'Umthetho' Full Recap (Episodes 1-7): Did Sphelele Manage To Escape?

Netflix’s South African thriller drama series Umthetho revolves around Mbali, a prominent lawyer who worked for the state. Her life drastically changed when she found out that her elder brother, Moses, was still alive and was currently serving time in prison. Mbali’s father had told her and her younger brother, Sphelele, that Moses was dead, but as it turned out, he’d lied to them. Now, why did their father lie? Well, Moses was involved in criminal activities, and his father was the one who’d turned him in to the cops. He didn’t want Moses to have any influence on his other children, and he basically lied for the well-being of his children. Moses’ wife, Crystal, expected Mbali to help, even though Moses wasn’t involved in making the decision. Since Mbali was a brilliant lawyer, Crystal figured she could help her man get out of prison. Mbali couldn’t just ignore Crystal’s request, but her pure intention of helping her elder brother was ultimately going to backfire. 

Spoiler Alert

How did Mbali get involved with criminals?

Crystal told Mbali that her husband had been falsely accused, and the authorities were trying everything to keep him behind bars. Moses had become an influential figure during his time in prison, he’d founded a gang that was almost like a support group for the inmates, and the prison warden, Agnes, wasn’t happy about it, which was why she wanted him to rot in prison. It’s true that Moses had been falsely framed in a murder case, Warden Agnes had made one of the prison guards kill an inmate and blamed Moses for it. She was afraid that if Moses were released, he would snitch on her and disclose to the authorities her side hustle of selling narcotics to prisoners. Crystal didn’t expect Mbali to fight for Moses in court, or to even get him parole, all she wanted was for Mbali to find a way to get him out of “The Hole,” where Moses was currently being held and tortured. Mbali came up with a plan; she decided to stay late for work, fabricate a letter of complaint against the warden, and certify the documents by using the ink stamp from her superior’s office. She contacted as many parole board members as possible and told them about the irregularities in the prison and also mentioned “The Hole.” The next morning, she presented the complaint to Warden Agnes and told her that they’d received several complaints against her, which was why they had no choice but to start an investigation against her. Mbali proposed a deal, she suggested that Agnes remove the prisoner she’d held captive in “The Hole,” and in exchange, she would make sure that no one found out about the complaint. Agnes accepted the deal, and Mbali watched her brother, for the first time in years, walk out of “The Hole,” covered in blood. Agnes noticed Mbali’s expression, and she figured she had some vested interest in helping Moses. She realized that if that was the case, then there was a possibility that Mbali had lied to her. She investigated the document and discovered her hunch was right. Mbali was arrested the very next day, and that was when Detective Tau came to her rescue. Well, he reached out to her because he had a vested interest. In exchange for her freedom, he expected her to help him crack down on Gaz’lam. The prison gang was being led by Scarra and Moses, and Mbali proposed to help Tau take down Scarra. Mbali was forced to infiltrate Moses’ gang, regain her brother and his wife’s trust and share crucial information regarding the operations of the gang with the detective. 

How did Mbali manage to hand over Scarra to the cops?

Mbali risked her life trying to hand over Scarra to the cops. He’d managed to break out of prison and had been posing a serious threat to the authorities after his failed attempt at a cash-in-transit heist. Scarra had become a loose cannon, and Detective Tau was relying on Mbali to bring the criminal to him. Mbali tried her best to help the detective, but the cops failed to shoot Scarra the first time, and he ended up realizing that there was a rat in his gang. Mbali had won the trust of the gang by helping a few gang members get parole, but everything started to fall apart when Scarra suspected that someone in his gang had shared his location with the cops. She was terrified of getting caught, but eventually she discovered that Scarra was suspecting Oros of snitching him out. But now she felt even worse, as an innocent man was about to be killed because of her involvement. She wanted to help Oros, and she even tried to warn him of the possible threat, but by then, Oros had started suspecting her. He dragged her to Zola’s apartment, hoping to expose her in front of his best friend. By the time Zola, who was tasked with shooting the rat, arrived home, Mbali figured if she tried to save Oros she would end up dead. Zola had feelings for Mbali, and he refused to believe anything his best friend said. He suggested that Oros run away and start from scratch, but when he refused to listen to him and threatened to kill Mbali, Zola pulled the trigger. 

Mbali eventually figured that she could use Crystal to take Scarra down. They both had tremendous disagreements on how to carry out the heist they’d been planning for a while. Scarra refused to listen to any of Crystal’s solutions and pretended to be the boss, which obviously left Crystal frustrated. Mbali handed over a file to Crystal titled “Quentin Abrahams,” the fake name Scarra often used, and she told Crystal that, after the heist, Scarra planned on taking the money and moving to Lagos. Crystal was furious; she now had all the more reasons to distrust Scarra. The man planned on ditching them and running off with the money, so trusting him with the heist was no longer ideal. Mbali proposed that maybe the solution was to put Scarra behind bars. That was the only way they could execute the heist the way they wanted and ensure that Scarra didn’t get the chance to run away. Crystal was hesitant; she explained that she wouldn’t rat out a gang member, but Mbali reminded her that she was the one doing all the hard work, and was pretty much the brains behind the operation, so it was time that she took charge. Crystal caved, she used a burner phone and disclosed Scarra’s location to the cops, and that was how Scarra once again ended up behind bars. 

What happened to Zola?

