There’s little in the way of happy times for anybody at the beginning of Top Boy series three, the final chapter of the Channel 4-turned-Netflix drama about the drug dealing gangs of Hackney. The arrival of a baby should mean a time for celebrations; except the young mother Lauryn (played by Saffron Hocking) has just given birth to a baby whose dad she brutally murdered after he abused her. Look, it’s a long story, but we’re here with a refresher on how it all took a major turn for the worse at the end of series two.
Where did it all go wrong for Lauryn and Curtis?
At the start of the second season, Lauryn had been exiled from London, after passing on information to a rival gang member of Sully’s, who then tried to kill him, and she ended up in Liverpool. She’s pregnant by a gangster called Curtis (Howard Charles), who she lives with alongside his horrible sister, Vee, and his sidekick, Speaks. We soon learn that she’s in a coercively controlling relationship with Curtis, who constantly manipulates her. Lauryn begs her sister Jaq to come and take her back to London as she fears they might hurt her.
Curtis and Vee then take her mobile phone off her, with Curtis saying that “all the stress is bad for the baby” and that “it’s bad for her, all that social media, staring at a screen all day,” as well as adding, bizarrely: “All that radiation and 5G, it can’t be good for the baby.” However, Lauryn has a plan. And on a trip to a local shopping centre – flanked by Vee and Speak, of course – to buy some new lingerie, in nail-biting scenes, she manages to escape and flees to London, thanks to a taxi driver who takes pity on her and refuses to open up his doors when Curtis and co. catch up with her. So is that the end of the resident psychopath Curtis? Is it ‘eck. He’s not going to let go of Lauryn that easily.
After calling Jaq, who lies about not seeing Lauryn, Curtis, Vee and Speak head down to London to search for her, bringing down a couple of the vintage guns they’ve also been hawking on the black market. Jaq admits to Dushane that Lauryn is back in London and asks him for help dealing with Curtis. The pair then have a strained chat when Dushane tells him to leave it, but Curtis instead holds some of Dushane’s dealers hostage and steals their drugs. “Tell Dushane if he wants what’s his, he needs to bring me my Lauryn,” he whispers creepily.
In episode eight, after Jaq confesses to Sully that Lauryn’s back in London, she begs him for help with Curtis, and they help set up a sting, telling Curtis that they’ll return Lauryn to him. Vee realises it’s a trap, and instead they plan to kidnap Lauryn. But before they can put their plan into action, Lauryn calls Curtis and tells him she wants to come home; she’s forgiven him and could he come and pick her up. Well, guess what? It's yet another trap. While he’s there (telling her she’s “not been herself” incorrectly deducing it’s “because of the hormones”) she attacks and kills him with a knife, leaving him to bleed out on the carpeted floor.
Series three update
Curtis is long gone, and the baby has been born, living with Lauryn, Jaq and Jaq’s girlfriend, Becks. As for Lauryn? A battle with PTSD and then some. In episode one of the new series, Lauryn looks almost catatonic with the trauma of Curtis’ murder. If there’s a happy ending for Lauryn and her still nameless baby boy, it’s still a very long way off.
The final season of Top Boy is streaming on Netflix now
