Wow. For an episode where not a lot happened this was a profound instalment of Sen Çal Kapimi. The episode illustrated that beautiful scenery or traditional romantic set ups are not necessary to bring the heat and emotion to a story. This was an emotional, visceral peek into the hidden feelings of our lovers, and the writers have brought us to this point with subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, and tangible examples of the deep feelings of Eda and Serkan. True, human, and believable performances by Hande Erçel, Kerem Bürsin and Neslihan Yeldan, as Serkan’s mother, wrecked our hearts in the best way possible this week.
Writer Ayse Üner Kutlu and her team have shifted into another gear and are taking us into the ‘oh crap, I think I love you’ stage of the enemies to lovers trope. The audience has been witnessing the jealousy of Serkan when Eda pays attention to any other man than him, the swim instructor, a hotel employee and now the manager of the singer they are trying to impress. He also has been demanding of her time and seemingly wants to be around her all the time, he even cuts short his ‘away’ day to come to the office, to see Eda perhaps? This is drastically different than the man that Selin described to Eda a few episodes ago, a man that Selin practically had to make an appointment to see. As for Eda, we see a heartfelt hug at the end of the episode and, as she takes yet another sniff of his neck, we can see the realization dawn on her face that she has real feelings for him.
We also get another few examples of what a sentimental man Serkan Bolat really is. He has kept Eda’s flowers, the ones she accidentally left on his desk, in a glass jar, he’s not even trying to hide them. He has kept these and her lipstick from episode one. He also has a secret place where it looks like he has kept a bunch of his brother’s belongings, books, a bike and a motorbike amongst other things. This is where he goes to play guitar on August 19th.
What I loved
First off, I am going to say again how much I appreciate that there are not long, drawn out scenes with secondary characters that really don’t have any bearing on the main story. Too many other shows have these filler scenes that take us out of the story and use up precious screen time on plots that few viewers care about. Sen Çal Kapimi is blessed with an attractive and talented cast outside of Hande and Kerem and the viewers do care about them, but only a few minutes at a time, and Sen Çal Kapimi is using the side characters to enhance the Serkan/Eda story rather than distract from it.
Eda and Serkan
They are official in love. No one has admitted anything to anyone but it has become abundantly clear that these two people are in love. Serkan is jealous as hell at any man even coming close to Eda and Eda is dying to get beyond his walls and find out what makes the robot tick.
The hashtag for the episode is gizemligün, which translates to ‘mystery day’ and we start the episode with Serkan nowhere to be found. Eda can’t reach him so heads to the office alone and once there learns that every August 19th Serkan disappears for the day and no one knows why or where he goes, except for Selin.
An important client sets Eda an impossible task and for sentimental reason she agrees to do it. Serkan is furious because she has no authority to take on the job for the company but she insists that she can do it, and he tells her she will do it alone. She sets about the task, with the help of a few of the company employees who are willing to defy Serkan, including Engin, and her friends Melo and Fifi.
Serkan comes to see why Eda said yes to the client and ultimately helps her complete the job. The client is thrilled and tells Serkan that Eda is very special and that Serkan is lucky to have her, Serkan says that he knows.
She wants to know why he disappears every August 19th and he tells her that it’s because it’s the day his older brother gave him a guitar and told him that he must play guitar every August 19th so he takes the day off to play and remember him. It hasn’t taken much to get Serkan to open up to Eda, she gets a bit teary and takes his hand, he give her's a squeeze and we can see the emotion on his face. We don’t yet know the circumstances of the death of Serkan’s brother but it has obviously affected Serkan greatly. He tells Eda that his brother was the family favourite and Serkan’s idol growing up. A couple of episodes ago Aydan and Alptekin has an argument and she mentions something about how Alptekin hasn’t treated Serkan well ‘for 19 years’ which is a very specific amount of time, and we can infer that the brother died 19 years ago. If we say that Serkan is around 30 years ago, he was pretty young when his brother passed away.
They end up spending the night together sleeping on a couch and in the morning Serkan wakes up, sees Eda’s face with her head on his shoulder and his heart starts beating fast. We know this because his new watch has a heart rate monitor and the alarm sounds out that his pulse has increased. It was mentioned last episode that Serkan doesn’t sleep very much, but he seems to sleep just fine with Eda curled up against him. Seyfi catches them snuggled on the couch as Serkan’s watch is still beeping. Serkan finally takes it off saying it must be defective.
Serkan’s jealousy in on full display for everyone, including Selin, Pyril and Leyla to see. Leyla taunts him with the fact that Eda is out with another, attractive man. He is obviously very uncomfortable with Eda spending time with another man and the man’s dog even. At one point he mentions that he too has a dog and she says yes she know, it’s Sirius, and maybe she will come and see him that night? Serkan says no because she will smell like the other dog and Sirius won’t like it. Oh Serkan.
I love the mature way Serkan and Eda resolved their fight this episode. She admitted to him that he had been right, that she had made a mistake and acted impulsively. When she asked him if he was happy she failed he said no, that he did want her to learn from her mistakes but not at the cost of her tears. He ends up helping her so that she doesn’t fail and we see again that the two of them together can accomplish a lot. He wanted to teach her a lesson but in the end he couldn’t stand to see her get hurt
They attend a party for the client and his wife but leave when Eda asks Serkan for her reward for finishing the hard task, she wants him to play guitar for her. The end is him taking her to the place where he has kept a bunch of his brother’s things and playing guitar for her. As they are at the car to go home they stand awkwardly for a couple of moments and then they both move into a full body hug. Eda tucks her nose into his neck and he closes his eyes for a few moments. As she lifts her head we can plainly see the look of realization on her face that she has feelings for him. As they pull apart we see that Selin is sitting in her car just down the street from them.
