Top Boy Recap: Dushane, Sully & Jamie’s Summerhouse Stories

Warning: contains major plot spoilers for Top Boy seasons one to four.

Over a decade on from when Top Boy: Summerhouse’s Dushane (Ashley Walters) and Sully’s (Kane Robinson) story first started in 2011 on Channel 4, Top Boy is back on the Summerhouse Estate for its fifth and final season.

The action-packed show has reached new heights since being rebooted on Netflix with the help of Canadian rapper Drake, and a loyal fanbase that didn’t falter during its six-year break. It’s taken full advantage of the larger budget which has seen the show place storylines in locations including Spain and Morocco. But this hasn’t stopped the central action from staying Dushane and Sully’s fight to sell food (drugs) and make p’s (money) on the East London Summerhouse Estate.

After five seasons of betrayals and murders, it can be hard to keep track of what has led up to where season five starts. Here’s a recap of everything that happened in Top Boy so far.

Dushane Puts Jamie’s Loyalty To The Test

At the end of season three, Jamie (Micheal Ward) was facing 10-15 years in jail after being framed for possession of a firearm – something Dushane and Jaq’s (Jasmine Jobson) orchestrated with the help of Jamie’s brother’s friend Ats (Keiyon Cook), who helped them to plant a bag in Jamie’s apartment.  Fast forward six months, and we see Jamie accept Dushane’s deal to work for him in exchange for Dushane helping to clear his name with video footage to prove that he was framed.

Back at home, Jamie’s relationships with his younger brothers, Aaron (Hope Ikpoku) and Stefan (Araloyin Oshunremi) are strained, particularly with Stef, who’s upset with Jamie for leaving them. Meanwhile, we see Dushane wanting to find a way to retire from the streets which leads to him investing the millions he’s making from drugs into the Summerhouse Estate’s redevelopment project. This creates more issues between him and his mum who is still upset with him for his hand in his cousin Donovan’s death (Kimo Armstrong). Donovan was killed by Jamaican drug dealer Sugar, to whom Dushane was in debt in season three.

But before Dushane or Jamie can really deal with their problems at home, a massive issue occurs when Spanish drug supplier Emilio decides to leave the criminal world as a promise to his dying wife. On top of that, their drug shipments keep being poached when they arrive on the Spanish coast. The timing could not be more inconvenient as Dushane and Lizzie (Lisa Dawson) are expecting a big drug shipment from Morocco due to come through Spain.

Dushane tries to get Sully to go to Morocco to find the snitch, but Sully tells Dushane he needs to deal with it himself because “you might be El Chapo in your head but you ain’t to me.” So, Dushane does what Sully tells him and ends up sending Jamie.

Jamie ends up sorting out the situation, but Dushane forgets this is a guy who used to be, and likes to be, the boss. So when Jamie meets with the man who hired the snitch – Spanish law enforcement officer Juan El Bueno – he decides to make a deal that would benefit him on the chance he takes over from Dushane.

If that’s not bad enough for Dushane, his arms and car dealer Ruben (Theo Ogundipe) has been arrested. However, when the police convince Ruben to talk after threats of a lengthy jail sentence, Dushane reminds him of the cost of snitching. Who remembers Dris? Dushane reminds Ruben he knows where his family lives including his young son and that ends up being enough to make Ruben shut up.

Meanwhile, everybody is on the hunt for Ats’ killer and after a long search for a mysterious girl, the hunt leads to Dexter (Micah Loubon). It turns out that Dexter was hired by Jamie’s best friend Kit (Kadeem Ramsey) to rough Ats up, but not kill him. Knowing that everyone was coming close to the truth and Dushane was planning to kill Ats’ murderer, Kit kills Dexter first. However, Dushane puts two and two together. Upon his return to London, Dushane tells Jamie to handle it, or in other words, kill his best friend or they will both be killed. Initially Jamie tries to go on the run with Kit and his brothers but after they refuse because Aaron has university and Stefan is still upset with Jamie, Jamie ends up killing Kit and, in the process, securing Dushane’s trust.

