‘Search Party’ Season 2 Recap: What to Remember Before Season 3

The long wait is over: Search Party Season 3 premiered on HBO Max today. Finally Search Party Season 2 fans can find out what happened after Dory (Alia Shawkat) was arrested for the murder of Keith Powell (Ron Livingston) — and if the cops will nail her for the cold-blooded killing of April (Phoebe Tyers). But how did Search Party‘s heroine find herself responsible for not one, but two murders? Here’s your Search Party Season 2 recap so you can jump into your Search Party Season 3 binge on HBO Max…

When Search Party premiered on TBS back in November 2016, it immediately charmed viewers with scathing millennial satire that was actually anchored in real existential angst. The half-hour comedy-mystery series followed Dory Sief, a young woman struggling to find herself in New York City. Always putting others ahead of herself, Dory found herself spurred to action upon learning that a college classmate named Chantal Witherbottom (Clare McNulty) had gone missing. Roping her clique of self-absorbed friends together, Dory embarked on a comic and heartbreaking hunt for the truth about Chantal.

By the end of Search Party Season 1, Dory and her friends not only discover the truth about Chantal’s disappearance, but find themselves unwitting murderers. Search Party Season 2 was all about the gang coming together to try to cover up their crime, but as Search Party Season 3 reveals, that didn’t quite work. Part of the joy of Search Party is the way the story does in fact meander down quirky paths featuring fantastic guest stars. But if you don’t have time to take in the joy of a full on binge-watch, here’s what you absolutely must remember about Search Party before watching Search Party Season 3.

SEARCH PARTY SEASON 1 RECAP: WHAT HAPPENED TO CHANTAL WITHERBOTTOM AND HOW DID KEITH POWELL DIE?

Search Party Season 1 focused on the search for Dory’s missing college classmate Chantal Witherbottom and how it gave the young woman a newfound sense of purpose. Dory not only enlisted boyfriend Drew (John Reynolds) and friends Elliott (John Early) and Portia (Meredith Hagner) on the case, but met an assortment of fascinating characters along the way.

No one rocked Dory’s world more than private investigator Keith Powell. The two met and, upon realizing they were both searching for the same thing, teamed up. They also embarked on an affair. However, when Dory learned that Keith was lying about being a P.I. hired by the Witherbottoms, she cut him off.

Eventually, Dory and her friends tracked a clue to a house in Montreal. Instead of finding Chantal, Dory runs into Keith. Now terrified of him, she freaks out and tasers him. In response, he lunges at her. Drew walks in on this scene and bludgeons Keith to death.

It is at this awful moment that Portia reveals that Chantal is safe and sound and in the house. She only ran away off the grid to get over a devastating breakup with a married man. The realization that her disappearance wasn’t a big deal not only means Keith’s death was pointless — as he was just a dude after Chantal’s reward — but that Dory now has no meaning.

SEARCH PARTY SEASON 2 RECAP: WHY DID DORY KILL APRIL?

After Dory, Drew, Elliott, and Portia frantically try to cover up the murder of Keith Powell, they return to the city and attempt to live their normal lives. Even though they reunite Chantal with her family, they are all haunted by the sense that someone is watching them. Indeed, they have a blackmailer on their tail. April, Dory and Drew’s neighbor, has figured out what her entitled neighbors have done and even tricks them into admitting it on tape. She gives them an ultimatum: $60,000 or the secret is spilled.

When Dory finds out that her ex-boyfriend Julian (Brandon Michael Hall) is involved in a sex scandal with a politician, Mary Ferguson, (J. Cameron Smith), she obtains evidence and hopes to trade it with April. The two meet on the Staten Island Ferry, where April reluctantly takes Julian’s phone with the video evidence. However, she tells Dory that she despises Dory and her gang of friends because they’ve never wanted for anything. In revenge, April vows to stalk them for the rest of their lives, hanging the truth about what happened to Keith above their heads.

Dory starts to leave, thinks about it and decides to hurl April off the ferry to buy her and her friends’ peace.

That said, Dory has crossed a moral line. And she soon faces her comeuppance. At Mary’s victory rally, the police come to arrest Dory for the murder of Keith Powell. Because she has bought April’s silence, the reality hits Dory that one of her close friends might have spilled the beans to the cops.

WHAT IS SEARCH PARTY SEASON 3 ON HBO MAX ABOUT?

Search Party Season 3 starts immediately after the events of Search Party Season 2. Dory is in a police car being transported to jail, where she inspires some unique reactions from the officers. (Namely she seems so coldly calm during her mug shot that, yes, she smirks in the pic. And that’s going to be a thing!)

While Dory deals with the reality of being in jail, her friends panic in some predictably hilarious (and disturbing) ways. Search Party Season 3 will deal with Dory, Drew, Elliott, and Portia confronting their complicity in the death of Keith Powell (and April).

HOW MANY EPISODES OF SEARCH PARTY SEASON 3 ARE ON HBO MAX?

There are eight (8) episodes in Search Party Season 3. This morning, all eight episodes of Search Party Season 3 premiered exclusively on HBO Max. You can also watch the first two seasons of Search Party on HBO Max.

Where to stream Search Party