Top Boy and its writers have never shied away from ruthlessly killing off main characters. Case in point: the end of the last series, when Jamie was gunned down at point-blank range by Sully.
We regret to inform you that they’re at it again, this time providing an absolutely haunting end to a member of the Top Boy family. So what happened, and how did they actually die? It goes without saying there are massive spoilers in this article, so only read after you’ve watched episode two.
When we started the series, Jaq’s sister, Lauryn (Saffron Hocking) was struggling. That isn’t surprising given that she – then heavily pregnant – finally killed her abusive gangster boyfriend, Curtis, and had his mad family sent packing by Sully.
Lauryn’s now had her baby, but she’s in a severe state of PTSD, and can’t bond with him, leaving Jaq (Jasmine Jobson) and her girlfriend, Becks (Adwoa Aboah) to take care of him instead. However, when Lauryn is left home alone with the as-yet-unnamed baby boy, she texts someone (called just “R”) on her phone: “Same amount. Dark”. Dark means heroin, and she’s obviously a habitual user.
Then there’s the reveal of who her dealer is: it’s one of Jaq’s guys, Rowmando (Ansu Njai). Rowmando had acid thrown in his face by the ZT gang (then headed up by Jamie and Kit) back in series one of the Netflix show, and since then has been part of Dushane and Jaq’s crew. He tells Lauryn that he can’t deal to her anymore and that she needs to find someone else as “I can’t be coming to Jaq’s house and serving up her sister”. But she lies and tells him it’s for a friend.
After Jaq comes home and finds Lauryn passed out on the sofa with the wrap of heroin, she takes a gentle approach at intervention by dedicating a day of TLC to her. While a yoga class fails to help, meeting up with Shelle (and the promise of a job at her soon-to-be chain of salons when she’s ready to return to work) cheers her up.
There’s a massive sense of foreboding when Lauryn, who seems positive, relaxed and happy after her day, tells Jaq: “I love you”, to which Jaq replies: “I love you more”. “Impossible,” says Lauryn.
While Jaq and Becks head out for the night, Lauryn has a bath, and before stepping in, finally seems to be bonding with her baby, who she decides to call Jack, after her sister. If you’re thinking this feels like too wholesome a moment for Top Boy, then you’re right: this is when it all gets cruelly dashed.
Jaq returns home, and after seeing the baby crying, finds Lauryn unresponsive in the bath, and the tell-tale silver tinfoil next to her where she’s been smoking heroin. It appears she’s drowned in the bath; their unconventional but happy family is now destroyed, with Jaq’s sister killed not only by the drugs trade that she heads up, but from one of her own dealers.
For all the violence and needless deaths wrought by selling drugs, this is horrifically too close to home for Jaq. Will this lead to a moment of personal reckoning or will it continue to be business as usual for this Top Girl?
Top Boy is streaming on Netflix now.
