Ranking ‘The Afterparty’ Suspects By How Likely They Are To Be The Murderer
This is a deeply scientific ranking, of course.
Apple TV’s The Afterparty is a wholesome and hilarious whodunnit, and easily one of the most memorable watches of the year so far. So, before we officially find out on Friday who did it, let’s rank our likely suspects.
— Warning: Major spoilers for The Afterparty ahead! —
But first, a recap on said murder: The Afterparty established in its season premiere that sex-bomb pop-idol, Xavier (Dave Franco) has been killed at the afterparty he was hosting for his 25-year school reunion. The working theory is that Xavier was thrown from the balcony of his cliffside mansion bedroom. Just one problem: all of the guests claim they didn’t see him fall or even heard him scream.
So let’s assess the situation.
Over the course of The Afterparty, Detective Danner (Tiffany Haddish) has interviewed six prime suspects. Each has gotten their own genre-traversing episode where they explain what happened from their point of view.
First, there was Aniq (Sam Richardson) who painted the events of the evening as if he were the romantic hero of a rom-com gone arie. Brett (Ike Barinholtz) saw the night as something out of a fast and furious film. Following Brett was Yasper (Ben Schwartz), who fancied himself the charismatic protagonist of an edgy musical.
Messy gal Chelsea (Ilana Glazer) explained to Danner how her night felt straight out of an ’80s horror movie before Walt (Jamie Demetriou) regaled everyone with an insight into their ’00s high school party past, and finally, Zoe (Zoë Chao) provided a literal artist’s rendering of the night so far in the form of a quirky ’90s cartoon show.
So, who was the most likely to have done it? Who killed Xavier? Here are my deeply scientific-based rankings.
Aniq
Right from the word go, Aniq has been framed for this murder to the point that Danner’s interviews are more aimed at disproving her initial confidence that Aniq is The Afterparty’s killer.
Despite his jealousy of Xavier’s interest in Zoe, his anger at Xavier for getting him arrested and forcing him to forfeit his college spot in high school, and him being the last person to visit Xavier’s bedroom, AKA the scene of the crime, Aniq just…isn’t a killer. He was also unconscious, passed out drunk when the murder occurred. Detective Culp (John Early) is convinced it was Aniq as he was the last one to visit Xavier’s bedroom. But Aniq claims Xavier was not there when he was in the room.
Zoe
The chances of Zoe being the killer are extremely low, but not quite zero. Through her vibrant life-in-cartoon retelling of the night, we learn Zoe had little reason to even interact with Xavier but did so because her inner-teen still had a crush on him.
As it turns out, Xavier was just being nice to Zoe so he could have sex with her and say he’d slept with a girl he once thought out of his league. Yikes. Throughout the episode, we also meet Zoe’s other inner selves, including her rage-self that absolutely could kill someone if provoked. But again, it’s a flimsy motive.
Walt
This one is just too obvious. The running gag with Walt is that he’s so socially invisible hardly anyone at the party even notices him. We do discover that Xavier was responsible for upstaging Walt at Walt’s own big high school party 25 years ago and that he was mistaken for Chelsea’s stalker in her episode. However, ‘guy who nobody notices did the murder’ is too obvious a solution for a very clever show such as The Afterparty. I could always be wrong though.
Brett
While Brett certainly had the means to kill Xavier as no one could vouch for his whereabouts when Xavier’s body was discovered. It turns out this was because he was routinely checking on his young daughter who’s asleep in his car.
Brett certainly has beef with Xavier, but it’s beef between the ex-prom king who feels threatened by the now-famous sexy ex-nerd hitting on his ex-wife. It’s not something I think a man wouldn’t kill another man over, but ultimately killing Xavier wouldn’t win back his ex.
Chelsea
Dethroned popular girl Chelsea was one of the last people to speak with Xavier before he died when she confronted him about lying to everyone they had slept together at a party 25 years ago. Thanks to some early-00s era slut shaming, the lie made Chelsea into a social pariah overnight, sending her on a downward spiral that lasted years. Chelsea claims she only forced Xavier to admit what a douchebag he was and apologise, but it’s a VERY strong motive.
Yasper
Yasper has both solid means and motive. Firstly, we know Yasper installed Xavier’s AV surveillance and studio tech in his mansion so he has intimate knowledge of the building’s layout. He even knew about Xavier’s panic room, the only room without surveillance.
Secondly, Yasper was also desperate to mooch off Xavier’s fame to realise his own popstar dreams but felt consistently rejected as Xavier kept palming off his request to be featured on a track. Thirdly, Yasper has stuck by Aniq the whole night, likely because next to Aniq, the police’s prime suspect, he’s the least suspicious. He also paints himself as overly helpful in his recount.
Finally, Yasper told Detective Danner that he had access to the studio and knew how to broadcast any sound from the studio through the whole house. Thus, it is my theory that Yasper killed Xavier, blasting the loud demo song he’d made to play with Xavier to cover up Xavier’s scream which is why no one heard it.
Wild Card: Jennifer 1
A classic whodunnit almost always ends up being done by one of the main suspects that’s been interviewed, but a twist is never impossible. Jennifer 1 (Tiya Sircar), AKA the most popular Jennifer, is pregnant. This means she isn’t just with-child, but with the perfect cover protecting her from suspicion. Every time we have seen her throughout the series she has been freaking out.
She also did not notice when her alleged best friend, Jennifer 2 fled the crime scene and is the only one in The Afterparty who didn’t take part directly or indirectly in an interview with detective Danner. Her motive isn’t obvious, but no ones is until the case is solved.
But we’ll just have to wait and see: The Afterparty’s mystery is finally solved this Friday in its final episode on Apple TV+.
Merryana Salem (they/them) is a proud Wonnarua and Lebanese–Australian writer, critic, teacher and podcaster on most social media as @akajustmerry.