Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.
– Lao Tzu
Our robot screwed up his courage this week and told Eda what she needed to hear. And this was no tepid ‘I have feelings for you’ kind of confession, he went all out. He’s madly in love with her and told her so. It was a satisfying resolution to the back and forth dance they have been doing for several episodes but also introduced us to Serkan in love, which is a whole new man to the one we have seen up until now. This man has no problem expressing his emotions, in words, in looks and in touches. He confessed to her the depth of the love he feels for her, he insisted she be by his side for practical every moment, and he showered her with all the affection that he could. It was wonderful to watch even as the black clouds are gathering on the horizon for them.
We, the audience are fully aware that there is a huge bomb waiting to explode in the middle of the love affair of Eda and Serkan. No one is looking forward to that but I am curious how they approach the reveal. When will Serkan know, will he be the one to tell Eda, will she step away from him when she finds out, will she be able to forget. They have painted Alptekin in a less than flattering light in the death of her parents. Will he attempt to make amends with Eda or will he simply tell Serkan to get him away from Eda for good?
What I loved
In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”
― Jane Austen, Pride And Prejudice
Not a huge surprise here.
Serkan and Eda were totally adorable in their newfound love. After a brief moment of shock on the waterfront, after he kissed her, she found her feet and, at least with her eyes, gave her love back to him. Not good enough though for the robot who, understandably, wanted to hear the words back, but she made him wait for it. They went on dates, had breakfast together and spent a day at the office romancing each other with their eyes before she finally put him out of his misery and told him that she loved him too.
Serkan has absolutely no chill about Eda, it’s obvious he wants to spend every minute with her. He has never taken off the engagement ring, she notices this on their evening walk, and doesn’t look like he plans to. She is somewhat more subdued about their relationship but I think only because they are having to keep it a secret from Ayfer and the girls, otherwise I think she would be shouting it from the rooftops as well. I hope that when she does tell them it restores Melo faith in true love.
They go for a walk and end up at a coffee shop and have an interaction that is equal parts adorable and sensual. Serkan can’t stop touching her face and he embarrasses her a bit with this public display of his affections and makes her blush. They are so incredibly sweet together. I think Eda is a bit shocked at just how touchy-feeling Serkan is being. Turns out, the robot is touch-starved, indeed. That Selin and Ferit just happen to walk by for Selin to witness his affection for Eda was a bit heavy-handed but it served to put the last nail in the coffin of Selin and Serkan's romantic relationship for her.
“If I had a flower for every time I thought of you...I could walk through my garden forever.”
― Alfred Tennyson
The scene where he gifts her a star in her name is as romantic as anything you will ever see on screen and it’s such an appropriate gift for her. The stars are their combined passion and it’s this alignment of the stars that brought them together and will hopefully allow them to weather all the terrible things that are going to come out. The stars are eternal and love and the strength that love gives us helps us to endure the hardest of life’s struggles.
I know that chemistry between actors can be subject but it’s hard to deny the on-screen rapport between Hande and Kerem in their scenes in episode 12. This was some of the best representations of the first moments of love between two people I have seen in a long time. The giddiness, the embarrassment, the shyness, the excitement, the passion was all their for us to witness, and these two actors gave us all the right beats for how people act when they are first in love. Serkan in this was especially obvious and I love that he tells her that she is addictive, and she tells him that he makes her blood boil in the best possible way. These scenes were incredible and made more so by that immeasurable thing that is chemistry.
What I liked
We also saw some movement forward on some of the other romantic relationships this week, looks like something is starting up for Pyril and Engin, and something is ending for Selin and Ferit.
I don’t know how it happened but I’m beginning to be very fond of Ferit. This will probably mean he will turn evil with my luck. The portrayal of a man in love with someone who doesn’t love him back was heart-wrenching to watch and a genuinely felt for him when he had the panic attack after hearing Selin confess she would leave him at one word from Serkan. He held on for as long as he could but ultimately realized he didn’t want to spend his life with a woman who didn’t really love him. As much as Selin protested that she loved him, there wasn’t anything loving in the way she treated him and he deserves better. If only for dramatic effect I did like him leaving her at the wedding, I’m glad he finally had the self-worth to dump her.
