Summary
A difficult situation becomes impossible in “Plug That Hole”. BK is forced into a corner, and Pinky could lose everything.
Every boss has a boss, and Bad Influence is introducing them at an alarming rate. In the premiere, Bheki seemed like the worst of it. Then, in the second episode, we met Bra Alex, who agreed to go into business with BK and Pinky. But Bra Alex is answerable to someone, too, and at the top of Episode 3, “Plug That Hole”, we briefly meet him. As it turns out, the raid on the towers was caused by an informant in Bra Alex’s operation, who we saw being kidnapped at the end of the previous episode. He needs the counterfeit bag operation to be a success for reasons much bigger than money. It’s giving danger.
BK is under threat from all of these forces, not to mention the law, which she’s getting closer to without even realising it, thanks to her burgeoning relationship with Themba. It’s understandable she wants to keep things low-key and move the bags slowly and steadily. She isn’t interested in becoming a crime kingpin. She just wants to pay for Leo’s schooling.
But Pinky has other ideas. As if it wasn’t bad enough that Mandla cut her off, here she finds out he’s now shacking up with her best friend, Mimi. Now is the time she needs to build her brand, which is exactly the opposite of what BK wants her to do. She brings Lelz into the operation as a personal assistant without telling BK, then gets extremely drunk and goes viral for outing Mimi with a Moncler representative. She even turns up at her mother’s house, who isn’t in Dubai as she claimed, but is throwing a party for her rich friends — a party that Pinky, naturally, wasn’t invited to. And she won’t be invited to any others, either, since she makes a brief speech that reveals her mother’s husband forced himself on her when she was younger, which is what led to their estrangement.
BK is there for Pinky in her time of need, but given her newfound virality and a potential Moncler brand deal, she might not be able to return the favour, especially since it would preclude her from using her socials to sell other brands (even fake ones). This leads to BK and Pinky’s first real, meaningful clash, since BK thinks Pinky is inclined to take the deal for her own benefit and not that of the counterfeiting operation, and Pinky thinks BK is using her for her image and platform. The reason this is an interesting argument is that they’re both probably right.
But things aren’t going well for BK in Bad Influencer Episode 3 either, on multiple levels. For one thing, Themba’s boss leans on him to take proper witness statements from BK and Pinky, since he let them go without questioning after they were picked up at the tower raid, so he has to let on that he’s a cop just as their relationship is getting to the next level. Then, to make matters worse, the pawn shop is robbed for all the fakes and the investment capital that Bra Alex has loaned her, but BK deduces from the robber’s shoes that he was one of Bra Alex’s goons. Bra Alex wants to expand the operation because he’s under pressure from his own boss, and since BK turned him down, he has found a way to force her into the deal.
“Plug That Hole” gives BK no choice but to agree, since she also accidentally witnesses Bra Alex murdering Fungai, the police informant who was tipping Themba off. Now she’s being strong-armed, and thanks to influencer queen bee Naomi embarrassing Pinky, her dwindling social platforms aren’t going to be enough to keep the bag business going without Bra Alex’s help. It looks like a difficult situation just became impossible.
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