Combine bad luck with even worse decision making, and there's Naz (Riz Ahmed). He's the prime suspect and the main character, and it would seem like the focus on his apprehension and his getting a lawyer (John Turturro) is meant to prove his innocence. But we pretty much still only know what Naz knows, so here's how the evidence stacks up right now.
Why It Could Be Him:
- Naz takes drugs with the victim, Andrea Cornish, then takes her home, where they do more drugs and drink. When he wakes up the next morning, Andrea's dead. The blank space in his memory is the first thing that points to his possible guilt. If he isn't sure he didn't do it, can we be?
- He runs. Naz is understandably scared, but why doesn't he call the police? A smart kid must know that there would be ways to trace him back to the crime scene eventually. Instead, he runs, gets stopped by the police and then taken to the crime scene and then the police station, where the presumed murder weapon (!) is found in his jacket. He never says anything first, making him look so guilty.
- Before Naz blacks out, he and Andrea have sex, and their foreplay consists of some knife play wherein he accidentally stabs her hand. After things heat up even more, is it possible they continued it upstairs and things went way too far, with Naz on drugs he had (probably) never tried before?
- The toxicology results reveal that Naz had another amphetamine in his system that Andrea didn't give him. He sort of cops to Stone's suggestion that he took Adderall as a stressed college student, but this could be an indication that Naz isn't as squeaky clean as we thought.
Why It Might Not Be Him:
- We spend all day with Naz, getting to know him outside of the context of the crime. It could be a red herring so we build sympathy for the real killer, but the look into Naz's life appears to show that he's not a killer. He's a promising student, so smart he's a tutor, living with his family in Queens. But if we were cops? He looks so. Freaking. Guilty.
