Created by Christopher Miller, The Afterparty is a true-blue whodunit that takes you on an entertaining ride, where we get to see Detective Danner connect the dots and find the killer of a famous pop star. What works best for the Apple TV+ series is witnessing the way the characters find themselves in amusing situations, and though it does get a bit over the top at times, the actors are able to pull it off most of the time. There are inconsistencies in the story, and at times the makers do opt for redundant tropes, but the short 30-minute episodes really help their cause and become one of the main reasons why it doesn’t feel stretched. So, let’s find out what happened at the Afterparty and if Detective Danner is able to find the truth.
Spoilers Alert
What Happened At ‘The Afterparty’?
Things didn’t go down as planned at the high school reunion, and what was supposed to be a fun night where old friends met and talked about the good old days became a nightmare for all of them. Xavier, the celebrity singer, was pushed from his balcony by someone, and after that the suspicion fell on all the people present in the house. Detective Danner took charge of the case, and one by one, through the testimonies of the suspects, she started figuring out what had exactly happened during the course of the party. Danner connected the dots, and she realized that each and every one of them had a lot of hidden agendas and motives behind coming to the party. Danner was specially told to only take the statements of the suspects because her superior, Aldrin Germain, who was once her colleague in the training academy, was going to arrive the next day and take charge of things. But Danner didn’t follow her orders because she wanted to prove her worth. She wanted to tell her bureau to stop discriminating against her and give her the position and respect she deserved. After the reunion that was organized at the high school itself, everybody came to Xavier’s lavish mansion for the Afterparty. Danner, by examining the dead body, realized that Xavier hadn’t committed suicide, but somebody had pushed him from the balcony. She had very little time before Germain took the case from her, and so she started her investigation in the hope that before dawn, she could find the killer of Xavier.
Why Did Chelsea Want To Take Revenge On Xavier?
Chelsea’s life was a mess, and she had no clue how she had landed there after being such a good student in high school. Everybody had thought that she would do great things in her life and have a flourishing career, but life had not turned out like that for Chelsea. She made one wrong choice after another, and she was now working as a receptionist for a veterinarian. She held Xavier responsible for all of it, and that is why she had come to the reunion and then decided to join her batchmates for the Afterparty as well, as she wanted to take revenge on Xavier. Back when they were at school, Chelsea had attended the Saint Patrick’s Day party, and everyone got to know that she had just broken up with Ned. Xavier was a naive and simple boy at the time who had big dreams for his band and thought that he would conquer the world with his bandmate Yasper. But things didn’t go as planned, and Xavier realized that Yasper didn’t want to be in the band since he thought that he would do better as a solo artist.
Xavier was heartbroken, and he met Chelsea at the party, who was also going through a bad phase in her life. They both started talking and went inside the bedroom. Xavier thought that they were going to get intimate, but Chelsea didn’t have any such thing on her mind. Xavier felt humiliated, and when he came out, he told everybody that he and Chelsea had been together, probably because he was too scared to accept that she had rejected him. The rumor spread like wildfire, people started questioning her character and Chelsea’s life went downhill after that. She developed acute anxiety issues, and her life became a train wreck. Nobody wanted Chelsea at the reunion party, but she came anyway so that she could teach Xavier a lesson.
Chelsea was receiving anonymous messages in which she was being threatened and told to leave the party. Chelsea thought that those messages were being sent by Zoe since she also hated her. Chelsea had an affair with Zoe’s husband, Brett, and though she regretted her actions immediately, the damage had already been done. Chelsea didn’t want to kill Xavier, but she wanted to humiliate him in front of the world. Chelsea had brought a cat tranquilizer with her, and she wanted to use it to drug Xavier and then post a naked picture of him on social media. But at the very last moment of the Afterparty, Chelsea had a change of heart, and she realized that she would get nothing from taking revenge. She went to Xavier’s room and told him to accept his fault and that whatever he had done back at the Saint Patrick’s Day party wasn’t right. Chelsea decided to move on and try to bring her life back on track.
What Had Happened To Aniq At The Saint Patrick’s Day Party?
Aniq had wanted to propose to Zoe for the longest time, but he never had the courage to make a move. There were others like Brett who were quite vocal about their feelings and, unlike Aniq, made the most of a given opportunity. Aniq had created a playlist on CD for Zoe that had all her favorite songs, but before he could go and give it to her, Xavier came out of nowhere, pulled Aniq’s pants down in front of everyone, and threw him into the pool. Brett, meanwhile, got close to Zoe, and he even took the credit for making a playlist for her, which impressed Zoe quite a lot. Aniq witnessed all this, and he just couldn’t control his anger. Xavier was mad at Aniq because he thought that he was the reason why Yasper broke up the band and decided to go solo.
Xavier believed that Aniq was influencing Yasper and brainwashing him into believing that Xavier was good for nothing. Aniq went out with a baseball bat, and he smashed Xavier’s brand-new car. The police arrived at the scene, and they asked Xavier if he wanted to press charges or not. Aniq was getting a scholarship from the school, and he knew that if Xavier pressed charges, then the school administration would cancel the scholarship. Aniq literally begged Xavier not to do so because his whole life would be spoiled, but Xavier was so enraged that he didn’t care about anything. He pressed charges, and Aniq could never forgive him for doing that. From the girl he loved to the hopes of having a bright future, Aniq lost everything at that party, and he still held a grudge against Xavier when they all met for the reunion.
Who Killed Xavier? And Why?
Detective Danner, after listening to all those present at the Afterparty, finally figured out who was responsible for murdering Xavier. She told everybody that the murderer was either Brett or Aniq because both of them had very strong vendettas against the star singer. But before she could say anything, Aniq surprisingly took Brett’s side and said that he couldn’t have committed the crime since he wasn’t in the bedroom with Xavier when he was pushed from the balcony. Brett didn’t expect that Aniq would ever take his side, and he was as surprised as everybody else. Aniq told Danner that he had reason to believe that the killer was hiding in the wardrobe closet, as when he had gone upstairs after Xaviers was killed, he had seen that the closet door was open. Danner just wanted to test everyone by saying that Brett and Aniq were the prime suspects; she knew that neither of them had committed the murder. Danner finally disclosed that, according to her theory, it was Yasper who had killed Xavier.
Everybody was shocked, as they could not believe that Yasper was capable of any such thing. Yasper confessed to his crimes, and he told Danner that he felt that Xavier never deserved the success he got. Yasper was jealous of him, and he wanted the fame and popularity that Xavier enjoyed. Yasper wanted Xavier to bless his upcoming song, and he had approached him at the party about the same. Xavier had said no to his face and told him that he should have thought about it when he broke the band back in the day and decided to go solo because, apparently, he didn’t think that being with Xavier would do him any good. Yasper asked Xavier not to tell anyone about it, and then he pretended that Xavier was thinking about his offer and the chances that he would come on board were quite high. During the Afterparty, Yasper went to the recording room, and then, when nobody was watching, he went up to Xavier’s bedroom. Yasper punched Xavier in the face and pushed him from his balcony, and then instead of coming down the stairs, he managed to descend from the balcony itself. Yasper had the perfect alibi, as nobody had seen him leave the recording room. There was a lot of animosity inside Yasper, and he just wanted to be famous no matter what the cost was. Detective Danner arrested Yasper, and she did it before her arch-nemesis, Aldrin Germain, arrived at the scene.
Final Words
The ending of The Afterparty gave a much-needed closure to a lot of people, and it also gave many an opportunity to fulfill their desires and prove their worth. Danner was able to prove that she was as competent as Aldrin Germain and had the men around her not been so prejudiced, she would also have been in a much higher position like Aldrin, and it wouldn’t have taken her years to become a detective. Danner always knew that she had the potential, and with Xavier’s case, she realized that sometimes opportunities aren’t given; they need to be snatched. Aniq and Zoe went back together, and midway through, Zoe stopped the car, and they both shared a beautiful romantic moment for which Aniq had been waiting since high school. We believe that Aniq and Zoe will end up together and create their own sweet world before another tragedy falls their way and they somehow get entangled in another murder mystery. Danner would once again be at the helm of affairs, and she would want to know the “mind movies” of everyone present at the scene. It would be interesting to see if the makers in Season 2 are able to create a storyline that is able to keep you on the edge of your seats or if they fall into the trap of predictability and aren’t able to bring anything new to the table.
