Kan Cicekleri 197

Episode 197 Chasing Down Leads

Quick synopsis: Meetings with people who have info. Gul makes a declaration. All the staring.

Baran is asleep but Dilan is tossing and turning. She is too excited. They are going to meet her uncle later. Baran wakes up and decides he will take her out to breakfast after they watch the sunrise, to distract her.

Sabiha is still reeling from finding out Dilan is probably her missing daughter. Her hair is all the way down; mother vs. business woman, mother like daughter. I kind of feel bad for Havin. She's been with Sabiha all this time and never gets similar attention. She doesn't seem to mind though. 

Baran is a little rumpled and frowny from sleep. Dilan is scared that maybe her mom won't want her after all this time. Or wonders what kind of person she is. If she won't live up to her dreams of her. More pep talking. He's her sanctuary, she tells him. And he loves it. There's more sweet talking at breakfast, and a new development, something that I think will propel them forward a little. They are doing the usual compliments, professing love for each other, and Dilan gets nervous and looks away. Baran puts a hand on her arm and says, "Don't be shy. Don't look away." And it's encouragement as much as an invitation.

I've thought about this. All the times they just stare at each other. I mean, how long do you look at someone before you either move in or look away, right? And he's just staring at her, unphased. Maybe it's the ease with which he maintains eye contact that is so unsettling? Is this an Eastern thing? Turkish thing? Gangster boss thing?*

I'm curious, if they just keep staring at one another, how long does that last? Both in the immediate, and also as a phase of getting closer? Will we have another 50 episodes of the staring in comfort (unlike the earlier staring of longing and challenge)?

Maybe she looks away because it feels like a trespass, and for him, he was raised with parents who did this to express their love and it feels natural to him.

Anyway, then they almost kiss at sunrise. 

No for real!

She heeds his encouragement for a brief moment, and leans in, like really leans in. He's so patient, leaning even slower than she does. So patient.

She loses her nerve at the last moment (not new) and he just tucks her in close, tucking their blanket around them. 
It's cute though, she actually tried to pucker up. And they try again--he just waits for her--but in the end it's only more love talk. Which is good too.

Azade-doom wants to know where they ran off to so early. She's so nosey. Kudret tells her, "Leave them kids alone". Pink Floyd’s got nothing on him. Hasan tries to wind her up and she shuts him down.

Baran wants her to finish her breakfast sandwich before they go meet her uncle. It's a very big sandwich.

Firat wants to elope; Gul wants to wait for approval. I'm uncertain what Kudret would tell them to do, as much as he's coached him on not causing more troubles for Gul. He was also the instigator of the get-her-away-from-all-this plot, so...elope? I think? And Firat has a point: It's not like there aren't going to be problems waiting in line for them anyway. And he's really rededicated himself to her. He's in for the long haul. I approve.

Hanife and Cevriye are still plotting to leave. 

Dilan is a bundle of nerves. Her earrings are pretty neat in this scene. They decide they won't say who Dilan is when her uncle comes. Best not to alert any family just now. Especially if Baran's theory about Esra trying to disappear is correct. They want to find her first, not someone who still wishes her ill. 

Azade is such a bee-atch.Gul is mopping and she deliberately dumps her coffee out. Twice. Then stomps on the mop. She is a siamese cat from Lady and the Tramp. Kader sees all this but can do nothing.

Dilan's uncle is skeptical; Baran is a big boss but Ezra’s family has disowned her.** They don't know of her whereabouts. He'll say no more. 

There's the worry that Baran's extended family will find out she's adopted, but also, now they know her father is tied to his mother's death and father's shooting. The ripples of a search into Hikmet's widow could touch upon other hidden dangers. And if Dilan's mom is disowned, they might try to actively keep Dilan from dredging up the past for them. 

Kader is convinced Gul can never be a Karabey while Azade-doom is alive.

Well. There's a thought…

No, I'm just kidding. She does more to hurt herself than anyone else ever could.

Havin is getting some old files that will help Sabiha know for sure her Dilan is one of the orphans buried in a cemetery. Or not. Hikmet said she was dead. Without her dad, and her mom estranged, she'd be an orphan, buried in one of only a few places.

Ahmet! Kader gets an Ahmet visit. Those mages, they gotta stick together. Gul is listening too.

Ooooohhhh. Ahmet says karma is gonna get her, Azade-doom. People get what's coming to them. 

What'd I say? Hmm?

Her black heart will be her undoing. Me and Ahmet, we're like this. 

As active advice, it's not really helpful. But it is consoling.

Kuderet has found out that Cevahir's African companies are clean. (What?! No way.) He sets up a meeting to discuss his proposal. Cevahir is pleased. He smiles like a vampire, really relishing his teeth and probably wishing he had actual fangs.

Azade won't let up. She's as bad as Lady Tremaine with her Cinderella-ing. 

Now DIlan is doing the staring. Not as intensely, but all the while thinking of how wonderful Baran is. When he asks about it, she says nothing and he does it again,"Don't say that." An encouragement and invitation, just like before. Say the thing. She does and he brings her hand to his mouth for a kiss across her fingers. 

The man is intense.

She confesses that even when she was with Sabiha she always thought about him. He says ditto. More staring. 

One of Baran's guys found out Esra's story. It's a bit long. They'll meet up. 

Sabiha is going to have the three orphans buried in the cemetery exhumed for DNA testing. 

Rich people, ammiright?

Dilan's mom had a whole crazy past herself, akin to anything we've seen thus far:
Married Hikmet; had a daughter. But some other guy was after Esra and slandered her.*** Hikmet took the daughter and left. His family put out a death warrant on her. (She's from Mardin too, so gangster.) She fled to Istanbul in search of her daughter. 

Zowie.

Another day, another person to talk to: the woman who raised Esra is in the old village. 

Silah has turned into a bit of a jerk. I wondered if he would. Sure, Gul broke off the engagement but he's being very controlling and pushing her around physically. Firat sees this and headbutts him. Gul pulls them apart and yells, "I'm marrying Firat, not you!"

News flash for Firat.

She was troubled between Firat wanting to elope, Azade-doom being vindictive, and her mom just being sorrowful for her, but this aggression from Silah seems to have cemented her resolve.

The old woman in the village isn't there. But someone else remembers her, calls Dilan by name. And gives Dilan a photo of her mom. Esra's hair covers most of her face in profile. 

 Culturisms:
*I feel like maybe there's a piece of Middle Eastern culture I haven't grown up with either, like a sultan gazing upon his love. Knights are known to do similar things in courtly love, but it's from afar. There's never this idea of languid, lounging love, a slow burn in close proximity. 

To recap: all the staring.

** The conversation with her uncle, short as it is, has a very call and response feel to it, like the "you're right, and" argument strategy. The uncle says things like "I respect you, but" and "Your wish is my command, however". It feels like Marie De France's Art of Courtly Love, where she directs how to refuse if you are noble and your partner is middle class. Or in this case, the partner is noble and you are not. Or maybe Machiavelli with his similar instruction. 

Yelling at the tv:

*** OMG! Was it Hasan?!? Is that where his crush for Sabiha comes from? But he doesn't recognize her now? It would be just like him to slander a woman for spite.

In a similar way to Dilan being Baran’s freedom from his prison of revenge, he is now a freeing force for her. At a time when she loses her family and is looking for another, she relies heavily on this found family, Baran being the focal point of it.  

Zippo Hagia Sophias chanted.

Teaser 198: They are in a new bedroom. Gul packed for Dilan. They are staying in Mardin for a little while. Ooh la la.