Directed by Ari Kruger and Keitumetse Qhali, Bad Influencer tells the story of a single mother who finds herself caught in a difficult situation, one where, in order to pay for her child’s school fees, she is forced to resort to illegal means to earn money. In her pursuit, she joins hands with an influencer, who was another strange character. Together, they face all kinds of challenges, often finding themselves doing things they never imagined they would, even in their wildest dreams. So, let’s find out what unfolds in the series and whether BK, the single mother, succeeds in her endeavors.
Spoiler Alert
How did BK and Pinky start selling fake luxury bags?
BK, aka Babhekile Msinga, was a single mother, and she was in desperate need of 200,000 rand to get her son, Leo, into a school that catered to children with special needs. BK was pretty good at making fake copies of luxury bags, and she had a steady clientele. Her point of contact was a woman named Thandiwe, who had good connections in the elite community. So Thandiwe’s job was to spread the word about BK selling secondhand designer bags that were one hundred percent authentic, and that too at a much lower rate. But then one day BK got caught as a woman in that elite group figured out that she was selling fakes. BK needed a distribution channel, and that’s when she remembered an influencer, whom she had accidentally bumped into, in a luxury bag shop. That woman was Pukane Nkosazana Zwane, aka Pinky, who had a good following on her social media handles. BK didn’t want to collaborate with her, but she didn’t have any other options. She had seen what Pinky was like, and she felt that she wouldn’t be able to tolerate her for more than a day. Pinky too didn’t want to work with her, but the man who funded her expenses dumped her, and she had nowhere to go. So it was a match made out of compulsion, and if they hadn’t needed each other, they wouldn’t have even talked to each other if they were the last people left on earth. BK needed a constant supply of high-end fake luxury bags so that she could use their components for the copies she made. So basically in the market there were various kinds of fakes available: some blatantly looked like cheap copies, whereas there were some that were hard to differentiate. Generally the ones that were really good copies used good-quality chains, zips, and other pieces. Bk’s plan was to scavenge these copies and make an even better copy that an expert could also not identify.
BK owed some money to a small-time loan shark named Bhike, and through him she got in touch with a man named Bra Alex, who apparently could get her quality copies of the luxury bags. Bra Alex also owed money to his boss, Jobs Flames Jiyane, and so he didn’t mind making good money while taking minimum risk. The state counterfeit department had already conducted raids on the local markets where Bra Alex used to sell his stuff, and so he too was on the lookout for a distribution channel, and BK provided him with that.
How did Themba get to know about BK’s reality?
BK’s son went to a science class where the kids were taught by a man named Themba. BK and Themba started off on the wrong foot, but soon they felt attracted towards each other. At that moment, what BK didn’t know was that Themba, aka Captain Dladla, was a cop, and in fact he was in charge of busting the counterfeit market of the city and finding those who were selling luxury items on a large scale. I believe the biggest mistake that BK committed was that she still kept meeting him after she got to know that he was a cop. In fact, Themba was the one who had conducted a raid on the local market and taken all the people present there into custody. Pinky and BK were also held in custody, and when Themba got to know about it, he let them go without taking their statements. Themba got a scolding from his superior, and so he didn’t have any option but to tell BK that he was a cop and that he needed her statement as a formality to clear her and Pinky’s names from the list of suspects. But then, soon after that, Pinky’s name got linked to the counterfeit syndicate, and she was called in for an interrogation. Pinky went and confronted BK, and that’s where she got to know that the man she was seeing was a cop. She was very mad at BK, and she wanted to ask her why she was risking their lives. BK’s son, Leo, who shared a very good relationship with Pinky, was present at the scene, and he saw his mother and his aunt quarreling. He then told Themba about everything he had heard, and that’s when he got to know that BK was not as innocent as she pretended to be. At that point in time, BK and Pinky were selling luxury bags through an anonymous account that they named Moghel Slay. They used a famous influencer named Naomi as bait to increase their follower count overnight. Pinky had a long-standing animosity with Naomi, and she just wanted an opportunity to question her character publicly. Pinky got to know about the tax fraud that Naomi had conducted, and through an anonymous account, she broke the story. Then that social media account was used to sell bags, and nobody came to know who was running it. But since Leo heard his mother talking to Pinky, he, just in pure innocence, ended up blurting out their secret in front of Themba. Meanwhile, even Bra Alex figured out that BK was working with the cops. Bra Alex had developed a soft corner for Alex, and she was trying really hard to convince her to date him. But even his feelings towards her couldn’t come in the way of him taking action against Themba. BK tried to convince Alex that she was just trying to get close to the man to know about his next move. She hid the fact from Alex that Themba was quite close to her son, and that he was, at that moment, dropping him home. Alex’s men attacked, and Themba’s vehicle crashed. But Themba and Leo both survived, though Leo, for many days after that incident, was in a very critical state.
