Summary
Bad Influencer delivers its best sequence yet in “Moghel Slay”, a clear turning point in the season where the body count begins mounting.
Violence begets violence, or so the saying goes, and it holds true in Bad Influencer. In the previous episode, BK witnessed a murder, and something has evidently shifted on account of that. It wasn’t so long ago that Bheki was the scariest figure in the show; now, he’s an annoyance who BK will slap around if it gets him out of the way. As we step over the midpoint of the season, Episode 4, “Moghel Slay”, represents a turning point where things get a lot less funny and a lot more dangerous.
It’s still quite funny, though, especially where Pinky is concerned. Following her encounter with Naomi, her social stock is pretty low, and Naomi is even publicly questioning whether her seemingly infinite supply of bags might be fake. It’s too much heat around the business and leads to yet another fracas between BK and Pinky that makes the former even more reliant on Bra Alex and the makeshift sweatshop he has set up to mass-produce the bags to something close to BK’s standards.
But Fungai’s murder — Bra Alex dumped him in the streets with “snitch” carved into his forehead — has massively increased the heat on the operation, which increases the urgency but also makes it almost impossible to scale without attention. This problem is compounded by Pinky’s Instagram being a minefield of trolls and accusations, which means they need to hire another influencer with a large enough following who can also be trusted to be able to sell the bags — a task that proves impossible and requires a more outside-the-box solution.
That solution, dreamed up by Pinky, is to create an anonymous account and rapidly increase its followers by counter-hijacking Naomi’s #Detoxify hashtag and exposing her illicit activities, falsifying the financial records of her charity. But that means stealing her phone to access the incriminating documents, which requires an elaborate heist-style scheme to lure her to a spa. Babi and Dunia, the owners of the pawn shop, who have been cut into the handbag business after the robbery, along with BK, Pinky, and Lelz, all work together to temporarily swipe Naomi’s phone in what is easily the best sequence of the season thus far.
The title of Bad Influencer Episode 4, “Moghel Slay”, is the name of the account that BK sets up to spill the tea on Naomi and all the other influencers, and it’s an immediate success. It becomes the fastest growing account in South Africa overnight and doubles as a handy anonymous sales platform that allows for the expansion that Bra Alex is pushing for. It also gives BK some negotiating power to get Bheki off her back and create an exit strategy for herself. Once she has made Bra Alex his first million, she’s dipping out. Although we’ll see if that comes true or not as we go.
The short-term success also repairs the rift between BK and Pinky, and even though Pinky’s social accounts aren’t necessary anymore, BK asks her to stay with her and remain a part of the business. She’s even able to get enough cash together to pay for a change in Leo’s schooling. Everything — almost everything, anyway — is looking up. But you can tell it’s only going to be temporary. The smart decisions aren’t being made. BK tries to “break up” with Themba but ends up falling into bed (or the back seat of his car, anyway) with him instead, and Bra Alex interprets getting Bheki off BK’s back as murdering both him and Joyce. There probably won’t be a great deal of mourning going on for those two, but the bodies are mounting up nonetheless, and it’s only a matter of time before the violence starts to catch up with BK and Pinky.
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