Episode 2 of Sen Çal Kapimi landed with a resounding bang this Wednesday to practically unprecedented high ratings for a summer romcom. The newest episode furthered the tension-filled relationship of Eda and Serkan, who become engaged, and gave us small slivers of back story for our main characters. The dynamic between them has shifted somewhat, she doesn’t hate him quite as much as she did, but they are still mostly just annoyed with and annoying to one other; except when they are not. We were treated to several very charged moments between Eda and Serkan as they try and navigate pretending to be a couple. There is palpable heat and chemistry between the characters and it’s a credit to the writers and actors that their physical attraction is so very obvious.
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 Ayse 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, Eda is impulsive and spirited and hates Serkan/Darcy at the beginning, not unlike Elizabeth Bennett. We can see Kaan as Wickham, Serkan’s heritage obsessed mother as Lady Catherine De Burgh and Eda’s girlfriends as stand-ins for Elizabeth’s sisters. If this is Ayse’s intent I am all over it.
The opening scene is a continuation of the end of the last episode, Eda grabs Serkan’s face and kisses the daylight out of him, the kiss goes on for quite a while with Serkan as a willing participant. As they separate the two of them are looking a bit blissed out after and it takes them a few moments to come to their senses, as the onlookers stand around with open mouths; ex-girlfriend Selin looks particularly unhappy. Serkan takes Eda by the hand and leads her off the dais back into the hotel. Here they bump into a retreating Cenk who doesn’t look very pleased with this turn of events, he and the new girlfriend are leaving and Eda takes great pleasure in the look of discomfort on Cenk’s face. I assume this is not how he thought breaking up with Eda would go, that she would rebound in a heartbeat with a much better option.
Eda apologizes to Serkan for kissing him but he is furious and says that Eda has embarrassed him in front of his team and the client. They escape because the photographers are after them, leaving Eda’s girls behind wondering what the hell is going on.
Serkan and Eda drive away from the venue, Eda offers to disappear for a few days to let everything blow over, Serkan insists that they will now have to pretend to be together, that they will sign a contract, they will be together for two months until Selin is supposed to get married. Eda says no again to the idea of pretending to be engaged, Serkan reiterates that he will pay for her university fees, she says that she doesn’t want his money, doesn’t want to see him anymore. Serkan says if she doesn’t agree he will sue her, not sure exactly what for, and she will end up owing him for the rest of her life. She tells him he is a bad man, he reminds her because of what she just did, he can’t spin any other situation to the press other than she is his bride to be. She says that she said she was sorry, what else does he want, he tells her to be at his office at 8pm. She tells him that she hates him and he says that the feeling is mutual. Eda storms off on foot and Serkan peels away.
Eda goes home and tries to sneak in without her aunt, Ayfer, noticing, she is caught by Melo who is coming home too. Melo spins some story to Ayfer about where Eda is and why she isn’t answering her phone. When alone Melo shows Eda that the kiss is now all over social media and dreamily asks what Eda is doing and why she was kissing the man she supposedly hates? Eda can’t really explain and, being the dreamer that she is, Melo says ‘you fell in love with how handsome he is and kissed him, didn’t you?’ Melo says it might have been better to have kissed him when the cameras were off. Eda’s aunt comes back and is suspicious of Melo’s lie about Eda being out for a walk. Melo wants to know why Eda is lying to Ayfer and that Ayfer is going to grill them all about what is going on.
Serkan’s former friend Kaan, is seen looking at the photo of Eda and Serkan kissing and gets a call from an unknown person, he tells this person that he wants to know everything they can find out about the woman in the picture, that there’s no way that Serkan is in love with her because he doesn’t have those kinds of feelings. Kaan is up to no good.
Serkan’s mother, Aydan, is also looking at the photo of the kiss online on an iPad being held by, I assume her assistant, Safie. Serkan’s parents are not pleased with the news and his mother defends him to his dad saying he would never disgrace himself, it has to be Eda’s fault. She instructs Safie to find out everything he can about Eda.
Serkan team have managed to get through the presentation without him and are having to deal with the press who are very interested in who the new woman in his life is, Selin freezes when asked about Eda and sets up the question does she still love Serkan? The client is pleased with the presentation and when they apologize about the Serkan situation he says that it’s nice to see people in love. When the client leaves Selin and Pyril question Engin vehemently about who Eda is, he really doesn’t know and says maybe Serkan fell in love? Selin looks very unhappy with this news. Pyril teases Engin about his public speaking skills which I gather were less than stellar, and the team retreats back to the office.
