The Afterparty – Season 2 Episode 2 “Grace” Recap & Review

Grace

Episode 2 of The Afterparty’s new season begins with Danner informing everyone she will be interviewing them. Just like the last season, Aniq will be with her while she does so. Grace will be the first one to be interviewed. This episode is woven around her interests and identity, as she starts to recount how she met Edgar.

Zoe was a little shaken when she saw Danner and her anxiety gets the better of her. She sits with Grace in the room during the questioning. Grace then gets lost in her fantasy of meeting Edgar in an antique forgotten era.

The period setting is in a store where Edgar buys a vintage typewriter. Both instantly charm the other as Grace professes her love for restoring forgotten things. He invites her to Hannah’s birthday party the next evening. Everything about the setting speaks of colonial times – the costumes, hair and makeup, and even the language, except there are still trappings of modern life, like Edgar’s smartwatch and the Silicon Valley. Oh, where would we be without the Valley…probably in a better place!

Anyway, Grace learns who Edgar really is and asks him for a dance. He clearly has social anxiety, so Grace takes him outside on the porch where they are alone. She asks him to move freely and not care about how he looks. Edgar’s face lights up and they almost kiss but are then interrupted by Sebastian.

Grace quickly became a part of Edgar’s world. They were both smitten with each other over the course of the next few months. And one day, Edgar acts on his transfixion for her on a rainy day, while out in nature, and asks Grace for marriage. Water was not the only thing they were soaked in that day – for love had entered their world to make them more beautiful.

They soon discovered that they came from different worlds. Their families certainly did. Isabel was contemptuous of their status although Hannah was more receptive and spent a lot of time with Grace.

Grace tells her friends and Zoe about all the time she spent with Edgar. However, it turns out that Edgar was mostly preoccupied with business and investments and didn’t actually spend that much time with Grace. She went to all kinds of beautiful places alone, without him. Grace pinned her hopes on the marriage correcting these cracks.

The two sisters have a nasty fight after Zoe implies she wasn’t happy with Edgar. Cut to the present and Zoe interrupts Grace’s story. Danner thinks it is best that Zoe steps away from the interrogation to use her “talents”  to find evidence outside. She begrudgingly accepts.

Back to the story, Grace reveals that she didn’t see Edgar next until the weekend of the wedding. She suggests to him that they elope and have a marriage for themselves. But “the guests had started arriving”… so there’s that. He also “gifts” her a prenup when she was expecting jewellery. Grace did not sign it.

We then see the rehearsal dinner from Grace’s eyes. Isabel was enemy number one. She kept calling her “Gail” on purpose to demean Grace. Travis walked in thinking Grace wanted to reignite old flames when she clearly didn’t.

In the present, Zoe and Travis collect evidence from the bedroom together. They flip him over and Zoe empties his pockets. She finds a strange single cuff link. Seeing his smartwatch, she gets the idea to check it to learn exactly when his heart stopped.

On the day of the wedding, Grace did feel that she wasn’t really in love. Zoe told her the same thing and that is when they had their fight. In a way, the two are poor opposites. We caught Edgar saying how he “looks forward” and “to the future”, whereas Grace wants to be frozen in the past. The dichotomy certainly would make them a very unhappy couple, something that Zoe points out.

On the wedding day, while in the “vow box,” Grace asks Edgar how he really feels and to not read from the card. He actually does a great job. Sebastian fills her ears about having a first dance with Edgar, even though he dislikes it very much. Edgar agrees to make Grace happy. But as we saw earlier, he left midway, evoking gasps from everyone. Ulysses took over and saved the day.

On the wedding night, Edgar wanted to retire to bed again. But, Grace gave him Adderall to keep him awake. When he wouldn’t listen, she put them in his drink. Edgar didn’t react quite well to the drink and Grace took him to bed. Come the morning, Edgar was dead.

Although Aniq thinks Grace is innocent, Danner doesn’t want to rule her out. They walk in on Zoe trying to open Edgar’s eyes and Travis trying to open Edgar’s phone. Danner next wants to interview someone who told Edgar he would “die that night”: Travis.

The Episode Review

It is truly remarkable how well the concept from season 1 has been used to such great impact in this one with a completely different story. The Afterparty’s intentions to retell the same events through different eyes, longings, and desires had its first creative result. Grace’s story was revealing and probably leaves her in the clear. Right now, the buck seems to stop at Sebastian, although one can’t be sure until the end.

The bygone era was brought to life with commitment and authenticity and the touchpoints in the story were more than satisfactory. Every episode promises a new kind of version and style, which is far from conventional.

The actual police investigation is yet to start though it seems like that might not happen for a while – not before we finish up with the interviews at least.