Sen Çal Kapimi Episode 35 Review

Ding dong, the amnesia plot is dead!! 

It’s been a long row to hoe but we have made it through. Never would I ever have thought that we would have 7 weeks to suffer through to get to the end of this arc. Apologies to any of you who liked the amnesia angle but truth be told it made me want to stop watching the show. We can hope now that we can get back to the roots of the story, the romance, and the comedy, and give the drama a well-deserved rest.

I will state again that I understand that the production needed to stretch out the story because of the difficult challenges of producing television in Turkey that require many shows to just keep going until they are canceled. However, 6.75 episodes (15+ hours) of a rom-com where the male lead doesn’t remember the female lead and treats her unkindly is too much for an audience to take. I hope I never see another amnesia plot in a show, but if they must do it, it shouldn’t last more than two episodes. 

We are heading into uncertain waters as there are rumors of the show reportedly changing writers again. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry but at least Serkan and Eda are back together. We are never going to get the original magic of SÇK back again because no one writes as Ayşe Üner Kutlu does, but we can hopeful regain some of the former grandeur because we still have the undoubtable chemistry of Hande and Kerem. I think we need to re-calibrate our expectations, the old, much-loved symbols of the love of Eda and Serkan have pretty much been trashed but we still have the strength of their chemistry, and the fact that they are still having fun playing their character hopefully means we will have some good stuff coming our way. 

What I loved (so nice to type that again)

I know a lot of people were unhappy with how Serkan regained his memories but I thought I was a fitting end to a terrible plotline. Why not have him get punched a few times and that’s what makes his memories come back? It’s no more non-sensical than the rest of the plot. He has come back to himself and remembers everything, and after some dawdling runs to tell Eda. I am hoping that his remorse and anger with himself will be played out in episode 36, as will the retributions for Selin and Deniz. 

We finally had some scenes where it was obvious Serkan has fallen back in love with Eda, the writers have not done a good job with this until this episode. It didn’t hurt that Serkan and Engin were finally allowed to have meaningful conversations and Engin straight up told him that he was in love with Eda. This should have happened weeks ago. 

There were lots of good moments throughout the episode. No one plays annoyed better than Kerem Bürsin and the scene where he is mocking Eda and the wedding planner were gold. There was so much sexual innuendo! I’m surprised that made it past the censors. Serkan grasping his heart after seeing Eda in a wedding dress should have made him finally admit his feeling but they dragged it on for a bit longer. 

The comedy scenes this week were funny, I genuinely laughed out loud quite a few times. The ‘stoned’ scene was hilarious and kudos to all the actors for the facial expressions and physical comedy of the scenes at the Bolat house. Kerem especially was priceless with his laughing and braying like a horse. I went into this episode with my anger ready to jump out at any moment but laughing with him during the scenes made that all drain away. I would bet money that the sandwich-making scene was a Hande and Kerem ad-lib and they were so cute together. 

Also, these were the Aydan/Ayfer scenes that I have wanted since the beginning of the series. I knew that the two actresses (and Alican Aytekin, who plays Seyfi) would be funny together but instead, their comedy was overshadowed by a ridiculous love triangle. Please, for the love of good storytelling can we have these characters be friends and support one another. 

Ferit makes one last effort to try and get Selin to recognize reality but his efforts have the same result. She’s firmly in denial. He is the best of men, although he really should have just told Serkan about Selin and Deniz. He is a good friend otherwise, most people would have dropped both Selin and Ceren ages ago, but he is a kind and patient man who tries to see beyond peoples’ behaviour. I hope that there is something good planned for him before the end of the series. 

Selin gets her comeuppance again in public. Her face as Serkan declares his love for Eda is everything, kudos to Bige Önal for having the best distraught face. I know people were upset that Serkan apologized to Selin but I think that was for the public nature of his declaration, I have hopes that Selin will get her dressing down from him in private. I hope so because that has been weeks in coming, even before the amnesia plot. However, she does prove that she isn’t a complete monster by alerting everyone to the fact that Eda is gone off the boat the minute she realizes that Eda is gone. Interesting that she screams for Serkan to come and not Deniz, Freudian slip, Selin?

