"How to Ruin Christmas: The Wedding" Review

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[00:00:42] What's up, everybody? Welcome back to Recap Kickback.

[00:00:46] It's me, your host Chappelle, and it's the holiday season.

[00:00:49] And so I've been talking about bringing more holiday specials to Recap Kickback.

[00:00:53] And we're in for a treat because I'm here with my co-host from the Abbott Elementary recaps that we do here

[00:01:00] and from other guest appearances here on Recap Kickback to talk about her favorite Netflix series.

[00:01:07] And so with me, of course, Gia. Gia Worthy, what's up?

[00:01:11] Hello, Chappelle. I am so, so excited to finally talk about How to Ruin Christmas.

[00:01:17] I have been bothering so many people about watching this show for years, since 2020.

[00:01:24] And I am so excited that I finally get to talk about it, to talk about season one.

[00:01:32] There are three seasons in this series of How to Ruin Christmas.

[00:01:36] It's a very easy watch, but very, very funny and a lot of great characters to remember here.

[00:01:43] So for those of you that have not gotten the pleasure to listen to How to Ruin Christmas or really a lot of South African TV shows, this is a introduction to How to Ruin Christmas, but also just a like a little advertisement to dive into the world of South African shows slash Nollywood.

[00:02:05] Yeah. Yeah. Gia's right. I did not know anything about this, except for Gia always telling me about it, obviously.

[00:02:12] So I was very happy to go and finally be like, OK, what is she talking about?

[00:02:16] And this is definitely an advertisement for, oh, you got to get into the South African content on Netflix right now, because I was so pleasantly surprised.

[00:02:26] Um, Gia. Yes. There was so much drama.

[00:02:30] So there was a lot of drama. I almost burned my food.

[00:02:33] I was cooking and I looked back and said, wait a minute, what's happening?

[00:02:36] You know, so this is great. This is great.

[00:02:39] How to Ruin Christmas, if you are not familiar with it, obviously, like Gia said, um, a 2020 release date for Netflix, uh, from Burnt Onion Productions, uh, South African comedy television series.

[00:02:51] And so every, uh, season has roughly three or four episodes, season one having three episodes.

[00:02:57] And we're going to talk about all three of those episodes today.

[00:02:59] But if you've never gotten into it before, this will definitely motivate you to watch everything else.

[00:03:06] Because now I just feel like I've been robbing myself of all this ridiculous mess.

[00:03:12] These characters, the drama, it was so good.

[00:03:15] And so what better way to kick off some Christmas content with some mess, Gia?

[00:03:20] We're going to have a good time.

[00:03:21] Yes. And for people that are looking specifically for Christmas content, I must say, I will admit,

[00:03:28] that Christmas is kind of a background character here.

[00:03:31] Um, they, you see, there's definitely Christmas elements to it.

[00:03:36] Uh, the decorations are there.

[00:03:38] They, uh, for this season, it's focusing on the wedding, um, between Beauty Cello and, uh, Cebu, uh, Twala.

[00:03:47] And that is like the focal point of it.

[00:03:50] But each season is about a different event that occurs around Christmas time.

[00:03:54] So, uh, that's more the focal point of it.

[00:03:58] And Christmas is kind of like, you know, they, they wanted to release a show in December.

[00:04:03] And who are we to question that?

[00:04:05] Right. And, um, yeah, but before we get into that, make sure you like the video.

[00:04:09] We're here on YouTube, recapkickback.com.

[00:04:12] Slash subscribe.

[00:04:12] We'll get you our dedicated podcast feed on all your podcast platforms.

[00:04:17] But if you want to watch us on YouTube, YouTube.com slash at recapkickback, because we're going to have all your coverage here.

[00:04:23] And you can look at our beautiful faces as we talk about this.

[00:04:25] Uh, and I do want to get into it right now.

[00:04:28] Gia, I think that your point about this Christmas being a backdrop is the first source of drama that I want to point out here.

[00:04:35] Because why are you, why are you going to plan your wedding for Christmas?

[00:04:43] Of all the times to do a wedding, you choose to take everybody else's day and make it about you.

[00:04:49] Immediately I said, oh, I can already tell this is going to be foolish because what are we doing?

[00:04:54] But, have you met the Tualas? Because this is exactly on brand for this family.

[00:05:01] Mm hmm. Yeah, we meet the Tualas in this series early on.

[00:05:05] This is a very affluent family.

[00:05:08] Uh, as you mentioned, Sibu is, uh, the, the groom here.

[00:05:12] He's getting married, but we also meet his, uh, very affluent family, uh, as well, like Valencia.

[00:05:17] Uh, I'm sorry. Uh, yeah, Valencia, his mom.

[00:05:20] And then, uh, also his dad who is, uh, he will, will remind you over and over again that he's like a very important minister.

[00:05:29] You know, like these people have a lot of attention on them.

[00:05:32] They have a lot of fame and they have a lot of money.

[00:05:34] And so they're definitely going to make this time about them and they're going to make it a production.

[00:05:38] It's going to be a nationally televised wedding, uh, the week of Christmas.

[00:05:42] And it's not just one wedding. It's several weddings.

[00:05:44] They have a traditional wedding and they have other weddings going on.

[00:05:48] Yeah. It's a big production.

[00:05:50] I just felt like it's a personal attack on everybody else to have this on Christmas.

[00:05:54] This show called me poor several times.

[00:05:58] Several thousand times.

[00:05:59] Every scene.

[00:06:00] These people call me poor.

[00:06:01] Valencia specifically called me poor.

[00:06:03] And did it study.

[00:06:04] Several times.

[00:06:05] Yeah.

[00:06:05] So we have on the Twala side, uh, Vusi, who is the dad.

[00:06:10] He's very concerned about black Twitter, making him a hashtag if this wedding does not go well.

[00:06:15] Um, but we need a lot.

[00:06:19] So over the course of the three seasons, the theme really becomes about the Twalas versus the cellos and the culture class and the really the class clash that comes from it.

[00:06:34] Because, uh, beauty who is, uh, Sibu's fiance now soon to be a wife by the end of season one is not from a wealthy family.

[00:06:45] And she's marrying into money through this part.

[00:06:49] So this is another area of, I want to say insecurity on a lot of different characters, uh, minds here.

[00:06:58] Yeah. Yeah.

[00:06:59] Because, uh, you know, because, uh, she is marrying into money.

[00:07:04] There's some questions, I guess, that Sibu's family is having about, you know, is this a real marriage or she just marrying so that she can be rich and never have to work again?

[00:07:12] Uh, it's very clear to us, the audience that Sibu and beauty love each other and they have a lot of this stuff going on.

[00:07:19] But again, when you have a family that's as eccentric as Sibu's family and rich, they have reason to kind of be kind of protective of their legacy and their money and, uh, who they're letting into their family.

[00:07:31] And unfortunately, uh, the bellows are a little, uh, I mean, the cellos are a little, um, you know, they're a little ghetto, a little ghetto.

[00:07:39] A little ghetto, but a good ghetto. We like them.

[00:07:41] We love them. Oh my God. What are you talking about?

[00:07:44] Do we, do we want to go through the cellos or before we get into the, like how they fit in with the mess of the Tualas here?

[00:07:55] Oh yes, of course. And we have to start. If we're starting with the cellos, we got to start with our main character.

[00:08:00] Tumi. Yes. I'm gonna show my hand. I love this woman. She is a chaotic disaster of a mess. And I love every second that she's on the screen.

[00:08:09] Everything she does, I have an excuse for. Okay. I love this woman down. I love her so much. This is Devi Vishukumar.

[00:08:18] If she grew up and learned nothing like this is one of my favorite characters of all time on anything. Um, we love Tumi. Tumi is a, uh, Somalia.

[00:08:30] Tumi from living in Cape town. So she does not live near the rest of her family. Um, and it's actually Tumi's intro at the very beginning that got me into this show because.

[00:08:42] I was looking for Nollywood specific shows and this is not technically Nollywood. Nollywood is Nigerian Hollywood, but this came up because you know, Netflix doesn't know the difference.

[00:08:52] Yeah, okay. And, um, her narrating the show is one of the things that like really drew me in because this was a character that I was really interested in.

[00:09:02] But, uh, Tumi is flying back to, uh, Joburg or Johannesburg, South Africa for the three day Christmas wedding. Um, as she rightfully remembers that, uh, you know, how just, how do we think Jesus feels having his birthday shown up by beauty's wedding?

[00:09:19] It's a great question. I've been to a wedding that was on New Year's Eve and I was livid because again, why are you taking my holiday away from me? So imagine how Jesus feels that you're taking his birthday and making it about you.

