‘Black Cake’s Most Surprising Episode Changes the Show

Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for Black Cake.

The Big Picture

• Episode 5 of Black Cake reveals a shocking plot twist as Eleanor confesses to having another child before B and B, leading the story to London and introducing Mabel.
• Mabel, who is living as a white woman, faces backlash on social media for claiming expertise in indigenous foods, unaware of her true ethnic background.
• The episode shifts the focus of the series to racism and Mabel’s identity crisis, making Byron and Benny’s problems seem irrelevant in comparison.

The Oprah-produced Hulu exclusive Black Cake is a mystery thriller series based on Charmaine Wilkerson’s New York Times bestselling novel of the same name. First debuting on November 1, the eight-episode adaptation tells the story of an elderly woman, Eleanor Bennett (Chipo Chung), who loses her battle with cancer and leaves behind a series of voice messages for her two children, B and B. In these messages, Eleanor reveals the untold secrets of her past as a young girl from the Caribbean that took her from England to Scotland and finally to America. The life-altering stories force B and B to come to terms with their new identity as they learn to reshape their present lives with unanswered questions.

Episode 5, “Mother,” introduces one of the biggest plot twists of the show. Through her recorded messages, Eleanor confesses she had another child before B and B, the result of a sexual assault she experienced in Scotland. This revelation transports the story across the globe to London — where the audience is introduced to Mabel Mathilde Martin (Sonita Henry), who is living as a white woman and is oblivious to the fact she is adopted. With this new character, Black Cake dives into its most emotional arc yet, forcing Mabel to confront her long-lost siblings in a world drastically opposite to her own and to make a vulnerable choice in deciding where she truly belongs.

What Is ‘Black Cake’ Episode 5 About?

Up until their mother’s death, Byron (Ashley Thomas) and Benny (Adrienne Warren) had always believed they were the sole product of their mother and father’s marriage. Eleanor never mentioned to her kids or her husband, Gibbs, that she was carrying such a burdensome secret all her life. In fact, at the start of Episode 5, it is revealed that Eleanor’s surfing accident, which puts her in the hospital, wasn’t an accident after all, as Eleanor had been planning to die by suicide. After Gibbs passed away, the emptiness was too much to bear, and Eleanor couldn’t cope with losing another loved one. When she is diagnosed with cancer, Eleanor changes her perspective on life: “As soon as I got the news that they had found something, and I realized was going to die, suddenly, I desperately wanted to live.”

Eleanor did what she could to prevent the cancer from spreading, and she began researching healthy recipes on the internet. This led her to miraculously discover her lost firstborn child, Mabel Mathilde Martin. Eleanor tells B and B, in the voice messages, that she instantly recognized Mabel from the sound of her voice, and knew deep in her bones she was her daughter. Mabel, an ethno-food guru, is being interviewed about her new book Something True, which talks about traditional foods from around the world. She beams with passion as she argues how foods should be regarded as shared traditions between other cultures and that one country cannot claim full ownership of a food culture if its ingredients come from elsewhere.

After the interview airs, Mabel’s conflicting ideologies lead to a heated backlash on social media. Demanding for her to be “canceled,” the Internet mob cannot grasp the idea of Mabel calling herself an expert on indigenous foods when she is a white woman. It’s a very ironic situation, given that both Mabel and the public have no idea of her true ethnic background. Mabel tries to find comfort in her family’s opinion of the backlash, but her parents — just as privileged and ignorant in these views – miss the point of the topic, encouraging Mabel to never apologize for who she is.

Days after, Mabel receives a call from Eleanor’s lawyer, Charles Mitch (Glynn Turman), who informs her that she is adopted and her birth mother, who passed away, has left behind an estate for her in California. Mabel hangs up rather quickly, appalled by the news, and returns home to confront her parents, who finally admit the truth: They wanted to keep Mabel’s real identity hidden to protect her from being confused or treated differently. Only now is Mabel able to understand where her bone structure, dark hair, and love for ethnic foods came from: her Caribbean Chinese mother who gave birth to her at 19 years old.

Does Episode 5 Change ‘Black Cake’ for the Better or Worse?

Black Cake was originally defined as a mystery thriller melodrama, but as the episodes press on, the series has eased into being more of a soap opera. After B and B discover they have a half-sister, the story turns in a significantly different direction from the experience creator Marissa Jo Cerar may have intended. In an interview with Oprah Daily, Cerar stated, “I wanted to see Black, brown, Asian people at the forefront of a story that wasn’t about the civil rights movement, slavery, or oppression.” Oddly enough, Episode 5 makes the drama into just that: a show involving stereotypical oppression against Black people.

Towards the episode’s half-point, Byron is in denial about facing racism at work. He was snubbed for the promotion at his job — which was given to his white co-worker — and his company continues to ask him to be a spokesperson at every diversity panel, given that he is the only Black person in the lab. Bryon’s girlfriend, Lynette (Rebecca Naomi Jones) pushes him to speak up about the issue, but Byron fears losing his job and ruining his reputation, which prompts Lynette to break up with him. Later, Byron gets a call from Benny, telling him she is at her white ex-boyfriend, Steve’s (Elliot Cowan) house, in case anything happens. Byron hurriedly rushes to the address and swoops in to help his sister. When Steve provokes Bryon with derogatory comments, Byron beats him up. Soon, the police arrest him on the spot, and the scene seems more intended to depict the Black man as the aggressor.

Episode 5 changes Black Cake into a series surrounding racism. Where the show was initially billed as a multi-generational journey stemming from one woman’s turbulent story of the pursuit of happiness, the series has diverted down a more sensitive path. When the show focuses on its biggest plot twist, Mabel’s struggles become the main theme of the story. How does a “passing” white woman cope with the idea that she’s not who she really is both physically and mentally? This is the most pivotal reveal in Black Cake, transforming the show, but it also makes Byron and Benny’s problems all the more irrelevant. Mabel’s character is a breath of fresh air to witness, and her identity crisis is the show’s attempt at peeling itself away from being called an overly dramatized soap. It’s a touchy subject, yet despite this, Mabel’s reactions are beautifully executed in a similar nature to Eleanor’s.

Ultimately, Black Cake needs to stay with Eleanor’s story, as the final episode will soon bring the series to an end. Though the beginning episodes are strongly more compelling and gripping, fans can only for an answer to the biggest question we’ve been asking ourselves: did Eleanor kill Little Man?

Black Cake is available to stream on Hulu in the U.S.

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