Payback’s A B*tch
Episode 4 of Blood and Water begins with Chris convincing Fikile to sabotage Puleng. Puleng meanwhile gets nowhere in finding out the true name of the one who signed Fikile’s birth certificate. For now, she has bigger fish to fry when she finds out the truth about her hidden surname has spread across the school. Given it was sent from Wendy’s computer, she’s the one who takes the blame and ends up suspended from the magazine. Puleng tries in vain to phone through to Home Affairs to find out who B.Jaxa is. Instead, she decides to visit in person instead where she bribes a worker known as Promise with cigarettes. He reveals that Brenda Jaxa was suspended for fraud and is currently in prison. Fikile’s swimming coach Chad continues his affair with Fikile, blowing off his pregnant girlfriend Riley and heading to a hotel room with her where we learn more about his life. Meanwhile, Zama sees Chris hooking up with Mark in his car and it causes some serious awkwardness to ensue. This brings her back to Puleng where she questions her loyalty given how distant she’s been recently. However, she also learns Zama was the one who spilled the truth about her surname to Chris. Given what’s happened, Puleng and her parents are brought into the principal’s office where the idea of suspension is thrown around. As the damning video involving Puleng’s Father is shared, Fikile’s parents become flustered over the mention of Phume and hurry out. Puleng follows them out not long after, where Wade approaches her and confirms that B Jaxa is in prison. Puleng wants nothing to do with it though and brushes him off. Wade decides to push on regardless and heads there himself. Puleng meanwhile decides to get back at Fikile by spilling the truth about her affair with Coach to Wendy, knowing it’ll make headlines in the paper. At prison, Wade interviews Jaxa after giving her a 3-gig data top-up on her phone. Given she used to fake signatures on some birth certificates, she can’t confirm whether Fikila was one of the fake ones or not but it certainly looks probable. With this newfound information, Wade heads over to Puleng’s house but KB happens to be there first and winds up kissing her, which Wade sees. KB then asks Puleng to give Fikile a chance, going on to say that her parents call the girl a “miracle child”, which backs up her theory about her being adopted, which is where the episode ends. While some of the exposition is a bit on-the-nose, especially that involving Fikile’s swimming coach Chad, the supporting characters do their best with the material given but it also feels quite underwhelming, with a lack of depth given to each character. Zama’s motivations don’t make much sense either; why is she berating Puleng for not talking when she’s the one who’s been ignoring her for so many episodes? Alongside that, this seems like Blood and Water lacks much depth to its mystery and with little in the way of deviating plot strings or narratives, Fikile being Puleng’s sister seems more and more likely with every episode that passes.