The girls are looking for Eda and end up at the flower shop where Ayfer is working. She corrals them and they finally show her the picture of Eda kissing Serkan. She is speechless. Serkan returns to the office to the questioning looks of his team, Selin outright asks him who he was kissing today? He asks her who is asking, his PR manager? She wants to know if he is in love, but he feels like she doesn’t have any right to know.
Eda arrives at the office at 8pm and Serkan tries to convince her that they will sign a contract, that they will pretend to be engaged for two months or until Selin’s engagement is broken. She asks what happens if it doesn’t get broken? He says it will, she say what happens if it happens faster? He says they will end the contract early. She asks him why he is doing this, does he want Selin back? He doesn’t answer. He says they will do this for two months and in the end he will pay for her university and expenses in Italy. She says she’s not going to Italy, she doesn’t want his money, she will do it but only to make up for embarrassing him. He says no way, they both have to benefit, so she says then give me a job, he says she is only qualified to be his assistant, as she doesn’t even have a university degree. Snark. She agrees to be his assistant but insists that he will treat her well, he won’t insult or hurt her, she has seen how he treated Leyla. He says she will be available to him day or night and she won’t ask questions. She says she won’t be available on Saturday mornings and he won’t ask why. She also says that he won’t touch her, hug her, he won’t take her hand, without her permission. He snickers a bit and says he should be saying that to her after what happened that day. The contract says she won’t tell anyone, not her friends or her aunt, but he will tell his mother. She doesn’t like this and asks to be able to tell her friends and aunt, he says no. She says then he can’t tell his mother, he says she will regret that and she says she regrets all of this. She asks him why he doesn’t just tell Selin to dump Ferit and come back to him? He doesn’t answer. She signs the paper, which doesn’t make any sense given they just negotiated a bunch of different points that were not written onto the contract, but whatever, and she leaves.
Eda comes home and her aunt is making a cake in the kitchen. They have an awkward conversation where Eda tells her that she is engaged, Ayfer pretends not to know who Eda is engaged to and is very clearly lying. Ayfer says that it’s Eda’s right to make her own decisions about her life and that she trusts her to make good choices. They are both sad about this state of affairs and Eda obviously doesn’t like lying to Ayfer. Ayfer asks her to invite Serkan for dinner the following night and she will make the traditional dishes of Mardin, the area of Turkey where they are from.
The next morning the girls come to the flower shop to question Eda about what the hell happened the day before. She tells them that she is going to be working with Serkan and she is engaged to him and their reactions are priceless; Melo says instead of going to work maybe she should take Eda to a therapist? Fifi asks if she is being threatened, Ceren asks Eda if she is being forced to do this and reminds her that Ceren’s entire family are lawyers and they will help her if she is in trouble. Eda tells them that after kissing Serkan yesterday she realized she is in love with him. Melo eats this up, the fairytale of love at first kiss, but Ceren and Fifi are not buying it. A taxi pulls up out on the street across from the flower shop with Selin inside, she is investigating Eda. Eda calls for tea and the girls are still trying to figure out why Eda is doing this, is it so she can finish university, is she doing it for money? She says no, she doesn’t care about his money. The girls remind her that she has a very wealthy grandmother and maybe Ayfer can ask her for the money so Eda can finish university. Eda reminds them that they promised to never bring up her grandmother. Eda tries hard to to convince them that she and Serkan are madly in love, that he is a wonderful, affectionate man and she loves him. She’s got Melo convinced but not Ceren and Fifi who try and figure out other possible reasons that she is doing this. As the girls have tea Serkan pulls up to take Eda to work, she goes out to talk to him and they end up leaving without even introducing Serkan to the girls.
Before they head to the office Serkan takes him to his house so that she can know where he lives. She sees the estate, it’s beautiful with horses and gardens and a pool. She sees his portion of the estate and says that his house is very warm, unlike him. She meets Sirius, his Rottweiler, Sirius is the name of the brightest star in the sky and is also known as the dog star. Serkan says that the dog doesn’t like strangers but lets Eda pet him, Serkan seems impressed. They meet up with Serkan’s mother who is beyond rude to Eda, so much so that Eda ends up telling her that they are not really engaged, much to Serkan’s amusement. His mother figures out that they are doing it to make Selin jealous.