Why Did Jiyane Kill Bra Alex?
While Bra Alex, BK, Pinky, and Themba were trying to turn the situation in their favor, Jobs Flames Jiyane was getting rather impatient. He would have killed Alex and BK had BK not told him that she could return the 5 million rand that Alex owed him in merely a week. She had to basically sell 130 luxury bags in a span of seven days to make that much money. In between, there came a brief period when Pinky went back to the married man named Mandla, whom she had been dating earlier and who had ditched her at the beginning of Bad Influencer. But once again, her stay at Mandla’s palace did not last long, as the man wanted sexual favors in return for making sure that she was not charged with any crime. Pinky’s conscience didn’t allow her to pin all the blame on BK, as she had also grown fond of her with time. Moreover, Pinky shared a beautiful relationship with Leo, and so she decided to leave Mandla for good this time, and then helped BK in whatever way she could to achieve her target. BK and Pinky planned to organize an auction by collaborating with the non-alcoholic champagne brand owner, Pierre Moncler Jacques, and inviting all the big influencers to attend. BK and her team of tailors somehow managed to make 130 bags, but they didn’t have the time to fix the chains and the stitches of the bag properly. So basically if any influencer tried to use the bag’s zip, they would realize that it was a fake. Naomi, the influencer, who was exposed by Pinky and BK, also arrived at the auction, and she tried to tell everybody that Pinky was trying to scam them. BK hadn’t revealed her face up until then, as she wanted the audience to keep guessing about who she was. BK appeared in the auction wearing a mask, and the influencers thought that there was some famous personality behind it. When things got out of hand because of Naomi’s theatrics, BK finally took off her mask to divert the attention of the audience. She swayed the influencers and the people watching the live stream online by telling them that she had conducted the auction to empower women. She was able to influence her audience, and within no time they were once again shouting and cheering for her. They were able to collect the 5 million rand they needed, but then there came a catch.
Before the auction had taken place, BK had made a deal with Themba: she had told the police that if they promised to give her, Pinky, and their associates (Babi, his partner, and Lelz) immunity, then they could set the trap for Bra Alex and Flames Jiyane, and the police could get those two hardened criminals in their custody. Themba agreed because firstly he loved BK, and secondly any rational person would have gone for the bigger fish rather than targeting two ladies who were small-time scammers. But unfortunately Alex got to know that BK had made a deal with the police. He asked his men to abduct Leo, while he took BK to Flames Jiyane, who apparently had quite high expectations of her. When BK and Alex reached Jiyane’s den, BK told the big boss that it was Alex who had snitched and made a deal with the police. Now that was a very good move since both of them did not have the evidence to prove that the other was cooperating with the police. So because BK spoke first and took Alex by surprise, the suspicion tilted towards Alex. Before Alex could defend himself, Bheki, who now worked for Jiyane, shot him dead. BK begged for her life, and before Bheki could do anything to her, the police arrived at the scene. So one could say that it was BK’s presence of mind and arrival of the cops at the scene that saved her life.
Will BK Start Working For Jiyane?
BK was taken into custody and sentenced to 2 years for counterfeiting items and laundering money. Flames Jiyane was able to escape with his men before the police arrived at the scene. The man made sure that Pinky and her team were acquitted of all charges. Themba’s boss, Briggs, was really unhappy with him, as he had gone ultra vires on a lot of occasions and not followed the chain of command. Themba was also angry at him, as he had promised BK that he would provide her with immunity, but here she was, looking at 2 years of jail time. Themba escorted BK to her cell and told her to make contacts while she was there, as otherwise it was difficult to survive in between such hardened and dangerous criminals. BK didn’t know, but Flames Jiyane, in a way, had her back. Not because he grew sympathetic of her or he appreciated her work, but because she had told the man that she could make 20 times more for him than what she had done in one week. That amount of money piqued the old crime lord’s interest, and he made sure to let BK know that he was counting upon her. In fact, Flames Jiyane used his contacts to send BK a famed picture of her son, a shooting that the prison staff had told her that she was not allowed to take. Though Bad Influencer is a limited series, I believe there could very well be a season 2, as it left us on a cliffhanger. So I wouldn’t be surprised if BK starts working for Flames Jiyane in the future and lands herself in all sorts of trouble. I don’t think that working for Jiyane is something that she wanted to do, but that was the only way she could make a deal with the man and ask him to let her live.
