Spoilers ahead for season one of Search Party...
If it’s been a while since you watched Search Party, or even if it’s only been a week but you have a memory like sieve, then you probably want a refresher before diving in to the second season of the hilarious dark comedy on SBS VICELAND and SBS On Demand tonight. Here’s a quick wrap-up to bring you back up to speed.
1. Chantal was less missing and more taking some time out
The first season of Search Party revolved around the disappearance of twentysomething college grad Chantal (Clare McNulty). Dory (Alia Shawkat), a personal assistant with too much time on her hands, became obsessed with finding her former college friend – although by “friend”, we mean “casual acquaintance”.
Despite not knowing anything about Chantal’s life, Dory followed every red herring and false lead until tracking her down in Montreal. Turned out, Chantal was nursing a broken heart, having been dumped by the married man she’d been seeing and taken refuge in Agnes’s (Jennifer Kim) summer house.
The flyer that started it all. Source: SBS
2. Dory dragged her friends along for the wild goose chase
As Dory dove headfirst into the mystery, she recruited her wimpy boyfriend, Drew (John Reynolds), and pals Portia (Meredith Hagner) and Elliott (John Early) to help her out. Drew was not too happy about his girlfriend’s obsession, at one point sending her an anonymous note to stop the search and destroying her Homeland-style evidence board.
Although they went along for the ride, Portia was more concerned about her TV career and her lousy relationship with her mother, while Elliott was exposed for lying about having had cancer as a child and set about negotiating a book deal.
At the candlelight vigil for Chantal. Source: SBS
3. Private detective Keith was not what he appeared to be…
Dory wasn’t the only one on the case, with the amateur sleuth crossing paths with a man who claimed to be employed by Chantal’s family to find her. Together, Dory and Keith (Ron Livingstone) pursued leads, their shared passion for getting to the truth resulting in them sleeping together. Keith, however, was not hired to find Chantal. He wasn’t even a real detective and just wanted to get in on the reward money.
Keith came to a grisly end. Source: SBS
4. …and wound up dead
When Dory started to learn the truth about Keith – or, at least, realise she didn’t know the truth – she tried to throw him off the scent while she and her friends headed to Montreal. But as they reached Agnes’s house, Keith turned up to confront a taser-happy Dory. He denied being the father of Chantal’s baby (she wasn’t actually pregnant) and professed his love for Dory, who responded by hitting him with a jolt of electricity.
As he went down, Keith bashed his head on the kitchen island, although that didn’t kill him – Drew did. As Drew arrived on the scene, he saw Keith lunge at Dory, grabbed a candlestick and whacked Keith with it. Now, Keith was dead. Conundrum.
Find out what happens next as Search Party season two starts tonight at 10:40pm on SBS VICELAND.
If you want a more detailed reminder, watch season one on SBS On Demand:
