Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Blood & Water’ Season 4 On Netflix, Where Puleng And Fikile Track Down A Blackmailer at Parkhurst

The South African Netflix series Blood & Water started out as a story about two half-sisters who start digging into each other’s origins, and had elements of organized crime and wealthy parents accused of human trafficking. The show’s main storylines played themselves out over the first three seasons, however, which leads us to this big question: What are Fikile, Puleng and the teens from Parkhurst going to do now?

BLOOD & WATER: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Fikile Bhele (Khosi Ngema) and Puleng Khumalo (Ama Qamata) are confronted by the press as they sit in the courtroom for the human trafficking trial for Matla and Lisbeth Molapo (Sello Maake Ka-Ncube, Sonia Mbele).

The Gist: Puleng and Fikile have been in therapy since the incident that sent the Molapos to prison, which also resulted in Fikile having to recover from a gunshot wound. Fikile has said she’s been trying to relax, but she spent the summer in Spain and is back on the swim team again, much to the concern of her father (Patrick Mofokeng). Puleng has been seeing Lisbeth everywhere, after she said “this isn’t over” as she was led away after the guilty verdict. In the meantime, the Molapos’ son KB (Thabang Molaba) is trying to start over, living with Chris (Arno Greeff), who put one of KB’s hip hop tracks out on social media without asking KB first.

At a party at Chris’ house before the start of a new school year at Parkhurst, Puleng gets drunk to keep her mind off what’s going on, including vaguely menacing anonymous DMs; there, she meets Iván (André Lamoglia), who says he’s from Brazil. They hit it off so well, they have sex. Chris has to fend off a jealous Lunga (Mpho Sibeko) as he reconnects with Wendy (Natasha Thahane). Sam (Leroy Siyafa) has a frightening flashback to his captivity as he starts to make out with Fikile. Wade (Dillon Windvogel) meets Asanda Makeba (Wanda Banda), the daughter of TV talk show personalities who has taken a liking to his photography.

As Parkhurst starts its year, Puleng finds out that Iván — who is staying with Fikile and her dad — is the new Spanish exchange student. During the new principal’s address to the students, Puleng gets another anonymous DM, this time showing a voyeuristic video of her and Iván having sex. Thinking that Iván is the one who shot the video, she confronts him and slaps him right across the face. Asanda and Fikile get into a dispute during a swimming practice, centering around Fikile struggling since coming back from getting shot.

After realizing Iván wasn’t the person who shot the video, Puleng is convinced that either Lisbeth or Point of Grace is still after her. But Sam isn’t willing to relive his captivity and KB does not want to bring Puleng and Fikile to his parents in prison to talk to them.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? In a lot of ways Blood & Water is starting to feel less like the “long lost sisters getting to know each other” show it started as and more like a more general high-school drama along the lines of Euphoria or Elite.

Our Take: The cast of Blood & Water has established some pretty good chemistry over the show’s first three seasons, so even though the show is really starting to get away from its original premise, it’s still very watchable. You still like seeing Puleng and Fikile be a united front while they look into serious threats to their safety and the safety of their classmates. We like seeing Wade find a new, interesting girlfriend, and Sam and KB dealing with their respective traumas.

And, yes, there are still issues that both girls have to deal with; Fikile and Puleng’s mother Thandeka (Gail Mabalane) is trying to bring Fikile’s birth father Anthony (Thapelo Mokoena) back into Fikile’s life. And whoever is blackmailing Puleng might also turn their attention to the entire population of Parkhurst.

But for the most part, the show is more about extreme high school issues, from relationships to sex to drinking and drugs. There looks like there’s going to be more emphasis on things like KB’s music and Chris’ divided romantic loyalties. And then there’s the blackmailer. Whether this has anything to do with Lisbeth or Point of Grace really doesn’t matter; it’s just another threat that Puleng and Fikile will be investigating.

In other words, there feels like there’s less family-and-origin drama than there used to be. Luckily, the ensemble is strong enough that the show is still very watchable.

Sex and Skin: We mention the sex scene with Puleng and Iván. It’s not particularly explicit, and whatever skin is shown wouldn’t fall under the category of “nudity.”

Parting Shot: As the anonymous DMer rockets a blurred version of the video around Parkhurst, Fikile gets DMs from the same anonymous user.

Sleeper Star: We’re not sure if Asanda, played by Wanda Banda, has an ulterior motive or she just really likes Wade, but she’s a breath of fresh air around Parkhurst.

Most Pilot-y Line: Fikile gets a text about KB agreeing to meet with his dad in prison, and she excuses herself with her father by saying “I just remembered I had study group.” Uh, is he really that stupid?

Our Call: STREAM IT. Blood & Water seems to be getting away from the show’s original conceit to something a bit more generic. But we like the cast, so we’re willing to give the show another season.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.