Adulting Season 2 episode 9 recap: Fight night

Ding-ding! Adulting Season 2 episode 9 has our four gents ‒ Bonga (Thembinkosi Mthembu), Vuyani (Luthando ‘BU’ Mthembu), Mpho (Thabiso Rammusi) and Eric (Nhlanhla Kunene) ‒ on the ropes. An angry husband waves a gun in Vuyani’s face, Mpho gets told to shut his mouth during a screaming match between his wife and mistress, Bonga throws a tantrum over his ex and Eric finally has a showdown with his daughter.

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What happened in Adulting Season 2 episode 8?

The guys joined Bonga back home with his mother (Deli Malinga) and brother (Brian Nkosi) for his father’s (Bongani Gumede) funeral, where Bonga clashed repeatedly with his father’s brother Bab'Manyosi (Dumisani Dlamini) over money and funeral rites. And Bab'Manyosi disrupted mourning by accusing Bonga's mother of witchcraft, and Bonga of killing his father to get rich.

Eric struggled to keep the local boys away from his daughter Ncumisa (Siphesihle Khanyile). Mpho’s wife Zithulele (Lungile Duma) exposed his cheating ways to Bonga’s mom, and Bonga’s ex, Nkanyezi (Londeka Sishi), saved the day but crushed Bonga’s hopes of winning her back by bringing her partner, Thabiso (Tlholo Tseole), to the funeral with her.

And now, in Adulting episode 9 …

Wife vs mistress

Zithulele reminds Mpho that her name means she who chooses peace, even when peace is not an option. And apparently, it’s not because he’s barely got the kids out of the room when she starts in on him about his other family – his mistress Palesa (Diddy Padi) and their baby, Didi. Mpho gets an earful from Palesa, too, when he drags her to a meeting with Zithulele. It looks like this kind of negotiation is best handled by the elders because Mpho gets stuck between two mudslinging, name calling, finger pointing, and fact-spitting women.

After the meeting, Zithulele puts herself in charge of communications between Palesa and Mpho and watches over him like a hostage taker. But when Palesa tells Mpho that she could be with anyone else, he tries to break down her self image by telling her that nobody wants a woman with a child. So add that to the image of who Mpho is, along with the times he’s pushed disagreements with Palesa and Zithulele into sex to get his own way – even when both women clearly and emphatically said “no”.

Husband vs lover

Vuyani teases Zelda (Obakeng Kgwedi) about the fact that she can’t keep up with him … until she suggests that she join one of his fitness classes. Whoops, no! Vuyani can’t risk her chatting with any of his “private” clients like Portia (Thembi Seete).

But the time of secrets is over. Portia’s husband arrives at the gym just in time to see a distracted Vuyani going a little too far with his wife during one of his exercise classes. He whips out a gun, fires a warning shot and, as everyone flees, he forces Vuyani to demonstrate what he really does with Portia, while he records Vuyani’s terror and humiliation.

Vuyani is finally realising that he's fallen for a woman who loves nice things as much as he does … and possibly even more than she loves him, because Zelda proves as sensitive to Vuyani’s trauma as a stampeding rhinoceros. And when she insists that she’s going to use her work’s services to sue the husband, Vuyani admits that he did have sex with Portia.

Father vs daughter

At Eric’s house, MaGetty (Nandi Nyembe) is at her wits’ end with Ncumisa (Siphesihle Khanyile) and accuses her granddaughter of stealing money from her. Eric tries to shield Ncumisa and sits down with her to talk about her dead mother, letting her cry about the way that MaGetty beats her with a belt to discipline her. But while Ncumisa has reason to be upset, she’s using her situation to manipulate Eric just so she can go to a pens down party!

Eric’s days of listening to sob stories could be over when Ncumisa doesn’t stick to his curfew, and he drags her out of the party kicking and screaming after he finds her smoking and drinking with boys, only to have her gives him the same disrespectful treatment she’s been giving MaGetty. Back home, Eric tells Ncumisa to book a bus back to the Eastern Cape as he confronts her about how she plays off him and MaGetty against each other, how she stole from MaGetty, and how she has abused their trust.

Boyfriend vs the ex

Bonga is also in a fighting mood and Eric has to step in when he tries to beat up his personal trainer at the gym. When Eric presses him, Bonga admits that he’s in love with Nkanyezi again and he asks what we were all asking at the end of episode 8: what was Thabiso (Tlholo Tseole) there for? Eric, the best friend ever, points out that Thabiso wears the same kind of boring dad shoes that Mpho does.

But Bonga is also struggling to process his dad’s death and blows up at his poor cleaner for trying to tidy up the room his father used. And later he confronts Nkanyezi outside her house like a maniac to yell at her for playing with his feelings, and flips out when she compares him to his father.

As the episode ends, Bonga tries to party the pain away with scantily clad women again, but he goes too far and it looks as if he’s about to pass out in his own sick.

The winner of the night? Adulting fans who live for the drama.

Who’s who in Adulting: the Big Four

30 (ish), flirty and still raising hell, Adulting’s four big boys – Bonga, Eric, Vuyani and Mpho – have been inseparable since they were at university together.

Thembinkosi Mthembu plays Bonga: The Alpha. Hot bod. Daddy issues. Single, rich, ambitious and catnip to women. Bonga is a construction and development project manager.
Luthando ‘BU’ Mthembu plays Vuyani: Madlisa. Joker. Fashionista. The former escort is back on the game, using his money from “personal training sessions” to act like a sugar daddy to his girlfriend.
Thabiso Rammusi plays Mpho: The Family Man and father to two young boys. Traditional husband. Mpho is an electrical engineer whose money stretches to comfort, but not luxury. And now he has a mistress and baby to support.
Nhlanhla Kunene plays Eric: Gintsa. Loving dad. Great friend. Hair trigger temper. Now that he’s done his time for hijacking crimes, he’s determined to rebuild himself as a father. But when it comes to women, he can’t resist a baddie.

Watch Adulting S2 now. New episodes every Monday.