'Yoh! Bestie' Movie Ending Explained: What Happens To Charles And Thonda? 

When Valentine’s season is just around the corner, the thing you’re looking for is romance. Whether it’s in your favorite old books or some of the new movies that come out every year around this time. This year, I’ve had the misfortune of watching some really bad films, but Yoh! Bestie was a surprise hit with me. Not only is the South African film a sweet besties-to-lovers story, but it also has surprising depth for a rom-com on Netflix. The film follows Thando, a not-so-young woman, who is left alone by her male roomie and bestie, Charles, for two years. His move to New York leaves Thando in a limbo of weddings she must attend all by herself. But hey, it’s the age of the internet, and her plus one is always Charles, even when he’s across the world from her. When Charles returns, Thando thinks it’s for good. She’s delighted to see her bestie come back, and wants to tell him how she really feels about him. But she’s utterly shocked to find out that he’s returned with not just a girlfriend, but a fiancée. Unlucky in love herself, Thando realizes she’s going to die alone but is still supportive of Charles. Will she manage to do that? Will Charles realize something else? Let’s find out in the ending of the film.

Spoiler Alert

The thing I liked the most about Yoh! Bestie is that, though it relies on the trope that the fiancée will believe that a relationship between a man and a woman can never just be friendship, it turns it on its head, because the first thing Thando notices is that Rea is way out of Charles’ league. We don’t know anything about Rea and Charles’ relationship, but what we do know is that she’s older than him, and she’s much cooler than him with the fancy jobs, TED talks, and a lot more money. Given these things, Thando first plans on breaking up the wedding. But, instead, she reads Rea’s autobiography to actually get to know her and decides against sabotaging the wedding. However, this doesn’t mean Rea doesn’t have a reaction to Charles’ hot, young, and beautiful bestie. 

Rea calls Thando a mess, because that’s the thing that separates the two of them. Rea believes she’s more sophisticated and self-assured, and hence nobody could choose anyone over her. But that’s not how love works. She’s confident that she’s better than Thando, but she clearly knows in the back of her mind that Charles has feelings stowed away for her. While she’s not a villain straight up, she’s got villainous undertones. Fortunately, though, the film doesn’t really pit the two women against each other because even though Thando knows she has feelings for Charles, when she goes to the wedding, she’s sure she’s going to try to support him over doing anything else. While they both know there’s something in the other that’s better than them, they’re also sure of their own charms. They have different qualities that can be appreciated, so no, I don’t think Rea is a villain. She’s simply the one who gets left behind. Still, instead of acting petty or sour, she decides to be the bigger person and has already chosen to leave Charles before he finally decides what he wants to do with his life. Maybe he’s the real villain of this story. 

On the other hand, Riri, Thando’s new bestie, decides to show up to the wedding uninvited too because she’s eager to truly sabotage this wedding for her friend. She’s more certain than anyone that Charles and Thando are endgame. So she brings along her boyfriend, Bheki, who also happens to have dated Thando at some point. Riri and Bheki arrive to be little monsters, but in truth, seeing all the love and the beautiful batches of Pett, Riri feels the urge to get married herself and, on a drunken night, makes a proposal to Bheki. As a traditional man, this guy can’t believe she would do something like that and ends up sulking for a bit until she falls off a boat, and he gets some sense knocked into him. Riri doesn’t stop making the proposal jokes until the last part of the film, because she really wants it, but Bheki’s busy waiting for the perfect moment to arrive. 

Ironically, his perfect moment is supposed to be when Charles and Rea get married, but with everything set up and so much money spent on a tiny wedding, it’s literally cancelled. But, in her crowning moment of maid-of-honor-ness, Riri finally gets what she wants. Despite nobody being around to bear witness, Bheki finally proposes to Riri in front of the wedding decor in the background. Also, later Riri asks Thando to be her maid-of-honor with a placard, which is pretty cute. 

Is it a rom-com if the boy and girl don’t end up together? I think not, and that’s why Yoh! Bestie also ends on the saccharine note that the besties reunite. But first, after leaving Pett, even before the wedding is meant to happen, Thando misses all the drama. Not just Bheki’s proposal, but Charles’ proposal too. She spends days in her bed, not wanting to leave the house, messing up at work, and sulking because even though she could’ve had a good thing going with Nas, she knew in her heart it was always going to be Charles. Things get so bad that Charles literally sends her boss to her house to bait Thando into stepping out of the house for an emergency case at work. 

In Yoh! Bestie’s ending, Charles uses the thing that connects him with Thando, i.e., placards, to set things straight. At the beginning of the film, he used them to say goodbye, and when he returned, she made a cute version herself to invite him back, ready to pour her heart out to him, only to be met by Rea instead. It’s the perfect thing to circle back to for both of them. It was the thing that caused Thando sadness, and now it’s the thing that’s making her happy. Charles finally decides to be brave and admit how he truly feels about Thando. Though it does occasionally feel like insults. Men really need to figure out how to do these things better, eh? Before leaving him, Rea said to Charles that she hopes Thando makes him a better man. To be honest, he was doing just fine. because Thando never tried to change him; she simply tried to be there for him (aww, so cute). Love isn’t perfect; it’s not all chocolates and roses, it’s video calling in the middle of the night just because the other person is struggling in wedding season, eh?  Charles and Thando get their “love,” love, and of course, they’ll get married. Did I mention that he also admits he wrote the vows for her because it’s easy to write about someone you love? Cute. The film ends with Riri and Bheki’s wedding, but Charles and Thando will definitely be next, eh? “Yoh! Bestie,” you aren’t alone anymore.