The Afterparty (Season 2), Episodes 1 & 2: Apple TV’s “The Afterparty” was one of the most exciting new shows of last year, all thanks to its quirky style of telling the same story from the perspective of different characters. What further spiced things up was giving a different genre spin to each episode. With a talented starcast and smart writing, the formula worked out and as a result of that, we are now into the second season of the show. Only this time, it is a wedding instead of a high school reunion; and the victim is the groom himself.
While the sophomore season of any successful show is basically a litmus test, if the first two episodes are anything to go by- “The Afterparty” is not going to disappoint us in this season. Let us look into it in detail.
The Afterparty (Season 2), Episodes 1 & 2 Recap:
It is a new story and you can get on the train without any trouble in catching up though the characters of Aniq, Zoé and Detective Danner are being carried forward to this season from season 1. In case you need a quick refresher, Danner was the detective who solved the last season’s case where Aniq was the prime suspect. An escape room designer by profession and hopeless romantic at heart, Aniq is now dating his high-school crush Zoe, who was previously married to another season 1 character, Brett. Anyway, Aniq and Zoe are going strong and he is about to meet her parents at her sister, Grace’s wedding. The groom, Edgar, happens to be an awkward tech mogul with a pet lizard named Roxana, who owns a huge estate where all the actions are taking place. Edgar’s mother, Isabel is under the impression that Grace and her family are after their money only and she doesn’t even try to hide her disapproval.
When Edgar is murdered just the day after the wedding, Aniq suspects foul play as he notices Roxane is dead as well. There is a murder in the house and since rich people cannot go to the police as they have to protect their spotless social status, Aniq brings in Danner. The detective has now left the force and turned into a super successful author, only the book (based on her season 1 case) has not been written yet. With the chance of another highly interesting car, Danner does not waste any time jumping the gun. On her way to the estate, Danner is filled in by Aniq, in his signature rom-com style.
Meet The Parents, And The Other Players
Staying true to the romantic comedy genre, Aniq’s attempt at instantly impressing Zoe’s parents Vivian and Feng (played by Vivian Wu and the indomitable Ken Jeong), and her sister, aka Grace, the bride, goes south when his parked car crashes into Feng’s truck and in the middle of all the chaos, he accidentally destroys Grace’s present to him- a knitted puppet of Aniq which he already mistook for Barack Obama.
Despite all that, Aniq does not lose hope and in the meantime, we meet the other (future) suspects of this newly minted murder mystery. There is Sebastian, Edgar’s best man, who is basically the perfect guy stereotype from rom-com movies who hits on Zoe and constantly makes fun of our bumbling hero. Edgar’s strange sister, Hannah, appears to believe that she might have been an adopted child. Then there is Travis, an ex boyfriend of Grace who has no business being here but of course, the show has deliberately put the “jealous ex” in the mix to add flavor to the drama (and comedy).
What Happens At The Rehearsal Dinner?
Aniq’s struggle continues as he gets booted to the singles table, while his girlfriend sits with the family, and laughs at Sebastian’s jokes. However, Aniq does move to the family table and somehow manages to butt in. The attention soon shifts elsewhere when Edgar surprises Grace by presenting Vivian’s elusive brother, Zoe and Grace’s “fun” uncle (who is called Funcle, obviously), Ulysses – played by John Cho who does not need any introduction. An adventurous, erratic man with many stories, Ulysses offers Edgar to drink a potion from a horne, as part of a family tradition. While Edgar (and Roxane) is disgusted, Aniq sees this as an opportunity to impress Zoe’s family. So he boldly drinks the potion from Ulysses’s horn. But things get worse as the potion happens to fermented camel’s milk which Aniq ends up spitting all over Vivian.
Aniq’s final attempt at impressing his girlfriend’s family backfires as well, when he goes to Vivian to give her a much needed phone charger- but ends up sneaking up on Vivian, Feng and Ulysses who are having an argument. Another important thing happens when a naked man suddenly runs past everyone. Aniq gets caught by Vivian, Feng and Ulysses and tells them he was only there to give the charger.
Episode 1. Tiffany Haddish in “The Afterparty,” premiering July 12, 2023 on Apple TV+.What Happens At The Wedding?
On the morning of the wedding day, Aniq bonds with Edgar while fixing the groom’s bow-tie before the wedding. Although appearing to be weird and awkward at first, Edgar turns out to be a nice man with a soothing presence to Aniq, who gets further elated when Edgar hands him over the responsibility of the vow box. It is another matter that Aniq has to do a lot of heavy lifting as the box happens to match a wooden coffin in terms of appearance and weight. But Aniq manages to pull it off after initial hiccups and the rest of the wedding passes without any hassle. However, it is before the wedding that the drama happens with the two sisters, Grace and Zoe, having a fight regarding Grace’s decision to marry Edgar, who, according to Zoe, is a terribly wrong choice for the younger sister.