[00:09:30] Is there an acceptable holiday to get married on?

[00:09:34] No, no, no, no, no, no.

[00:09:37] I feel like I could deal with like a 4th of July wedding. Like I want to be that bad.

[00:09:41] Yeah, because that doesn't count. Yeah, because that's not real. You know, it's like, or Columbus Day. Let's get married.

[00:09:46] I would love if one of my friends got married like Thanksgiving week, like the whole week. They do like a three day. Yeah. I would love to not have to celebrate Thanksgiving. That's my wish. Yes.

[00:09:58] Yeah. It's like, which, which, uh, holiday am I willing to opt out of for a wedding is basically what we're asking here, but you're right. Uh, she's, she's, she's got the right idea. You know, this is a hassle. She obviously doesn't come home often. Uh, and now she's coming home for this wedding. She is her sister's maid of honor. And so she's going to be there to support beauty, but you can tell she kind of don't want to be there. She has these frequent flyer miles that she wants to use, uh, to go elsewhere. This is not her ideal location.

[00:10:28] And, and, uh, it's because, uh, she's got some family trauma, you know, we're going to see some battles with her and her mom and even, you know, some battles with a guy from back home that she might've, uh, left high and dry. So, uh, yeah, we get into a lot of good, good, healthy, just drama when it comes to me. She is mess. Uh, and I know you can make a lot of excuses for what she does.

[00:10:53] And I would love to hear them because it's going to be a fun ride. Just talking about this to me. I watched season one. And the first thing I said to myself was, I mean, how could she even, what, how can you top this for season two or three? What, what could, what else could she possibly do?

[00:11:06] Oh, um, not to spoil anything that happens, but season two is called how to ruin Christmas, the funeral. So there's a, yeah, there, there's a lot to be topped there.

[00:11:18] Um, I'm very excited to discuss season two. Um, I do want to point out this is, it's not really as it is a spoiler, but not really. Um, it's just something that happened in real life as well.

[00:11:32] That to me is played by the late great, uh, Boosie Lurayi. Um, she unfortunately passed away between seasons two and three. So she's in season two as the full character.

[00:11:44] The show was, she was already planning to not be in season three. So I think season two closes out her character really well, but she unfortunately passed away. Um, like this was a really devastating time, like very unexpected death.

[00:11:59] And she, um, so she is not in season three, but they do pay tribute to her. Um, but the season itself for season three was already planned around this idea of, uh, to me not being here.

[00:12:15] That's so sad. I had no clue. And I'm very sad to hit cause I, I love this actress. Uh, I think she does such a good job. Uh, she's rebellious. She's the free spirited oldest sister who is constantly messing up in the family's eyes.

[00:12:28] And again, if you think she messed up prior to whatever the actions were in this show, everything she does in season one, you're thinking, Oh my God. Like this, this woman is, this, this, this woman is a problem.

[00:12:41] You know, I think at some point, uh, one of the uncles looks at her and said like, I've been to prison and they ain't got nothing on you to me. You know?

[00:12:51] He was scared of to me. Right. And it's real because the things we will see her get into at all she has to do is be the maid of honor. That's it. All she has to do. They tell her to bring a gift, bring some towels. Don't bring a plus one. Don't have sex with the, uh, the groom's brother, you know, just be normal.

[00:13:12] To be fair. They did not say do not have sex with the groom's brother. Uh, that was implied. Um, but she didn't know he was a recovering alcoholic either. So that's on them.

[00:13:25] She did know he was married. She did know that. Yes. And his wife is there at the, at the, the venue as well. That was very ballsy of both of them. I must say. Bold as hell. Um, they're, they're, they basically get the four seasons like this big ass mansion.

[00:13:41] Um, to say like, all right, here's what we'll be having the wedding ceremony. And again, I felt very poor, very, very poor, but very happy for them.

[00:13:50] Yes. Yes. Yes. Um, so this is, again, this is a very new experience, very extravagant wedding. Um, and at the head of all of this, obviously to me is the main character. Beauty is her sister that she is getting married to.

[00:14:05] And then we have, uh, Danio or Danio, um, who is their mother, who to me has a very contentious relationship with.

[00:14:14] Yeah. Uh, her mom like dropped her, like basically like left her with her grandma and was like, all right, cool. Like, bye, you know?

[00:14:21] And, uh, so to me already doesn't really feel like they have that much of a bond.

[00:14:26] And then when you see them interact, you can see it's kind of like, it's, it's like you said, contentious.

[00:14:31] They're button heads all the time. Uh, cause Tumi don't really respect her mama and her mama is looking at her like, well, you kind of a problem child too.

[00:14:38] So, you know, it feels like for her, she would rather opt out of any type of conversation she would have with her mom.

[00:14:44] But again, she's the maid of honor. She's in this wedding to support beauty and she's messing up.

[00:14:49] She didn't bring a gift. She brought a plus one. We haven't even talked about Kaya yet, but, uh, you know, she, she brings her own baggage with her.

[00:14:57] Yes. So literally brought him with her, which was perfect. Perfect. Um, yeah, it's a very contentious relationship and it's also just very, uh, complicated.

[00:15:08] We learn a little bit more about not just their relationship as mother daughter, but also a little more about, um, Dina in later in, especially in episode three, we get to see a lot of things from her perspective.

[00:15:24] She is a born again, Christian woman with a bit of a past, which, uh, built into some of that contention that happens between Tumi and, um, herself.

[00:15:35] But I do, I, I really enjoy the, one of the final scenes we get with them. Uh, we'll talk about it, but it was, uh, great to see things from both of their perspectives, even though of course, like Tumi is our main girl here.

[00:15:48] Yeah. And, uh, I want to talk about Tumi's baggage a little bit. She brings Kaya's her, her, I guess her, her guy best friend is what I will call him because these two, we find out have, they've hooked up in the past.

[00:16:00] It happened. He was grieving. He lost his, uh, his, uh, of his mother. And so, um, during that time, I guess she was comforting him on the only way that Tumi knows how, you know?

[00:16:11] And so, uh, they had a moment and then she dipped and they never really address the moment again.

[00:16:18] And now she, here he, she is back in Johannesburg for the wedding and she kind of needs him as her plus one. And so he's like, I'll, I'll come to come with you to certain things.

[00:16:28] I hope you with your, uh, with your maid of honor speech. Uh, but there's still a lot of tension between the two of them too. There's a lot of, you know, chemistry.

[00:16:36] You can tell there's something there. Uh, but they've both moved on in a way, you know, they both have other people that they're sleeping with clearly.

[00:16:43] Um, and so it's kind of like, you kind of have to be rooting for them, even though things are going to go drastically wrong before they go right in any direction for the two.

[00:16:53] They match each other's freak is the best way that I can put it because like Kaya knows that this is very classic Tumi behavior.

[00:17:04] And for the most part, he is not judgmental about it until it, she becomes a little too selfish. Um, especially when he's trying to help her in situations.

[00:17:17] And I'm not even talking about like the, um, the, her sleeping with someone else, uh, during the wedding, but it's more of like her planning to go over the house so that they can plan her wedding speech and blowing them off because she gets very drunk.

[00:17:33] So like, this is the type of behavior that is where kind of pushes Kaya to his limit.

[00:17:42] What do you think of Kaya as like a character?

[00:17:45] He was fun. I thought it was cool. You know, I liked them together, but I also was very team Kaya when it came to some of Tumi's mistakes, you know, cause for a while I'm like, all right, stand up.

[00:17:54] You know, I, I see that you like her, but again, my girl is a disaster in a lot of ways.

[00:18:01] And people are getting hurt in her wake, you know, like whenever she explodes, I think Davey was a good example of what you're talking about is that like when she sees red, there's no telling what else will happen around her.

[00:18:13] And all she can do later on is apologize. And sometimes that's just not good enough.

[00:18:17] So I was happy to see like, you know, the interaction between the two of them and the journey that they take in these three episodes.

[00:18:24] Um, do we have to, I mean, we have to talk about them, but right.

[00:18:28] We do, we do have to talk about them, but we can, we can take a break from the cellos to talk about, uh, two of the twalas.

[00:18:33] We really haven't talked about that is, uh, Temba who is Sibu's brother and his wife, Lydia.

[00:18:42] Um, and Lydia, first thing we learned about her right away here is that she is trying to have a baby like, and has everything to a T like as soon the door to the hotel room is not even locked yet.

[00:18:56] And she is legs up ready to go. And that is not me judging her.

[00:19:01] She is just like, literally her legs were up in the air, ready to go.

