After their meeting at the movies, Onur begins anew to take an interest in Sherazat. He feels remorse for his behavior, but at the heart of his interest, even before his indecent proposal, was his attraction to her.
The company has an Eid party; Kerem and Onur both voice their well wishes with La Bises--a kiss on each cheek. Kerem is first, and not to be outdone, or to let his intentions be unclear, Onur whispers a low, extra greeting in her ear after the second kiss, which also happens to be on the opposite side from Kerem, so he can't see it. A meaningful if small stare passes between them. It's the first time he can be even slightly intimate with her since the night they spent together.
But all the while, as the days pass, he is reliving her accusations about asking him for the money and his reply: that she ought to feel a great benevolence in asking for such a sum from a company she just started working for. He wants to take it all back--that night, his response, his incredible gall and assertions. He wants to have that night not have happened. Firdevs advises him, sometimes you regret something you did; sometimes you regret you didn't do something. He interprets this as that he must take a step. And later, he confides again that he needs to make up for something he did and she tells him to be brave. He resolves to make a grand gesture.
At the office, Kerem says he'll work with Sherazat on the big new project but then later, Peride recruits Sherazat for work with the foundation. Then Kerem wins the Chairman vote. Even though it swings back and forth and has since they've been partners, it adds to the tension of the dynamic. Onur gets testy and possessive. Sherazat is the company's employee, she can't work for the foundation too much. All right then, Kerem asks his mother to invite Sherazat to her house for a meeting on a Saturday. Onur immediately starts thinking of what this means: a piece of her weekend, away from Kaan, and a symbolic acceptance of Sherazat not unlike a daughter-in-law. The music backs him up. And Kerem says he has fallen in love with Sherazat.
Which makes Onur act rashly, and he shows up at Sherazat's doorstep, under the guise of needing a cd for work. They same thing Benu has offered to do for Kerem, so not out of the question, but an odd circumstance for these two.
And Sherazat is pissed. To be there, it means he looked up her address, came over because her phone was turned off, because she wasn't at work any more, and wants a copy of the work that she was planning to give him early in the morning. Now he is hounding her not just at work, but inserting himself into her private life as well. He sees Kaan and says hello, asks if he remembers him from the theater and says how cute he is. Sherazat looks at him furiously. How dare he come to her home, talk to her child and remark how cute he is when he was the one who made demands on her for the money to save him. Especially now that he knows why she needed the money. What he meant as way to ingratiate himself has only provoked her.
But she does invite him and will make a cd copy for him. He tries to be pleasing, saying she can take her time, trying to show her he can be congenial. And in walks Mihriban. He is unaware of who she is but smiles and says a friendly hello. Sherazat introduces her as Kaan's second mother. And we see the confusion on Onur's face. Kaan's bone marrow donor, she elaborates, with some satisfaction at being able to throw this back at him. He wanted to see her private life, then he will get more than he bargained for. Not the sweet, evening at home he thought he might stumble on, but fuel for the fire of all his feelings of remorse. He continues to try to redeem himself however--for that is the course of our story--and takes it in stride. That he accepts this status without question is redeeming.
There is a wall of photographs of Sherazat's late husband Ahmet and Kaan sees Onur looking at it.* Sherazat comes in and sees his open stares too. One thing the show does really well is take its time with glances, notices, watching, long looks. Onur asks if it is her husband--present tense. She affirms that "He is"--not just 'yes'--also present tense. He realizes something in that moment: she still thinks of herself as married to this man, as bound to him, and she feels like she cheated on him in spending the night with Onur. He apologizes...for calling so late. But of course, the long look says he is truly sorry for her loss, for putting her through that, and he knows now, how much more it was than just despicable. How much it cost her personally. In acknowledging her as a widow, in looking at and acknowledging the photos of her husband, he is seeing her as a person, validating her. He shows her he recognizes that there are things he does not know about her, and even if he thinks he happened to glimpse something in the night they shared, that he is not so arrogant now to think he knows anything about her that she does not let him see. He is saying, in effect, "I see you not as I want to, but as you are".
He rubs Kaan's cheek and ruffles his hair as he passes him on his way out. And the boy has seen Onur's acknowledgement of his father.
And then, Onur's grand gesture: he proposes to Sherazat.
A side note: There's a great 2 second look when the girls (Sherazat and Benu) end up joining the boys and their mothers for lunch at the company cafeteria. One of the mothers makes a joke about how whenever they want to do something with a charity, the boys only ask, "How much?" Sherazat, sitting next to Onur, smiles pleasantly and looks at him, as one would in polite conversation. But he looks at her, notices she is looking at him and does a double take. Maybe he's wondering, "Why is she smiling?" and then thinking, "She's smiling at me!" and maybe even wondering if she's thinking about how there's always this subject of money hanging between them and it can come up even in conversations not related to their situation. In the next instant it's forgotten and Onur is looking a different way, but it's fantastic. I love this show for gems like that.
*A note about Onur's relationship with Kaan: It is not the immediate fun and superficial connection with kids that others affect, but a more deliberate and personal path that builds. Onur notices he has learnt some words from Mihriban, who speaks another language, and congratulates him, showing the boy he thinks he is smart, rather than the nondescript gushing Kaan usually gets from adults.
No comments:
Post a Comment