'The Afterparty' episode five: ranking the top suspects
By Jake Skubish, Peter Coutu, and Will Skubish
The Afterparty, a new Apple TV+ series from Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (21 Jump Street, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, The LEGO Movie), employs a classic formula with a wickedly simple twist. The formula: an Agatha Christie-style murder mystery, with all the suspects gathered in one location after the murder while a detective tries to piece it all together. The twist: in each episode the events are recounted from one suspect’s perspective, and each suspect sees the world in a radically different way.
Are they lying to the detective? Are they lying to themselves? It’s difficult to figure out, but a lot of fun trying to solve the mystery. Just over halfway through the series, Peter Coutu, my brother Will, and I rank who we each think are the top suspects.
Jake
5. No one — Xavier just fell and died. Throughout the first five episodes, the characters describe the sequence of events at Xavier’s (Dave Franco) house leading up to his death. I find it extremely unlikely that all of them could have coordinated their stories before the detectives showed up, and so it seems like there’s a pretty small window where Xavier could have died. We know Xavier falls from the balcony, and no one admits to seeing it happen. Could he have just fallen? It’s certainly plausible. It’s lower on my list, though, because it would be an unsatisfying end to a very fun series.
4. Aniq. I don’t really think Aniq (Sam Richardson) did it. But he has a strong motive: Xavier ruined his chances with Zoë (Zoë Chao) back in high school; Xavier then turned down the opportunity to clear up a situation with the police, which leads to Aniq’s arrest for destroying Xavier’s car, and leads to Aniq losing his college scholarship to Stanford. There is also an obvious opportunity: Aniq goes upstairs, yells, and then we discover Xavier is dead. He easily could have pushed him then. So why don’t I think Aniq did it? Maybe because I think Detective Danner (Tiffany Haddish) knows something we don’t, and I also think she’s well aware Aniq is snooping on the interviews. She knows he can help her solve this thing, and as she says, they are on the same side.
3. Walt. It feels way too obvious for it to be Walt (Jamie Demetriou). The weird guy that claims to know everyone, but no one remembers him? It’s an overly conspicuous red herring. However, there are only three people not present in the room when Aniq wakes up and goes upstairs to confront Xavier: Brett, Walt, and Yasper. Brett claims to be in his car with his daughter (who we still haven’t confirmed is actually there), and Yasper claims to be in the studio. Could Walt be the one in the mysteriously occupied bathroom? Maybe. But with how little everyone else seems to notice him, it wouldn’t be hard for him to kill Xavier and slip right by everyone else. The only thing missing is a clear motive. I suspect Walt might be Xavier’s brother, or somehow related to him, which could provide some sort of motive.
2. No one — and none of this is real. My most Galaxy Brain take, but I don’t think it should be ruled out. There is just something off about the whole situation. We also know Aniq is a puzzle-maker; could this be a new game he is working on? This take is also rooted in knowledge of Lord and Miller’s previous work. There are meta-narrative reveals in the Jump Street movies as well as The LEGO Movie, and they really like to play with genre expectations.
1. Yasper. To me, it’s not even close: there is strong evidence that Yasper (Ben Schwartz) is the killer. There are clear motives: either Xavier rejected his request to bless his track, or Yasper thought Xavier’s death would make the blessing even more valuable. Even more significant: Yasper’s story has inconsistencies with everyone else’s timeline. If Brett is telling the truth about the order of events, Yasper was in the studio earlier in the night than he claimed to be. If that’s the case, his whereabouts at the time of the murder are unexplained. He also mentions offhand to Detective Danner that he did gymnastics, and I think it’s possible he could have killed Xavier, hidden the sound with the song he played on the TVs, and then jumped down from the upper balcony to the lower balcony.
PETER
5. Everyone. Well, not really everyone. But so many partygoers have a very strong motive for wanting to see this SOB dead. So there’s a couple ways this could work out. One: A group of friends, long simmering about Xavier’s undeserved fame and fortune, plotted out a way to enrich their lives and end Xavier’s weeks, months, or years ago. Maybe Zoë, Yasper, and Aniq are helping cover for each other and throw the detectives off track. It would be easier to pull off this kind of crime with multiple people helping. Yasper blasts the Ska video to mute out Xavier’s shrieks, Zoë pushes him off the balcony, and Aniq has the detective and other guests blame him — but unable to come up with any hard evidence to support it, essentially wastes their time. There are lots of combinations to make it work.
4. Ned. Sweet, stupid Ned. It couldn’t be possible that this blank character could be at the center of this murder, right? Well, I’m not so sure. Xavier lied about sleeping with Chelsea right after she broke up with Ned (Kelvin Yu), who believed it did happen and seems a little too surprised after learning the truth in the most recent episode. Could he have been dwelling on this for years? We’ve seen in other situations — like Aniq just missing his chance with Zoë — that these moments can dramatically impact someone’s life for years. Maybe Ned’s downward spiral also started that night, and he blames Xavier. Maybe he knows from the two Jennifers (Tiya Sircar and Ayden Mayeri), who love to gossip, about who hates Xavier, like really, really hates Xavier, and believes someone else with a much stronger motive will naturally get blamed for the crime. Part of this theory also relies on the fact that something seems to be up with the Jennifers, who have always been quick to point fingers. An incriminating or exonerating clue could be coming soon for Ned.