Serkan and Eda arrive at the office and everyone is curious about Eda. Serkan introduces them, sort of, to Eda and says she will be his assistant, Leyla excitedly asks if this means she can leave and Serkan says no, that she will show Eda the ropes. Engin and Pyril give Serkan the bad news that their big project has been canceled thanks to Kaan. Serkan is determined to go ahead and says they will put together another pitch to the client but they only have a day to do it. Leyla shows Eda their office but Eda can’t go in because it’s very small and has no windows. Later in the episode Serkan tells Engin to remove a wall in that office and replace it with glass, Serkan is thinking of Eda and her claustrophobia, we get a few small acts of kindness from Serkan towards Eda throughout this episode.
Serkan meets up with Kaan and we get a brief look into their contentious relationship, sometime in the past Kaan’s father went bankrupt and he blames Serkan’s father for that, Kaan is determined to bankrupt Serkan as punishment.
Serkan tells Eda to go buy herself an engagement ring and she takes great pleasure in buying the smallest ring she can get, much to the confusion of the poor jeweler. Serkan takes one look at it and marches her out to a different jewelry store and ends up picking out a beautiful flower-shaped pink diamond ring that she clearly loves, but she makes a point of telling him to write it in the contract that she will give the ring back to him when everything is all over. Serkan looks impressed with this.
On her way back from buying the tiny ring Eda car breaks down and she has to pull over, and who comes to her rescue but Kaan. Was he stalking her, you can’t tell me in all of Istanbul he just happens to be driving by? Anyway, he fixes her car and she takes his card so she can send him some flowers as a thank you. Now that I think of this, didn’t Serkan pick her up in the morning, did she go home and get her car to go to the jeweler’s, wouldn’t it have been easier to just take a cab?
Serkan gets the client who is bailing on them to give him a day to figure out a new project for him, and also stalls the client by inviting him to the engagement party that Eda didn’t know they were even having. The client agrees to come because he knows Serkan’s parents. Eda is angry because this is the first she is hearing about an engagement party, she won’t go along with it until Serkan explains that it’s for the job, he needs to delay the client so he invented the party. They stand nose to nose once again as they argue and he’s sneaking glances at her lips.
After the visit to the jewelry store, Serkan says it’s time for lunch and Eda says sarcastically that she is hungry too, thanks for asking. We have seen flashes of this in the episodes that Serkan isn’t always good at taking other peoples wants and needs into consideration, I don’t think there is any particular malice in this, he’s just not used to having to do it. Just as they are getting ready to leave the restaurant they bump into Selin and Ferit. Ferit insists that they stay to visit for a few minutes. In what might be the funniest scene in the episode Eda weaves a story to cover how she and Serkan met that is really unlikely if you know him and Serkan has to go along with it so their lies aren’t discovered, he squirms and shoots daggers at Eda and she is having the time of her life making him very uncomfortable. Selin looks very dismayed at the story because Eda paints a portrait of a romantic and attentive Serkan that it’s very likely Selin has never gotten to see. It’s all a lie of course but Selin doesn’t know that and watches Serkan and Eda walk out of the restaurant with very sad eyes.
Eda has come up with an idea that will save the firm’s project but the team only has a day to put the plan together, it will mean working all night. As they are working Eda and Serkan are sneaking glances at each other and Eda brings him, what I am assuming is jasmine tea at one point. Eda’s aunt calls to remind her about dinner and won’t take no for an answer when Eda says they can’t make it. Eda has to browbeat Serkan into leaving work with her as Engin laughs and the team is flabbergasted that Serkan did as Eda asks. As they are exiting the company though he reams her out for insisting and says that no woman he would marry would act so ugly. Eda apologizes and says she’s sorry that she doesn’t meet his criteria for a wife. She is genuinely upset and Serkan looks a little ashamed that he said that to her.
