Shanty Town follows the lives of the courtesans working for a ruthless criminal named Scar. These women seek to be free, but freedom is hard to achieve when it lies in the palm of Scar’s hand. The series is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
A group of gunmen attacks a village, blindly killing innocent people in broad daylight. In order to save his wife and twin daughters, a man sacrifices his life. However, one of his daughters gets shot along with him.
The other daughter escapes with her mother on a boat, but they are stopped by another group of gunmen. Their boss orders one of them to kill the two, but the man decides not to shoot them and saves their lives.
18 years later, the man who spared their life is now known as Scar; he runs a criminal organization, involved in illegal activities like running drug cartels, prostitution, human organ trafficking, and more.
Jackie, one of his courtesans, finally pays him enough to earn her freedom; she can now leave Shanty Town, which is under Scar’s control. She encourages another courtesan, Shalewa, to leave this corrupted place before it is too late.
Shalewa knows it is impossible for her to earn her freedom by repaying her father’s debt, as apart from other expenses like security fees, Scar takes 60% of their income, leaving them with barely anything. Jackie offers to lend her the money her father owed Scar, which got her roped into the mess.
However, when Shalewa gives that money to Scar, he tells her that he owns her and that if she wants to get out, she will have to pay him 15,000,000 nairas, a sum she will never be able to earn by working for him.
Meanwhile, Ene, the woman in charge of all of Scar’s courtesans, gets a call from Inem, who used to hold that position before her. Inem was sent to prison for three years by Scar and was assumed dead by everyone else.
Inem believes that she has been wronged and that Scar should pay for what he has done. Ene tries to give her some money to calm her down and send her away, but Inem refuses to go anywhere other than Shanty Town, which is her home.
Scar’s boss, Chief Fernandez, is a powerful man who owns one-tenth of Lagos city; Scar handles the illegal side of his business for him. He gave Scar the position he enjoys today by killing his predecessor.
As Chief Fernandez plans to run for the post of governor of Lagos state in the next elections, he wants Scar to shut down a number of his illegal businesses. He leaves no room for arguing and puts an end to Scar’s protests by violent means.
A disheartened Shalewa meets a rich man in a club. She offers to make him his favorite drink for a large sum of money, and he agrees without batting an eye. The man, impressed by her, starts flirting with her.
Unaware that the man is Femi Fernandez, Chief Fernandez’s son, she goes home with him. When she is sneaking out of his house late at night, she gets sexually harassed by Chief Fernandez.
Jackie gets cornered by Scar and his men while leaving Shanty Town. They behead her and ask Ene to extract her organs. On his way back, Scar’s car meets with an accident, his men are killed, and he gets kidnapped.
Dame Dabota, Chief Fernandez’s political rival, holds Scar hostage and asks him to side with her in defeating Chief Fernandez. It is revealed that Scar is Chief Fernandez’s illegitimate son, who was abandoned by him with his mother as soon as Femi, his legitimate son, was born.
Now that Chief Fernandez wants to take away Scar’s illegal businesses, he agrees to help Dame. As the chief does not even care about Femi, Scar promises to bring Dame the chief’s one-of-its-kind ring, which makes him invincible.
Inem confronts Scar about sending her to prison. To placate her, he offers to send her to an auction, where men with big pockets would pay for her services, and Scar would only take 25% of her income instead of his usual 60% cut.
Ene is opposed to Scar’s decision, as she feels threatened by Inem. Ene believes that Inem has returned to take back her position from her.
At the auction, Chief Fernandez picks Inem. He then physically and sexually assaults her to the extent that she cannot even stand. Despite the pain, Inem refuses to give up and leave Shanty Town without taking what Scar owes her.
When she is alone in Scar’s room, she takes a picture of his business documents and steals his money. Inem then meets with her team secretly. She is a DSS agent, and her real name is Amanda.
The girl who was spared by Scar 18 years ago was Inem, Amanda’s twin sister. Amanda was shot, but she survived. She was later adopted by a family and grew up to become a successful woman.