3. Yasper. Yasper seems like the most obvious pick so far, with one of the strongest motives, inconsistencies in his story, and inside knowledge about Xavier’s house, making it easier to cover up the murder after the fact. And maybe this is me just being an idiot, but if someone is so clearly the most obviously culprit at this point in a show this smart, it can’t be them! What a letdown that would be! So I’ll plop Yasper in at third, not because he’s a long shot at all, but because he’s the frontrunner at this point.
2. Detective Danner. She heard about this crime on the scanner and now she is risking her career for it? Why? It seems odd, and there must be some reveal about her character in the final three episodes. She even has one named after her. Could it be — and sure this might be stupid and would ruin the show — that she orchestrated the whole thing? She knows who “did” it, or at least who she has framed to have done it, so that she can be the heroic, old-school detective who solved the case in the middle of the night with no help? Now that makes a career. That gets the captain off her back. I mean, didn’t she say she doesn’t even really care about clues? What! And yeah, the “how” here is a little tricky. And the motive is flimsy. And in general it doesn’t make much sense. But if I’m right? What a guess!
1. Zoë. This prediction could end up looking mighty stupid in just a few days, but I’ve got a hunch that Zoë might be at the center of it. We’ve seen inconsistencies between stories, with everyone making themselves the center of the narrative. But everyone loves Zoë. Everyone! Even Walt, in the last episode, leaves a nothing interaction, when Zoë brushes off his offer of stew, saying that he just had a great conversation with her. Yasper is her friend. Brett is dying to get her back. Aniq has been in love with her for years. Even Xavier was trying to woo her. Everyone we’ve heard from, really, would either intentionally obscure her role, or unintentionally miss the signs. And she’s clearly a central part to this story.
Will
5. Walt. I don’t seriously consider Walt as a suspect. As Peter pointed out, the show is smart, and making the most mysterious character who routinely makes ominous comments would be too simple. That being said, I can’t say that Walt is completely innocent. In episode five, we finally get to see from Walt’s perspective the events of the St. Patrick’s Day party and the reunion. We do not see, however, Walt’s perspective during the afterparty. It’s hard to believe that Walt didn’t see something during that night that he has not brought up yet. So do I think Walt did it? No. But do I think he might know who did? Maybe.
4. Jen 2. Jen 2 is missing! I think it’s likely that Jen 2 has gone into labor and is at the hospital giving birth. But, as has been said before, this show is smart. So, if she is actually giving birth, there has to be a significant implication of the birth. I have two theories stemming from one fact: These characters are interacting in a closed social circle. It would be unlike the show that Jen 2 just happens to be pregnant and that the father is unknown by anyone and is suspiciously away in Tokyo making shoes for dogs. I believe someone at the party is the father. The two possible fathers in my mind are Xavier or Ned. Xavier being the father explains the strange confrontation Jen 2 had with Chelsea in high school (Jen 2 is interested in Xavier at that point), and gives her a motive for killing Xavier (maybe he’s not acknowledging the situation, or avoiding her). My other fun theory is that Ned impregnated Jen 2 and that Jen 1 actually knows about it and fakes her own pregnancy to keep Ned around.
3. Brett. Brett is a hot-head who has been shown to lie in order to be with Zoë. Why is it so unbelievable that he would kill Xavier, who was flirting with her, and lie about it? This guess is also just an excuse to bring up that Brett reveals his Facebook password is “diarrhea” in episode two. Maybe this is just a red herring the show throws in, but we haven’t seen a better explanation for why anybody, either Xavier or someone forging his handwriting, would write “diarrhea” on Aniq’s neck. Even if it is just a throwaway joke and a red herring, it reminds me how much fun this show is.
2. Chelsea. Spoiler for my #1 suspect: It’s Yasper. However, I think that there’s a possibility that Chelsea could be his accomplice. We haven’t seen too much to explain the strange relationship between Yasper and Chelsea. Despite not being very close friends in high school and not talking much at the reunion itself, they end up riding in the same car to the party and have several conversations throughout the night, one of which Chelsea admits is a pep talk to go through with her initial plan of drugging Xavier. What if Chelsea isn’t lying that she didn’t go through with her plan of drugging Xavier, but is lying about not killing him? She could have easily distracted Xavier in the room so that Yasper could get into the room and hide to kill Xavier later. Sometimes it’s easier to tell a half-lie, something I suspect many of the characters are doing in their stories.
1. Yasper. All signs point to Yasper being the murderer. He has several motives (being overshadowed by his former bandmate, getting revenge for what Xavier did to Aniq, Xavier refusing to bless his track, etc.) and the tools (knowing the ins and outs of the house from setting up all of the A/V equipment) to pull off the murder. I believe the strongest motive, however, is revealed when Yasper off-handedly makes a comment to Aniq when they’re first in the bathroom that he’s working on a tribute song. Yasper thinks that he can achieve his dreams of stardom by writing a song to his deceased — and very famous — “best friend.” Here’s my guess of how he did it: He steals Xavier’s phone when they’re taking shots together at the reunion, texts himself from the phone throughout the night to give a false timeline, uses the old Ska-pe Diem concert footage to cover the sounds of Xavier falling, jumps down to the lower balcony to join the rest of the group, and later uses Xavier’s phone in episode three to erase the camera footage (if you look closely, you can see he’s holding a black phone in that scene, which is different than his white phone in a green case he shows to Aniq in the bathroom). So, yeah. It’s definitely Yasper.