The 2024 South African drama, Soon Comes Night, is based on a series of true events. The antagonist, Alex Shabane, was considered to be the ‘Robin Hood’ who was stealing money from the rich and feeding the lower segments of society. The Dutch influence in South African society looms large throughout the series, and Alex, who had once fought as a freedom fighter, was still helping his society recover from the pangs of colonialism. Soon Comes Night is also replete with grotesque scenes of murder, theft, robberies, and betrayals. A constant rat race between the police officials and Alex is explored in the series. Will Alex be able to elude the police for long? Will he finally yield to the law? Let’s find out!
Spoilers Ahead
What Was Alex’s Motive?
Alex Shabane, a freedom fighter turned Robin Hood in South Africa, was seen embarking on heists to steal money and use it to bring stability to the economic distribution in society. Maseko, an old comrade who had turned into a government official, had made a job offer to Alex, but he refused it. A spirit of rebellion has been seen in Alex since his younger days! In 1984, he stole a bread truck in Soweto and distributed the food among the needy. When he was sought by the police, he ran away from his home, marking his introduction to the world of crime. His life was under constant threat, and he would always have to hide himself, even if he wanted to come back home. We are brought back in time when we witness an attack on Alex, killing his mother. He thought that Maseko had attacked him and went to his house while Maseko was celebrating his birthday. He told the guests how Maseko had been by his side as a comrade and fought as a freedom fighter. He openly threatened Maseko, telling him that he would take down the government. This venture alarmed Maseko, and he thought that Alex could be a threat to society. The very next day, Alex’s face was all over the media, and it was stated that he was once a freedom fighter in the ANC parliamentary wing who later became a local councilor in the new democracy but had now turned into a criminal. When Alex learned that a journalist, Kwfilwe Mogorosi, was writing against him, he confronted her. He took her around to show her how he supported the poor and gave them whatever they needed!
What Was Sakkie’s Trauma?
It was so hard for Sakkie to deal with his past traumas that he couldn’t devote himself completely to his work as a detective. He was working on a serial murder case, which he was taking a lot of time to solve. Unable to solve the riddle of the case, he went to meet Van Niekerk in jail, who helped him solve the case. This makes it clear that Sakkie had an old relationship with Van and would take his words seriously. Eventually, the Pimville Slasher was found, helping Sakkie gain the limelight in the media.
Sakkie’s personal life had become a mess because of his extensive work hours. He had a strained relationship with his wife Chantal, and it was later revealed that he had met with an accident with his elder son on board, which had killed him. This made Chantal think that Sakkie’s extremely busy schedule was the reason for his drowsiness while driving, eventually killing their son. This was the major reason behind Sakkie’s trauma, causing him to take anti-depressants. However, after Sakkie was able to crack the murder case, Minister Zungu and Maseko wanted to hand him the responsibility of arresting Alex. They wanted to ensure that the media was content with the officials trying their best to get their hands on a criminal like Alex. Sakkie was seen to be extremely dependent on Van and often went to him to seek advice on the cases that were handed over to him. It is possible that Van was just a figment of Sakkie’s imagination, and he would seek the help of his imaginary friend to gain the self-confidence to solve any case.
Why Did Sekoati Look Up To Sakkie?
Sekoati revealed to Sakkie that she was the daughter of the official who worked in the Brixton murder and robbery cases. Someone had shot him when she was still very young. She remembered Sakkie as the detective in charge of her father’s murder case. She was glad that Sakkie had solved the case and sent the man, who had killed her father, behind bars. It was revealed that Mr. Sekoati, who was working as a comrade for the freedom fighters, had been killed for trying to provide them with information on the death squad. When Alex and his men came to know that Aksari was the one who had betrayed them, they followed him. Alex shot at Aksari when he got the chance, and Aksari’s wife was a witness to it. However, Alex did not kill her because of his moral ethics of not murdering women.
How Did Minister Zungu Set Sekoati Against Sakkie?
In 1991, Zoli, the cleaner in John Vorster was arrested for killing Officer Sekoati. Sakkie and Van had framed Zoli for the murder of the officer. It was probably an order from the higher officials to keep it a secret that Aksari was the real mind behind Mr. Sekoati’s murder. When Minister Zungu wanted Officer Sekoati’s daughter on his side, he told her Sakkie’s truth. Mr. Zungu wanted to put Sekoati in charge of finding Alex, as he believed that she could do the task better than Sakkie. After learning that Aksari was the real murderer and Sakkie had just framed an innocent man for her father’s murder, she was upset. She lost all her respect for Sakkie because the person she had idolized as a cop had deceived her. She could not come to accept the apology that Sakkie made to her for keeping her in the dark for so long!
Why Did Pearl Rat Alex Out?
Alex is seen humiliating his mistress, Pearl, and showering her with material gifts when all she wants is his love. He, however, asks her to have no expectations from him and goes on with his life. This infuriates Pearl, and she decides to give all of Alex’s whereabouts to the police. After they get the information on Alex and his comrades, they chase him and manage to capture him eventually.
