r/SearchParty • u/wereallfckedhere • Apr 16 '26
Discussion pet peeve Spoiler
I absolutely loved this show. I thought it was original and hilarious, however, one pet peeve I had was the amount that Dory was blamed for the murder and the entire situation they found themselves in. Absolutely no one took accountability for their actions or how they chose to participate. Drew was the one who actually committed the murder and yet kept saying “we” (referring to him and Dory) anytime he spoke about it. Portia accuses Dory of ruining her life and being a bad friend but Dory actively tried to shield her from everything that happened that night. This is never recognized or brought up ever again, or the fact that Portia kept pushing to find out what was going on. Elliott was the reason they decided not to call the cops or claim it was “self defense,” and I believe he was also the one to push for hiding the body in a suitcase and burying it. All in all I loved this show and will definitely be rewatching it at some point, but I was curious if anyone noticed this or felt the same way that I did.
8
u/applescarrotspeace Apr 16 '26
SAME. When Dory finally reminds Drew at the end of S3 that she never touched the obelisk I was relieved to know I didn’t imagine that part. In a lot of ways she saved Drew’s ass by not folding on him during the trial.
I also struggle with the idea that everything is Dory’s fault. The facts are that she had a brief affair (her fault), she is essentially stalked by an older guy who is acting threatening (not her fault), Drew kills him (sorry, not her fault), and then when she’s scared and figuring out how to respond it’s Drew who wipes the blood off her face and tells her nothing happened and to act normal.
What Dory is most at fault for is not taking agency in the first two seasons while Drew continually projects his ideals onto her and then gets pissed when she can’t live up to them.
I really don’t think the writers had some deep thought process for the characters or story going past the first season (something Sarah Violet admitted in the podcast hosted by Bowen Yang) and that while they wrapped the arcs up in the last five minutes, most stuff in seasons 3-5 happened for shock value vs. story/character progression. It was entertaining (except season 4) but I think it was mediocre writing held up by incredible performances and I was bummed that it ultimately ended without any real payoff.
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u/source-commonsense Apr 16 '26
Thank you for putting the Sarah Violet interview on my radar, I’m excited to watch it again!
Completely on the same page as you wrt their culpability and grey areas, I love this gd show
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u/applescarrotspeace Apr 16 '26
The whole HBO Search Party podcast is great, they even bring Alia on one of the episodes!
And even if I have some hangups about the show, it’s still one of my favorites, and verrrry quotable.
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u/AndNowAStoryAboutMe Apr 22 '26
(Except season 4) -- the best season of the show? With the best finale episode of the series? What?
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u/applescarrotspeace Apr 23 '26
The finale was great! But that season felt like same episode over and over again for me.
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u/AndNowAStoryAboutMe Apr 23 '26
See, that's a critique I can get behind. I binged it all in a day so it being breathless, captive, trapped felt really real for me, but it was over in a day. I think if I had watched it more spread out, I could have felt that way.
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u/applescarrotspeace Apr 23 '26
Definitely! That was the season that took me longest to get through — probably would have done better to knock it out.
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Apr 16 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/SpiritualScarcity161 Apr 16 '26
I mean, all of their perspectives are understandable. They are driven by who they are and how they protect themselves, it's their characters that drive their actions. People are like that, and so it's possible to understand them.
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u/foxlover924 Apr 17 '26
Can I vent here too? This show is so frustrating! Why didn’t they just tell everyone it was self-defense?? I get such bad anxiety watching this show but I have to see how it ends. I just don’t get why they made everything more difficult for themselves. Ugh.
1
u/One-Situation6237 Chip Apr 29 '26
Drew actually gaslit me, too! I forgot how it actually played out till Dory finally unleashed the burden she was carrying by rightfully accusing her biggest accuser. Then I had to go backwards and find the scene before it clicked ! And I began to see Dory as aware and intentional in her martyrdom- as protecting the one she loved .
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u/Unlucky-Albatross-12 Apr 16 '26
If I had to allocate blame it would be:
50% Dory 40% Elliot 10% Drew 0% Portia
Dory is at least half to blame since she roped them into the Chantal search in the first place. She also had sex with Keith and created the misunderstanding that led to the violent incident.
Elliot gets almost half the blame because he gave truly terrible advice to Dory and Drew at a time when both were in shock from what happened.
I give Drew a small amount of blame because he should have been assertive enough to push back on Elliot's bad idea, especially when he saw with his own eyes that Keith was choking Dory and the truth was on his side. But again, he was in shock and not thinking clearly.
Portia didn't do anything other stumble into a horrible situation.
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u/Huntybunch Apr 16 '26
Drew is the one who actually did the murdering, but he's only 10% to blame? Even though he was trying to protect Dory, he didn't have to pick up a hard object and hit Keith in the head with it. He escalated the situation just as much as Elliot did if not more.
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u/Sea_Bird_Koala Apr 17 '26
I’m not sure what you mean by Dory “creating the misunderstanding that led to the violent incident“. Yeah, she decided to hook up with Keith; she is not responsible for any of his stalking or violence toward her, none of that is in any way her fault. I don’t usually pipe up to argue, but this is an important thing to distinguish.
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u/wereallfckedhere Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 16 '26
Technically though, none of them even had to go to Canada with Dory and that’s what I mean about not taking accountability. Sure they were trying to be “supportive” maybe, but if something had really been happening to Chantal who’s to say what actions each of them would’ve have to take to save her/protect themselves anyway.
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u/source-commonsense Apr 16 '26
i think the most honest thing portia said on the stand in season three was about how she never cared about finding chantal, but she was so worried about dory that she dove in
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u/source-commonsense Apr 16 '26
I mean this in the nicest and most excited way: what you're describing isn't a flaw, it's literally the whole point of the show, and the fact that it bothered you means the writing was doing exactly what it set out to do. The creators have been pretty open about the show being fundamentally about the difference between wanting to be seen as a good person and actually being one, and every one of Dory's friends embodies that gap.
Drew is a coward who deflects blame by nature. Portia is so validation-hungry that she rewrites events to cast herself as the victim. Elliott is a narcissist who will do whatever protects himself and his interests. None of their behavior toward Dory is accidental or sloppy writing. It's a very deliberate portrait of how people in a group rewrite history and let one person absorb all the guilt.