Raise your hand if you watched part one of the “The Mommy Club: Sugar & Spice” reunion on Showmax. Talk about a curveball in the latter part of the episode.
The heated exchange between Neetasha Singh Bugwandin and Naliyani Uma was unexpected but juicy as hell. Fans anticipated that the reunion was going to be lit but this was next level.
If anything, I assumed Christina Devraj would be at the heart of the storm. After all, she dominated conversations this season where the rest of the cast - - including Lenore Goss-Matjie, Kim Jones, Asharia Parsad, twins Losh and Resh Naidoo and Devina Kowlas - were concerned.
But let’s get to the tea.
Of course, the cast ate with their respective looks. Everyone looked catwalk-ready and turned heads. Not to be outshone, host Shahan Ramkissoon looked dashing in his kurta.
He eased into the reunion by asking everyone how they dealt with the fame of being TV stars, their parenting styles and being part of the group.
Lenore admitted to lapping it up, along with her family. Meanwhile, Devina confessed to not being a fan of “gentle parenting”.
With their guards down, the host worked his way into unpacking the drama. Christina shed light on her fallout with Lenore.
Now that they are BFFs, she was able to provide clarity on what she meant, redeeming herself of the racist and ageist attitude that left everyone - and viewers - aghast.
When Naliyani was brought on set as she was instrumental in bringing them together (with the help of Resh, of course), she was visibly shaken.
She maintained her composure while apologising to Lenore for the offensive Mr T from “The A-Team” comment, but she didn’t take kindly to Neetasha’s comments about their beef.
As far as Neetasha was concerned, she didn’t know Naliyani and couldn’t understand the shade being thrown at her. Neetasha said that Naliyani was a fan in the past, showing her love on social media.
But Naliyani stood her ground, pulling out receipts from the time they crossed paths on “Mela”, providing feedback on being accosted by Neetasha, accompanied by her husband, at the mall, who asked her, “Are we beefing?”, and having her “kick down this door like Chuck Norris” before they started screening the episode.
Neetasha, who struggled to pronounce the host's name after he corrected her more than once, revealed that Kim had warned her that Naliyani (Kim’s bestie by the way) was coming for her.
Kim denied it, though. She claims to have made a general statement and pointed out that Neetasha should have expected it.
The back and forth between the two continued with Naliyani revealing that Neetasha’s modelling agency, ModelCamp SA, was behind the Phumezwa Shezi troll account.
Naliyani’s private investigator provided details about this, which was shown on the screen.
Meanwhile, Neetasha claimed to know nothing about it and then deflected attention by saying she thought Christina was behind the account.
There is no love lost between the two of them. But Naliyani exposed Neetasha for her hypocrisy. With Asharia, who is looking snatched, supporting Naliyani’s account of events before the screening, actions spoke louder than words.
Ramkissoon handled the situation with aplomb. He was calm and assertive when he needed to be.
Of course, this fallout derailed other important conversations that are yet to come.
And so we wait for part two on Thursday. Hopefully, they don’t leave us hanging like they did at the end of episode 11.