Is Grace The Primary Suspect?
The fateful after-party takes place in the evening where Edgar asks Aniq to take care of Roxana during a family photo session. Aniq inevitably loses the green pet lizard but that eventually does not matter as the lizard somehow ends up at her master’s shoulder.
The party comes to an end when Edgar gets drunk and starts name-calling the guests, and his new wife Grace puts a stop to that and takes him to the room. And that’s the last of the groom we see through Aniq’s eye as the next morning, everyone wakes up to Grace’s screaming – only to find Edgar’s lifeless body. Aniq smells murder and Isabel orders everyone to stay inside the estate.
Danner is still on her way but she believes Aniq is intentionally omitting some very essential detail from his story. Upon getting further interrogated by the former detective, who is still on call, Aniq reveals that he had seen Grace pulling herself away from Edgar during their first dance at the after-party. And if this is not enough, he also saw Grace putting some blue pills into Edgar’s drink.
The Afterparty (Season 2), Episode 2 Ending Explained:
A Fairytale Romance? Well, Not Exactly
Things take a tonal-shift as we slip into Grace’s perspective, a period-piece take on the matter honouring the character’s love for everything old world. With Aniq spilling information on the “blue pills”, Grace now has to convince Danner that she did not do it. And the show wastes no time getting into that, and give Grace the opportunity to share her account, in a Bridgerton-esque fashion.
In Grace’s story, she meets the dreamy Edgar Minnows at her antique shop, when Edgar goes there to buy a typewriter for his “adopted” sister Hannah. The “adopted” part is important, we suppose, as both Edgar and Hannah keep mentioning that. Anyway, a fairytale romance blossoms between the antique shop owner and the tech magician. Awkward and strange ,Edgar morphs into someone wholesome and cute, thanks to Grace’s influence. Hannah also becomes best friends with Grace and the two spend a lot of time together, especially when Edgar goes away for work – which he does a lot. The wedding bell rings quite naturally, despite the families of the bride and groom not gelling naturally, and the blame for that has to be bestowed upon the mother Minnows, Lady Isabel.
But Grace is more charmed when Edgar continues to stand up for her in front of her overbearing mother – a trait she never noticed before in all the men she dated. However, as the wedding approaches, Grace notices a change in Edgar as well. The man she fell for just months ago turns back into his former self, even though he keeps giving Grace glimpses of his gentle romantic side, occasionally. While Grace chooses to ignore this and plans to spend eternity in blissful denial, Zoe gets concerned about her sister’s well-being and tries to warn Grace about the terrible mistake she is about to make. That does not go well as the two sisters end up having a terrible fight. The fairytale wedding of Grace and Edgar ultimately takes place, with the blessing of everyone, including “Funcle” Ulysses.
Why Is Travis A Suspect?
While in Aniq’s version of events, Travis appears to be a character who does not really have a point in being at the wedding, Grace’s version justifies his presence. The bride did send out courtesy invitation to all her former lovers, but she never really thought anyone would actually. But Travis, who is clearly not over his past, had other plans. At the afterparty, Travis has an alteration with Edgar and threatens to kill him. Although the whole Edgar getting drunk and attacking everyone with his words is perceived as a form of humour, it cannot be ignored.
Getting back to the “blue pills” mystery, Grace admits to spiking her husband’s drink with it but the pill turns out to be basic Adderall instead of any deadly poison. The only reason Grace gave it to her (now dead) husband was she because wanted her husband to stay awake on their wedding night, while Edgar was pretty much hell-bent at calling it a night. The mystery of Grace having a fight with Edgar during the first dance also gets solved when we see Grace trying to convince Edgar for a dance, eventually getting him to do it but then the groom quitting it midway, leaving his bride embarassed in front of everyone.
While Danner and Aniq hear and evaluate Grace’s version of the story, Zoé and Travis run their own investigation. Travis, a character straight out of a noir-mystery, very much intends to clear the name of his beloved and Zoé also has the same intention. However, both of them seem foolish enough to mutilate the crime scene as they turn Edgar’s body, close off his eyes to avoid getting creeped out, then try to open it in order to unlock Edgar’s phone and determining the time of death with the help of his health app. Danner, who is not a cop anymore, does not really care but she very much intends to keep Travis under the microscope. Travis denies even knowing Edgar that well first but then accidentally drops his binder, which is filled with news reports related to none other than Edgar Minnows. We cannot wait to see Travis’s version unfolding next week, in true-blue noir style.
Wild Killer Prediction: To make things interesting, this is something we are going to do every week. For now, my money is on the shady best man Sebastian, who might have some grudge against Edgar. Who knows?
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The Afterparty (Season 2), Episode 1, 2 Links: IMDb
The Afterparty (Season 2), Episode 1, 2 Cast: Tiffany Haddish, Sam Richardson, Zoe Chao, Alanna Phillips
Where to watch The Afterparty
