When I think about a show that has kept me glued to my screen since September, the answer is clear: Yabani.
I have been watching Yabani since the first episode aired, and it’s safe to say it has become one of my favorite shows rather quickly. The plot always keeps me captivated, and the kidnapping plot in the earlier episodes was done so well and something I haven’t seen before (even if this topic may have been done before in dizis).
Yaman Ali’s story of facing his past and his future with his newly found family has been beautiful and chaotic to watch. On that note, let’s dive into the last 20 episodes and give you some insight into how exactly Yabani managed to prove victorious during this fall season.
SPOILER ALERT: This post contains details about the first couple of episodes of Yabani.
To sum up his story without taking too much of your time (which no amount of words can do justice) Yaman has been on the street since he could remember. One night he sees a woman and a man outside his house. The man was clearly on drugs and was driving irrationally, causing the woman to throw up. Yaman “graciously” offers to take them home because she doesn’t drive. He takes them home and runs into the man’s mother. They both have a moment of confusion and she offers money as a gift for his cooperation with her son. He denies it and moves on. Little did he know, entering the Soysalan manor would end up changing his life forever.
Yaman lives with three other people, whom he considers his close brothers and sister. Cesur, Asi, & Umut. All these four children have been fighting for survival since the moment they were given up by their parents. They all have one shared goal: to make Umut be able to walk on his feet again one day. Yaman then goes back to the Soysalan manor and asks the woman (Neslihan) for money to put towards Umut being able to walk again.
Even though Yaman helped the man (Alaz), he is on the lookout for Yaman to “teach him a lesson” because he still has his clothes and assumes Yaman wants his wallet.
Later on, we see Neslihan celebrating the birthday of her kidnapped child, Ali. He has been lost for many years and they celebrate his birthday each year. Neslihan has three other children, Alaz, Çağla, & Ece, all of whom have their own personal battles they are facing due to their childhoods. While this is happening, Yaman comes to the house to face Alaz as he attacked their home and Cesur. Obviously, a big fight breaks out.
Yaman is walking throughout the house (while Alaz is casually grabbing a knife) and walks into Ali’s former bedroom… and it clicks. YAMAN IS ALI AKA THE LOST SOYSALAN CHILD! Yaman finds a photo he has had his whole life in one of the picture frames and now knows who his mother really is. Neslihan is curled up in a ball on the floor and is rightfully shocked at Yaman standing there. Alaz then comes in… and boom! Neslihan is stabbed by accident due to the fight growing between the two men. Yaman runs away out of fear and the first episode ends with him realizing that Neslihan, the daughter of Eşref Soysalan and one of the most influential families due to their hospital, is his mother.
Now if I explained every episode like this, we would be sitting here until my computer died of overexertion (as much as I’d love to keep going). I’ll explain the sequence of events moving forward specifically and rather quickly as each episode is over 2 hours.
Getting into each and every side character’s plot would take up a lot of time, so the best way to fully understand their stories would be to watch the show. I am gonna stay as general as possible considering the plot, and my recaps following will be more in-depth as the episodes come! I can’t emphasize it enough, this show is so detailed and it is clear I am missing stuff that has happened. It is worth the watch!
As the show goes on, Yaman calls for Neslihan (with the help of Rüya) and gives her a lock of his hair to prove he is her lost child. Neslihan tests it and we see Neslihan reunite with her lost son Ali after many, many years apart.
Yaman has no recollection of how he got on the street until one day he is in Rüya’s backyard and hears the squeak of their swing. He can’t help but think it sounds familiar… so he continues to analyze the situation and spots a stained glass window design, the same design as a tattoo he has on his arm. Yaman has this on his arm because he says that is the only thing he can remember and he believes it is something important. When he goes into Rüya’s house and examines the basement, the memories start flooding in. YAMAN WAS KIDNAPPED AND HELD IN THE HOUSE FOR SOME TIME! Rüya’s uncle (İlker) & mother (Şebnem) have acted nervous ever since Yaman came back to the Soysalan manor, could they be the culprits?
Yaman was going to turn his back on the Soysalans due to their harsh ways of treating him (especially Alaz & Çağla). After finding out that he was kidnapped in the very house next door, he decides he is staying solely to find out who kidnapped him.
As Yaman is dealing with his personal battle of Yaman vs Ali, all the other characters have deep and fleshed-out plots. To sum up, briefly, Serhan believes he is not given credit for his family, Alaz & Çağla dislike their mother due to how she was basically absent from their childhood (which we later find out is at the hand of Serhan), and Ece is suffering a heart condition that could eventually be the end of her one day. Asi & Cesur are trying to fit in with Yaman’s new life but it has become clear that there is no way to separate Yaman from Ali, they are both one.