[00:19:04] And very quickly we realized that Temba does not want to have a child that quickly.

[00:19:07] Like he's spitting out the fertility medicines. Uh, he's not really, he's not all in like she is, you know, he's looking for excuses.

[00:19:13] Like, Oh, let me go and do something else. You know, I gotta go help Sibu. I gotta do other things.

[00:19:18] So it's fun to watch them, but also very quickly you realize, okay, there's a little trouble in paradise with the two of them.

[00:19:24] And then it just escalates from there.

[00:19:27] Yes. Um, it does not get better through these three episodes here.

[00:19:32] Uh, they are a very dysfunctional couple.

[00:19:35] I, I find Lydia so interesting because I think there is, I wouldn't call her a gold digger,

[00:19:41] but I do think she does like the status that being a Twala has and who can blame her.

[00:19:47] Right. But I think she's also a woman that knows what she wants.

[00:19:51] She knows she's ready to have a child and she might not have picked the best partner to go on this endeavor with her.

[00:20:00] Yeah. And I want you on that one. I don't blame her. She wants to have a child. She's married.

[00:20:04] She did all the things correctly to get to this point. She found a guy that she liked, she married him.

[00:20:08] And now she's like ready to have a child. And although he's starting to act out and really act like he doesn't really want to be a part of this,

[00:20:16] she still wants a kid. And now you're like asking a woman who, a woman of means, by the way, because she has money now.

[00:20:21] Um, like, I don't know if she can, if she leaves the family, if she doesn't get anything, but in her current situation,

[00:20:26] she can very much raise a child and she doesn't really need Timber's help that much.

[00:20:30] And so given her, you know, her current status in the family. Yeah.

[00:20:35] She wants to have a kid and he might not be the greatest dad, but she don't care.

[00:20:38] She's ready to have a child. And so she's ready. Yeah. Sadly, he's not, he is not.

[00:20:43] And so, uh, I guess let's get to some of our big moments in these episodes.

[00:20:48] Now we have our major players. Um, I want to talk about the moms.

[00:20:53] I want to talk about and Valencia and kind of like their different approaches to this thing.

[00:20:58] Cause Valencia, she's very regal, you know, like I I'm very rich.

[00:21:02] I don't play around with all that ghetto stuff. We got to make sure this looks good.

[00:21:06] Um, and Lindsay is more like a, like very familiar with her sisters.

[00:21:11] They're coming in. We're going to be making, you know, we're going to be making the food from scratch.

[00:21:15] Cause y'all can't, you can't put a price on my button, you know, that kind of thing.

[00:21:18] And it's just, everything is bumping heads because Valencia, like we pay for catering.

[00:21:23] We don't need you to go and slaughter no goat.

[00:21:27] And Valencia like, nah, we bring it. I mean, today I was like, we bring it in the goat.

[00:21:31] You know, we bring it in the wedding. We got my, we got my brother.

[00:21:34] He's out here doing the things he's, he's hunting it down. It's going to be fresh, fresh goat.

[00:21:38] Um, I love it. I love it. I love the drunk, the drunk uncle.

[00:21:44] He's yeah. Shadrack is hilarious. I love it all. Uh, but just watching the way these two families kind of interact.

[00:21:51] And the fact that these two mothers are so like strong willed and you know, neither one of them is going to bend when it comes to the way they want the wedding.

[00:21:58] They're just going to do whatever they can and just navigate around each other while they do it.

[00:22:02] Yeah. It's truly a culture clash between the two mothers. They are.

[00:22:07] Vusi is the quote unquote head of the house for the Twala family, but Valencia is truly the head of household here.

[00:22:17] Like she is the boss. She is the one that is making the decisions around this wedding.

[00:22:23] She is a woman of distinction and she knows it.

[00:22:26] Uh, and she doesn't care about hurting people's feelings, which is what gets her into trouble a lot, especially towards the end of season one, where her family is a little annoyed with her.

[00:22:39] And some of the things where she could have been a more supportive part to this and instead kind of instigated everything more.

[00:22:48] Yeah. But one of the big, uh, points of contact here we have with the drama.

[00:22:55] And it's, it is, is the thing that will set the stage for everything else.

[00:22:58] We have this wedding, but we have to meet and to me is going to have a drunken night with Timber.

[00:23:06] The, the, the, the, the best man.

[00:23:09] Now she's aware that he's married.

[00:23:13] Yes.

[00:23:13] She's not aware that he has an alcohol problem, that he is a, a recovering alcoholic.

[00:23:18] And she gives him a drink or a bunch of drinks.

[00:23:23] The two of them have sex poolside and in the pool, um, twice, several times.

[00:23:30] Yeah.

[00:23:30] Yeah.

[00:23:31] At least, at least twice.

[00:23:33] And then he goes missing.

[00:23:35] Timber is nowhere to be found.

[00:23:36] And they find to me basically at the end of episode one on a pool floaty naked with Timber's nowhere to be found, his clothes, his underwear around and a condom wrapper as well.

[00:23:49] Um, my mouth was on the floor because I just did not expect this to be the drama of the season.

[00:23:55] Yes.

[00:23:56] Everything centers around this one incident and it explodes into a bunch of other incidences after that because a lot of people in his family have, uh, some secrets that come to light in the span of these three days.

[00:24:14] Um, apparently Timber has a pension for not just, uh, being stupid when he's drunk, but literally disappearing.

[00:24:24] Just disappearing until the money goes out.

[00:24:27] So nobody knows where he is.

[00:24:30] Toomey volunteers to be the person to go find him, to try to make it up to her sister.

[00:24:37] Um, but while that's happening, everyone just spirals from here.

[00:24:41] It just, it does not get any more chill for anybody involved.

[00:24:46] No, because I think the goat got away in the meantime, you know, like, so they have to find the goat.

[00:24:51] Can we talk about succulent, please?

[00:24:54] Of course.

[00:24:55] Well, first of all, naming the goat succulent is crazy.

[00:24:57] Yeah.

[00:24:59] Succulent is a recurring family member.

[00:25:02] Okay.

[00:25:02] He is in season two.

[00:25:03] We see succulent.

[00:25:05] Yes.

[00:25:05] Okay.

[00:25:06] This is not a one-off character.

[00:25:08] Okay.

[00:25:08] Succulent survives.

[00:25:09] He's in season two and he's also in season three.

[00:25:12] I love it.

[00:25:13] So, yes, we love succulent.

[00:25:15] We love Shadrach in succulent.

[00:25:18] So we have, uh,

[00:25:19] I guess he's a sheep.

[00:25:20] I keep calling him a goat, but I think, I guess he's a sheep.

[00:25:22] Sheep.

[00:25:51] Yes.

[00:25:52] We love Aunt Grace.

[00:25:54] And then Uncle Shadrach, who we first hear that he can drink anyone under a table.

[00:26:00] He is that guy.

[00:26:02] Um, and he, as the only man in the family, uh, takes it upon himself to be the leader when

[00:26:13] he really shouldn't be, um, particularly in areas like discussing a bride piece or, uh,

[00:26:20] negotiating with the Twalas.

[00:26:22] Um, and he's a little over his head in these areas, but his task for the wedding is for the

[00:26:28] lunch before the wedding is to get the meat for the mutton curry.

[00:26:34] And he comes back with an entire live sheep that is later named succulent.

[00:26:40] Yeah.

[00:26:40] Yeah.

[00:26:42] And Shadrach is a problem.

[00:26:44] A lot of these people are problems, but Shadrach is a problem because Valencia at this point,

[00:26:48] when they find Tumi has slept with the best man, Valencia was like, all right, cool.

[00:26:50] The wedding's off.

[00:26:51] You know, like immediately there is no wedding.

[00:26:53] We're shutting this down because the news is coming.

[00:26:56] Remember, this is going to be a nationally televised, uh, wedding.

[00:26:59] So the public is going to see the drama that's going on.

[00:27:03] Valencia's immediately a done.

[00:27:05] Nope.

[00:27:05] Tumi, you're a whore.

[00:27:06] You ruined everything.

[00:27:07] You know, like they are done.

[00:27:10] Shadrach's like, let me talk to him.

[00:27:12] Let me see if I can, if I can talk some sense into her.

[00:27:16] And so he goes to Valencia and he like, yeah, so let's all put this behind us.

[00:27:23] Right.

[00:27:24] Like, you know, it's all good.

[00:27:25] And Valencia's like, no, it's not good.

[00:27:27] We're not having a wedding.

[00:27:28] And she's like, he's like, well, it's funny because I mean, we already technically, you

[00:27:31] already paid the bride price.

