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Sen Çal Kapimi: Episode 44 (S02E05) Review

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Time always has a way of showing what is important to us.

A smile, a hug, gentle words of I miss you, I love you.

Do not let time pass by without expressing how you really feel.

Moments do not stay here forever,

They fly away like the wind. Mimi Novic

 

A bit of a lacklustre episode of Sen Çal Kapimi except for the Serkan and Kiraz interactions and the callbacks to Eda and Serkan’s relationship. These scenes were great but the rest was forgettable or frustrating. Given that we have so few episodes left one might think that all the time would be spent with Eda and Serkan but it may not be logistically possible to do so. Kerem and Hande both seem to be busy with other projects as well as filming SÇK this summer and therefore we have other characters old and new who are filling in the screen time. Frankly, I would rather they just film shorter episodes however the network contract would probably prohibit that. 

So, logically I can be understanding about the pace of the show and the need to have these other storylines unfolding alongside the Eda and Serkan story. However, other than Engin and Piril, I do not care about any of the other character’s storylines this week, especially Aydan and Ayfer and their sidekicks in crime, Melo and Seyfi. I understand that their purpose is to be one final impediment to Eda and Serkan reuniting, but they aren’t necessary as there are enough obstacles in their path with their insecurities and doubts. 

I do appreciate the deft handling of the reveal of Serkan as Kiraz’s father, I was a bit concerned about how that would play out but I think it’s being realistically done for the story of a five-year-old finding out about her dad. 

 

What I loved

I will be the first to admit that I am a sentimentalist, therefore I loved all the callbacks to previous important things or situations in the love story of Eda and Serkan in this episode, and there were so many of them! She let herself into his private space (I swear, no one in diziler has any sense of privacy) and saw that he had created a shrine to their time together including all the things she had given him, business cards of restaurants that they had been to, and boxes of other things. When she asks him what is in the boxes, he tells her all the birthday presents he had bought for her in the five years they were apart. Can you just imagine him sitting for hours amongst the things that remind him of Eda? Serkan Bolat is a 15-year-old emo kid at heart. 

 

The five presents are:

A pair of flip-flops

 

white dress 

 

A copy of Pride and Prejudice, this is what I wrote in my episode 2 review of SÇK:

‘There are also some literary parallels in the storytelling in that this dizi is beginning to resemble a modern retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Not in every aspect but there are enough similarities to bear thinking that writer Ayşe Üner Kutlu might have used Pride and Prejudice as a jumping-off point for Sen Çal Kapimi. Serkan is cold and stern and more than a little bit misanthropic, like Darcy, and Eda is impulsive and spirited and hates Serkan/Darcy at the beginning, not unlike Elizabeth Bennett… If this is Ayşe’s intent I am all over it.”

scarf with an ‘E’ on it, no doubt from Neslihan’s collection, and a gold locket with the initials S and B on it. Subtle Serkan is not. 

We also get to listen as Serkan re-tells the Apollo story that Eda had told him in Antalya. This time he tells it to Kiraz and gives it a happy ending where Apollo and the woman reunite and she gives him a branch of cherries. The look of pure adoration on Serkan’s face as he looks at Eda and Kiraz is a testament to Kerem’s acting ability. We see the longing and the sorrow play out over his face in such an obvious way. 

 

Eda and Serkan have so many meaningful moments in this episode but no conversations about what the future will hold for them. It seems as if Eda is resigned to having her life separate from him and wants to focus on the Serkan and Kiraz relationship instead. There was no movement in resolving the problems between Kiraz’s parents. The issue between them isn’t love, they are madly in love, but as Eda said in episode 13, sometimes love isn’t enough. The main issue now is the Eda doesn’t trust him to stick it out when things get hard. She has been burned by him too many times. To build a strong relationship one needs to know that one’s partner will be there through the good and the bad times, it’s even part of the western christian wedding vows, and Serkan has proved that he can’t or won’t stay when things are difficult. However noble his reasons, Serkan unilaterally has decided a few times now to abandon her without a proper explanation. Eda is understandably going to be worried that he will distance himself from her again and again. The fear is real and she is handling it with maturity, she knows that she can survive without him because she has had to do it multiple times. This isn’t necessarily what we want to watch at this point, we have suffered through them being apart for far longer than they have been together in Sen Çal Kapimi. But they have to have more conversations about trust and forgiveness and both need to prove something to the other. Serkan needs to convince her that he won’t push her away again and Eda needs to let him know that he is more than good enough in her eyes and help him to overcome his insecurities about that. These are tough, realistic issues that couples face and I am hoping they will show us the process that the characters need to go through to get to a happy place. 

 

Serkan and Kiraz. I loved all the scenes between these two this week, Kerem has a natural affinity for kids. Serkan is struggling to try and figure out how to be a dad. He is at his best when he doesn’t overthink things, she already loves him, even though he was grumpy with her when they first met. He is not confident in himself though and enlists the help of Engin, who, in a hilarious set up takes him to his ‘mommy’ group. I appreciate that Engin has no trouble sharing and laughing with a group of women and there aren’t any misogynist jokes about him being included in their group, the humour comes from the woman laughing about how overprotective Serkan is; he wants to take Kiraz to the hospital after she falls and she tells him she doesn’t need it but he could buy her ice cream. 

Serkan isn’t appreciative of Engin’s help, he is looking for the recipe to be the perfect father to Kiraz. He asks a university friend of his, Hulya, who I think is a child psychologist, to just tell him what to do. He says he will just do whatever she tells him to do with Kiraz. She explains to him that that isn’t the way things work, that there is no such thing as a perfect father, and that Kiraz is happy and well adjusted and he just needs to take some time to figure things out. He insists that she needs to be with him through it all just as Eda walks up. She assumes that Hulya is a romantic friend of Serkan’s and is instantly angry until finally, a laughing Serkan tells her that she a psychologist and a friend he’s asked to help him. 

