Top Boy Ending: Who Shot the Gun?

Warning: contains major plot spoilers for Top Boy’s final season. 

We hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Dushane and Sully’s reign over Summerhouse has officially come to an end, and there definitely won’t be any reboots this time.  

The final season of Top Boy has arrived on Netflix, and while it’s bittersweet because it’s goodbye, the ending did not disappoint. As expected, the six-episode season was full of betrayal, guns and murder. Viewers saw the deaths of fan-favourite characters such as Kieron (Joshua Blisset), Lauryn (Saffron Hocking) and even top boys Dushane (Ashley Walters) and Sully (Kane Robinson). 

This season also told the story of Stefan (Araloyin Oshunremi), who fought with the decision to get revenge on Sully for killing Jamie (Michael Ward), and of Jaq (Jasmine Jobson) who struggled with the guilt of dealing drugs.   

But as the series ends for good, there are no quick and easy solutions to the characters’ problems. Its conclusion proves that all the decisions that lead up to now come with a price that must be paid. Let’s discuss that shocking ending.  

Who Killed Sully? 

Stefan fights a lot throughout the season with the idea of killing Sully. However, when it comes down to it, he ends up not pulling the trigger and tells Sully “You’re not worth it.” 

But Sully doesn’t escape, as when he sits in his car preparing to go into hiding, someone comes up behind him and shoots him in the head before swaggering away. All signs point to that person being Jaq, as she’s the only alive high ranking member of the Summerhouse crew left and after Stefan, she holds the biggest grudge against Sully. Sully killed Kieran and Sully also refused to let Jaq leave the business so by killing him is the ultimate payback for Kieron and solves her problem of being unable to leave the business. 

However, Stefan could have changed his mind or it could be one of the members from the Fields in particular Si (Dudley O’Shaughnessy) who knows that it was Sully who killed Jamie and whom Sully threatened by shoving a gun down his throat. 

Dushane’s Fate

Beyond the issue of the stolen “food” (drugs), Dushane has his own problems going on this season as he attempts to buy a chain of salons with his girlfriend Shelley. When he goes to his off-the-books accountant Lithe (Michelle Newell) to help him get the money for the deposit, she admits that she can’t get it in the timescale that he wants. He later threatens her, before telling her he’ll be back tomorrow and expects better news. However, when he comes back the following day she’s gone, and no one can find her or Lizzie (Lisa Dwan). 

Dushane confronts Lizzie’s husband Jeffrey (Shaun Dingwall) but he also has no idea where they are and has had his own bank accounts cleared out by Lizzie. When Jeffrey gives Dushane the update, Dushane flips and ends up smashing Jeffrey’s head in with a frying pan before leaving the house. In the meantime, Shelley breaks up with Dushane because of his erratic behaviour and the fact that she’ll always be second best to Dushane’s love for money and power, saying “You’ve never had enough love left over for me.” The police also find  Dushane’s prints at Jeffrey’s house.

After finding out that the police are onto him, Dushane attempts to flee the country on his Jamaican passport (which is under a different name) with a contact he got from his lawyer, and the cash Shelley’s friend and employee Naomi (Verona Rose) got from his house. However, the police spot him and he goes on the run, hiding out in his mum’s abandoned home on the Summerhouse Estate while they protest against evictions. 

As the protests get increasingly violent and his lawyer’s contact says he needs more cash, Dushane steals the “food” from Jaq who was meeting up with Sully to return it. When Sully finds out, he chases Dushane and they end up having a shootout, which results in Sully shooting Dushane in the side. 

As Dushane bleeds to death, Sully performs an impressive monologue, reflecting on their friendship and the path it took to get to the top. Sully also says the quote from the trailer: “If we’re not monsters, we’re food and I could never be food” and he takes back his drugs and walks away.  

How Kieron’s Story Ended

The new season opened minutes after the end of the last, before jumping a few months forward so we could see Sully manage his first shipment as Top Boy. But as with the previous season, drugs and violence aren’t the only things the show explores. It also looks at social and political issues such as deportation which also affect communities.   

In episode one of this season, we watch Immigration try to deport gang member Kieron Palmer, who’s the sole provider for his cancer-stricken mum. Despite it being explained that Kieron’s mum brought him over from Rwanda as a baby legally because babies do not require passports, Immigration enforcement break down his door, push his mum aside and put him in the back of a van saying “the Home Secretary has signed an order for your immediate removal”.  

