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Warning! This article contains spoilers for Lazarus season 1.The ending of Lazarus season 1 includes plenty of answers, even more mysteries, and a massive season 2 cliffhanger. Since the first look at Harlan Coben's Lazarus, audiences have been curious about the new crime thriller. The trailer for Lazarus only deepened this curiosity, delving into the story of Sam Claflin's Joel, who begins seeing ghosts after his father's death. Lazarus season 1 begins with this death, several decades after the murder of Joel's younger sister, Sutton. Joel soon begins seeing the ghosts of his father's patients, delving into their broken minds to uncover the mysteries surrounding the deaths of both Sutton and his father, Bill Nighy's Jonathan. Evidently, the thriller is typical of a Harlan Coben TV show. By the time of Lazarus season 1's ending, several twists and turns later, some of Joel's mysteries begin to become clear. The murderer of Sutton is revealed, as is the true nature of Jonathan's death, and how this links to the apparitions Joel saw. This is not without raising more questions, though, and setting up a new killer for the potential story of Lazarus season 2. Lazarus Season 1's Ending Revealed Bill Nighy's Jonathan Lazarus As A Serial Killer The inciting incident of Lazarus season 1 was the death of psychotherapist Jonathan Lazarus, who appeared to Joel as an apparition, insisting he was murdered. This spiraled into an exploration of several of Jonathan's old patients who had been killed, Cassandra, Harry, and Imogen, as Joel began to connect the dots between them all. Cassandra's death was the first investigated after it was revealed that she had killed her boyfriend, Neil. Then there was Harry, a boy supposedly murdered by a pedophile named Frank, who himself committed suicide. Finally, Imogen was Jonathan's secret lover, who was apparently killed by one of Joel's own patients, a serial killer and rapist known as Arlo Jones. Despite Joel believing all of these people were murdered by the same killer, who also killed Jonathan, it was revealed in Lazarus season 1's ending that Jonathan himself was the serial killer. After the aforementioned murder of Jonathan's daughter, Sutton, he became cold and detached, stating to Joel that he had lost a bit of himself. This allowed him to commit his first murder, Cassandra, after she murdered Neil in front of Jonathan. He then killed Harry, another "broken" person, like Cassandra, whom Jonathan deemed was beyond saving mentally, thus meaning he "freed" them and anyone they could have hurt, like Neil. The motivation for Imogen was slightly different, with Jonathan "saving" her from an illness. After "saving" these people, Jonathan implicated several other people he deemed broken or dangerous. For Cassandra, he framed Neil, a domestic abuser whose body he had helped conceal. For Harry's murder, he framed Frank, a pedophile who had sexually assaulted the former when he was younger. Finally, for Imogen, he framed serial killer and rapist Arlo Jones. He succeeded in this by manipulating his friend Alison Brown, a detective, and feeding her false evidence. All of this is revealed by Jonathan in Lazarus season 1's ending, either via tape recordings or Joel's ghostly apparitions that allowed him to investigate the deaths of Cassandra, Harry, and Imogen in the first place. Who Killed Jonathan Lazarus In Lazarus Season 1 The reveal that Jonathan was the killer in Lazarus season 1 was a big twist, especially given that the show started as an investigation into his murder. In the final episode of the season, it is revealed that Jonathan did die by suicide, as first thought, only a suicide that was prompted by Alison. Alison figured out Jonathan's deception and confronted him in his office. She gave him a gun, insisting that he needed to end the cycle of violence he had begun. Jonathan shot himself, insisting to Joel via apparition that it was still murder, as Alison gave him no choice. Was Joel Actually Seeing The Ghosts Of Jonathan's Murder Victims? All of these revelations led to a major question in Lazarus season 1: Was Joel actually seeing the ghosts of murder victims? From conversations he had with Cassandra, Harry, and Imogen to talks with Jonathan, Sutton, and another, unrelated murder victim named Margot, Lazarus season 1 implies that Joel was actually speaking to apparitions of these people. However, every conversation, besides those with Jonathan, had the victims speaking to Joel as if he were his father. In the final moments of Lazarus season 1, the reason for this is potentially revealed. Jenna, Joel's surviving sister, finds tapes from Jonathan's office, revealing that their father recorded every single conversation that happened in that room. Early episodes of Lazarus showed Joel listening to these tapes, recounting the exact conversations Jonathan had once had with Cassandra, Harry, Imogen, Sutton, Margot, and Joel himself. These conversations were direct copies of the scenes Joel experienced with the various "ghosts," coincidentally all in Jonathan's office, implying that these apparitions were all in his head, driven by the tapes he listened to. It is also mentioned that Joel suffered a mental breakdown after Sutton's death, which his friends worried was happening again after Jonathan's death. Lazarus season 1's ending does not give a concrete answer either way, but it is strongly implied that Joel's mental health was suffering once more, leading him to believe the conversations he heard were actually happening as ghostly encounters. Sutton's Murder In Lazarus Season 1 Explained Sutton's murder was a big plot point of Lazarus, both because of the way it fractured the titular family and because Joel initially thought it was tied to the other murders he was investigating. However, it is revealed in Lazarus season 1 that Sutton's murder was an isolated incident, at least in terms of the killer and their motivation. Sutton's murder was committed by a man named Sam Olsen, someone who went to school with the Lazarus siblings. Sam is revealed as someone who had a very unhealthy obsession with Sutton, often sneaking into the Lazarus house to take pictures of Sutton's bedroom, clothes, and underwear. After a school dance in which Sutton caught Billy, her boyfriend, drugging and kissing her sister, Jenna, she left and went home. She caught Sam in the act, who, in his obsessive mind, mistook Sutton's anger for lust. Sam then tried to force himself on her, leading her to scream, which resulted in Sam smashing her head against her bedframe. This is discovered after Joel realizes that a stuffed toy dog found in Sam's house, which Sam insisted Sutton had given to him when they were children, was in her room the night of her murder. Sam is arrested, giving Joel and Jenna some closure over Sutton's death. As alluded to, this death is what caused Jonathan to crack, tying it to Lazarus' wider murder mysteries. What Jonathan Lazarus' Suicide Note Meant Another central mystery throughout Lazarus season 1 was the suicide note left by Jonathan. The page simply read "it's not over" with a drawing of what seemed to be a three-legged stool. Eventually, Joel uncovers that this is only the second page of a larger note and that the stool is actually a dolmen. A dolmen is a type of tomb that symbolizes death, the afterlife, and the bridge between worlds. During one of Joel's "conversations" with Jonathan, the latter reveals his meaning for the note: time is cyclical, and the death caused by Jonathan is doomed to repeat itself via Joel. Joel chooses to be better, seemingly breaking the cycle. However, a major Lazarus season 1 cliffhanger that sets up season 2 indicates that Jonathan's note did actually symbolize more to come. Lazarus Season 1's Cliffhanger Sets Up A Different Murderer For Season 2 In the very final moments of Lazarus season 1, it is revealed that Joel's son, Aidan, is also a murderer. The aforementioned murder of Margot, Jonathan's assistant, is the only death throughout the show that does not link much to any other plot point. In the finale, it is uncovered that Margot was murdered using a sickle. The final moments of Lazarus season 1 see Joel entering the house of his new lover, Laura, only to find Aidan wielding a sickle with blood on it. It is unclear why Aidan killed Margot and either killed or seriously wounded Laura as of Lazarus season 1's ending, though this sets up the show's second season, should it happen.
