"How dreadful the knowledge of the truth can be, when there's no help in truth."
- from Oepdipus Rex, by Sophocles
What is the price of the truth? What else is left for a man who sacrificed his soul?
With a magnificent roller coaster of emotions, the last episode of Çukur was in the sign of forgiveness – Affet Çukur.
At the beginning of the episode, Yamaç is going through a tough emotional pain. He thought that Cumali will finally put an end to his agony. But, instead, he is waking up alive, aware that now everybody knows what he did. As the load on his back was not enough, now his agony became even bigger. Without seeking an explanation, they all condemned him for his acts. Completely reconciled with what follows, he is asking everybody’s forgiveness... In return, he is getting only judgment and rebuke. He was there for everybody, now, when he needs them the most, everybody is turning their backs on him. The words of the people around, shouting “Çukur is our home, Idris is our father!”, came like a final slap of the brutal reality he was facing. He must confront and accept the consequences of his acts – that was the last message from his family. Expelled from Çukur and from his father’s house, he is leaving, making us ask ourselves – with this kind of family, who needs an enemy? But, is the truth really so simple?
Besides forgiveness, this episode portrayed the mother figure in focus as well.
From one side there is Fadik, Azer’s mom, worried about the strange premonition she had about losing another child. In the middle - a nice appearance of Olga Erdenet, Arık’s mom. Caring and supporting, Olga came right on time to encourage her son and to show her trust in him. Exactly what Arık needed to confront his father – wind in his back.
From another side – a stunning parallel between Mahsun’s mother and Sultan, through the heartbreaking words of the song “Sen Affetsen, Ben Affetmem” (If you forgive, I won’t forgive).
Sultan is certainly one of the most complex characters in Çukur. It is hard to read her emotionless face and predict her actions. Proud, dominant, and strict, she prefers being reserved for emotions, than to show weakness. Because “Koçovalı don’t show their emotions in public”, as she always says, she chooses to fight her pain alone. Suffocating her sob with the pillow in the bedroom, she doesn't allow anybody to see her tears and grief. When Yamaç shows up in front of the door, she shows no distress at all. No sadness, no anger, nothing. Just a numb face dropping his bag when he reaches her hand for a kiss and forgiveness. A mother could show a bit of empathy, but not Sultan.
At the same time, Mahsun appears at his mother’s door. He is standing and waiting for her forgiveness and mercy. At first, she closes the door in his face, but bursting in tears, led by her maternal emotions, she opens the door again and offers her hand to him, accepting his remorse.
With or without forgiveness, nothing in Çukur will be the same again. Deeply shaken from the latest happenings, everybody is trying to process it in their own way. After shooting Yamaç, Cumali is in a huge confusion, struggling to deal with the facts he learned, and with the acts he did. For a moment, he reaches to shoot himself, like he wants to say – ‘wish it never happened’… Luckily, Selim grabs his hand in the last second, trying to figure out what in fact is going on here. Putting himself in charge, Cumali shows the same attitude as his mother – tough and strict – for what he did, Yamaç needs to pay the price and that’s it. It was unpleasant seeing his brother kicked out of Çukur, but there is no other way.
Selim, on other hand, is more disappointed in Yamaç. Finding out that Salih already knew it all, was a drop overflowing the glass of sadness and anger. His brother is not trusting him enough to share his secret with him. Selim certainly is not the one to lecture or to be angry at somebody for having a secret, since he has plenty of them – kidnapping Sena, killing Cemil and his brother, working behind everybody’s back. We’ve seen enough of Selim secrets.
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Salih. One brother like Salih is worth a whole Çukur family. A bigger human that all the Koçovalıs together. He is smart enough not to intensify the situation, but also strong enough to keep Yamaç’s back, always supporting him. If Yamaç pulls back together, it will be because of Salih’s support, because of the strength he gets from him. A hat down for this man, showing that dose of respect towards Sultan, after all the misery she put him through, destroying his life. A truly colossal character.
