The Afterparty (Season 2) Episode 9: A paranoia-filled story of a murder mystery where a woman’s descent into madness becomes the focal point is probably the best possible way The Afterparty could go into its penultimate episode of the season. By now, we can all agree that the Apple TV comedy has been in supreme form in its sophomore year. The latest episode is another profound example of that only, which focuses on Isabel, and as you would expect from the character- this one is told in the style of 1950’s melodramatic thriller horror, which perfectly fits the bill.
The Afterparty (Season 2) Episode 9 Recap:
Isabel has been the epitome of everything strange, cold, and mysterious by far. The character has had limited screentime where she has received a lot of dislike from others. But in The Afterparty, there is always more to a character than what you usually see. Isabel Minnows is no different, as we finally get to see things from her perspective. But unlike the other characters, her story starts from a point which is many months before the wedding. Seasoned actress Elizabeth Perkins expectedly delivers a masterful performance as the character.
The Grieving Widow
Isabel Minnows’s life turns upside down after losing her husband Alexander in the worst possible manner, where he was flying a private plane and fell asleep, which resulted in the inevitable, horrifying death of the man as well as that of the passengers’, who were unfortunate enough to board the plane. A morose Isabel started living with her tech-businessman son Edgar and adopted daughter Hannah in Edgar’s estate, with the hope for a turnaround. For her sleeping trouble, her dutiful son gives her sleeping pills. But that fails to help Isabel as sleep keeps eluding her. With each passing day, life continues to get more miserable for the grieving widow of Alexander Minnows.
What’s the deal with Sebastian?
Sebastian has been the constant in our killer prediction list. Edgar’s best friend and business partner who was fired just before Edgar died, has been shady from the very beginning and has given us all the reasons to suspect him. Even his version of the story couldn’t exonerate him. While Isabel shares her story with all the intrigue, Sebastian receives a phone call and quietly slips out of the room. However, he can’t escape the eyes of Travis, who has always been on him. Unfortunately, though, Travis is sloppy enough to be caught by Sebastian. But upon realizing Travis knows a lot more than he should, Sebastian decides to share his plan with Travis. All he has been doing is selling Edgar’s assets and making money out of it before the world realizes that Edgar was a crook. He does seem convincing; at least Travis buys it seeing Sebastian on a phone call, which mostly validates this story. But there is probably more to it.
The Descend, Into Madness
A still from The Afterparty (Season 2) Episode 9Back to Isabel’s story, the grieving widow continues to struggle, and her life keeps turning worse. Along with the ongoing sleeping trouble, she starts forgetting certain things, like ordering a samurai sword or a lot of big armored tin-men figurines (yes, the same ones about which Isabel asked Aniq if he was interested in). Naturally, her son Edgar and daughter Hannah start to get concerned for their mother’s well-being. Isabel keeps trying to maintain her sanity but upon realizing its future, she decides to give in to it and further descends into insanity. As a result of thiss, Edgar finds her mother bouncing on a newly bought trampoline.
The Afterparty (Season 2) Episode 9 Ending Explained:
Did Isabel Really Kill Edgar?
While the other characters tell Aniq and Danner their stories in order to clear themselves from the list of suspects, Isabel shares her version with everyone, and her story starts with the information that she is aware of what really happened. This makes the episode different from the other ones and far more intriguing. Isabel’s nightmare of a life worsens further when she starts to suspect that it is her son who is behind all her trouble as he might be up to something. In Isabel’s story, Edgar deliberately says the name ‘Gail’ to Isabel instead of Grace. Isabel’s doubt gets fuelled when, during the wedding, she finds out that the pills Edgar gave her were Adderalls instead of sleeping pills – which actually explains why Isabel was up all the time instead of sleeping. Realizing her own son is purposefully trying to drive her crazy, Isabel is heartbroken but decides to give one back to Edgar. In a strange manner of events, Isabel also reveals that she values Hannah’s opinion the most and actually cares about her adopted daughter, which surprises everyone, including Hannah. Unfortunately for Isabel though, her own son plotted against her in order to get a hold of her money; at least, that’s what her story implies.
At the wedding party, Edgar deliberately tampers Isabel’s speech so that it is proven to everyone, including the family therapist, that Isabel needs to be committed to an asylum. Isabel plays along but manages to turn things around when it counts, which pisses off Edgar. Travis tells Isabel that her son is up to no good, which does not surprise Isabel. When Edgar offers her a piece of cake and gets one for himself, Isabel manages to change the plates at the very same moment Kyler asks Edgar to try the ‘Baobing’. That very night becomes the last night of Edgar Minnows. According to Isabel, that cake is what killed him as it was clearly meant for her, but she switched it and killed her own son.
While it can be assumed that Edgar was up to no good and was probably trying to make his mother go insane, it would be far-fetched to conclude that he poisoned the cake to kill Isabel. Also, according to Aniq, the timeline doesn’t match, as Edgar died much later after eating the cake, and the Devil’s Trumpet has something to do with his death. Not that this completely exonerates Isabel Minnows, but her version of events indicating Edgar died because he poisoned her mother’s piece of cake doesn’t seem convincing at all. The episode ending with the police appearing and Isabel blaming Grace again out of the blue sets up the course for a grand finale, where the real killer will be revealed. We can’t wait to see that.
Wild Killer Prediction for one final time:
Well, Sebastian called the police. And Isabel confessed to killing her own son. What if these two are trying to pull off something?
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The Afterparty (Season 2), Episode 9 Links: IMDb
The Afterparty (Season 2), Episode 9 Cast: Tiffany Haddish, Sam Richardson, Zoe Chao, Alanna Phillips
Where to watch The Afterparty
