I have been watching ROK 2’s new epic drama Ojukwu since it premiered and, five episodes in, the show is beginning to have some audience payoff. Every show has its excesses, particularly in its early days when writers and directors are still calibrating the tone. Weeks of investing my time in this newly inaugurated show didn’t prepare me for the cliffhanger of Monday’s episode: the Great Priestess walking into Odili’s compound and announcing, privately, that she’s carrying the seeds he planted in her. Big news for Odili because he looks at her in disbelief. Big news for us the viewers because HOW DID IT HAPPEN???

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So let’s rewind to past episodes: Adanna, betroth to Odili and who once caught Odili on the verge of sleeping with a maiden in the village, has been warned by the Great Priestess to stay away from Odili. It is perhaps an odd thing to say to someone who is engaged to the greatest wrestler in Umu-Ojukwu. Odili himself has a huge problem: womanising. Played by Kenneth Okolie, Odili might as well be a Yoruba Demon. The aforementioned maiden is now pregnant for him, as revealed in last week’s episode and Odili has rejected the unborn child and refuses to take responsibility.

There’s still no scene to show that the Odili and the Great Priestess intimate. The Great Priestess is played by Eve Esin, known for movies like The Storm and Oshimiri. In the latter, she plays a similar role as Priestess Kosi. So Ojukwu is familiar territory to Esin, but she’s made to appear sharper, fiercer and mildly sinister. Her presence is commanding, always accompanied by a haunting sound effect sweeping through the background. In the beginning of the latest episode, the men selected from neighbouring villages and Umu-Ojukwu assemble themselves in the river for the cleansing, because an unclean maiden had desecrated the river and the river goddess is angry.

Agu and Odili are among the men, and their rivalry has now pressurised into a fighting contest at the upcoming Yam Festival. It’s a fight I don’t want to miss. Ojukwu shows every Monday on DSTv and GOTv at 7:10pm.

Bernard Dayo

When Bernard Dayo isn’t writing about pop culture, he’s watching horror movies and reading comics and trying to pretend his addiction to Netflix isn’t a serious condition.