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Akın, eaten by his own conscience, gets caught by a panic attack, fighting his own demons. He is deeply affected by the news about Yamaç, aware that he helped his grandfather murder. Just as a reminder: angry at his uncle, he was the one who saved Yucel thinking that he was able to destroy Yamaç. Whether he knew what will happen or no, he is responsible for Idris’s death. And he should feel guilty like he does. But, remorse is now far bigger than the anger he felt before. His conscience is waking up, biting his whole being.
The wall art in Çukur is a very important part of the series. If you remember there was writing saying – “Akın is the remedy”. Akın has his own kind of craziness, typical for the Koçovalı family, and we still haven’t seen him at his peak. I believe Akın needs a trigger to present himself at his best. This could be a starting point for him becoming one of Yamaç’s biggest allies, along with Salih and Mahsun. You are our hope, kiddo!
Mentioning Mahsun... I believe he (after Yamaç and Salih) is the third-best tailored character of this series. With a wonderful transformation from a cruel enemy, Mahsun became the most devoted ally. He is the first one to aggressively attacking Cumali for what he did. Yamaç for Mahsun is more than a brother, he is his sacred 'emanet'. Not only because of the promise he made to Sena but because Mahsun and Yamaç share the same fate of killing their fathers. He made the point with an excellent explanation of what both of them are going through – “We are under the same sin… and there is no way out”. Salih understands Yamaç, but Mahsun knows what it's like to be in his skin.
While everybody is busy around the shooting and the big secret revealed, Karaca, instead of obeying the family’s decision and preparing for the wedding with Celasun, decides to escape. In the previous episode, we saw her changing her mind, telling Azer that she wouldn’t make it without her family, but now, there she is, in front of his door, ready to take a huge step forward, choosing him instead of the family. Cumali immediately sends Celasun to get her back, but Sultan Anne opposes his decision saying – “She made her choice. From now on, far away from us, closer to God.”. Azer’s mom is not comfortable with the situation as well. Knowing Koçovalıs, she knows that they won’t let their daughter so easy, but she also sees the determination of her son and tries to support them. We witness wonderful moments of their love. Azer bought a house for them and even proposed to Karaca. Impressed and amazed, she accepted, not thinking for a second about the family she left. She seemed in love, so far. But does she really loves him or just love the idea of being loved, for a change, we are about to see...
A totally unexpected twist from Nedim, the guy working the in the Koçovalı’s cafe. After asking for a break from Celasun, we saw a completely different side of him. He leaves Çukur, gathering a group of armed men, and shows up in front of the Erdenet’s warehouse. Killing everybody inside, they take over the trucks loaded with drugs. Apparently, Nedim is working for some mysterious person. That person, whether is man or woman, obviously likes roses. The person didn’t show his face, for now, leaving us to guess who he/she is... Connecting the dots in relation to the roses, we know that Idris liked them, and with him being dead could be somebody closely related to him? According to his acts, this person clearly showed being against Erdenets, but is it on Koçovalı’s side indeed?
We are starting to get more acquainted with the team Erdenet. Apparently, they have a great passion for toys. While Arık covered Çukur with drones to enjoy the spectacle, Seren is ‘playing an enemy’, metaphorically said. Her addiction to the video game is interrupted by the news that somebody broke into the warehouse. But Arık quickly discovers the location of the trucks, and we finally see them together in an action scene. The Erdenet cousins like to play with fire, indeed.
Cengiz Erdenet, cunningly uses the situation with Yamaç, to put himself in the center of attention. He kidnaps Yamaç from the hospital and arranges a team of doctors to take care of him, putting him back on his feet as soon as possible. When Arık asks him why he is doing that, he says that Yamaç is very important and Arık needs him. “Patience, you will learn why.”, he says. What is Cengiz hiding? Why Yamaç is so important for him and Arık? We should hold our breaths, cause Cengiz for sure has a great surprise for us.
In this episode, Yamaç asked forgiveness from Çukur. I think that it won’t take a long time until changing the roles, with Çukur asking forgiveness from Yamaç. Starting with the two egoists Sultan and Cumali, soon all of them will understand Yamaç’s importance.
It will be probably hard for them to admit, but sooner or later they will face the consequences of being so unjust and inequitable.
