Adulting Season 1 episode 7 recap: Get ready to rumble 

In episode 7 of Adulting Season 1, Mpho calls a family meeting over cheating, Vuyani lands the perfect job, Bonga and Nkanyezi go away to fight, and Eric’s sins catch up with him.  

This week Adulting on Showmax starts the day with a fight. Nkanyezi and Bonga butt heads over where they’re going on holiday – the beach or the bush. Speaking of camping, Zithulele leaves Mpho pitching a tent in bed so that she can go to the gym. And Vuyani’s dad tries to kick him out of bed to go job hunting, while Eric gets a wake up call from the cops, who have four outstanding warrants for his arrest. Every time they get together, our four friends are ready to throw hands and words. It’s going to get messy! 

What happened in Adulting episode 6?  

Thirty-somethings Bonga (Thembinkosi Mthembu) the success story, toyboy Vuyani (Luthando ‘BU’ Mthembu), cheating suburban dad Mpho (Thabiso Rammusi) and carjacker Eric (Nhanhla Kunene) have been ride-or-die friends since their university days studying engineering. Now, in their 30s, they’re having to live with the mistakes they’ve made. 

Vuyani’s sugar mama Beth (Winnie Ntshaba) had her bodyguards drag him out of the big birthday bash he was throwing for his new university student girlfriend Amahle (Sibongile Gungu)…with Beth’s money. And Vuyani publicly stripped off everything that Beth had bought him in and threw it in her face, breaking up with her for good after she battered and belittled him again. Bonga’s rose coloured glasses started to slip when Nkanyezi (Londeka Shishi) told him that he needs to leave his friends behind if he wants to be successful. During a stolen weekend away with Mpho, Phindile (Seipati Mahamu) the mistress nicked his shirt and car while he was sleeping and drove to his house to rub his wife Zithulele’s (Lungile Duma) nose in their affair. The guys attended Natasha’s (Sikelelwa Vuyeleni) funeral, where Eric wasn’t allowed to comfort their daughter, Ncumisa (Siphesihle Khanyile). After spotting Natasha’s car at the chop shop that he’s stealing cars for, Eric held the owner, Olympio (Ndumisoyomhlaba Mona Mthombeni), at gunpoint, but was beaten up and barely got out with his life. It was the last straw for Eric, who swore off hijacking and threw his gun in a lake. But reform might have come too late when he found out that Natasha’s mother (Busiswa Mambi) was taking Ncumisa to raise her in her Eastern Cape village.  

Read more about episode 6 

Read more about episode 5 

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And now, in episode 7… 

Uzoyithola kanjani 

Vuyani’s back home despite the fact that his father (Lindani Nkosi) warned him never to return. Dad’s patience is worn thin and there’s no sleeping the day away in his house – especially not since someone sent the pic of Vuyani walking through the mall in his undies to his mom’s church Whatsapp group! So Vuyani approaches Bonga for a job managing his social media, and harsh words are exchanged when Bonga offers him site foreman for R20,000 per month instead, which, to “Mr High Maintenance”, is spit on a stove.

Later when Vuyani is helping Mpho to shop for a guilt-gift for Zithulele, practical-minded Mpho has a brainwave and helps Vuyani to talk his way into a job as a salesman in a high-end fashion boutique. Vuyani’s dad might be making grumpy noises and turning up his nose at Vuyani for not being a man, but Vuyani proves himself the king of upsell as he talks one cheating husband into buying half the stock to appease his wife, and turns that charm and eye for style to good use by making ladies with deep purses feel and look like queens. Day one and he’s already employee of the year! 

Read the room! 

This is a fraught episode for Bonga. If he and Nkanyezi have a shared problem aside from the fact that they hate compromise, it’s that neither of them can read the room. A lot that has been lingering unspoken in their relationship comes to a head as they plan a brief holiday together but can’t agree on a destination without tossing a coin. Nkanyezi is still on at Bonga about dropping his friends, and she throws her hands up in frustration when he admits that Eric is a hijacker after he gets a call to bail Eric out of jail again. Judge Judy here also calls Vuyani a joke and claims that she wouldn’t be surprised if Mpho was beating his wife. The two become the kind of bickering couple on holiday that everyone is secretly recording for socials.

