Plot Summary
Celal and Nevzat escape relatively unscathed and Celal limps to the hospital to see Mahur who shuts the door in his face. Rejected, he headed home to pick up Zeliş from Sirin’s house. When he gets there everyone is gone. He frantically searches the neighbourhood for any sign of them but they are gone.
In a flashback, Savaş has a tense meeting with Bayram amidst the bodies of Acar and his men. Things are not going to plan for Savaş, he promises to take care of things and protect Sami. He convinces Bayram that he can take over from Acar in storing and transporting his drug shipment. Bayram explains that the money is needed to fund the terrorist organization that he belongs to and that Sami knows where the rest of the goods are located.
In the present, Savaş and Bayram meet again to discuss how things are not going well, Sami is dead and Savaş only knows about two warehouses full of drugs when there should have been six. Savaş tells him that it was Maraşlı who killed Sami but he will take care of him. Bayram says he wants to meet with Maraşlı first.
The police have asked Ilhan to come to the station to identify Özan’s body. So, it seems as if Necati has not turned him in, only told the police where to find the body. Ilhan goes and manages to not make himself look too guilty.
Bayram comes to Celal’s empty house and tells him that Celal owes him 10 million dollars for the drugs he blew up. Celal hands him a check for the amount but tells him not to cash it as it will bounce. Bayram tells him he has 24 hours to raise the money or he won’t be responsible for what happens. He hasn’t gotten the memo that intimidation doesn’t work on Maraşlı.
A bunch of hooded men grab Celal and throw him into the back of a van. He is subjected to being drugged, sleep deprivation, a beating, and being thrown into a bare cell for 6 days. He has hallucinations that Zeliş is there with him and has recovered and that Mahur comes to comfort him. Eventually, we see that it is the intelligence people teaching him a lesson for going off-book and killing a couple of dozen bad guys.
Turns out the female intelligence agent, Hilal, is his ex-wife and the mother of Zeliş. She is the one who is trying to rein him in and get him back on mission. She threatens to take Zeliş away from him. They refocus back on the original mission and go over the new information they have. Celal spends a couple of weeks in the government compound.
Mahur is released from the hospital and goes home to recover. She misses him and goes to his house, which is empty. She finds Sirin who tells her that Celal has moved back to his hometown. She leaves a note in his notebook at his house saying that every day at noon she will wait for him where she first confided in him.
Ilhan is brought into the fold and told of the plans, he sees that he has no choice and agrees. Later Bayram gives him a suitcase full of money as his share. Poor Ilhan is freaking out about what his life has turned into.
Celal is finally released back into the wild and goes home where he finds the note left by Mahur. He meets up with Ilhan who tells him of Savaş’ plans and shows him the bag full of money.
It’s Mahur’s birthday and the family surprises her with a cake at her studio, Celal shows up but doesn’t come in. Mahur thinks she sees him and tells Necati who now knows that he is back. Celal and Nevzat steal some of Bayram’s drugs and make it look like it was Savaş. Bayram demands that Savaş pays for the stolen drugs and he has to call Necati for the money. Suat is dispatch to pick up the money from Necati and Celal follows him to find out who Savaş’s partner is. Suat and Necati figure out it’s a trap and escape but Necati drops his flask and from that Celal realizes that he is the traitor in the Türel family.
Hilal has allowed Celal to take Zeliş home but we discover because Mahur comes to see him, that Hilal is there with them.
Episode Analysis
The Players
Celal suffers the repercussions of his decision to kill a bunch of people to get to Sami. The intelligence agency is not pleased with him and neither is Halil, who turns out to be his ex-wife. This is a big plot sticking point as neither one of them would have ever been allowed to investigate a case that involves the shooting of their daughter in real life but neyse. Not sure what the point was in kidnapping him, it seems petty and pointless as they have to realize that something like a beating and sleep deprivation are not enough deterrents for someone like Celal if he wants revenge. He’s calmed down a bit though after killing a couple of dozen people and seeing that Zeliş is safe. Hilal re-focuses him back to the mission.
Ilhan is losing it and isn’t making for a great mafia boss. He’s scared, too trusting, and way too talkative, giving all kinds of information to Celal and Necati. He should be glad he has a devious wife, she might be able to get him out of trouble.
Savaş is faltering a bit as Maraşlı is messing with his business plans and refuses to be intimidated. Savaş’ entrance as the villain of the story at the beginning of the series was so good, he exudes that creepy evil that makes villains great, but since the Necati reveals he has become rather toothless and much less interesting as he is subservient to his older brother and that has made him much less menacing. Bayram is supposed to be a scary man but because Celal doesn’t take him seriously and outwits him easily it’s hard to be truly frightened of him. The scene where Celal hands him a cheque for 10 million dollars but tells him not to cash it as it will bounce was very funny.
Necati has become our main villain now and it seems as if his main goal is to avenge the death of his father. He has waited a long time and won’t be dissuaded, even if it means hurting innocents like Behiye and Mahur. It still isn’t clear why he has waited so long to take revenge. But now Celal has figured out it’s him who is the traitor in the Türel family so it will be interesting to see how Celal intends to disrupt his plans.
Mahur is recovering from her shooting and after her initial reluctance wants to see Celal but he is gone. She goes to his house to try and find him but is told by Sirin and Nevzat that he has returned home. She thinks she sees him at her birthday, and she is right, but he remains hidden from her. It’s unfortunate that in the writing for the show, Mahur and the other female characters, other than Hilal, are not given much to do. Even Alina Boz, who is a talented actress, is relegated to pining after a man as her main story point in this episode. It’s disappointing that there isn’t more storyline for her and the other women.
The Plot
A slower episode of Maraşlı compared to episode 11, which was action-heavy. Unfortunately, Maraşlı is suffering from a lack of direction and a problem with the show’s pacing. The creators need to decide what kind of show they want Maraşlı to be, is it a mafia show, a spy/intelligence one, or a family drama/love story? They are trying to marry all the genres together and it isn’t working. They have vacillated between the genres in each of the last few episodes, we spent a lot of time on the Mahur/Celal romance, then an episode of Celal’s revenge, and this last one was more about the big conspiracy around the terrorists and who ultimate tried to kill the intelligence agent Mahmet Inci and ended up hurting Zeliş. The issue with trying to weave all these ends together is that if the audience is watching for a particular reason and they aren’t shown what they are interested in for several episodes, they lose interest, which may account for the drop in rating for episode 12. It’s tough to try and be all things to all people and Maraşlı unfortunately will have to either figure out a way to balance all the show’s aspects or bite the bullet and choose a lane.
It’s still early for the show and they may not have had enough time to find their groove yet, however in the cutthroat world of Turkish television shows are not always allowed the time to find that groove. The initial promise of the show, aside from the music, cinematography, and acting, has been lost. It’s hard to put one’s finger on but it may be a combination of all the secrets having already been revealed, the sidelining of a great villain in Savaş, and the lack of focus of the storyline.
