Season 1 episode 4 of Apple TV+’s ‘The Afterparty’ follows Chelsea’s version of the night that saw the murder of celebrity Xavier.
Recap
Chelsea’s flask had been found wedged between Xavier and the rocks in the last episode. She is now taken for questioning by Detective Danner.
She came to the reunion party with only one thing in mind, revenge against Xavier for stealing her thunder as the most popular person from school days as well as something that happened at a St. Patrick’s Day party.
She has his eyes set on him but gets creepily interrupted by Brett. News flash, the affair that ruined Brett and Zoe’s wedding was actually him and Chelsea. She still feels guilty about ruining the family.
In usual fashion, Xavier sneaks up on her. This dude really needs to learn to meet people normally. Chelsea wants to win his trust for executing her plan of revenge.
It seems like the hunter is being hunted. Someone is following Chelsea, and while she thinks it’s Brett at first, it’s someone else.
Chelsea continues her plan of revenge, and marks the afterparty as the perfect place. The chaser comes to light. It’s… that dude nobody knows from high school. He’s quickly swept aside as Yasper shows up.
Chelsea and Yasper get in the car to leave for the afterparty, but accidentally hit Aniq, who joins them. He drinks the alcohol in her flask, except it’s not alcohol really, it’s cat tranquiliser, which explains why Aniq was unconscious later on.
She starts to question her plan; which is revealed to be taking naked pictures of Yasper and giving them to TMZ. Not even close to murder, is it?
Yasper convinces her to stick to her plan and she asks Xavier to go to his room. There, she’s about to give him the cat tranquilliser but has a change of heart. Unsurprisingly enough, Xavier has already leaked his own naked pictures. Classic Eugene.
The end is so perfect that she even makes up with Zoe, lamenting how bad Brett is in bed. She tells Zoe that she deserves someone better. Chelsea suggests that Zoe consider Aniq, as he is a sorted person.
Just then, he wakes up in his underpants with scribbling on his face. Believing Xavier to be behind it, he goes after him and everybody hears Aniq’s scream.
Danner picks up on how Chelsea said Aniq believe Xavier did it to him ‘again’, and pesters her to tell her the story of St. Patrick’s Day. She also tells Detective Culp to find Aniq, but he cannot, as he’s hiding.
Review
- The episode is a psychological thriller, but isn’t really an engaging one. The person who was following Chelsea is also revealed to not be threatening.
- Earlier episodes had a more fun element, and while this is a thriller, it could have been done in a subversive manner.
- The episode did further the plot to quite an extent as important information came to light, raising the stakes.
Rating 3/5
Also Read: The Afterparty season 1 episodes 1, 2 and 3 recap