[00:27:33] So, uh, like they're married.

[00:27:35] They're falling to the purposes.

[00:27:36] They're married.

[00:27:36] And she's like, no, for all the purposes, you're going to pay me my money back.

[00:27:39] And they cannot pay the money back because Deneo, uh, Tumi's mom has already spent the

[00:27:45] money.

[00:27:46] She done bought weave and, uh, I think remodeled the house and all kinds of stuff.

[00:27:50] She bought floors.

[00:27:51] She bought weaves.

[00:27:52] They bought gowns.

[00:27:53] It's spent.

[00:27:53] That money is gone.

[00:27:55] Yeah.

[00:27:56] You will have to Valencia will have to take the bride price back brick by brick, literally

[00:28:01] because it's in her floor.

[00:28:04] Yeah.

[00:28:04] And in her hair, you know, like I said, they bought, they bought the weave for, for the,

[00:28:08] uh, for the bride, you know?

[00:28:10] And so this is, this is tough because now they're mad at Shadrach now, because how dare

[00:28:15] you come and talk to me crazy?

[00:28:16] And he talked crazy to her.

[00:28:18] He was like, ma'am, maybe you sit this one out and let the men talk.

[00:28:21] Uh, sir, what are you doing?

[00:28:24] He had a point about Temba being the only one in the situation that was married though.

[00:28:28] He's like, no, not too much of my niece now.

[00:28:30] Okay.

[00:28:31] Like, right.

[00:28:32] Yeah.

[00:28:32] Like he was also a willing participant, even if he can't remember anything.

[00:28:36] Oh yeah.

[00:28:37] Cause they were really trying to make Tumi to be the bad guy when it's like, okay, one

[00:28:40] person committed adultery.

[00:28:42] Yeah.

[00:28:43] The other person was single.

[00:28:44] Okay.

[00:28:45] You know, so let's throw it out there.

[00:28:48] Uh, but this, this is not great because this makes everything worse.

[00:28:51] Cause now not only is the wedding off, but they want the money back too.

[00:28:54] And, uh, he has to go and relay this message to his sisters.

[00:28:58] And well, I mean, what do you even say to that?

[00:29:00] You know, like they can't, they cannot have the money back.

[00:29:03] There is no money to have back.

[00:29:04] You spent it already.

[00:29:06] And also these people are rich.

[00:29:08] So it's like, you guys are, you know, you wasted our time.

[00:29:12] We're taking your money.

[00:29:13] Okay.

[00:29:14] Like, thank you for the floors.

[00:29:16] Yeah.

[00:29:16] At the very least, we're taking the money.

[00:29:18] We're taking the money and we're not leaving this hotel.

[00:29:20] We're staying here for the week.

[00:29:21] Okay.

[00:29:22] It's nice here.

[00:29:23] Um, so that's going on while Tumi has to go and find, uh, our best man, Timba.

[00:29:29] Now problem.

[00:29:31] You already mentioned it, but she kind of ditched Kaya to,

[00:29:35] to have sex with Timba and pass out in the pool.

[00:29:38] So Kaya was waiting on her all night.

[00:29:40] And so she's calling him as her transportation, essentially like, Hey, could you, could you

[00:29:45] help me find, uh, the best man?

[00:29:47] Oh, why?

[00:29:48] What happened?

[00:29:49] Well, I can't really tell you what happened.

[00:29:50] I, you know, don't worry about it.

[00:29:51] Nothing, nothing really happened per se, but just, I just need to find him.

[00:29:55] And so they're on the search for Timba into ultimately it comes out that, yeah,

[00:30:00] they got to find them because it was Tumi's fault all along.

[00:30:03] She had sex with this man.

[00:30:04] He did it, gave him alcohol and he left.

[00:30:07] Now don't get me wrong.

[00:30:08] Timba is to be to blame as well, but Kaya doesn't know any of this.

[00:30:11] He finds out and he is pissed.

[00:30:16] I kind of understand on that point.

[00:30:18] You know, I get it.

[00:30:19] You were ditched.

[00:30:20] Um, you guys had plans and she ditched you for, uh, sleeping with a married man, but just

[00:30:29] let Tumi have time to tell him, you know, like you, what, what is this bridesmaid?

[00:30:35] Tando is, uh, the one telling her like, right?

[00:30:39] Oh girl, give her some space.

[00:30:41] Jesus.

[00:30:42] Like she wants to be the maid of honor.

[00:30:44] So bad.

[00:30:45] So bad.

[00:30:46] So bad.

[00:30:47] God.

[00:30:47] You will not let anyone forget it.

[00:30:49] I'm like, get off Tumi's neck.

[00:30:51] Damn.

[00:30:51] She got a lot going on.

[00:30:52] Uh, you know, I, like, like I said, I'm kind of a Tumi apologist as well, but you got,

[00:30:57] but you kind of point out that like Kaya was down bad for her.

[00:31:00] He's, he's spending the entire second episode trying to basically be like, so what have

[00:31:06] we got back?

[00:31:07] What have we did?

[00:31:08] What have we tried to make this official?

[00:31:09] You know?

[00:31:10] And, uh, she can't even have that conversation with him because the whole time she's trying

[00:31:16] to hide from him that she's, she, she's still out here doing Tumi things.

[00:31:20] Yeah.

[00:31:21] Yep.

[00:31:22] So that's kind of the big part of the middle episode, but there is another part.

[00:31:29] Uh, are we ready to talk about Edmund?

[00:31:32] Well, we got to talk about two things.

[00:31:34] Let's start with beauty because beauty is having some issues here.

[00:31:39] Uh, beauty, um, yeah, for one, her wedding is falling apart.

[00:31:45] You know, the, the, the half the family is saying there is no wedding.

[00:31:49] There will be no wedding.

[00:31:50] Shut it down.

[00:31:51] Uh, the other thing is that customarily, you know, she would like to have been, you know,

[00:31:58] uh, you know, maybe not having sex prior to getting married to her husband, but her and

[00:32:03] her husband are very much attracted to each other.

[00:32:05] They cannot keep their hands off each other.

[00:32:07] Sneaking around, sharing kisses.

[00:32:08] It's all bad luck, but they can't help themselves.

[00:32:11] Come to find out she's pregnant.

[00:32:13] Mm-hmm.

[00:32:14] Yeah.

[00:32:15] She is pregnant.

[00:32:17] I'm sorry.

[00:32:19] The, so she tells, there's a whole other part to the story because she tells Toomey this,

[00:32:24] who was the first person she told on their way to go find their deadbeat dad.

[00:32:32] Um, and, uh, Toomey's reaction, immediate reaction to this is, but surely they're going to find

[00:32:39] out like after the wedding, right?

[00:32:41] Like.

[00:32:41] Right.

[00:32:42] Like you can't hide this forever.

[00:32:44] Yeah.

[00:32:44] The math is going to add up.

[00:32:46] Um, but she's not showing and she just hasn't, she just hasn't found the time to tell her

[00:32:51] husband because she really wants her baby to not be a bastard essentially.

[00:32:54] Right.

[00:32:55] Like she wants her baby to be born, uh, in wedlock, you know, conceived in wedlock.

[00:32:59] And so she's like, I'm going to tell him, I just haven't had a chance.

[00:33:02] I'm really trying to get across.

[00:33:03] If we could just get across the, down the aisle real quick, you know what I'm saying?

[00:33:06] Like if I could jump the broom or whatever, and then we'll worry about the baby.

[00:33:11] So she tells Toomey, and this is just, it's, it's sisters bonding, you know, and cause she's

[00:33:18] got a lot of stress going on.

[00:33:20] She's throwing up, you know, cause the pregnancy is happening.

[00:33:22] And as you, as you pointed out, she's dying to find her deadbeat dad.

[00:33:27] Now we have, we've been told that her dad ditched the mom years ago when they were just

[00:33:32] little kids.

[00:33:33] They, they've never had a relationship with this man, but for her, she wants to have one

[00:33:38] of those Luther Vandross dance with my father moments, you know, at the wedding.

[00:33:42] And so she has to find him.

[00:33:43] And so they're on a mission to find him when she drops this pregnancy bombshell to Toomey.

[00:33:49] And, uh, it only gets worse.

[00:33:51] Episode two is when I started to burn my food.

[00:33:54] That's when I was like, wait a minute, Gia, what do you have me watching?

[00:33:56] There's a, there's a lot that you, uh, need, you need to just watch episode two.

[00:34:01] This is not something where you do other tasks.

[00:34:03] Like I tried to do work and I was like, no, I need to actually pay attention because there

[00:34:08] are a lot of moving pieces in this mess that is occurring right now.

