Gomora Season 3: Qhoqhoqho’s final curtain call ends in flames

Going into September the women of Gomora might feel a little safer at the taxi rank. Kidnapper, sex trafficker, rapist and nasty piece of work Qhoqhoqho – cheekily nicknamed QX3 by Gomora Season 3 fans – has met his end screaming, crying, and sizzling.

Qhoqhoqho had struck out to destroy the Molefe family in revenge for Sonto killing his five-year-old son Sabelo in a hit-and-run accident in Season 1. And they say if you seek revenge you should prepare to fill two graves… but Qhoqhoqho was overfilling his quota, stacking the bodies high. We would pity Qhoqhoqho for his grief, had he not proven time and again that he thinks he is the only one who suffers.

In the end Mam’Sonto dished out some ice-cold, old-school petrol and matches justice to the man who kidnapped and trafficked her granddaughter Buhle after she ran away from home in March this year. And fans were mostly okay with that, because Qhoqhoqho kept Buhle in a brothel, selling her body to strangers, until the brave girl escaped and overcame all the terror and danger of her long journey home … only for Qhoqhoqho to shoot her in the back of the head in front of her whole family.

Qhoqhoqho wants to see his enemies burn

“Protect your son. May they burn. May all my enemies burn,” Qhoqhoqho prays. “May I never see the walls of a prison cell.”

And his ancestors give with one hand and take with the other. As per his request, Qhoqhoqho will end his days under an open sky, staring at his enemies through the flames. Just not the way he might have wanted. Maybe his ancestors would have given in a less twisted way if Qhoqhoqho didn’t interrupt this important meeting with them to take a phone call from his “Super Client” who’s paying him to grab young girls of the street for sex trafficking. Rude.

Buhle escapes

After a police interrogation, Qhoqhoqho needs to cover his tracks. In this scene we see Buhle’s terror as Qhoqhoqho cold bloodedly deliver his victim into a fresh hell at the hands of another man who’ll sell her body (a man we’ll later find out is probably named Bonaviche, an international trafficker). The men go all out to depersonalise her, clearly enjoying the distress their words are causing.

Qhoqhoqho tells Bonaviche, “This is the best I have ever brought you. This skinny girl is a national treasure.” When Buhle tries to fight back against Bonaviche’s invasive touches, he smirks and quips to Qhoqhoqho (not even addressing Buhle), “Very feisty, what a turn on.”

Qhoqhoqho tells Bonaviche that Buhle will bring him millions. Brave Buhle snatches an opportunity while the men are haggling over her to make a run for it. There would have been a cruelly timed ad break here, but this is Showmax, so you just get a brief cut and then we’re back watching Buhle’s escape through a maze of shipping crates.

Out of the frying pan into the fire

Buhle has escaped Qhoqhoqho and his threat to slaughter her by flagging down a truck driver. But the man stops his truck in the middle of nowhere to “chat a bit” and “get to know each other”.

“I haven’t touched my wife in weeks now. Do you really understand that?” he asks a clearly frightened young woman who’s pleading with him to take her home. All Buhle can do is beg with hopeless eyes. Fortunately in the next episode she is able to escape.

So close yet so far

Buhle manages to find a good Samaritan to drop her off at the Gomora taxi rank, and phones Mam’Sonto to come get her. At the rank she calls out desperately as she spots a familiar face, Ntokozo, only for a man in a police uniform to grab her, cover her mouth, drag her off into a taxi and phone Qhoqhoqho.

Ntokozo (Ntobeko Sihi) and his friends stand around being useless while the policeman drags her off. Buhle can literally see Mam’Sonto through the taxi window while she’s being held at gunpoint by the cop.

And when we tell you that viewers were disgusted…

The reason the cops can't catch human traffickers is the same reason we won't see Miley Cyrus and Hannah Montana in the same room🙂#GomoraMzanzi#GomoraMzansi #Gomora

— The working housewife (@MrsZiziMalaka) August 19, 2022

The cruel ending

Qhoqhoqho drags Buhle out of the taxi the cop has her in, holding a gun to her head as her family beg him to let her go. He shoves Buhle into his own car but she jumps out again and Mam’Sonto shoots Qhoqhoqho in the chest. Feeling Qhoqhoqho weaken, Buhle struggles out of his grasp and Thathi opens her arms, reaching for her daughter.

But as Buhle runs, Qhoqhoqho uses the last of his strength to shoot her in the back of the head, while Thathi screams in horror. In slow motion, Buhle’s family flock to her … but it’s too late. From there it’s a slow fade of despair until the end of the episode.

#GomoraMzanzi Actually Gomora is failing us, Buhle was not supposed to die. Her family doesn't know why she left; she was supposed to confirm everything about Phumulani. This is not fair! #Gomora

— Mahenyahenya (@PhutiMolokomme3) August 17, 2022

A community mourning

Episode 81 opens with everyone reeling as the life fades from Buhle’s eyes. For the next few episodes, every time we see Thathi, we cry too, especially when the community gathers to share their love and heartbreak, including Buhle’s school friends in their uniforms.

But there’s always that one person… in front of Mam’Sonto and Thathi, Lwandle starts preaching about young women prostituting themselves. We vote that Zodwa (Sannah Mchunu) smack her with a kettle as promised … but after she takes that fight outside, please. Meanwhile back at his place, despite that gunshot wound, Qhoqhoqho prepares to escape Gomora for good, only to find the money stashed under his mattress gone.

Endings

Buhle’s loved ones lay her to rest at her funeral. There’s solemn outpouring of grief where half the room is filled with school children (bring the tissues because when they start singing it will destroy you), and after Mam’Sonto’s repeats “it hurts”, several times, she tells the mourners that Qhoqhoqho should not get to rest behind prison bars and that she wants him dead.

Meanwhile at the hospital (where he’s lying after being beaten up in the holding cell) Qhoqhoqho’s dirty cop ally Mthethwa promises to give him his freedom. He drives him out to the bush and tells him that his contact will take Qhoqhoqho to Mozambique.

“Good luck. I think you will need it today,” he tells Qhoqhoqho. Qhoqhoqho jokes about how there will be other criminals ready to give Mthethwa money, without reckoning that one already has. A bakkie drives up and as Qhoqhoqho thrashes about trying to free himself from the child lock in the back of the car, Mam’Sonto steps out.

Down in flames

Mam’Sonto reveals that she had to arrange this kidnapping because the men she hired to kill Qhoqhoqho in jail messed it up. She shoots Qhoqhoqho when he gets rowdy with Mthethwa, then has him tied to a tree where he can say his last words before the bush area they’re in begins to smell like braai meat from his flesh burning.

Mam’Sonto promises him pain before death, telling him, “You need to experience the same suffering you caused the young girls of Gomora, and Buhle.” All Qhoqhoqho’s bravado goes up in smoke when she has him doused in petrol and tells him, “Apparently the fire in hell is really hot. So you will be used to the heat by the time you get there.”

And just before he dies screaming, Qhoqhoqho sees Sabelo beckoning to him.

Catch new episodes of Gomora Season 3 streaming express on weekdays on Showmax.