From the youths running the streets to dealing with the seriously dodgy gangsters supplying the gear, Dushane (Ashley Walters) and Sully (Kane “Kano” Robinson) are the kingpins in Top Boy’s drug ring. While those lower down the chain struggle with gang violence and murder, those at the top are often protected from the grim realities of the trade. The vast amounts of money they’re accumulating help cushion the blow from the dangerous lifestyle choice, too.
However, there’s always the question about what to do with all the millions of pounds they’re earning. Obviously, putting it in the bank or running it through HMRC is out of the question. Money laundering seems a far better option. In the previous season of the Netflix show, Dushane lands upon what seems to be the perfect way to stash his millions: property redevelopment. As the final series begins, Dushane tries to pull out some of his cash to help Shelley (Little Simz) with her aspiring chain of beauty salons, but there’s a big problem. So what’s gone wrong? Note, there are many spoilers for episode three below…
The Summerhouse Scam
Last season, when Jamie is sent to prison, Dushane gets involved with Lizzie and her husband Jeffrey, who are running their own drug empire. As part of their deal, Dushane and Jeffrey work together with the idea of bulldozing the Summerhouse estate and redeveloping it, displacing all the residents and their community. In episode one, Jeffrey introduces Dushane to the dodgy backstreet accountant Lithe (who Lizzie previously introduced to Jamie: there is a lot of catching up to do) who says she can help him spend the money he’s earning. He tells her he’s bringing in about “four or five mil” a year, with a projected turnover of this year of “£15 mil”. With overheads and expenses, that comes in at about £10 million, and she tells him: “washing £10 million is going to be a challenge… you’re a victim of your own success, Dushane!”
When she brings up income tax and national insurance contributions, he just laughs at the idea and drops the bombshell that if he goes legit, he’ll only take home about three out of £10 million. It’s Jeffrey who first suggests investing in the Summerhouse redevelopment: “I’m working with the consortium, they’re open to ready cash,” he says, adding that he could get Dushane in there, as the budget is £1.4 billion, and Lithe adds that it’ll be “a lot easier to hide cash in something of that scale.” Working it out, she then predicts if he chooses to place the money in Summerhouse, he could then take home 6 or 7 million. However, by the end of the series the Summerhouse residents are protesting the redevelopment, including Dushane’s sick mother, who begs him not to do it. So Dushane suffers a moral crisis and tells Jeffrey to change the plans for more public housing, threatening to kill Lizzie for going against him if he doesn’t. Meanwhile Sully also begins to use Lithe for his money, and asks that she put the money in a trust fund for his daughter, Tash.
Show Me The Money: Episode 3 Reveal
When Dushane visits Lithe, she seems shady when he asks for the money and tells him it’s tied up in the consortium; she also drops the news that she’s essentially taken £800,000 of the £16 million cash he gave her for the Summerhouse development as a “processing fee”. When he calls back the next day, the phone rings out. Panicked, he calls Jeffrey, who is also freaking out as he’s been locked out of his bank accounts, and Lizzie has also gone AWOL. Dushane tells him to find Lizzie and Lithe and get him the cash back or he “won’t live to see the weekend”.
When Dushane goes to see his lawyer, Wilson, he tells him he knows a detective who can find Lizzie, “ASAP”. When Dushane pays a not-so-friendly visit to Jeffrey, he tells him that the accounts have been cleared and the funds transferred to Soundrock, the shell company that Lithe set up. Lithe and Lizzie have taken all of Dushane’s millions, and in a fit of rage, Dushane beats Jeffrey to death. The only way he has of getting back any of his money for all his ill-gotten fortune is to track down either woman. But with his panic attacks and/or heart problems, will he manage this before he keels over from the stress of it all?
Top Boy is streaming on Netflix now
