The sixth episode of HBO’s The Night Of kicked off by altogether ignoring last week’s pulse-pounding cliffhanger (where John Stone finds himself alone in a grim basement after chasing Duane Reade, a potential suspect), creating yet another mystery for the audience to solve. While we try to piece together what happened between last week’s episode and this week’s, we can confidently say that the show’s central mystery, who killed Andrea, looks like it may finally be solved — and the show even gave us the proof.
After analyzing each character along with their potential motives, we’re really only left with four main suspects: Mr. Day, Duane Reade, Andrea’s stepfather (Don), and Naz.
SUSPECT #1: MR. DAY
Let’s start off with the person least likely to have murdered Andrea: Mr. Day, the hearse-driving mortician. He’s arguably the creepiest character on this (or any other) show, but more than likely, he’s just a red herring. In the first episode, he ominously asks Andrea if she’d like to be the next passenger to ride in his hearse, then waits for Naz & Andrea to pull out of the gas station before (seemingly) following them.
This week, Chandra notices Day on the gas station’s security camera and pays him a visit. When we meet him this time, he maintains his initial ick factor by nonchalantly watching exercise videos by himself in the garage of a funeral home. Confronted by Chandra, Day pulls out some next-level creepiness by quoting eerie Bible passages at Chandra, at once intimidating and almost threatening the young lawyer. He notes that Andrea had the vibration that she would soon die, that she was a cat (like all women), and Naz was just her ball of yarn. While this whole encounter leaves no doubt in our minds that this man is definitely capable of murder, we just can’t shake the feeling that he isn’t the killer. It’s too simple, too unconnected. Especially when there are others who have much stronger motives…
SUSPECT #2: DUANE READE
Duane Reade, for example, the death-stare-shooting gentleman we met in the first episode who accompanied racist Trevor down Andrea’s street, seems like the sort of guy who wouldn’t think twice about brutally murdering a 22-year-old girl. There’s likely some racially-charged rage built up inside of him (based on that look he shot Naz after his buddy Trevor spewed some racist vitriol at him), and, since Trevor omitted Reade’s presence entirely from his statement to the police, it’s fair to assume Reade’s no stranger to police stations. After fleeing from Stone last week, it’s possible he could even be the drug supplier that Andrea’s dealer owed money to; after seeing Naz enter Andrea’s apartment with her, he realized he could pin the whole thing on the doe-eyed Naz. There’s a chance Reade killed her, even if he wasn’t motivated by money.
SUSPECT #3: DON
Speaking of financially motivated murder plots, after “Samson and Delilah,” all signs point to Andrea’s stepfather, Don, as the main suspect. After not seeming to care about her well-being while on the phone with Detective Box, most viewers collectively raised their eyebrows in suspicion. John Stone attended Andrea’s funeral just in time to catch a verbal altercation between two men, one of whom was Don. If anyone was unsure of whether Don was guilty, this week put those questions to rest for good. Stone spoke with Andrea’s financial advisor, who begrudgingly revealed that Andrea had inherited quite a sum of money after her mother’s death — money that Don, as the wealthy woman’s widower, felt partially belonged to him. He demanded Andrea give him half, but she refused. We also learned that Don serially romances elderly women of affluence, using his job as a personal trainer to meet and then seduce them. Now that Andrea is gone, it looks like there’s only one person left to inherit all of that money: Don.
SUSPECT #4: NASIR KHAN
Though Don may now be our prime suspect, we’re still unwilling to rule out the possibility of Naz’s guilt, especially as we watch him spiral ever downward into criminality as he becomes more comfortable in Rikers. With each week, the certainty we once felt of Naz’s innocence gets ever shakier. Naz would never do something like that, right? After watching him smuggle drugs while meeting with his lawyers, violently assault another inmate in the shower, shave his head, routinely doing drugs, and allowing himself to be tattooed (“SIN-BAD” on his knuckles, SERIOUSLY?! Stop making bad choices, Naz!), it’s hard to pretend that we really know this character deeply enough to be confident in his innocence. We’ve also just learned that he had to change schools after pushing another student down a flight of stairs — that indicates just a bit of a temper, don’t you think?
Andrea’s killer could be any of these four, and the show seems to have tipped us off with one giant detail: Stone’s eczema is healed. Many on reddit are speculating that the lawyer’s eczema has been a symbol of the case, and now that it’s healed, we’ll finally be able to stop scratching with a chopstick to get our answers. John Stone has already solved the mystery; now he just has to prove it.