How Did Lesedi Help Moskow?
While Alex and his other comrades are arrested, Moskow manages to escape, and he goes to seek refuge from Lesedi. Moskow was injured and needed some time to heal before he could help out his friends. Lesedi was reluctant to help him or any other acquaintances of Alex. In 1991, when Alex was dating Lesedi, he confided in her that he had killed Aksari because he was betraying them. As Aksari’s wife had seen Alex’s face, the captain asked Alex to leave for Angola. Before Alex left, he promised Lesedi that he would come back for her. Later, when he came back in 1994 to meet Lesedi, he saw that she had started a new family and had a son. When Lesedi told him that the child was his blood and that she wanted him to stop his illegal business of stealing cars, he stopped immediately. While she was providing shelter to Moskow in the current time (2000), he sent his incarcerated comrades a message through Lesedi. She goes to meet them and says that once Moskow gets better, he will send them weapons to help them get out of jail. Later, when Moskow gets better, he provides them with weapons in jail, which helps them break free eventually. After fleeing from the prison, Alex and his comrades went to Lesedi to seek refuge. She told him that the life Alex had chosen was bad for her son. She told him that he was not a suitable parent and that she wanted him to leave.
What Plan Did Sekoati Make?
When the police went to the town to ask about Alex’s whereabouts, nobody gave the police any information about him, as he was considered a local hero. After Sekoati was made the chief, she decided to take a different approach to capture Alex. She decided to use Pearl as bait to catch him, as she thought that he would tail her for giving him out earlier. Later, when Pearl went to the hair salon, Vincent and Thulani followed her. Right before they were about to attack her, the police chased them. While running for their lives, they shot at the police, killing two policemen. On the other end, Thulani was shot while they were running away from the police. As the police were unable to capture Alex’s comrades, Minister Zungu decided to pull Sekoati down from her post. He decided to make Sakkie the chief again and gave him a deadline to catch Alex before Christmas.
What Happened To Zaba?
Zaba was one of Moskow’s men working as a security guard at the national bank. Alex was unable to trust Zaba, as he was a new informant that Moskow had included on the list. However, Zaba managed to steal information from the office and charged Alex $50 million for the information to ease their cash-in-transit heist. However, it was later revealed that the convoy was a decoy that the police had set up for Alex. Some of Alex’s men were killed during the heist, but he managed to escape the trap. This infuriated Alex, as he thought that Zaba was the police informant who had plotted against him.
Zaba realized that Alex thought that he was the one to have informed the police about Alex’s whereabouts and would come after him. He asked his wife to take their child and leave their residence. Meanwhile, when he went back to his apartment to get the money, he was gunned down by Alex. Later, Moskow told Alex that he had killed an innocent man, as Zaba had nothing to do with the trap that the police had set for him.
What Did Alex Do To Threaten Minister Zungu?
Alex went to Minister Zungu’s Thanksgiving party and announced publicly that he was previously a part of his organization and was instructed to work according to his order. The fact that Alex went to meet Minister Zungu made headlines the next day, tarnishing his reputation. The reporters raised their fingers at the police department, asking them questions about what they were doing when Alex arrived at the party and why they didn’t arrest him. Later, the policemen went to question Alex’s father about his whereabouts, telling him how his son had orphaned an innocent child, but he refused to help them. When Alex learned that his father was being harassed by the police, he sent a warning letter to Sakkie, asking him to leave his father out of their business.
What Happened In The End?
When the police were unable to track down Alex, they approached Pearl. She told them that he might have been with his lover, Lesedi. When Sakkie and Sekoati dug deeper, they found out Lesedi’s whereabouts. Minister Zungu’s men approached Lesedi’s house and found Alex there, but before they could capture him, he fled the spot. However, he was injured but somehow managed to go to his warehouse and burn it down, so that no evidence against him could be found. It is also possible that he wanted the police to think that the blast in the building had also taken his life. He somehow managed to survive the blast and went to his father to seek refuge. Sakkie and Sekoati, however, managed to trace his location and reach his parents’ house. It is possible that Alex’s father informed them about his son’s whereabouts because he was fed up with seeing Alex as a fugitive. Detective Sekoati arrested Alex on suspicion of murders, robberies, and many other criminal activities. It was later revealed that Alex had left Lesedi all his money before going to jail. In the end, Vincent also revealed to Lesedi’s son that his father was Alex.
What Will Happen Next?
We expect the second season of the series Soon Comes Night to have more twists. Many threads in the first season have been left open. We see that Alex is sick, but we don’t really know what his diagnosis is. It is possible that in the next season, Alex will die, and his son will take up the vacant position and follow in his father’s footsteps. Sakkie’s mental delusion will also be explored further in the next season, making it clear whether Van is real or an imaginary character. Moskow will likely come back from his exile after he gets to hear about Alex’s situation and stand by his son’s side to fulfill his father’s dreams.