They have a brief bite to eat with her aunt Ayfer and for payback Serkan just casually drops the fact that Eda handcuffed herself to him while talking to Ayfer. It’s Eda’s turn to be mortified and in response to the stress of it she passes out with her head on the plate. Serkan is understandable worried about this but Ayfer says that it’s fine, this happens, Eda has a form of narcolepsy and goes to sleep when she experiences acute stress. Ayfer tells Serkan that she will wake up in a few minutes. Ayfer goes to get her a drink of water and when she’s gone Serkan busts the girls trying to spy on the dinner. The girls end up joining them and in a cute moment Melo unabashedly admires Serkan across the table, Serkan finds this cute and grins at her. It’s another brief flash of a different man from the ruthless one we mostly see. Ayfer sends Eda and the girls inside to get the cake she made so she can have a private talk with Serkan. She tells him that Eda is not the type of person to get engaged to a man she only knows for two day, Ayfer knows that there is something that Eda isn’t telling her. She tells him that Eda has had a lot of trauma in her life, Serkan asks what trauma and she says the Eda will tell him about that if she wants, but Ayfer is telling him that if he hurts Eda in any way she will make him pay. Meanwhile in the house the girls are questioning Eda about Serkan and their relationship, only Melo is taking everything at face value, Ceren and Fifi are very skeptical about the whole thing, and Fifi flat comes out and tells Eda she knows that she is lying. Ayfer and Serkan are discussing Mardin when the girls come back outside, Serkan mentions the castle in Mardin and they should go see it the next time they are there, Eda interjects that they will never be going back to Mardin. There is obviously a story here, Eda has a wealthy grandmother she doesn’t want to talk about, does this have anything to do with her childhood trauma that Ayfer alluded to? Eda shows Serkan the house before he leaves and he catches a glimpse of the picture of him she has been using for dart practice. They end up on the terrace and Serkan says that the house is like her, original. The camera pans into closeups of their faces and they each lock eyes with one another for a good few seconds. She thanks him for coming to dinner, that it has calmed her aunt down. Serkan goes back to work.
At the end of the night, Serkan and Eda are each at home alone, Eda is gazing longingly at her ring and Serkan is working on the project but they both witness a shooting star go across the night sky. The song playing is by the series’ music director Aytekin Atas called Söylenmemis which translates to Unspoken, it is a beautiful and wistful ballad. The writer is unabashedly using stars and stargazing to reinforce the premise that Eda and Serkan are star-crossed lovers.
The next morning we are at Serkan’s place and he gets a call from Engin, the drawings for the project aren’t ready. Serkan tells him that he finished them last night and Engin is to assemble the team to come to his house before the engagement party starts so they can finish up the presentation and give it to their client who is coming for the party.
Serkan has a rather terse conversation with his dad who isn’t happy that he is engaged. They argue about the engagement and his father doesn’t even want to be introduced to Eda. His father says he’s endangering the firm by his actions, Serkan is response says that they should buy the 50% stake in the company that Selin and her father have, but his father feels this is too risky. Serkan says that this is what his father’s problem is, he won’t take risks.
The team arrives to make the last-minute adjustments to the project and Eda inserts herself into the proceedings to help out, I love that she has no reservations in jumping right in and working alongside the rest of the team. The girls call to ask Eda’s opinion on their dresses for the party and Eda seems a bit wistful and says they shouldn’t have put so much effort into it, Serkan overhears and looks uncomfortable because I think he realizes that Eda is having a hard time lying to her friends.
The episode ends with both of them getting dressed for the party, Serkan in one room and Eda in another, this is beautifully shot, sunlight is streaming through in Serkan’s room, lighting up his hair and it really shouldn’t be possible for a man to look so good putting clothes on. He comes to Eda to see if she is ready but she can’t get the zipper on her dress all the way up, he comes in and she allows him to touch her so he can help to do up her dress. This is shot in close up of his hands and both of their faces in the mirror, with sheer white curtains billowing behind them. It’s very charged and she turns to face him as the episode ends there. Phew *fans self*. Kerem Bürsin and Hande Erçel are tremendous together and whether fighting or flirting their chemistry is some of the best that I have seen.
If writer Ayse Üner Kutlu is indeed using Pride and Prejudice as a framework for Sen Çal Kapimi I am so excited to see the spin she puts on the classic story. Ayse proves again that she is one step up from the average writer in this genre with her use of symbolism, literary themes, and fantastic characters; she has made Sen Çal Kapimi a must-watch dizi for the summer season.
