Top Boy – Season 3 Episode 4 “The Food Is Killing Us” Recap & Review

The Food Is Killing Us

Episode 4 of Top Boy season 3 begins with a cleaner arriving at Jeffrey’s place and finding blood all over the counters. Jeffrey is left in a pool of his own blood. It doesn’t take long for forensics to show, and in doing so they find both DNA and fingerprints at the scene of the crime.

Meanwhile, Sully drops off his two bags at the drop-off point (Amanda’s place) and rings Kieron, informing him what’s going on. Kieron arrives, grabs the bag and leaves, distributing it out to the dealers in Summerhouse. Mandy though is unhappy when she realizes Kieron is involved in drug running, and encourages him to come along to the upcoming protest in the community to do something useful.

As for Dushane, he’s called in to a meeting as they’ve found Lizzie. She’s recently taken a flight to Dublin, flying from Stanstead. Unfortunately, the private detective on the case wants 20 grand to actually find her. He’s over a barrel here and doesn’t have a choice. Dushane begrudgingly agrees to the deal.

Meanwhile, Stef pays his respects to Jamie before heading off to meet Erin. Mandy shows up to see Jaq with food. No, not that food, genuine grub to eat! Jaq is on her own at the moment, unable to face the Summerhouse group.

Mandy has become the focal figure for the community, and after her chat with Kieron earlier on, she knocks some sense into Jaq too. She reinforces that Lauryn’s death is definitely her fault. After beign smacked in the face, Mandy continues, pointing out that Lauryn took drugs that Jaq sold. “It’s too late for Lauryn, but it ain’t too late for her baby.” She says. And to be honest, it’s exactly what Jaq needed to hear.

Jaq heads back on the street and confronts the junkie mum, Marianne, from earlier in the season. She wants to be brought to her child, and Kieron drives them to the apartment. Inside, Jaq is shocked to find her babe on the floor, all on his own. She watches in shock as the neglected babe is filthy, kept on his own, while Marianne does her drugs. It’s a horrible sight, and Jaq finally sees the damage that drugs have done to her community.

Dushane heads home and finds Shelley has packed up all her stuff and is prepared to leave. Dushane is keeping secrets again and his anger, next to his sudden mood swings, are enough for Shelley to realize that there’s another life out there and riding with Dushane, like they promised, is not the way forward.

If that wasn’t bad enough, Jeffrey’s death makes the news. Dushane’s terrible job at cleaning up the crime scene has become big news and it seems he may be a wanted man now. At the same time, Jaq double-crosses Sully and shows up at Amanda’s place, stealing all the drugs after managing to manipulate Kieron into revealing the location.

If that wasn’t enough, Jaq also leaves Amanda tied up when she discovers her on the way out. Jaq takes the stash and leaves.

Elsewhere, Mandy finds out that Erin and Stef are together but she gives some sound advice. She reinforces that they need to not send intimate pictures to one another and they need to make sure they don’t get pregnant either.

Sully shows up to see Dushane that night and reveals the news about Jeffrey’s death. Dushane shrugs it off and claims it’s not him but Sully knows his brother better than that. Dushane also points out that they’re properly going to go their separate ways, once Dushane gets his cut of the cash. Sully deflects on where he’s getting his stash from, and encourages Dushane to work on his story for the police.

Stef heads back to see Si, who encourages him to hold onto a firearm. It’s a Browning 9 mil and it’s a gun that Jamie gave him. So it seems this is a rite of passage for him to, presumably, go after Sully.

As the episode closes out, Jaq decides to do right by the community, wanting to do the righteous thing. When Sully rings Kieron, demanding to know where the stash is, he ignores the call, while Jaq prepares for her next move.

The Episode Review

Mandy is arguably the architect here for a lot of the drama that takes place in Summerhouse this series. After talking sense into both Jaq and Kieron, the pair usurp Sully and Dushane, deciding to take maters into their own hands. The thing is, this simple action has serious repercussions and extrapolates out to every other storyline in the series, an example of how the smallest action can cause the biggest reaction.

With the Irish subplot done and the immigration plot presumably just dropped now, all the drama comes down to these two bags of drugs, and what impact this may have on everyone else in Summerhouse. We’ll have to wait and see but right now, things are simmering up nicely.