From the moment Zola set his eyes on Mbali, he was completely smitten. Oros had warned him that getting involved with Mbali might turn out dangerous, but he didn’t pay heed to his advice. He knew that Mbali was Moses’ sister, which meant that if anything ever went wrong between them, Moses wouldn’t spare him. But that was a risk Zola was willing to take. When the choice came between Oros and Mbali, he chose her. Well, he was told that Oros was the rat, and that heavily influenced his decision to kill his best friend. But maybe if Mbali weren’t in the picture, he would’ve listened to his friend and even believed him. Zola stayed loyal to Mbali, and the two, along with Crystal and Madabula, carried out the cash-in-transit heist as planned. The five million rand that they’d earned guaranteed a better future, and although participating in the heist had turned Mbali into a proper criminal, she didn’t really have much of an option (I’ve discussed the reason in detail in the next segment). Crystal used the money to dig a tunnel for her husband to escape from prison, and she showed the half-done tunnel to Mbali. The goal was to dig a tunnel from the basement of a house straight to Moses’ prison cell, but there was a problem; the sound was disturbing the neighbors, and they’d been complaining a lot lately. To solve the issue, Mbali got Zola involved. He worked in bomb disposal during his time in the army, and Mbali figured he could help solve the problem. After inspecting the tunnel, Zola stated that they could blow up the concrete foundation, but Moses and the others would have to dig a hole from the cell to the wall. But there was still one problem, there would be a massive noise due to the explosion. Mbali suggested that they execute the plan on the day of a soccer match between South Africa and Nigeria. The tunnel was supposed to pass underneath the stadium, so the moment the crowd would celebrate, they would have to blow through the concrete foundation. There was a slight hold-up after a rat disconnected the explosives, but Zola managed to fix the problem, although he’d risked his life to do so. The explosive went off unexpectedly, and Zola was thrown back by the impact of the blast. He ended up with broken ribs, and since Moses and his gang were ambushed by Detective Tau and Warden Agnes (Mbali helped the cops to protect her younger brother), Zola too ended up behind bars once again. He was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. When Mbali met him again in prison, he decided to cut all ties with her.  Not that he was upset with her, but he figured that they could never have a future together. He didn’t want her to wait for him, and he refused to have her as his lawyer anymore. It was painful for Zola to bid Mbali goodbye, but he realized this was the right thing to do. 

Did Sphelele manage to escape?

Mbali’s younger brother, Sphelele, found himself in trouble when he tried to sell drugs to make ends meet. Sphelele was about to become a father, and he didn’t have a stable source of income. He and his girlfriend used to run a food truck, but Sphelele ended up losing all their money to gambling, and he even ended up selling some of their kitchenware. Sphe had recently discovered that his elder brother was alive, and he felt the urgency to meet him, even though Mbali warned him not to do so. She’d made the mistake of trying to reconnect with her brother, and she didn’t want Sphe to do the same. But Sphe was an adult man who was allowed to make his own decisions, and even though Mbali had always done what was best for him, he decided to meet Moses out of curiosity. He felt a connection with Moses, and when he found himself in financial trouble, he ended up asking Moses for a job. Now, he obviously knew that Moses was involved in criminal activities, and the only job he could possibly get him was peddling drugs. Sphe was afraid, but at the same time, he didn’t want to trouble his sister anymore, and he figured maybe the pay would be worth the risk. He had to deliver coke to a prison guard, and while he successfully did the first part of his job, he freaked out when he noticed a couple of prison guards staring at him. Meanwhile, the guard he’d handed over the block of coke to had already been caught by Warden Agnes and she had him beaten to a pulp to find out who’d dared to take over her business. Sphe was so afraid that he ended up throwing away the remaining coke down a drain nearby and this act was captured by the surveillance cameras in the area, and that was how Agnes found out about his involvement. In the meantime, Madabula decided to steal the money from the heist, and he held Mbali at gunpoint to get the job done. When Sphe found his sister in danger, he struck Madabula with a clothes iron, which resulted in his immediate death. Sphe and Mbali had to clean up the mess and get rid of the body. Although Sphe was arrested for peddling drugs, he carried the guilt of murdering someone with him constantly. 

Mbali loved her brother, and she desperately wanted to protect him, even at the cost of handing over Moses to the cops. Sphe had recently become a father, and Mbali genuinely believed that Sphe still had some goodness in him to choose the right path and live an honest life. Sphe was released from prison after Agnes and Tau managed to ambush Moses and his gang. Things spiralled out of control when Crystal figured out that Mbali was the rat. She abducted Sphe to have the upper hand over Mbali. Sphe somehow managed to escape from the trunk of a car when Crystal and the rest were busy celebrating the fact that the video of police brutality (Agnes and her men shooting down inmates even though they didn’t pose any immediate threat) had gone viral. Sphe was done with his criminal life, he was frustrated and tired of constantly running away from people. So, he decided to surrender himself to the Lord. His girlfriend’s family were devoted Christians, and Sphe begged them to give him another chance. His baptism marked his rebirth as a better man who promised to be a caring father to his newborn. This marks a brand new chapter of his life and I’m sure he has every intention of staying away from crime. There’s no guarantee that Sphe and Mbali will cross paths again. She might decide to run away with the heist money and start her life afresh in another country. Everything is quite messed up at present, and evidently Mbali too needs a new beginning. Even if they don’t reunite immediately, the siblings will wish the best for each other. Life has been immensely difficult for them, but hopefully, they’ll learn their lessons and find the courage to start over again. 

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