THE PERFORMER | Sera Kutlubey
THE SHOW | Zalim İstanbul
THE EPISODE | Season 2, Episode 21 (Feb. 10, 2020)
You know you have been watching Turkish series long enough when you have had one of your favorite characters freezing to (almost) death in a walk-in freezer. This week, Zalim İstanbul’s Cemre (Sera Kutlubey) got a taste of the Turkish dizi classic, after falling victim to her mother-in-law, Seniz’s malicious schemes.
This episode mostly revolved around Cemre's loved ones trying to retrace her whereabouts after discovering she was missing, so we only got a few scenes with Cemre in the hands of her captors. Even with the very few scenes, Sera Kutlubey was afforded the opportunity to shine solo, propelling herself into the spotlight with her excellent performance as an understandably traumatized Cemre.
In order to make sure her secrets stay hidden, Seniz's plan to kidnap Cemre and have her killed soon explodes in her face as two of the kidnappers decide to go rogue with the money they are paid, giving the third a reason to keep Cemre alive for a little while longer. Knowing her had stuck gold by kidnapping someone in the KARAÇAY circle, the kidnapper wasted no time taking advantage of the situation, recording a video of hostage Cemre and forwarding it to Nedim. One thing leads to another and everyone, including Cemre's mom, discovers she's been kidnapped and panic ensures.
Cemre refuses to resign to her fate as she attempts to make a run for it, keeping the viewer on the edge of their seat as we root for her survival by any means. On the brink of her character’s death, the actress delivers a chilling performance as she fights with everything in her power to live to see another day.
Entering that final hour, a now-dormant Cemre is shown shivering in the walk-in freezer she's abandoned as with her loved ones continue to run helter-skelter to find her. The actress does such a good job portraying her imminent demise, suspending the viewer in a state of utter-disbelief as time runs out.
Cemre is soon joined in the freezer by Cenk, who in a bid to save her, is also trapped by the rogue kidnapper – a complete nightmare for the #CemCen shippers like us. As the episode wraps, we get to see an extremely raw portrayal of a person's presumed last seconds alive and thanks to Sera's harrowing performance, we surely do not wish that kind of death on anyone.