It was interesting that it was Ceren who took care of him during his panic attack, could we be seeing the first inklings of a romance there?
Piril and Engin moved forward with their relationship, at least I think so. Theirs is a weird one. They have been friends for 10 years and nothing has happened up until this point? I mean, slow burn is one thing, but this is like an iceberg and a hot plate. I don’t know what to think about them, I like both characters very much, but together they are not sparking, and she mostly just seems annoyed with him. We shall see what happens.
Selin really needs to get her act together, not only has she broken the heart of a decent man, she’s now sold her stock to a stranger without even conferring with her other partners? Not smart. I’m assuming this is the way they are introducing the new character coming in. I did feel bad for Selin being left at the marriage table, but only a tiny bit as she was ready to dump Ferit at a moment’s notice. She isn’t a bad person per say, but she used Ferit at the very least to make herself feel better and at worst as a pawn to make Serkan jealous, neither of which worked. She is paying the price now of playing with Ferit’s feelings. She isn’t one hundred percent to blame she did get some mixed signals from Serkan and some bad information from Aydan and Eda but ultimately the choice was hers to make promises to a man she didn’t really love. I’m glad this has resolved now and I am curious what they are going to do with both the Selin and Ferit characters.
What I didn’t like
I had very high hopes for the Alptekin character at the beginning of the series but he’s turning into a loathsome character. Not only did he wiggle out of any blame for the death of Eda’s parents but now his solution to the situation of his son being in love with Eda is to break them up permanently? Coupled with the reveal last week that they shipped young Serkan off to boarding school right after his brother died, Alptekin and Aydan as parents are looking worse and worse.
Why is Eda keeping her relationship with Serkan a secret? That doesn’t really make any sense. She knows that her aunt won’t be pleased but why does she think her finding out later or from someone else will be any better? I get that Eda just wants to live in her happy bubble right now but she is just making things worse for her relationship with her aunt and also possibly how her aunt feels about Serkan. Lying is never the answer to make things better but unfortunately, it’s a staple of romcoms.
I really do hate that we have not been allowed to bask in the love of Eda and Serkan without the knowledge that they will sometime soon get some horrible news. It does take away slightly my good feelings about episode 12, I would have liked at least one episode of just pure happiness. I’m sure that we will be getting our hearts ripped out when Eda learns the secret.
“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”
― William Shakespeare
What needs to happen next
We really need to meet Baba-anne now, it’s been teased for long enough.
Ayfer and Eda need to sit down and talk. It isn’t good that Ayfer is still hurting from the contract reveal and now she knows that Eda is lying to her about the postponement of the scholarship to the university in Italy. New love can tend to make one selfish but Eda is really hurting her aunt.
I don’t know how long they are going to drag out the reveal of the part that Serkan’s father played in the death of Eda’s parents nor how she is going to react. It isn’t Serkan’s fault at all but can she be with a man whose parent was indirectly the cause of her becoming an orphan? The writers have demonstrated Eda’s compassion and ability to forgive on several occasions but something like that is a whole different situation. I’m wondering if ultimately it will mean separation of Serkan from his parents to be with her, let’s face it they really haven’t done him much good.
I think that somewhere down the line Serkan needs to apologize to Ferit, the game that he and Eda played was ultimately very cruel and hurt Selin and Ferit both. Selin is arguably deserving of it but Ferit isn’t. His only fault was being friends with Kaan he paid for that too.
Performer of the week, I would like to especially mention Kerem Bürsin’s performance in this week’s episode. He was so good at all the layers of emotion that a man who had never been in love before would experience. The insecurity, the relief, the elation, all of the notes of his performance rang true. From episode one to now we have seen the blossoming of a man too afraid to let himself be vulnerable enough to love, to a man overflowing with the love he feels. Kerem’s performance was understated and seductive, and we whole-heartedly believed we were witnessing a man who has thrown caution to the wind and is embracing being madly in love. Hande too was excellent of course, but the journey that Kerem allowed us to travel with him from workaholic misanthrope to enthralled lover has been so great to watch.
“Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up.
