Klear hydrogen. When this comes into contact with fire, we get an explosion that Claire aptly describes in one word: “Hindenburg.”

In the ensuing explosion, Helen turned off the security system protecting the mona-lisa that Miles loaned to the Louvre during the lockdown. Yes, the real mona-lisa. The world’s most famous painting ignites in flames fueled by Klear, ensuring in a deliciously roundabout way that Miles will get what he’s always wanted: to be remembered in the same breath as the mona-lisa. How is that immortality looking for you now, Miles?

Seeing the carnage and absolute collapse of Miles, his so-called “friends” turn on him one by one and agree that they all saw him burn the towel and change Duke’s drink. As the police boats descend on the island, Benoit smokes with guest of the Derol house (Noah Segan)and Andi prepares to return home knowing that she has avenged her sister.

So this is it : Glass Onion features a double murder mystery involving pineapple juice, a red envelope, two deaths, an explosion and the mona-lisa. It’s the kind of meandering mayhem you can only get from a whodunit involving our favorite Southern sleuth. Hoping that Benoit Blanc and Helen rest well after their return from Greece. After peeling back the layers of this wild mystery, it’s the least they deserve.

Glass Onion airs on Netflix on December 23.