[00:34:14] Um, they find their dad, they know where their dad lives.

[00:34:18] So they go find him.

[00:34:20] He has no interest in being a part of the wedding.

[00:34:23] And he also tells, uh, his, as Toomey is cussing him out, rightfully so, because he is a

[00:34:31] deadbeat dad.

[00:34:32] He said, actually, I only abandoned one of my kids because you are not my daughter.

[00:34:38] Right.

[00:34:38] To Toomey.

[00:34:39] Your mom is a whore.

[00:34:41] She was a whore back then.

[00:34:42] And she a whore now probably.

[00:34:44] And I don't want nothing to do with her.

[00:34:45] And I don't want nothing to do with you either.

[00:34:47] Cause how dare you disrespect me?

[00:34:48] And I ain't even your daddy.

[00:34:50] I said, oh, this man is going, he going hard.

[00:34:54] I said, somebody needs to shoot this man.

[00:34:57] You know, I just was very like, hold on.

[00:34:59] You can't talk to people like this.

[00:35:00] But at the same time.

[00:35:02] He stood 10 toes down in his deadbeat behavior.

[00:35:06] Yeah.

[00:35:07] No apologies.

[00:35:08] That man said, nah, I said what I said.

[00:35:10] I might owe this girl an apology, but I don't owe you nothing.

[00:35:13] Cause you are not my child.

[00:35:14] This one might, uh, this one might be mine just because the name Darren does not mean

[00:35:20] he belonged to Darren.

[00:35:21] That is the, that is the words he said verbatim.

[00:35:26] Yeah.

[00:35:26] And again, when Toomey sees red, we cannot, she cannot be held accountable

[00:35:31] for what happens.

[00:35:32] At least she is not going to hold herself accountable because beauty says, listen to me.

[00:35:37] I know that was work.

[00:35:38] That was crazy.

[00:35:39] That was crazy.

[00:35:40] But I need you to hold this together for me because we're, we're trying to get the wedding.

[00:35:46] We're trying to just get this wedding over with.

[00:35:48] I got a hidden pregnancy right now.

[00:35:50] Uh, the family is already, you already messed up.

[00:35:53] You already ruined the, uh, the best man.

[00:35:55] As far as we're concerned, just hold this one thing in.

[00:35:59] Don't go to the house and talk crazy to mama.

[00:36:04] And Toomey is like pedal to the floor, flying, trying to get to the venue to talk crazy to

[00:36:10] her mama.

[00:36:11] Like she cannot hear nothing beauty is saying.

[00:36:13] Beauty is begging her.

[00:36:14] Like Toomey, please don't.

[00:36:15] But nah.

[00:36:16] I love Toomey and beauty's relationship so much.

[00:36:22] It is very big sister, little sister, like the perfect child versus the hot mess child.

[00:36:32] It, it's so beautiful.

[00:36:33] And another part where I laughed at it is her like, we haven't known for like 20 something

[00:36:39] years, but it's just three more days.

[00:36:40] It's fine.

[00:36:41] It's fine.

[00:36:41] Love it.

[00:36:43] Like she gets over her dad saying no real fast because of everything else that is happening

[00:36:47] here.

[00:36:47] Like I love beauty, very underrated character in the series, especially because she is,

[00:36:53] uh, she is going through a big transition phase in her life, being both pregnant and,

[00:37:00] uh, getting married.

[00:37:02] Uh, but she is just a rock solid character throughout all three seasons that we get of her.

[00:37:08] Oh yeah.

[00:37:08] She's one of the good ones for sure.

[00:37:10] Cause when it comes to, when it comes to beauty, she can't even focus on her wedding at first

[00:37:15] because she's like, I got it.

[00:37:16] I got this nagging feeling that I just need my dad there.

[00:37:18] I need my dad's blessing.

[00:37:19] He needs to walk me down the aisle.

[00:37:21] I need to have my moment.

[00:37:22] And it's, it's her driving force.

[00:37:24] Then when dad drops the bombshell, she's like, okay, who needs a dad?

[00:37:27] What is that about?

[00:37:28] What are we doing?

[00:37:30] Like that to me is like, what?

[00:37:32] So we supposed to have a wedding and fake like everything is okay.

[00:37:34] So yeah, we've been faking our whole lives.

[00:37:35] What are you talking about?

[00:37:36] Like what's three more days?

[00:37:38] Let's just, let's just do three more days.

[00:37:40] But no, this is, it's still just, it's just to me.

[00:37:44] To me is a ticking time bomb at this point.

[00:37:47] She gets to the house and I believe she runs into, uh, Valencia.

[00:37:51] Um, you know, and that is not good because Valencia very quickly is like, Hey, um, you're

[00:37:56] a whore.

[00:37:57] You're a whore.

[00:37:58] You need to get away from my family because, uh, we lost the, we lost the best man because

[00:38:03] of you.

[00:38:04] So Lydia should be whooping your ass and to be like, I do kind of agree on that.

[00:38:09] Lydia, Lydia deserves it.

[00:38:11] Deserves to get, uh, to deliver an ass whooping at some point, but she's the only one.

[00:38:17] Mind your business.

[00:38:18] She's the only one, but this is enough to set to me on a spiral.

[00:38:22] Right?

[00:38:22] So to me kind of like, hold on, hold on.

[00:38:24] I know you're not talking crazy to me.

[00:38:27] And, uh, when it comes to, uh, I guess the rest of the family, they too have, uh, like

[00:38:33] they're too trying again.

[00:38:35] Right.

[00:38:35] There's like, Oh, maybe, maybe you shouldn't say that.

[00:38:39] Maybe you shouldn't do that.

[00:38:40] And to me kind of like looking at everybody, like anybody can get it at this point.

[00:38:43] Yeah.

[00:38:44] Mom's there.

[00:38:45] Like mama, I know you're not talking.

[00:38:48] And so it's like, boom, you've been lying to us about your daddy.

[00:38:52] And then, I mean, about our dad, he's not even our dad.

[00:38:57] How dare you hypocrite?

[00:38:58] Did she hit the arm with like, uh, I mean the, uh, the mother-in-law were like, and then

[00:39:03] boom, your family ain't even right either.

[00:39:05] Cause that man was married and he did this to himself.

[00:39:07] And then on top of all of that, beauty's trying to be like, tell me, please just hold on.

[00:39:14] And you're like, you just trying to cover up your pregnancy.

[00:39:16] I was like, yeah.

[00:39:18] Yeah.

[00:39:20] Okay.

[00:39:21] But, but, but, but, but, but, but Sipa was an asshole for just leaving after that.

[00:39:27] He's like, it's yours.

[00:39:31] Yeah.

[00:39:32] We got to talk about that.

[00:39:33] Sipa was so upset about this secret that she was keeping.

[00:39:36] And he's like, yeah, the wedding's off.

[00:39:38] Now Sipa, hold on.

[00:39:40] Yeah.

[00:39:40] You just found out that the woman that you love is pregnant with your child and your first

[00:39:43] thought is I'm finna go.

[00:39:45] Yeah, exactly.

[00:39:46] Like, and I love Sipa.

[00:39:47] He is a consistently strong character, all three seasons, except for this moment, sir.

[00:39:53] Because what do you, this is where the wedding's off.

[00:39:57] Right.

[00:39:58] Right.

[00:39:58] Like every time they kept saying like, oh, I guess she's not going to get married.

[00:40:01] I was like, how?

[00:40:03] Why would now be the time to go?

[00:40:04] If anything, you're like, well, didn't know about that.

[00:40:07] We should talk about how we keep secrets from each other.

[00:40:09] But for that to be the deal breaker is like, oh, maybe he don't want to have kids either.

[00:40:14] You know, what are we talking about here?

[00:40:16] And at the dinner later on, they're just like, well, I guess that Sipa's going to just be a

[00:40:22] single dad.

[00:40:22] I'm like, what is wrong with all of you?

[00:40:25] Right.

[00:40:26] He mad because she got pregnant by him.

[00:40:29] Yes.

[00:40:30] You all knew what you were doing.

[00:40:32] Disgusting.

[00:40:33] She didn't have sex by herself.

[00:40:34] You know, what?

[00:40:36] She didn't get her baby from photosynthesis.

[00:40:38] Like, what is wrong with you, Sipa?

[00:40:40] That is wild.

[00:40:41] He is in full regalia when he does this too.

[00:40:45] Standing 10 toes down in his wrongness.

[00:40:48] Right.

[00:40:48] And so beauty's kind of like, well, damn, I guess that's it.

