We don’t think Naz killed Andrea on “The Night Of.” But if he didn’t, who did? Let’s look at the possible suspects.
NAZ
Let’s get this out of the way. We guess it’s possible that Naz (Riz Ahmed) blacked out and killed Andrea. But he seemed truly shocked and horrified to find her dead, and like too nice a guy to do something so horrible. Or at least that’s what the show wanted us to think at the start. We found out in later episodes that he has plenty of rough edges.
ANDREA
Again, we have to raise this possibility just to dismiss it. If Andrea (Sofia Black D’Elia) killed herself, that would be the worst twist in murder mystery history. We saw when she was stabbed in the hand that she has an incredible tolerance for pain, so maybe she could have stabbed herself twenty-two times? Actually, we feel ridiculous even typing this.
HEARSE DRIVER
Okay, time for the real suspects. You can’t get anymore foreshadow-y than having a hearse driver (Esau Pritchett) ask Andrea if she wants to be his next passenger. He’s chiding her for smoking, but he could also represent Death itself. There’s something not right about the guy, but did she make enough of an impression in their brief exchange for her to follow and kill her? Probably not, we thought after the first episode. And then we found out, in later episodes, that he’s a crazy misogynist. Still, he seems like too random a killer.
TREVOR
Trevor (JD Williams) insults Naz on the street with his friend — the mystery man seen on the next slide who we eventually learned was named Duane Reade. Detective Box suspects Trevor early on, but Trevor just doesn’t seem murder-y. Weirdly, though, in his interview with Box, he says he was alone when he insulted Naz.
DUANE READE
As we just mentioned, Trevor was with silent, death-glaring mystery man Duane Reade (Charlie Hudson III). Reade watched Naz and Andrea so long we wondered if he knew one of them from somewhere… but neither seemed to recognize him. We learned in Episode 5 that he has a long rap sheet. He’s high on our list of suspects.
THE NEIGHBOR
Sure, it’s possible than Andrea’s older neighbor (Steven Randazzo) is awakened by Naz breaking her window. It’s also possible that he watches her house all the time, plotting to kill her. And that he did. He’s one of our prime suspects.
SOMEONE WE HAVEN’T MET YET
This would be quite a cheat, wouldn’t it? We’re going to assume writer Richard Price wouldn’t mess with our minds like that, but we suppose it’s possible this whole thing is socially commentary just disguised as a murder mystery, and that he’s using detective story tropes to lure us into a devastating critique of the criminal justice blah blah blah. Hopefully not, though. We’d like this mystery solved.
DON TAYLOR
We think he did it. The best argument that he didn’t do it, of course, is that he wasn’t in the first episode. One of the rules of a good mystery is that you draw on the original circle of characters. But! But. What if Don, Andrea’s wicked stepfather, was the biker who glanced over at Naz in the first episode? That’s a theory offered by TheWrap’s Matt Donnelly, and I like it. Don (Paul Sparks) killed Andrea, got on his bike, and had that odd staredown with Naz, his patsy.
THE CAT
Stay with us here, because the cat is the only one with an obvious motive: Andrea rejected him by putting him out to drink and get stabby with Naz. Could those cuts on Andrea’s back be… cat scratches?
No? OK.
If you liked this gallery, you’d probably also be interested in reading the 5 Reasons Naz Didn’t Do It. And if you’ve enjoyed Riz Ahmed‘s performance as Naz, here’s some more of his finest work.
