"Blood and Water": Two Guys Kissing in Cape Town

 

The teaser for Season 2 of Blood and Water, a Netflix series about an elite private school in Cape Town, South Africa, depicts two cute shirtless guys awkwardly talking to Mom and Dad.  

Could they be a gay couple?  

Well, this is Netflix, and South Africa recognized same-sex marriage in 2005, so maybe....

I fast-forwarded through the series to find out.

The scene occurs in Season 2, Episode 1: the two teenagers, Chris and Mark, stumble through a mansion, kissing and undressing each other.  They reach the pool.  Uh-oh, Mom and Dad are there!  

"Um...er...I thought you were out of town.  Um...er...this is Michael, my boyfriend."  

Mom and Dad are completely nonchalant.  "Chrissy, dear,when did you get a boyfriend?  You must tell us all about him!"

The series centers on a girl named Puleng, whose sister Phume was kidnapped shortly after her birth.  She somehow gets the idea that Filke, star swimmer at Parkhurst Academy, is her long-lost sister, so she transfers to Parkhurst and joins the swim team to do some stalking.  This results in a series of uncovered lies, secrets, and scandals.  And romance, of course, notably with mega-hunk Thabang Molaba.

Chris (Arno Greef), Filke's bff, is a bit of a scoundrel.  He publishes some accusations about Puleng's father's involvement in the kidnapping, but makes sure that her ally Wendy gets the credit, just to stir things up a bit. 

He is actually pansexual: In Season 1, he dates both Mark (Duane Williams) and a girl named Zama, without informing either.  Zama finds out when she catches him getting a blow job from Mark, and doesn't react well (because of the "cheating," not because of the gay stuff).  In Season 2,  he is just with Mark (as far as I can tell from fast-forwarding), but the relationship never takes center stage after that scene.

Actor Arno Greef, whose first language is Afrikaans, states that when he was cast, he didn't know what "pansexual" meant, so he did some research: it's "an important community that needs representation as well in the media."  The fan feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.