[00:40:51] I guess I'm divorced.

[00:40:53] And now I don't, I'm raising my child by myself.

[00:40:55] Yeah.

[00:40:56] I'm divorced again.

[00:40:57] I'm gonna raise my child by myself.

[00:40:58] What is life?

[00:40:59] And I was like, okay, we got it.

[00:41:01] Y'all, cooler heads have to prevail, at least for the wedding.

[00:41:04] I kept saying like, there's no way Sipu and Beauty don't get married.

[00:41:07] Like that, that just logically does not make sense.

[00:41:10] Like your feelings are not that hurt that she didn't tell you the moment she got pregnant

[00:41:13] that she was pregnant.

[00:41:15] Like she about to tell you in like a week, you know, it's not like, come on.

[00:41:19] Also, Sipu knows that his family is crazy.

[00:41:21] Okay.

[00:41:21] He should not be that shocked that she is intimidated by his mother calling her a gold

[00:41:25] digger every which way, sir.

[00:41:27] What about you?

[00:41:28] What about you?

[00:41:30] Cause, cause that's her excuse too.

[00:41:31] She's like, I didn't want your family to think that I was trying to like trap you for

[00:41:35] your money.

[00:41:36] Yeah.

[00:41:36] Oh really?

[00:41:37] That's what you worried about my family?

[00:41:39] Like, yeah.

[00:41:39] Yeah.

[00:41:40] Look around.

[00:41:41] Look at your family.

[00:41:42] They're a mess.

[00:41:44] And they're the most, and they have all this money.

[00:41:46] And we're about to get a nationally televised wedding.

[00:41:47] What do I look like?

[00:41:48] Yeah, of course I was worried about it.

[00:41:50] You know?

[00:41:50] So that's kind of how we end episode two.

[00:41:53] And again, I'm thinking like, know what happens?

[00:41:56] We do also, Temba comes back and he has a chest tattoo with self-love written on it.

[00:42:03] And he goes to bed to sober up a little bit.

[00:42:06] Yeah.

[00:42:07] And which is crazy because Lydia should have smothered him with a pillow by now.

[00:42:11] Like why is she still okay with this?

[00:42:13] She could have been a widow.

[00:42:14] Right.

[00:42:15] We'll talk about the very, very end of episode three.

[00:42:19] But Lydia could have been just fine.

[00:42:21] She could have been just fine.

[00:42:23] So episode three, we have to fix everything.

[00:42:26] Okay.

[00:42:27] And it's going to be tough because nobody wants to talk to anybody.

[00:42:31] Right.

[00:42:31] Like Valencia is done.

[00:42:32] She's done with everybody.

[00:42:34] You know, Sebu's not answering his phone.

[00:42:37] Of course, nobody wants to talk to me at all.

[00:42:41] But I think we get like the saving grace is like the new uncle shows up and Sia shows up

[00:42:50] and it's like, okay, now we bought the party because this man does not care.

[00:42:54] He does not care about none of this nonsense.

[00:42:56] He's here for the wedding and there's going to be a wedding as long as he's got something

[00:42:59] to say about it.

[00:42:59] He is fully invested in this wedding.

[00:43:03] He, this man just got out of jail.

[00:43:05] Just got out, just got out and is ready to party.

[00:43:09] And again, who can blame him?

[00:43:11] So he is all about the good vibes.

[00:43:13] He is very, very different from his brother.

[00:43:16] His, um, Lucy is the one is, uh, his, I think younger brother.

[00:43:22] I think he is technically the oldest and he's like, I don't, I don't care what you're all

[00:43:27] saying.

[00:43:27] Uh, the wedding's happening.

[00:43:29] Like, yeah, we are celebrating whether you like it or not.

[00:43:33] So he is, uh, for how uptight and, uh, very morbid this past few days have been for a lot

[00:43:42] of people.

[00:43:42] He is the light that we really need right now.

[00:43:45] Yeah.

[00:43:46] Cause he's one of the few people who will actually work with Tumi on trying to make things

[00:43:49] right.

[00:43:50] Uh, she, she goes to him when she needs to go find Kaya.

[00:43:53] Uh, and so he's like, Hey, can you, can you ride with me over to this place?

[00:43:57] Uh, and so she, she's basically stalking Kaya.

[00:43:59] So she's got to find him because he's not answering her calls.

[00:44:01] Uh, eventually she does.

[00:44:03] And he's like, Hey, honestly, you can fuck off.

[00:44:05] And I was like, damn, Kaya is, he is still mad.

[00:44:08] He's still mad.

[00:44:09] It's been like 12 hours, Kaya.

[00:44:11] Get over it.

[00:44:12] Get over it.

[00:44:13] It's not that deep.

[00:44:14] She didn't cheat on you.

[00:44:16] She just left you hanging once cause she got drunk.

[00:44:17] It happens.

[00:44:18] They used a condom.

[00:44:19] It's fine.

[00:44:20] Right.

[00:44:21] Like she's not pregnant, you know, at least.

[00:44:27] So I liked this episode because again, the whole time I'm watching season, I mean,

[00:44:32] episodes, uh, one and two, I'm like, how do you even come back from this?

[00:44:37] Right.

[00:44:37] Yeah.

[00:44:38] Uh, but you gotta get to me to start doing the right thing.

[00:44:42] And she's always messing stuff up and then going and apologizing later on.

[00:44:46] And beauty basically calls her to the carpet on that one.

[00:44:48] Like, Hey, nobody cares that you can say you're sorry about stuff because stuff always happens

[00:44:53] because of you.

[00:44:54] So it's like, if you, how about stop before you have to be sorry about something.

[00:44:58] And so they talk at first beauty, you didn't want anything to do with her.

[00:45:02] So she has to go to the one person who, uh, you know, who she probably wants to talk to

[00:45:06] the least and come to terms with.

[00:45:08] And that's her mom.

[00:45:09] And so once her and her mom talk, you, like you said earlier, her mom kind of explains

[00:45:14] her point of view of like why her dad wasn't in the picture.

[00:45:17] Yeah.

[00:45:18] And, um, so to me gets into a little bit of a bar fight.

[00:45:22] Um, you should not leave your valuables alone, uh, is one of the most incredible comebacks

[00:45:28] for being so wrong.

[00:45:30] And he was trying to sleep with another married man.

[00:45:33] Well, she didn't know he was married right off the bat this time.

[00:45:38] And also she said, well, listen, don't leave him alone last time.

[00:45:44] And then I won't assume like, really, this is a you problem.

[00:45:47] So she gets into a little bit of a bar fight.

[00:45:49] She goes to jail.

[00:45:51] Her mom bails her out and they have a nice little, little talk about how difficult her

[00:45:58] upbringing was and not excuse.

[00:46:01] This is one of the things I really like about the show.

[00:46:02] It does not excuse anyone's behavior, but it can also provide some clarity to it.

[00:46:09] Like to me being raised by her grandmother for, uh, a long period of time.

[00:46:15] I think they said until like she was 14 or something like that.

[00:46:18] And, uh, beauty getting the full mom experience as to me says, like that sounds awful and it

[00:46:25] still does sting a little bit.

[00:46:27] But when you hear her talk about it, like we don't know before this, that, uh, uh, Dania

[00:46:33] was pregnant at 17.

[00:46:35] She was a child with a child.

[00:46:37] She also had a lot of, uh, reckless behavior similar to to me.

[00:46:42] They're actually very similar in a lot of ways.

[00:46:45] And then that's part of the reason why she was raised by her grandmother for a significant

[00:46:51] portion of her life.

[00:46:52] Um, and it, it gives them an understanding and a moment of peace between the two, but also

[00:47:00] an understanding that they need to fix all of the messes that have been made over these

[00:47:06] past few days.

[00:47:07] Yeah.

[00:47:07] And to me can understand when her mom tells her like, we, you are more alike, you know,

[00:47:12] cause at first I think beauty says it like, I think your mama kind of like, and she's

[00:47:15] like, girl, what, how, in what way.

[00:47:17] But then when her mom starts talking about, you know, her upbringing and how she was kind

[00:47:21] of the mess up child, right?

[00:47:23] Like she was the, uh, the hot mess child to me.

[00:47:25] Like, well, I can definitely relate to that because I'm the hot mess child.

[00:47:28] And I think I'm so misunderstood.

[00:47:30] Nobody's ever lived this life that I've lived.

[00:47:31] And I was like, girl, who do you think you got it from?

[00:47:33] And so, yeah, you feel abandoned cause I left you with your granny, but would you rather

[00:47:37] have been raised by me at 17 years old?

