The Polygamist – Best of Netflix

Based on Sue Nyathi’s bestselling 2012 novel of the same name, The Polygamist is the hit South African telenovela on Netflix that subscribers simply cannot get enough of, and rightfully so.

The Netflix adaptation tells the story of Jonasi Gomora, a super-rich self-made banking CEO who desperately tries to maintain the illusion of a perfect life, only for his kingdom and marriage to unravel over his web of secrets and polygamous life. The story explores power, betrayal, and the consequences of toxic masculinity through the entwined lives of the female leads – Joyce, Matipa, Essie, and Lindani.

Although Joyce is Jonasi’s only legitimate wife, the bitter truth is that she has made peace with her husband’s affair with a younger employee, Matipa. While Jonasi lives together with Matipa, Joyce expects her husband to put an end to all the rumours with occasional appearances, which brings viewers to their grand 20th anniversary. Since Joyce has more or less convinced herself that there will come a day when Jonasi crawls right back to her, she doesn’t hesitate to arrange a huge anniversary party.

In turn, Jonasi has no option but to attend, as Joyce has been integral in making his company what it is today. Even though it seems that he has completely lost interest in his wife, when she signs the papers, he no longer wants to leave her. In short, Jonasi is equal parts a product and a victim of his habits. But how exactly did he become a victim of life? Who killed Jonasi Gomora?

Who killed Jonasi Gomora in The Polygamist?

One of the most shocking unveilings of the South African Netflix series, The Polygamist, is the person who killed Jonasi Gomora, which is none other than Joyce herself. While the name doesn’t exactly come as a surprise, considering she’d attempted to kill him before as well, how she did it surely blows minds. Previously, Joyce tried to poison Jonasi, but he surprisingly survived.

In an attempt to cover it up, she even had to pay the doctor to lie to Jonasi that he had suffered a heart attack. Although Joyce’s actions had reasons, her breaking point came when she learned that Matipa wasn’t the only woman he was sleeping with. Initially, she had made adjustments to Jonasi’s affair with Matipa, realising that she had no option but to accept the relationship for what it was, especially after Matipa gave birth to twins.

But at the same time, Jonasi had more skeletons in the closet than Joyce could begin to think of. Essie, the woman he introduced as his sister-in-law for decades, was actually Jonasi’s second wife. And if those revelations were not enough to ruin Joyce, she also found out that he had been sharing the bed with their daughter’s best friend, Lindani. Although it is clear from the outset that Jonasi wasn’t a man of great character, the more the series progresses, the worse things honestly become.

So, there most certainly came a point when Joyce and Matipa both grew increasingly frustrated over Jonasi’s disregard for them. In fact, when Joyce refused to give in to his wishes and desires, he physically abused and molested her. And Matipa faced a similar situation when she tried to transfer funds to her account. While Matipa escaped, leaving her children to Joyce’s care, Joyce couldn’t flee the situation.

Instead, she decided to take things into her own hands, first by convincing Jonasi’s brother to throw him out of the house. Then, Jonasi contracted HIV, and it was all Joyce’s undoing. It turns out that she’d paid Lungi, a woman she ran into at the police station, to sleep with her husband. She knew that Lungi had contracted HIV from her boyfriend, and Jonasi had this insatiable need to sleep with every woman he met. As a result, when Lungi stopped by his place, all of Joyce’s plans fell into place.