Luckily, Summerhouse resident and new community activist Mandy witnesses what’s going on and starts to gather the community to peacefully protest Kieron’s deportation. His crew members, including Jaq, stop the cars from being able to reverse. Their efforts work and Kieron does not get deported but that is only the beginning of Kieron’s problems this season as his attempts to help his best friend Jaq hide from Sully eventually get him killed.  

Lauryn’s Tragic Death

Last season we saw a pregnant Lauryn violently kill her psychologically abusive ex Curtis (Howard Charles) after he robbed Dushane and Sully’s “food” to try and get them to return Lauryn to him.  

When we see her in the final season, Lauryn is virtually a recluse. She’s given birth to a baby boy but has yet to name him and visibly struggles to connect with him as she experiences post-traumatic stress disorder and postpartum depression. Lauryn repeatedly questions whether her son is beautiful and wonders if he looks too much like his father Curtis. This leads to her buying drugs from one of the Summerhouse crew dealers, Rowmando (Ansu Njai) as a way to cope. 

Jaq finds out about her sister’s drug taking and despite understanding how hard it’s been for her, she tells her “I get it. I do but I’mma be real with you Lauryn. I ain’t really tryna hear all that”. Instead, she decides to take Lauryn and the baby out for the day allowing Lauryn to get her nails done, and even get a job with Shelley (Simbiatu Abisola Abiola Ajikawo aka Little Simz). She seemingly ends the day happy as she decides to name the baby Jack after “the best auntie in the world.” But as Jaq goes out for the evening with Becks (Adwoa Aboah), she takes a bath and does more drugs which she overdoses on. So not only does no-one know the baby’s name but Lauryn’s death also marks a changing point for Jaq as she begins to realise the effect the drugs she sells has on people’s lives.  

Why Jaq Stole the “Food”

After Lauryn dies, Jaq breaks down with guilt and questions if she can continue dealing but is hesitant to quit as she feels she can’t do anything else. However, when she sees a drug-addicted mum without her baby, she follows the mum back to her house where she sees the baby on the floor abandoned by the mother in favour of getting her next hit. This leads her to stealing the drugs from Sully’s safe house to stop anyone else getting hooked.   

Jaq initially goes on the run with Becks and the baby as Kieron covers for her. But eventually, she meets with Sully and asks him to give her family a pass in exchange for her returning the drugs. He declines and says she will return the drugs anyway. As punishment for her betrayal and lying to him about Jaq’s whereabouts, Sully kills Kieron, whom he knows Jaq loves like a brother.  

What happened to Jonny and Tadhg? 

Two of the antagonists this season come in the form of Irish gangsters Jonny (Barry Keoghan) and Tadhg (Brian Gleeson) who kill off Sully’s old suppliers in Spain in an attempt to get Sully to sell their drugs.  

But as viewers will know, Sully hates being told what to do, so he comes up with a plan to kill Jonny and Tadhg during Jonny’s grandfather’s birthday party at his care home. He and Dushane hide in a sleeping patient’s room until a carer Sully paid off texts him that Jonny and Tadhg have arrived. There’s a small shootout, but as expected, Sully kills Jonny and Tadhg, gets hold of the drugs and hides them, only for someone else to steal them again. 

Who is Top Boy Now?

The last season shows that crime is a cycle and there’s always someone else to take over. We’ve seen Jamie’s old crew from the Fields be strong contenders as leaders, but with Jamie and Kit gone, it’s unknown whether or not Si has the potential to be the top boss, especially with how easily Sully threatened him. There’s also the A-Roadz gang, which was led by Cam (Alexander Blake) and then Cornell (Michael Onafowokan) in season three. The final season also reintroduced the Mali’s gang, who attempted to steal Jamie’s chain from Stefan before Si got it back for him. They seem like strong contenders, as we saw a glimpse of their battle with the Fields gang. 

With both Sully and Dushane dead, and Jaq deciding to get out of the business, all the big players that we’ve watched throughout the series are gone. A consistent message threaded throughout this season has been that supremacy is not all it’s cracked up to be. Threat is constantly looming, and it often either leads to jail, death or feeling empty from all the sacrifices you’ve had to endure. 

Top Boy seasons one to three and Top Boy: Summerhouse are available to stream now on Netflix.