[00:47:39] Probably not.

[00:47:40] And so they're able to come to a compromise and kind of see each other for the first time

[00:47:45] and, you know, assure each other, they love each other and they're on the, on the same

[00:47:49] page because they have to be to go take on the next big boss who is Valencia.

[00:47:54] And, uh, this is when we get the mother quake, you know, the moms are fighting.

[00:47:58] Yes.

[00:47:59] It's, uh, the girls are fighting now.

[00:48:05] Again, Boosie's very concerned about the public image.

[00:48:08] So eventually he just gets everyone together and is like, y'all are going to behave.

[00:48:13] All right.

[00:48:14] Like it's not up to any of you anymore.

[00:48:16] It's up to me.

[00:48:18] And Joe was like, finally, someone's, he may not have good intentions for it, but I was

[00:48:23] like, finally, someone is in the mall in their place.

[00:48:25] So he's like, you're all going to be happy today.

[00:48:27] Okay.

[00:48:27] This is the greatest day of any of our lives ever.

[00:48:29] So he kind of gets them together, but then the mothers have a moment.

[00:48:37] I want to say bond.

[00:48:38] This is probably the closest they will get to bonding, right?

[00:48:41] Ever.

[00:48:42] Um, that even though they come from different worlds, they have a lot of similar struggles

[00:48:49] with raising two children, um, and not always feeling respected in here.

[00:48:55] Like Valencia does feel like her sons do not like her, um, which is very sad, but it also

[00:49:02] just, you know, this is a lot of the insecurities that she's dealing with.

[00:49:05] Although Valencia would never call it insecurities.

[00:49:08] Okay.

[00:49:08] She's not insecure.

[00:49:09] She is that bitch.

[00:49:13] I almost spit out my water.

[00:49:15] Yeah.

[00:49:15] She doesn't, she, Valencia could not even recognize somebody like actually falling out fault in

[00:49:20] her, but she can see now where Deneo is coming from.

[00:49:25] Like, all right, you love your children.

[00:49:27] I love my children.

[00:49:29] Your child's a mess up.

[00:49:30] My child's a mess up too.

[00:49:32] Uh, you know, I get it.

[00:49:33] Cause like as, as high and mighty as she has, as she tries to be again, Timba was the one

[00:49:38] who committed adultery here.

[00:49:40] Timba was the one who was married.

[00:49:41] Lydia is the one in, in, in, in this state that is down bad right now because of what your

[00:49:46] son did.

[00:49:47] So you can't be mad at Tumi and be looking down and judging them for trying to keep their

[00:49:51] traditions going and for just trying to, you know, take up for Tumi in these, in these

[00:49:55] moments when your family is kind of a mess.

[00:49:57] And we even find out that, uh, Valencia and Vusi, they don't even be sleeping in the

[00:50:02] same bed.

[00:50:02] There is no love in that marriage right now.

[00:50:05] That part, they were, uh, can't really say estranged, but they were an appearances only

[00:50:11] couple for a while.

[00:50:12] That changed, that changed during the wedding, but, uh, yeah.

[00:50:15] Mm-hmm.

[00:50:15] Yeah.

[00:50:16] And so, uh, so yeah, so we finally kind of like mend the fences there and that's a good

[00:50:21] moment because that is one of the, like the key, the key detractors from this is Valencia,

[00:50:26] right?

[00:50:26] She's been saying the wedding was off since the moment they saw Tumi on that floaty.

[00:50:29] Um, so it's like, okay, now we got to get.

[00:50:32] To beauty.

[00:50:33] And so, uh, Tumi talks to Sibu and she's like, all right, you got to give the family

[00:50:39] another chance.

[00:50:40] Like, which, you know, like you love beauty.

[00:50:42] Don't let all this other stuff, you know, I think even, um, even Timbo was able to talk

[00:50:47] to him too.

[00:50:48] And I was like, Hey, you, you can't act like this because we're a mess, but y'all love

[00:50:53] each other.

[00:50:53] And also that's your kid.

[00:50:54] That's your kid.

[00:50:55] Stop acting like this woman cheated on you and got pregnant.

[00:50:57] That was your baby.

[00:50:59] So he ends up forgiving her.

[00:51:02] There was nothing to forgive.

[00:51:03] Okay.

[00:51:04] He is, Sibu was wrong in, in this specific instance here, but yes, the wedding is back

[00:51:10] on.

[00:51:10] Um, they have, they do not do the big televised wedding that they were originally going to

[00:51:18] do.

[00:51:18] They do the smaller wedding.

[00:51:21] Um, I forget the name of it that they were talking about in the very beginning, but they

[00:51:25] do their small wedding.

[00:51:27] It's the traditional wedding, the traditional, the Zulu wedding.

[00:51:30] Yeah.

[00:51:31] And it was so cute.

[00:51:33] The outfits were incredible and it was very fun.

[00:51:37] And they had, so they had their wedding.

[00:51:39] It was a grand old time.

[00:51:41] And to me does give her maid of honor speech.

[00:51:43] The one thing that she is supposed to do.

[00:51:47] And she sent this copy of her maid of honor speech, uh, to Kaya.

[00:51:52] And, uh, cause he was supposed to be off playing Santa Claus on the day.

[00:51:56] I mean, it is, it is Christmas week, you know?

[00:51:58] So I mean, he's got other obligations, but she does get that letter off to him and he ends

[00:52:03] up showing up to the wedding as well.

[00:52:06] Now, mind you, things are not going well for, uh, Timba.

[00:52:09] You know, he's probably, he's finally sober and kind of come to his senses.

[00:52:12] Him and Lydia are not on the same page.

[00:52:15] She talks so crazy to that man.

[00:52:16] He deserved it.

[00:52:17] Yeah.

[00:52:18] Deserved.

[00:52:19] Honestly, I think he deserved a little worse, honestly.

[00:52:21] He should have.

[00:52:22] Yeah.

[00:52:22] He should have.

[00:52:23] I would have condoned it just this one time.

[00:52:25] Yeah.

[00:52:26] But Kaya and Toomey, they're finally together.

[00:52:30] You know, her speech is like a love letter to him.

[00:52:32] They kiss and it's a good kiss.

[00:52:35] You're like, okay, we got action.

[00:52:37] But right as the damn episodes ending, he's like, by the way, I have a secret.

[00:52:43] And then that's it.

[00:52:44] It just ends.

[00:52:45] And I'm like, ah, nah, Gia, what are we doing?

[00:52:48] We gotta, what are we talking about?

[00:52:49] We gotta come back for season two tomorrow or today.

[00:52:51] Season two.

[00:52:52] Season two.

[00:52:53] I can want, we have, give me four hours.

[00:52:55] There's some ready.

[00:52:58] But, um.

[00:52:59] Yeah.

[00:53:00] Yeah.

[00:53:00] There's a lot of, I don't know if you were able to notice there were a lot of different

[00:53:05] cliffhangers that happen to prepare us for a season two.

[00:53:08] They know that they are getting a season two at this point.

[00:53:11] This, at this, we made magic here.

[00:53:13] Okay.

[00:53:13] Don't tell me we're not getting a season two.

[00:53:16] So, uh, Temba comes to his senses and realized that Lydia deserves a lot better.

[00:53:22] So he leaves her his wedding ring, but as he leaves it, we see Lydia has a positive pregnancy

[00:53:31] test.

[00:53:32] So we have another pregnancy to think about here going into next season.

[00:53:41] And we also have whatever Kaya is deciding to reveal to, to me at this point, um, Vusi and

[00:53:51] Valencia rekindle their merit, the spice in their marriage.

[00:53:57] I will say, um, I also want to just talk really quick about, uh, Bocan, the cousin.

[00:54:03] Yeah.

[00:54:05] He is the closest thing we get to an ally for to me, um, here, but Bocan has a kind of

[00:54:13] a side mission here.

[00:54:14] Uh, he is gay.

[00:54:17] He at first is trying to tell his partner Terrence to not come to the wedding because

[00:54:23] of all the crazy stuff that is happening.

[00:54:25] And really he does not want to come out to his very religious mother there and wants to

[00:54:33] avoid that part of it.

[00:54:35] But also he was like, to me, you have to like uninvite Terrence.

[00:54:39] And she's like, well, why did you invite him?

[00:54:41] And he was like, he just assumed he was invited.

[00:54:43] And she's like, what do you mean you got a plus one?

[00:54:45] It was a whole thing.

[00:54:46] Um, but because, because to me was not supposed to have a plus one, by the way.

[00:54:51] Yes.

[00:54:51] Yes.

[00:54:52] That was intentional.

