We opened up this week’s episode with a scene of Mnqobi struggling through a bad dream. He is talking in his sleep. Could his troubles be finally catching up to him? Yes, we have all seen how Mnqobi wants to leave his dodgy past behind and start on a clean slate, which has proved to be quite difficult for him to do; and now the question is could he finally be succumbing to the guilt of all his sins? He goes to visit Cebsile’s grave perhaps in search of peace. We have seen him consult with his dead wife quite a number of times when he was in a tight corner before. It is quite saddening though how the writers have stripped Mqobi’s character into an overly vulnerable and almost weak man. It is a habit that most of these African productions seem to have in common. One minute a man is the most feared villain and the next he is the biggest woos there is.
Mnqobi gives quite a dramatic reaction when he hears on the news that Thembi wasn’t killed by the bomb he had planted in the car. It is even more intriguing that he went on to celebrate like that in front of Andile; not worrying that it might raise questions with her. He then asks her to have dinner with him. While we know how much of a family man Mnqobi is, and how much he loves his children, it is also no secret that he and Andile are not that close. So it was very interesting to watch them reconnect in this episode. He tries to bribe an administrator to give him Thembi’s address (which I thought was quite a funny encounter) but the officer will not have any of the corruption behaviour. So he decides to follow Vuyo home and stalks his house, waiting for him to leave so he can go in to see Thembi. He is caught by Vuyo who comes back for his forgotten briefcase and finds the two in the middle of their confrontation. While Thembi covers for Mnqobi (which I also find interesting that even though they are sworn enemies, Thembi and Mnqobi will still protect each other from other people. It is like they would rather kill each other than have other people attack them), Vuyo is obviously not happy about this and Thembi teases him of being jealous. She herself feels threatened by Mnqobi though as she quickly makes a call to a PI as soon as Vuyo leaves. Is she looking for more dirt on Mnqobi, is she trying to ensure that he doesn’t catch her off guard again or is it an assassination plan?
Andile receives a text from Zuko inviting her out for dinner, but she declines and says she would explain later (and we assume that it is because she had agreed to dinner with her father). It is to the shock of her life (not so much to ours, I never trusted that man from day one) that she busts him making out with another girl in his office. I liked how she didn’t just run off crying like we are used to seeing these kind of scenes play out a lot of the time. She confronted the two, with the girl just walking off and not paying mind to Andile’s name calling tactics. The nerve that Zuko had to go on and make excuses after being caught red handed like that just had me seriously baffled. Later when the two bump into each other on campus, Zuko informs Andile that he broke things off with the girl, she doesn’t seem to believe him (neither do I) and compares him to his polygamist father. However, she is not that harsh in punishing him as the two go on to have an interesting discussion about polygamy. She doesn’t take him back but she certainly seems to be softening up rather too easily. This makes me wonder that could growing up in a polygamous family have led her to consider taking into a polygamous relationship herself. She talked a bit negatively about it in this episode but didn’t seem to be totally against it either.
Dumile pays a visit to Palesa Thlali’s office. She tries to get information on Mnqobi and the case, but Palesa is professional enough to respect the confidentiality promise she made to Mnqobi. The two however, go on to have a nice long chat about the Simelane family and Dumile’s lack of children with Mnqobi (which seems to be a touchy subject for Dumile). They are interrupted by Palesa’s assistant, Brenda, who reminds her that she has a court appearance. Palesa is dressed casual and borrows Dumile’s formal jacket. The two suddenly get into a heated friendship with hook up drinks and home cooked dinner dates. They let each other into their lives and share so many stories about themselves. I found it quite strange but Palesa has continued to proved to be way different than I first thought her out to be when she debuted on the show. Her impromptu liking to Dumile made me question if it was her way to get into Mnqobi’s polygamy (she and Mnqobi have seemed to be getting close in previous episodes) or was she trying to dig for some kind of information? I never, however, expected her to be lesbian as we eventually find out. Dumile walks into Palesa’s office and finds her making out with her assistant Brenda. Now this has gotten me very suspicious of their friendship. So was Palesa really just interested in making a genuine friend out of Dumile or should we expect a love affair to get started between the two? From Mnqobi to Spikiri to Palesa (plus the college sweetheart we have heard her telling Palesa about), is Dumile even capable of holding on to a romantic relationship for long enough?
Mnqobi continues in his quest to “do things right”. He pays a visit to his cousin Mthandeni to ask him not to kill Spikiri as he had ordered before. He then requests him to organize a cleansing ritual to cleanse him of all his current bad luck. Mthandeni walks into this with his own motives. He tells the sangoma that he is not pleased with how Mnqobi has turned out and would like to have him go back to his old self. The sangoma gives Mnqobi a baboon’s hand and a gun, saying no one would be able to dodge a bullet from it. Mnqobi goes to see Thembi with the intention to kill her (so much for a man trying to change), but is stopped in his tracks when Thembi tells him that she has his daughter Phindile, who is away at boarding school, watched and the killer is under strict orders to rape and kill her if he does not hear from Thembi every two hours (this answers our questions about the call she made earlier). Mnqobi is now desperate to get to Phindile before anything happens to her and take her back home.
The games are only just beginning for Mnqobi and Thembi, and I cannot wait to see where Palesa’s story goes from here.
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