With much back and forth on who could have possibly kidnapped Yaman, leaving the viewers even more shocked than the last episode, the end of episode 6 gave insight into just who kidnapped Yaman. Many of us believed it was İlker & Şebnem, and it appeared that way until the very end of the episode. Serhan, who was also a suspected culprit, IS THE REAL KIDNAPPER! He & Şebnem are having an affair and, spoiler alert, Serhan knew Yaman was not his real child through Şebnem.
We are then introduced to Yaman’s real father, Güven Aydın. He is going to perform Umut’s surgery to let him walk again, and he comes shaking the balance of the past as he and Neslihan had a great love that was at the expense of Neslihan’s grandpa who didn’t want them together. However, Güven has a wife and a son now, which will make things incredibly harder for everyone.
Throughout this time, Rüya & Yaman are obviously growing close to one another. Alaz is in love with Rüya so this causes even more tension between the brothers as Alaz already hates Yaman enough. Rüya & Yaman’s attraction is something that can’t be hidden and is painfully obvious to everyone.
Çağla is dating Rüzgar, a stuck-up and bratty boy who has verbally abused her and even physically at times. Yaman makes a promise to his mother that he will take care of all his siblings so he takes matters into his own hands and beats up Rüzgar pretty brutally. He is then accused of killing him when in reality, it was Alaz who did it. But wait, he actually isn’t dead, he’s alive! He attacks Rüya and Rüya stabs him in the shoulder, we are led to believe she is the one who killed him but it was actually Çağla who killed him that night.
Yaman defended Rüya throughout this whole period and even stepped up saying he would take the blame for the murder as they all believed Rüya was the one to do it.
Later on, we are also introduced to Rüya’s father, Metin. Serhan & Şebnem had him locked up in prison a long time ago while Rüya was under the belief that he had a whole different family. She was without a father for her whole life. When Metin joins, Serhan plans to kill him by someone hitting him with a car but the car then hits Umut (who survived the surgery and began walking) causing him to pass away. Serhan tried killing Umut before as well so he could give his heart to Ece, in the end, his dastardly plan worked even if it wasn’t how he wanted it to.
Alaz still deeply hates Yaman at this point, but the siblings all had moments here and there for Ece. His hatred is so deep that on New Year’s Day, he gets drugs from Cesur (who is still selling them and will possibly cause even more conflicts in the future) and drives to where Rüya & Yaman are celebrating. He obviously got really upset, and this night was a dark one for the Soysalans and Arkans. Alaz drove them off the side of a cliff and left them there. He went to Serhan and, of course, he covered the crime up for him. They recover rather quickly and Yaman finally finds out a piece of Serhan’s devilish tactics.
Due to this, he sets up a video camera where Güven is set to go there and claims he saw Alaz hit Rüya & Yaman. He gets the words out of his mouth and it exposes to the entire family just how much Serhan hates Yaman. The win may be small, but it is worth it!
Neslihan officially kicks him out of the house, and divorce will be their next step.
At this point as well, Alaz & Asi have now started having an attraction to one another and so have Cesur & Çağla. We will see how their relationships progress as the episodes go on!
And lastly, in the most recent episodes, Eşref Soysalan was killed. A bunch of back and forth with Güven having the blame put on him and Rüya & Yaman trying to figure out who exactly killed Eşref, and his killer was revealed as Şebnem. She killed him because he found out everything from her killing İlker and the affair she had with Serhan. Şebnem pinned the blame on Serhan by putting his body in his car, we have no idea yet how exactly she managed to do it by herself and we believe Metin had a hand in it. Yaman recognized her license plate as the chauffeur who drove Serhan when he went to the house to rescue his mother. Rüya saw Serhan putting medicine in Neslihan’s water in order to make her sleep all the time.
Now, Neslihan knows that she wasn’t depressed all these years with Yaman’s kidnapping, she was being forced to sleep by Serhan due to him not wanting a divorce. The writers are unclear on Serhan’s exact feelings to Neslihan. He says he loves her, but no man could ever love someone like that. He is truly a deep-rooted villain!
Yaman then traps Serhan and Şebnem into a trap that leads them both to go to jail to be questioned about Eşref’s murder. The fragman for the next episode reveals that they’ll blame Metin as they did many years ago. The other fragman also showed that Metin may shoot himself right in front of Rüya at the police station due to Serhan & Şebnem being freed.
Güven’s wife, Özge, has now made an appearance at the end of the last episode. This will cause a strain between Neslihan & Güven and it is quoted that this psychiatrist will “change the dynamics of everything” so I am excited to see what is in store. It is also rumored Deniz (Güven and Özge’s child) will be joining the series as well. Lots of new events are gonna happen!
The trailer for the next episode shows Neslihan & Güven’s interactions with Özge, and some scenes moving rather quickly of Metin holding a knife to Rüya’s throat… WHAT IS GOING ON!!!
Vayyyyyy, that was a lot to discuss! I am excited to continue this series and update weekly about the episodes. After each episode weekly, you should be seeing a recap of the episodes along with my thoughts. See you soon with an episode 21 recap arkadaşlar!