She met Inem again when she was on her deathbed in prison. Inem told her everything about Scar’s business, which enabled Amanda to work as an undercover agent to avenge her sister’s death.
Furthermore, Jackie was also working for the DSS. The agents realize that none of the courtesans who earned their freedom survived after leaving Shanty Town. Amanda decides to get to the bottom of the issue and take Scar down, no matter what it takes.
Shanty Town ending explained in detail:
Does Shalewa betray Femi?
Scar promises to grant Shalewa her freedom if she manages to make Femi wear a bewitching necklace. Femi starts liking her and asks her out on a date. For the sake of her freedom, Shalewa chooses to ignore her guilty conscience and hides her identity from Femi.
On one of their dates, Shalewa runs into Amanda, who warns her about what happens to the courtesans who gain their freedom. To find out if she is telling the truth, she tries contacting Jackie, only to find a voice note that Jackie sent her in her last moments.
The two women hear everything that happened to Jackie and realize that Scar does not let anyone leave; he makes everyone think that these women have left when they have been killed for their organs.
Shalewa was going to make Femi wear the necklace that day, but knowing it would not help her earn her freedom, she decides against betraying Femi. She goes out to meet Femi, but he has already left.
Who kills Scar?
Chief Fernandez cuts off Scar’s finger for not shutting down the illegal businesses. An enraged Scar reveals Shalewa’s identity to Femi. He then controls Femi with a bewitching necklace and asks him to bring him his father’s ring.
Femi follows his orders in a daze. He comes back to the place where Shalewa has been waiting for him. She notices and breaks the necklace to bring him back to his senses. Scar comes there with his gunmen and kidnaps the couple.
Before being taken, Shalewa leaves a message to Amanda, who is pretending to be Inem, asking her for help. Amanda reveals the whole truth to Ene, who had been forced by Scar to participate in the killing of free women. She convinces Ene to help her take down Scar.
Meanwhile, Chief Fernandez is asked to come unarmed to save Femi and his ring. Scar and Dame plan to kill him there.
However, Chief Fernandez shows up wearing a necklace of beads that provides him protection from physical harm; bullets do not touch him. His henchmen attack Scar and his men, while he escapes unharmed.
Scar fights with Chief Fernandez’s personal bodyguard. He manages to kill him but sustains severe injuries. An injured Scar goes to his office to seek medical attention.
His courtesans, led by two of their women bosses, Ene and Mama T, take turns stabbing Scar in the name of freedom. Scar dies on the floor of his office, leaving the courtesans free.
Does Amanda get her revenge?
Amanda and the other agents also reach the location where Shalewa and Femi are being held hostage by Dame. Unaware of Dame’s involvement, they let her go. The agents fight and subdue the criminals.
Amanda tells Femi, who has never been involved in his father’s illegal businesses, about how his father makes most of his money, including the fact that he attacks slums to get reconstruction projects from the government, which earns him loads of money and makes him look like a philanthropist in the public eye.
Amanda arrests Ene and finds out everything about Chief Fernandez’s illegal businesses. Then, to get her hands on the evidence, she asks Femi to prove his innocence by giving them access to his father’s computers and an invitation to his fundraiser.
The DSS plays the video of Chief Fernandez assaulting Amanda at his fundraiser, destroying his carefully maintained public image. They then arrest him for his crimes in front of his audience.
What happens to the various characters?
Chief Fernandez gets sentenced to life imprisonment for raping an officer of the law, but his lawyers are appealing this verdict. His accountant manages his business in his absence.
Dame Dabota never gets tried for the kidnapping of Femi, as there was not enough evidence against her. She is still the governor of Lagos state.
Scar’s body and his righthand man are not found. The women of Shanty Town gain freedom, but the show claims that it is only temporary.
The last scene shows a rite being performed with drums, dances, and fire; young women are asked not to betray the members. A mysterious figure clad in silk robes makes an appearance then, but the figure’s identity is not revealed.
Also Read: Women at War ending explained: Does Marguerite die on the battlefield?