I do appreciate that the scenes with Serkan and Kiraz are not cutesy and that he is still the grumpy Serkan that we love. I also like that Kiraz is slowly getting to know and accept him, she still calls him Serkan Bolat, this is a believable transition into a father-daughter relationship. 

 

What I liked

There has been some debate as to why Burak is still in the picture, that he should have immediately stepped away, or Eda should have asked him not to come around anymore, but I think that ultimately it might be Burak that will give Serkan some help in being a dad to Kiraz. I like that he seems to genuinely love Kiraz and is not using her to get to Eda. Kiraz loves him too and views him as a beloved uncle, and Eda has certainly relied on him to help her with Kiraz. So, he is a part of their little family, along with Melo and Ayfer, and it doesn’t seem right to cut him out completely just because Serkan has now come on the scene. They say that it takes a village to raise a child and he has been and a big part of their lives for the last year. There is room in everyone’s lives to love a multitude of people and having a dad doesn’t mean not having a Buba. They may scale back the amount of time he spends with Kiraz but they shouldn’t cut him out completely. 

Engin and Piril are such a joy in these recent episodes. They are there to support Eda and Serkan and to give some real-world advice about parenting. Piril outs herself to Serkan about knowing about Kiraz the whole time, he is understandably upset, but it was nice for us to confirm that she has been a good friend to Eda over the last five years. They and Can are the only side characters I cared for in episode 44. 

 

What I disliked

This is beginning to get very repetitive but Aydan, and to a lesser degree Ayfer, are truly becoming the villains of season two. The character of Aydan has been almost laughably inconsistent and if it wasn’t so frustrating it would be funny. How many times has she gone back and forth between being a foe or a friend to Eda? She seems to have completely forgotten all the good that Eda has done for her and Serkan. And the excuse that Aydan couldn’t believe that Serkan would leave Eda so it has to be Eda’s fault is a pathetic one and I resent being expected to swallow it. Also, she is trying to prove that Eda is a bad mother, she really should take a long hard look at herself. It is a bit baffling why they have made her into such a terrible person.

At this point, it seems as if she isn’t even a fully formed character, she is simply a plot device used at different times to progress the story in a particular way. She’s against Eda and so works to make sure Serkan gets close to Selin. She supports his decision to break up with Eda, and therefore it takes weeks for them to get back together. She decides that to be happy Serkan needs Eda, so she helps them. She tells Eda that she would like her to call her ‘Mom’ at the henna night. She keeps the fact that Serkan is alive from Eda for 2 months while Eda is devastated. And now she hates Eda because she blames her for leaving her son. Whiplash times five. 

I dislike how this character is being used in season two, and I also resent how much screen time she takes up and how she has co-opted Seyfi into helping her take Kiraz away from the ‘flower girl’. This custody plot is disgusting and annoying, she has to trick Serkan into signing the papers because she knows he wouldn’t want to take Kiraz away from Eda and is trying to prove that Eda is a bad mother. She really should take a long hard look at herself. She lies to everyone and it's supposed to seem cute? Her motivation for wanting Kiraz seems purely to ‘win’ one over on Ayfer and make Kiraz into a ‘Bolat’. Why she would want her to be a Bolat is a mystery. She does not attempt to spend any time with Kiraz, she’s happy to just shop for her. 

 

You let your grief make you bitter. You let your suffering make you cruel. Want to know what that makes you? A villain. That's every comic book villain ever! They suffer, and then they inflict suffering on others. Good guys do the opposite. Good guys suffer, too - but they respond by helping. Katherine Center

 

Ayfer I have slightly more sympathy for as she has real and legitimate reasons for hating Serkan. How much pain of Eda’s has she witnessed because of Serkan? She is also preparing a custody case, but it is in direct response to what she knows that Aydan will do. I get that this is the drama that we supposedly have to have but it’s frustrating to have to sit through. I did enjoy that because of their machinations Eda and Serkan must live together for a while. That’s karma coming down on Aydan and Ayfer like a ton of bricks. 

I am not on board for the possible Burak and Melo romance, while Burak seems like a good person, it isn’t fair to have Melo be with someone who is/was in love with her best friend. Melo deserves more. 

While I didn’t dislike the Pina and Kerem scenes, they were completely unnecessary and took us out of the main story, and were just there to fill up episode time. 

 

What needs to happen next 

  • I would like to see more flashbacks of Eda and Serkan in the five years that they were apart, they and other characters have talked about it but I would like to see some scenes
  • Many fewer Aydan scenes
  • I can hardly wait for the first time Kiraz calls Serkan ‘Baba’

 

So, overall not a bad episode, with lots of components that were wonderful, but overshadowed by the custody intrigue going on behind Eda and Serkan’s back. We didn’t have any movement on the Eda and Serkan relationship, but we got to see lots of examples that neither one has forgotten the other even a little bit. 

In the case of the solitary, his seclusion, even when it is absolute and ends only with life itself, has often as its primary cause a disordered love of the crowd, which so far overruled every other feeling that, not being able to win, when he goes out, the admiration of his hall-porter, of the passers-by, of the cabman whom he hails, he prefers not to be seen by them at all, and with that object abandons every activity that would oblige him to go out of doors. Marcel Proust
Last Updated: Jul 10, 2021 19:10 pm (UTC) Filed Under:
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Krisha (@krisha_writes) is a Dizilah.com « guest » contributor.