Eda and Aydan
Eda enlists Aydan’s help to try and decorate a house for a client, from the conversation it’s obvious that Aydan is very talented in this respect and Eda thanks her for her help and hugs her. Aydan is not thrilled with the contact but allows it. Maybe a small softening of the dislike between the two of them?
Eda witness first-hand the effect Aydan’s agoraphobia has on her and in an act that could have gone very wrong, takes her blindfolded out of the front gate. Aydan is unaware that she has left the grounds of the estate until later that night when Seyfi shows her the video that Eda had sent of the security cameras showing her taking a few steps outside the gate. Aydan is overwhelmed but happy and, with tears in her eyes, asks Seyfi to show it to her again. She’s crying, Seyfi is crying, I’m crying. These scenes were so well acted. There is always the risk of using mental illness in inappropriate ways but I think this was handled well and Neslihan Yeldan was very powerful in these scenes. I hope this is the beginning of Aydan warming up to Eda.
Leyla
Leyla was one of the comic MVP’s this episode. She is taking cues from Eda about how to deal with Serkan and is becoming a funny, feisty assistant who is there to needle him just a bit. I love that she is technically still fired but comes to work everyday.
Other moments I loved
The mirroring of the postures of Erdem and Leyla as they watch Serkan and Eda fight.
Melo is pure sunshine and Seyfi is so happy that Melo got a job, and the way she tried to hug him and he backed away right into a shrub.
Ayfer telling Eda and Fifi that they don’t need a man to save them after Fifi tells her about Serkan carrying Eda away from the paparazzi
Eda’s staring starry-eyed at Serkan using power tools, same, Eda, same.
Serkan waving away the team when they think they should go help Eda when she is berating a woman. He knows that she doesn’t need any help.
What I liked
Engin and Pyril
There is obviously a mutual attraction between these two characters but Pyril is very driven and only focused on work. Engin likes her but is getting fed up with waiting for her to relax and see where a relationship might go. He is also attracted to Ceren, Eda’s friend who we haven’t seen for a few episodes, she is mentioned as she is coming to pick him up at one point and he mentions that she is now his lawyer. I really liked the Engin/Ceren interactions we got in previous episodes and was rooting for this pairing but I like Pyril too. I’m wondering if her character is going to be a mirror that is held up for Serkan to show him what can happen if you only have work in your life. If Engin and Ceren become a thing and Pyril is left behind and unhappy, because she and Serkan are so similar when it comes to being only interested in work, he may see how it effects her in a negative way and change his ways when it comes to him and Eda.
Selin yelling at Ferit for being an idiot and giving Kaan the photo of the contract, I’m thinking that he is just an idiot but may turn into a weasel when she breaks up with him because she is still in love with Serkan
Baba Bolat has given Melo a job because he sees potential in her. I think the story is going to show that the Bolats really need Eda and her friends in their lives
The weird interactions of Fifi and Erdem, she obviously does like him or she wouldn’t drag him away of ventures with her but she still might bite him. Him yelling “Karaköy express!!” as they pulled away on her motorcycle was hilarious.
What I didn’t like
Selin smugly telling Eda that Serkan has only told her why he disappears for the day of August 19th and that Serkan only tell his secrets to special people, implying that Eda isn’t special. I’m convinced now that Selin still loves Serkan, and got engaged to Ferit hoping that Serkan would object and try and stop her, this may be even done unconsciously but we can see that she has multiple times tried to provoke Serkan into action. She came to him in episode one to talk to him and said that at least she was doing something, she chased him down on the beach at her own engagement party, she insists that there is something fishy about his relationship with Eda (okay, to be fair she is sort of right), and she is always trying to be next to him. We even see her show up at the secret place where Serkan goes, I’m assuming thinking that Eda wouldn’t be there, to what, comfort him? She isn’t over him and the relationship she has with Ferit is doomed to fail for that reason and may cause Ferit to work with Kaan to get back at Serkan. It’s a tough situation and I feel for her somewhat, but she is behaving terrible, especially to Eda but also to Ferit, and it’s going to all blow up in her face in the end.
What I hope (think) happens next
The relationship between Eda and Aydan improves, I think this will happen slowly but in the end, Aydan will be Eda biggest cheerleader.
Melo finds out about Kaan the snake sooner rather than later, I don’t want her to be too hurt.
Serkan and Eda admit their feelings, to themselves and to each other, that being said, this is a romcom and these things are often dragged out, but hopefully not for too long.
We need to know more about Serkan’s brother and how that affected the Bolat family and we also want to know about Eda’s family, what happened to her parents? Why doesn’t she get along with her grandmother? How filthy rich are they?
Acting MVP goes to Neslihan Yeldan as Aydan Bolat, I was legitimately sobbing with her as she realized that she had actually step off the Bolat estate. Kudos!
Comic MVP is split between Leyla and Erdem this week.
All photo credits to creators.