The same cracks threatening the foundation of Bonga’s romance are also attacking his friendships, so we see both Vuyani and Mpho rapping him over the knuckles when the guys go for drinks and Bonga pulls out the same old taunts he’s used throughout the series to tease them, not realising that things have gotten serious. Bonga’s lack of emotional intelligence also leads to Eric punching him after Bonga lectures him about his life (not knowing how desperate Eric is to turn things around) and accuses him of being responsible for Natasha’s death. But when Nkanyezi gets a promotion, Bonga turns off the antagonism and wholeheartedly helps her to celebrate her success.  

Tattletale turnabout 

What’s sauce for the goose is not sauce for the gander at Mpho’s house. Tired of getting the cold shoulder from Zithulele despite trying to court her with more new purses, he follows her to one of her gym sessions and sees her trainer get pretty handsy with her. And because there’s nothing a guilty conscience likes more than projecting, he decides that she’s having an affair. Furious, Mpho gets drunk with the boys and rants about Jezebels before stumbling home to throw the accusation in Zithulele’s face before going to sleep on the couch. And in the blink of an eye, he assembles their family’s elders to flaunt her dirty laundry to one and all. Zithulele is hurt, and she’s mad! If they’re airing dirty laundry, she’s holding the whole basket.

Zithulele lets loose with all her fury and pain as she tells them about Mpho’s mistress doing that cruel and sassy drive-by, him taking whole weekends away to cheat on her, and about Mpho giving her a birthday purse chosen by his mistress, because, yes, she figured that one out. It’s a serious scene (and kudos to Lungile Duma for selling it), but Mpho looks like a 10-year-old boy whose parents have just spotted him skipping school! For the first time, he seems to realise that his justifications about cheating are paper thin, and about to get torn to shreds. 

No escape from the past 

When you leave a trail of blood, it leads back to you. Eric’s corrupt cop hasn’t been paid off so all the warrants for his arrest resurface. Bonga bails Eric out yet again, but not without seriously damaging the friendship, and in a heartbreaking scene, MaGetty (Mam’Nandi Nyembe) cashes out all her stokvels to try to raise cash to save Eric, only to find out that her R11,000, which is no joke in everyday life, can’t make much of a dent in the over R100,000 it’ll cost to keep her grandson out of jail.

Up against the wall, a despairing Eric realises that he can’t cope with the idea of prison, ignores Ncumisa’s phone call, and returns to his carjacking gang. But when he hesitates on the street the driver of the car they’ve cornered opens fire, hitting Eric. Eric’s crew flees the scene and leaves him to bleed out in the street.  

It’s going to be a nail biting week until the Adulting season 1 finale on Monday, 8 May.  

Watch the trailer for Adulting 

Who’s who in Adulting: Meet 4 ride-or-die BFFs 

• Thembinkosi Mthembu plays Bonga: The Alpha. Hot bod. Daddy issues. R80 million tender burning a hole in his pocket. 
• Luthando ‘BU’ Mthembu plays Vuyani: Madlisa. Joker. Professional escort with expensive tastes. But check the sell-by date before buying. 

• Thabiso Rammusi plays Mpho: The Family Man. Traditional husband. Father of two. But a dead bedroom has him on the prowl. 
• Nhlanhla Kunene plays Eric: Gintsa. Loving dad. Great friend. Crazy ex-boyfriend. Carjacker, and off the rails gangster. 

All episodes of Adulting are ready to binge on Showmax. 

What to watch on Showmax

Binge-watch all the episodes for The Real Housewives of Durban Season 3. Showmax and Moja Love's first collaboration KuRuff is streaming on Showmax with new episodes every Monday. If you're looking for a rom-com series to watch, Entangled is ready to binge-watch. You can also watch the fourth and final season of Gomora express from Mzansi Magic. Season 6 of Uthando Nes'thembu is coming to Showmax on 11 May, following businessman Musa Mseleku and his four wives as they navigate their polygamous relationship.