[00:54:53] Um, so we get to, this is the third episode.

[00:54:57] This is actually one of my favorite parts of the show.

[00:55:00] Um, and even though it doesn't really relate to a lot of the other moments in the episode,

[00:55:04] his mom tells a story about how she had a classmate who thought she was ugly.

[00:55:09] She ended up, uh, committing suicide and the, um, at the funeral, everyone said that she

[00:55:17] was so beautiful and that if she had been vocal about the struggles that she was having,

[00:55:22] she would have had people to say that she, they love her and that she is beautiful.

[00:55:27] The point of the story being that, uh, Bokan does not know how many people love him and will

[00:55:34] accept him for being gay until he says it.

[00:55:37] So even though we don't have them saying it out loud, we do get to see his mom meeting

[00:55:43] Terrence.

[00:55:43] Terrence comes to the wedding and they have this very sweet moment here.

[00:55:47] So this was a nice little side plot to, uh, how to ruin to, in the, how to ruin Christmas

[00:55:53] universe.

[00:55:54] We don't see them in season two, um, Bokan or his mom, but we will.

[00:56:01] I know we see Bokan in season three.

[00:56:02] I'm pretty sure we see his mom too.

[00:56:05] See, and that's the thing that, like you said, it's kind of like a side mission because

[00:56:08] you have all this stuff and it's like the one thing that's not tied to the craziness

[00:56:12] that's going on in the wedding.

[00:56:13] I don't get me wrong.

[00:56:14] Terrence is coming to the wedding, but Bokan is kind of like on the side trying to stop

[00:56:18] it from happening.

[00:56:19] And so, um, yeah, we could see him struggling with his identity.

[00:56:22] Luckily his mom, as religious as she is, you know, she doesn't just outright be like,

[00:56:26] I know what's going on, but she gives him the space to be authentic.

[00:56:29] Um, and she needs to, because when Terrence shows up, Terrence got blue hair.

[00:56:33] Yeah.

[00:56:33] He going to be seen.

[00:56:34] So, um, you know, they're like, so is this, are you coming?

[00:56:37] Is this your plus one?

[00:56:39] Are you, you know, what's y'all relationship?

[00:56:41] Right.

[00:56:42] Right.

[00:56:42] This man, Terrence ain't going to show up and be in the shadows at all.

[00:56:46] You know?

[00:56:46] And so I was happy.

[00:56:47] I was happy by the end of it with, with that storyline, because it was the one that was,

[00:56:51] it was kind of like, it was the neatest storyline.

[00:56:53] All the rest of them were so, so messy.

[00:56:55] And we still have, you know, a lot of mess to address come season two, because we have

[00:57:00] two potential babies coming.

[00:57:02] We have, um, you know, the solution of one marriage, a new marriage, and then we have

[00:57:07] a new relationship potentially for, uh, for Toomey.

[00:57:10] And then of course, all these crazy parents everywhere, you know?

[00:57:13] Yep.

[00:57:13] And whatever the hell was going on with Kaya here.

[00:57:16] Right.

[00:57:16] When we still don't know what Kaya had to say.

[00:57:19] And so I'm very excited to find out.

[00:57:22] I envy you to be able to find out like immediately after the season.

[00:57:28] I had to wait a year.

[00:57:29] I had to wait until December, 2021 to find out what this mess was about.

[00:57:36] Gia, that's a, that's a good point.

[00:57:38] Is the entire series done or there's like a secret season four that we're waiting on?

[00:57:42] So there are, there are three seasons right now.

[00:57:46] As far as I know, they are done with the how to ruin Christmas universe.

[00:57:52] There is a, and I don't know if part of it is due to the actor that plays Toomey's death

[00:57:58] or if they feel like they were, you know, they had, they told the story they wanted to tell

[00:58:05] because they definitely, they didn't leave any cliffhangers the same way that they left

[00:58:11] cliffhangers in season one.

[00:58:13] But season, it's definitely open for them to do a season four if they wanted to.

[00:58:20] That's what I'll say about that.

[00:58:21] They do, however, have a spinoff called how to ruin love.

[00:58:28] That is a spinoff from how to ruin Christmas.

[00:58:31] It does not revolve around the twalas and the cellos, but we do get cameos from some of

[00:58:37] the characters in the how to ruin Christmas universe.

[00:58:41] I've not seen that full one yet, but after this rewatch, I'm going right into how to

[00:58:45] ruin love.

[00:58:46] Oh yeah.

[00:58:46] Um, I have, I was searching for how to ruin Christmas on Netflix and I saw how to ruin

[00:58:51] love pop up and I thought, oh, well, if this is good, I'm definitely going to watch that.

[00:58:55] And now after one season, I know I'm going to watch that after finishing.

[00:58:59] Yeah.

[00:59:00] After finishing all of this.

[00:59:01] So yeah, this has been so much fun.

[00:59:03] I'm so happy I got to talk, talk to you about it because I know how much you love it,

[00:59:06] but also it's so much mess that you got to talk about it.

[00:59:09] You're right.

[00:59:09] It's like, how did you watch this and not immediately call everybody and be like, you got

[00:59:13] to hear this story about these South Africans.

[00:59:15] When I tell you, I texted a picture to my siblings immediately and was like, you need

[00:59:21] to watch this.

[00:59:22] And none of them listened to me, their loss.

[00:59:24] I'm glad I finally got you to watch it because this is my favorite show, my favorite Netflix

[00:59:30] show.

[00:59:30] And we finally get to start putting some of those pieces together.

[00:59:34] Um, and we have a very exciting story to tell.

[00:59:37] Like this was the story of season one.

[00:59:40] All's well that ends well.

[00:59:41] We have a great story coming up in seasons two and three as well.

[00:59:45] I just love both of these families so much.

[00:59:47] It does become obviously to me is the center of season one.

[00:59:51] She's still pretty much the center of season two, but there's a lot that is explored in

[00:59:57] season two.

[00:59:57] A lot of the other relationships are also explored in season two.

[01:00:01] We'll get to hear from, you get to know a lot of the characters more, um, in that next

[01:00:09] season.

[01:00:09] And then season three is really the expansion of the other characters.

[01:00:14] In the series.

[01:00:16] Now that to me is no longer a character in the show.

[01:00:19] So really enjoy, uh, the series as a whole, really excited to talk more about the cellos

[01:00:25] and the twilas while we get into, uh, seasons two and three.

[01:00:31] All right.

[01:00:32] And, uh, we'll be back, uh, with our recap of season two called the funeral very soon.

[01:00:38] But in the meantime, Gia, where can the people find you and what do you have that you're

[01:00:41] working on?

[01:00:42] You can follow me on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, blue sky at classic Gia for all of my reality

[01:00:49] TV shenanigans on silent podcasts.

[01:00:52] I'm doing my regular recaps of survivor 47.

[01:00:55] And I'm also doing them on inside survivor with my good friend, Christine Palin.

[01:00:59] We are almost at the end of survivor 47, literally tomorrow night.

[01:01:05] The finale is airing.

[01:01:07] So we're very close to the off season of survivor, but we'll have some other projects coming along

[01:01:11] the way.

[01:01:12] And then of course, listen to recap, kick back, listen to this and listen to Abbott elementary.

[01:01:17] Yes.

[01:01:18] Yes.

[01:01:18] And then of course, uh, subscribe recap, kickback.com slash subscribe, uh, to keep up with

[01:01:23] all of the things that we have going on here.

[01:01:24] If you're not already subscribed, what are you waiting on?

[01:01:26] Make sure you go to our YouTube page, youtube.com slash at recap, kick back, hit that like button

[01:01:31] on this video and let us know what you thought about how to ruin Christmas.

[01:01:35] Did you watch it?

[01:01:35] Did you just listen to us talk about it?

[01:01:37] And then we inspire you to go watch it because that's what we're hoping.

[01:01:40] We're hoping other people go watch this.

[01:01:42] Also, if you're not a fan of recap, kick back and you just found us because you were looking

[01:01:45] for how to ruin Christmas, uh, content.

[01:01:48] Welcome to the family.

[01:01:49] Okay.

[01:01:49] Cause, uh, if you like this, you, yeah, we love you as well.

[01:01:53] So, uh, make sure you check us all out.

[01:01:54] Follow me on all social media platforms at recap, kick back and, uh, join me and Gia next

[01:01:59] time.

[01:02:00] Okay.

[01:02:00] So, uh, you ain't got to go home, but, uh, you definitely got to get the hell out of here

[01:02:03] until we come back for season two, the funeral here on recap, kick back.com.

[01:02:08] Peace.