The Season finale of Lingashoni has come and gone and what a way to end it. Papi finally loses the plot completely and burns DK Lifestyle to the ground, never mind that he says it’s his life’s work.
Fortunately for the occupants in the burning building, help comes in the form of Seipati. Unfortunately, Seipati makes a decision that will impact the world forever when she decides to leave Puleng behind in the burning building. It was a shock to most of us, but was it really?
Let’s look back at the season that was and try understand this new Seipati.
Mandla Cele is living his life with Seipati and her sons for ten years or so when he regains his memory and realizes he has a family back in Joburg that he left behind. He drops everything to return to Puleng and their children to pick up where he left off. Should this have been the first sign for Seipati who was left behind?
Not for her, as she follows him to Joburg with her sons, first pretending until it eventually comes out that she’s in fact Mandla’s wife. Mandla, in the mean time, is dealing with betrayal and unfaithfulness when he finds out that not only is Puleng , his original wife, having an affair with Papi who used to be their gardener but she and Papi masterminded his attempted murder that led to his memory loss, etc, etc. etc.
The entire season, we saw Seipati as the loyal, rural wife, whose entire world is Mandla and her kids. She has had to resort to some shady things to protect her man at all costs. She has studiously stood by him unlike Puleng, the promiscuous wife that can’t be trusted as far as she can be thrown. She has consistently plotted with Papi and anyone deemed Mandla’s enemy. She’s the bad wife as compared to Seipati.
Mandla has also consistently alienated Puleng. Made sure she’s aware of her betrayal at every turn and is rude and nasty to her at every chance he gets. Even when Puleng decides to make her new, blended family work and shows great remorse to her kids for what she did to their father, etc. Mandla is unbending and makes it clear that he’ll destroy Papi and then her.
That is, until the penultimate episode where they both declare their love for each other. And when Puleng collapses as the building burns, he cries for the love of his life. When Seipati arrives and rescues him first, he declares in an emotional moment, clearly not quite himself, that Puleng is the only love he has left and Seipati must save her. Off-course, Seipati doesn’t.
Did you wonder what was going through her head at that moment? After standing by him, hiding Ace’s body and lying for him. After everything she’d done for him, in his moments that he thought was final, only Puleng was on his mind. This showed that he’d never stopped loving his first wife despite everything she did to him, including trying to get him killed.
Is Seipati’s hatred and anger directed at the right person? Who has actually betrayed her? How will Mandla react when he finds out what she did? He certainly wouldn’t love her more or choose her over Puleng. Will she regret what she did or see it as protecting her family?
Whatever happens, we have seen the evolution of Seipati. She is no longer the naïve, rural woman we first met. Her relationship with Mandla is definitely changing and may be headed for a collision course. When you see a burning building, there’s something that speaks finality. The burning of DK Lifestyle has become a symbol of the finality in who or what Seipati has become. We slowly saw her transform in the course of the season, and now have fully come into her own. The fire has also clinched what is to become of her relationship with Mandla. Things will surely change now.
As the new season unfolds, the question on most of our lips will be: what will Seipati do next to protect her marriage and her family? We know you're curious with the love you've shown.
TUNE in to #Lingashoni, Mondays – Thursdays at 21:30 on #1Magic and see how it all unfolds