Tamal Kundu
‘Afterlife of the Party’ is a supernatural comedy film that revolves around two young women, Cassie (Victoria Justice) and Lisa (Midori Francis), who have been best friends since childhood and are now roommates. Since she was young, Cassie has been a social butterfly and later builds her career around it by becoming a party planner. On one of the days leading up to her 25th birthday, Cassie drinks herself into a stupor, has a fight with Lisa, and dies.
Cassie subsequently meets her temporary guardian angel Val (Robyn Scott), who tells her that she has five days to attend to unfinished businesses. If she completes them, she will go to heaven. But if she is unsuccessful, it’s literal hell for her. Here is everything you need to know about the ending of ‘Afterlife of the Party.’ SPOILERS ALERT.
Afterlife of the Party Plot Synopsis
The film begins by establishing the dynamics between Cassie and Lisa. Lisa is a paleontologist employed at a museum. They are quite different from each other, but their friendship seems to work because of that dichotomy. On that fateful night, Cassie convinces Lisa to go out with her, even though the latter prefers to stay home and finally finish the Mona Lisa puzzle that they have been working on together. At the nightclub, Lisa is soon separated from Cassie and starts to feel alienated.
As Cassie and her other friends decide to move to another venue, Lisa tells her friend that she wants to go home. This leads to a massive argument between them. In the heat of the moment, both Cassie and Lisa say things that they will regret later. When Cassie eventually comes back to their apartment, she is completely drunk and disorientated. Even in that state, a part of her mind knows that she should resolve her issues with Lisa and not let it keep brewing until morning. She knocks on her friend’s bedroom door. But Lisa, even though she is awake, doesn’t answer.
The next day, Cassie wakes up still disorientated. She goes to the bathroom, where she slips and hits her head on the toilet sink on her way down. The next time she opens her eyes, she discovers that she is in an unknown but comfortable room with a strange woman. Facing away from her, that woman is watching moments from Cassie’s life on a projection from her phone. There are brochures on the shelf about places called the Above, the Below, and the In-Between.
The woman introduces herself as Cassie’s temporary guardian angel, Val. She begins by telling Cassie the truth that the latter must confront immediately: Cassie is dead. Predictably, Cassie refuses to accept that her life has come to an end so abruptly. She learns from Val that the Above is what people perceive as heaven, while the Below is hell. As the name suggests, the In-Between is a place between heaven and hell. It’s for people like Cassie, who must realize what their unfinished businesses on Earth are and attend to them so that they can move on to the next stage.
If they do it in time, they will go to heaven, but it’s a downward journey if they fail or run out of time. Cassie accepts the challenge, and Val subsequently gives her a list of three names to whom she needs to bring a sense of closure. Cassie becomes an angel-in-training, because if she succeeds, she will effectively become an angel.
Afterlife of the Party Ending: Does Cassie Go to Heaven?
Yes, Cassie goes to heaven at the end of the film. Although she missed her deadline and broke the rule by helping Emme (Myfanwy Waring), who was not on her list, the profound selflessness of her actions ultimately earns her a place in heaven. She knew that she was on a deadline and was aware that she would be condemned to hell if she missed it. And yet, she decided to help a woman whom she didn’t even know before she died. Furthermore, it is revealed that she has taken full responsibility for breaking the aforementioned rule. As a result, Val is not just exempted from any punishment, she actually receives a promotion.
When they reach the elevator, they discover that Cassie has been chosen to ascend to heaven. On her ride up there, she meets Koop (Spencer Sutherland), who was her favorite musician on Earth. He apparently died while helping at a disaster relief area. Val was part of the angel committee that decided that he deserved to be immediately sent to heaven. But before he took the elevator, Val apparently told him about Cassie. Helped by an angel playing matchmaker, Cassie will now get to spend an eternity with her favorite artist.
Who Are on Cassie’s List?
Lisa, Cassie’s estranged mother Sofia (Gloria Garcia), and her grieving father Howie (Adam Garcia) are the three people who are on Cassie’s list. As time moves differently in the In-Between, when Cassie returns to Earth for the first time since her death, she discovers it has already been a year. Lisa has become even more of an introvert. She has been interested in Max (Timothy Renouf), one of her neighbors who moved in on the day before Cassie’s death. It is clear that her feelings are reciprocated, but both are so shy and reclusive that things haven’t progressed between them at all.
At work, Lisa desperately wants to join a team bound for Hell’s Creek, but her insecurities and fear of failure and rejection prevent her from doing it. When Cassie was alive, she helped her navigate through these dark emotions. In her absence, Lisa let them control her life. Meanwhile, Howie is a mess. After Sofia left, he brought up Cassie on his own, and her death completely devastated him.
And there is Sofia, who left the family when Cassie was still a child. She traveled the world and sent postcards to her daughter, not knowing that they made the young girl even more resentful toward her. But a part of Cassie did love her mother, so she kept those postcards. After receiving the list, Cassie sees her mother for the first time in years and discovers that she now has another daughter and lives the same life she left behind all those years ago.
Because of their deep connection, Cassie can appear before Lisa and helps her sort her life out. Lisa starts dating Max and secures the Hell’s Creek gig. Cassie also finds the final piece of the Mona Lisa puzzle and completes it. She helps her father come to terms with his grief and brings him back to the mainstream of life.
Cassie also orchestrates events that lead to the meeting between Howie and Emme. In one of the final scenes of the movie, she appears before her father as well. Furthermore, Cassie finally forgives her mother, realizing that the older woman has been torturing herself with a relentless sense of guilt. The names from her list disappear one by one, freeing her from the burdens of the mortal world.
Read More: Where Was Afterlife of the Party Was Filmed?