What I liked

We put to bed the 'Ceren is off her meds' story. This was badly executed and another example of the SÇK’s mishandling of anything to do with mental health. I hope that we do see Ceren going to therapy and mending all the fences with Eda and Ferit. She really should have told Eda about Deniz’s feelings for her but I don’t think Ceren could have anticipated the levels he would go to try and be with Eda.

I’m intrigued by the new character, Kemal. He’s someone Aydan recognizes and he’s following her and Serkan throughout the episode. Did it also look like he wanted to say something to Serkan at the docks? I speculate that he is Aydan's 'stable boy’ whom she gave up because her family objected. I think it is possible that he will turn out to be Serkan’s real father, too. It will take a bit of a re-write of history but who is to say that Aydan didn’t meet up with him again and have an affair before going back to her husband and oldest son. If this is the drama the new writers want to introduce, I am all for it because Serkan and Eda can face this together.

What I disliked

Selin just can’t come to grips with the fact that Serkan has never loved her. My theory about her is that she has always gotten what she has wanted her entire life. A beautiful, smart, and wealthy woman who can’t fathom that Serkan wouldn’t ultimately choose her. This is a level of delusion that borders on incomprehensible. He told her before she left for Denmark that he had never loved her. Why would she think that he loves her now? She kept mentioning that he called her, but having memorized your phone number does not equal love. This is the flimsiest of reasons for Selin to stick around. We will have to put this down to weak writing. She also refuses to see the writing on the wall. Did she see how panicked Serkan was when Eda fell overboard? He was willing to jump into the sea to rescue her. Add that to the fact that they just can’t stay away from each other, Selin should have seen the reconciliation of Eda and Serkan coming, but she refused until the bitter end. She has no one to blame but herself. She should be thankful if Ferit doesn’t do an ‘I TOLD YOU SO’ parade through her office banging pots and pans.

Deniz is the other completely delusional character we have to contend with. What did he think would happen after he and Eda got married for real? Did he honestly think she would just keep going along with it? He saw how devastated she was the day of the wedding, who tries to trick a supposedly good friend when it’s obvious she is still madly in love with someone else? This plot made no sense. It’s too bad, he was a nice character to start with before teaming up with Selin and going off the rails. Ceren got away lucky. 

Aydan tries her best to make up with Eda but it isn’t enough for her character to be redeemed. She didn’t tell Eda that Serkan is alive for weeks and then does nothing much to help get them back together once he gets home? No, she didn’t do nearly enough to be forgiven, she was too busy chasing after Alex. That was a character assassination that I don’t know if she can recover from. I noticed that Eda doesn’t say a word through this whole scene so I don’t think she’s over it yet. 

What needs to happen next 

• We need to have some serious retribution for Selin and Deniz, and maybe, just once, we should let Eda slap her
• Aydan needs to do some serious groveling to both Eda and Serkan
• Ceren needs to make it up to Ferit
• Please let the Kemal character be a good person, we don’t need any new villains 

I have written out my vitriol about this plot in all the previous reviews from episode 29 onwards so no need to rehash that, and I have no idea if the rumour of having new writers is true but I am choosing, for now, to be positive and hope that we have come out the other side toward a better story for the cast to play. I won’t say ‘can’t get much worse' because I don’t want to tempt fate. I will say that if the most recently departed writers had written, or had been allowed to write as they did in episode 35, I think we would have been a much happier fandom. Neyse, it was not meant to be, but I will give them all the kudos for truly giving us a fun end episode for their tenure. 

So, our old-new writers have gone out in a blaze of glory and here’s hoping that our newest new writers can apply similar vigour to their writing of the plot and lead us to a better place.