Pratik Handore
Apple TV+’s ‘The Afterparty‘ season 2 explores the mysterious murder of billionaire Edgar Minnows, who is found dead on the morning after his wedding. The penultimate episode of the season finally brings forward the testimony of Edgar’s mother, Isabel, in the style of a dramatic psychological thriller film. In the episode, Isabel makes some shocking revelations about her relationship with Edgar, who was manipulating her into thinking she was insane. The ending of ‘The Afterparty‘ season 2, episode 9, explores whether Isabel had the motives to kill her own son. SPOILERS AHEAD!
The Afterparty Season 2 Episode 9 Recap
The ninth episode, titled ‘Isabel,’ opens with the revelation that Isabel knew of her son, Edgar’s killer all along. Isabel gives her account of the events to Danner and Aniq. She starts her story roughly a year before Edgar’s wedding. Isabel explains that her husband, Alexander, passed away in a plane crash, and she was left grief-stricken. As a result, Edgar invited Isabel to live with him and Hannah on their family estate so the children could look after their mother. However, Isabel’s grief soon caused her to lose focus and zone out frequently.
Eventually, Isabel lost touch with reality as she started forgetting things. She started taking sleeping pills but never got any sleep at night. Isabel feared her children would pity her and pretended to be perfectly okay by hiding her forgetfulness. However, Isabel secretly feared she was being driven mad. She started hearing things and hallucinations, raising Edgar’s concerns about his mother’s well-being. Therefore, Edgar consulted their family doctor.
One day, Edgar introduced Isabel to his girlfriend, Grace. However, Isabel accidentally calls her “Gail,” embarrassing Edgar in front of Grace. Isabel is convinced that Edgar told her his girlfriend’s name was Gail, as Edgar had told her so over a game of Scrabble the night before. As a result, Isabel was devastated and feared for her sanity. Sometime later, Isabel found herself ordering and receiving orders such as a trampoline, sword, and suit of armor, which she had no memory of ordering.
After Isabel’s insanity became evident, Edgar discussed conservatorship with Dr. Shulkind. Therefore, Isabel was determined to prove that she was not insane. At the wedding, Isabel learned of Edgar’s crypto scheme from Travis. Isabel soon realized that her deteriorating mental state was an excuse for Edgar to get her money. Meanwhile, Travis keeps an eye on Sebastian, who continues to take care of business while hiding Edgar’s death. Travis confronts Sebastian about Edgar’s crypto Ponzi scheme, which Sebastian admits to.
At Edgar’s wedding, Isabel misspells Grace’s name on the napkins, seemingly convincing Dr. Shulkind about Isabel’s descent into insanity. Isabel reveals that she was aware of Edgar’s crypto scam and was trying to protect Grace by warning her to sign the prenup agreement before the wedding. However, when she warned Grace, Isabel discovered that the pills she was taking were actually Adderall. When Isabel confronts Edgar, he reveals the pills are unidentical, forcing Isbael to reconsider her grasp of reality.
The Afterparty Season 2 Episode 9 Ending: Did Isabel Kill Edgar?
In the episode, Isabel reveals she accused Grace of killing Edgar despite knowing the actual killer. Since Edgar was intent on proving Isabel’s grief had driven her insane, Isabel accused Edgar since it was the only logical way not to appear insane when she actually gave her testimony. The episode’s final act features flashbacks to Edgar’s wedding reception when Isabel realized Edgar had swapped her speech. However, Isabel avoided a public meltdown and confronted Edgar. She asked Edgar to stop his games and suspected him of poisoning her cake plate. However, Isabel managed to swap the plates at the last moment, leading to Edgar eating the poisoned cake and dying.
Ultimately, Isabel claims Edgar fell prey to his own plot to poison his mother. Isabel proves that Edgar manipulated her into thinking she was insane when she found the correctly printed napkins in Edgar’s room. Thus, Isabel makes a strong theory about Edgar’s death being caused by the billionaire himself. However, Aniq argues with the timeline of events leading to Edgar’s death, seemingly disproving Isabel’s theory. Aniq explains that the poison in Edgar’s system caused hallucinations.
Travis’ experiments show that the hallucinations start roughly fifteen minutes after consuming the poison. However, Edgar did not hallucinate until the afterparty, ninety minutes after the reception. Therefore, Isabel could not have poisoned Edgar with the cake. The episode ends with the local police arriving on the scene after Sebastian informed them of Edgar’s death, having wrapped up his business affairs. As a result, the mystery of Edgar’s death continues to baffle Aniq and Danner, and the killer remains at large. However, the episode and Isabel’s testimony show a ruthless side of Edgar, making the idea of his death being a vendetta-driven murder fathomable.
Read More: The Afterparty Season 2 Episode 8 Recap and Ending, Explained