Sully Struggles with the Life of Crime

After killing Dris (Shone Romulus) on the rooftop at the end of season three and still dealing with the aftereffects of losing his surrogate son and friend Jason (Ricky Smarts) to a racist attack, Sully decides to take himself out of the crime world and live on a canal boat. He’s pretty much a recluse, only really interacting with Jaq who brings him his regular payments.

However, he is brought back into the fold by his niece Pebbles (Erin Kellyman) who asks for his help, after her ex-boyfriend kept the drugs, she was smuggling for a local gang in Peckham. Despite Sully managing to get the drugs back from Pebbles ex-boyfriend, the gang is unhappy with Pebbles and starts threatening her. When Sully realises there’s no reasoning with them, he hits one of the gang members in the head with a weighted plate while also asking them to think rationally about his offer before things get too crazy. Again, it doesn’t go down too well and Sully ends up getting kidnapped by the gang in the middle of the night.

One of the gang members turns out not to be the smartest, and films the attack on Sully and circulates it, leading to Dushane’s crew seeing it. But don’t fear as Jaq, Dushane and the rest of the Summerhouse crew go in all-guns-blazing and save Sully.

Sully then finds himself joining Jamie in Spain where he meets El Bueno whose loose lips tell an unpredictable Sully of the side deal Jamie tried to broker. Not happy and wanting a smooth life, Sully kills El Bueno so the drugs can move smoothly between Morocco to London.

Lauryn Escapes Her Abusive Partner Curtis

In season three, Jaq’s sister Lauryn was exiled from the Summerhouse Estate after accidentally telling rival gang Z.T. (Zero Tolerance) member Leyton (Kola Bokinni) that Sully was going to be at the crematorium for Jason’s funeral. After Jaq finds out it was Lauryn who led to Leyton almost killing Sully, she beats up her sister and tells her to leave and not come back – a sentiment echoed by Dushane, who decides to keep it a secret from Sully.

When we catch up with Jaq in season four, she is pregnant and living in Liverpool with her boyfriend Curtis (Howard Charles), who’s abusing her, and his hostile sister Vee (Ava Brennan). She initially asks her sister Jaq for help to bring her back to London but after Dushane says no and Jaq takes too long, Lauryn takes matters into her own hands and escapes to London in a taxi after she convinces Curtis to take her shopping.

When she arrives back in London, Jaq hides her at her girlfriend Becks’ (Adwoa Aboah) house. But when Curtis arrives in London, he starts causing trouble as he threatens Dushane, trashes Dushane’s girlfriend Shelley’s (Simbiatu Abisola Abiola Ajikawo a.k.a. Little Simz) salon and steals their food, which has the potential to significantly impact of their profits. Curtis attempts to get Lauryn back forcing Jaq to finally telling Sully the full story, leading to Sully and Dushane agreeing to help Lauryn deal with Curtis. But when Curtis threatens to hurt Jaq, Lauryn decides to take matters into her own hands and lures her psycho boyfriend to her house where she stabs him repeatedly to death before whispering “I’m sorry”.  

Sully Murders Jamie

After Lauryn kills Curtis and Jamie kills Kit, everything seems to be pretty much at peace. We see Lauryn go to her baby scan with Jaq and Jamie having fun with his brothers as Aaron graduates from university. But this is Top Boy after all, and peace is not what its known for. The ending of season four reflects on what Dushane said earlier in the season that “Lauryn’s psycho ain’t more psycho than Sully” and Jamie’s death is proof of that.

Throughout the shows’ four seasons, Sully has made it clear Dushane doesn’t speak for him and he certainly doesn’t trust Jamie despite Dushane letting bygones be bygones. Sully decides to hammer this point home by betraying Dushane and, ultimately, everyone by arriving at Jamie’s home and shooting him in the chest and head. He then leaves Stefan and Aaron crying over Jamie’s body.

The unexpected killing of Jamie sets up where season five may open as Jamie’s death puts a spanner in the works for Dushane’s plans to go legit – he spoke of letting Jamie take over from him as a way out. It also suggests that Sully is looking to push Dushane out as Top Boy and take it for himself.  However, the fact that Jamie’s younger brother Stef saw Sully shooting Jamie may prove a problem for Sully. From what we’ve seen so far, Stef is the most like Jamie and with a little nudge he may join the life of the streets like his brother.

All seasons of Top Boy are now streaming on Netflix.