Warning: Long post with spoilers ⚠️
Episode 111 🔥
With one nail biting episode after another, week after week, &, multiple new threads & arcs & themes & ideas woven together intricately, this season has been on fire so far. 13 episodes in, it is already proving to be the best – most intense, most meaningful, most eventful – so far.
And Episode 111, notwithstanding its cruel cliffhanger or rather noosehanger, was absolutely brilliant. Mind blowing! So hard to wait for next Wednesday!!. 🔥
As usual, my thoughts are all over the place but here are just a few of them in no particular order.
🏹The Chess Game: Power & Politics:
Osman Gazi was as known for his political acumen as for his conquests & I’m absolutely loving the way the scenarists are taking time to show us an intricate chess game on the borderlands.
Moves, counter moves, thoughtful strategy. Drawing your opponent’s attention in one direction while targeting another.
Kings, queens, knights, rooks, bishops, pawns – we have them all here in this vast perilous chess board of borderlands.
And I’m loving all the new characters – Valide Sultan Ismihan, Kantacuzenos, Olof, Frigg, Bayinder, Sultan Alaeddin – they are all memorable interesting impactful well fleshed out characters played by brilliant actors doing full justice to their roles!
🏹Countdown to the Declaration Of A State:
Of course, there had been chess games before too, in previous seasons, but they were child’s play compared to what is being shown now. Those had merely served to hone Osman’s skills for this final game. This final countdown.
This time, just as Osman has more power – power steadily amassed over a course of 20 years – his opponents – the people opposing him- are more powerful as well.
The stakes involved are much higher. It’s about making/ breaking states, amassing sufficient power to not just be able to declare an independent state but to be able to keep it standing – and thriving – in a hostile environment, to be able to protect its boundaries, to protect it from external (and internal) threats & interferences.
Without this power – & the requisite resources to fuel it – declaring a State would amount to nothing.
Anybody can declare a State & mint coins in their name but if there isn’t sufficient power to keep this State standing, it wouldn’t take long for such a state to be duly shot down by its enemies!!
🏹 Human Agency & Divine Decree: There Is No Power nor Might except with Allah.
Love how the script balances the two. Osman Bey & his team strives in the way of Allah but the pen has already written, the ink has already dried & the enemy with their arrogant Machiavellian ways – oblivious to the Divine Plan – are plotting in futile.
🏹 The Opening Action In Soğut:
Sheer brilliance the way it was paced & choreographed & directed & transferred to us, viewers, the adrenaline, the fire, coursing through the veins of our valiant warriors. Gritty & realistic & not over stylized – it was incredibly impactful. World class👏 Actually, KO has many such gems that I can watch over & over again! Although, I have to admit action in this season has been something else!!🔥
& talking of action scenes, I love the focus on Osman Bey as a powerful & super skilled WARRIOR – a cut above the rest – because this is totally in keeping with his larger than life portrayal in early Ottoman chronicles.
This combined with the little ‘Osmanisms’ 😄 that the scenarist & Burak O bring to his role make makes his personality with all its wonderful facets an absolute treat to watch.
The way he glanced sideways at Bayinder after chopping the Mongol commander’s head & the way he says ‘Çavundur Bayinder’ gel’ lol.
🏹Umer Bey Kizi Malhun Hatun:
I’m loving the character growth, the way they continue to develop her character, focusing on her resourcefulness, strength, initiative & unflinching loyalty. I think she’ll rock her role as the future valide sultan.
However, while we all know that she is the mother of the future Sultan Orhan, the characters themselves, at this point in narrative, can’t see the future.
So they can’t know for sure who would get chosen (by Osman & by their people – like Osman himself was) as the next Bey.
Despite the prophecy, Ertugrul Bey tried to be fair to all his sons and gave them all an even playing field & a chance to prove themselves.
I expect Osman to do the same – especially because according to the chronicles both Orhan & Alaeddin Ali were serious contenders for the throne right until the moment (after Osman’s death or while he was on deathbed) when Orhan offered him the throne (or suggested to divide the state into two). On the other hand, Alaeddin, refusing to divide & diminish their father’s legacy & believing that Orhan deserved it more, insisted on Orhan becoming the next Sultan.
🏹 Seda Yildiz’s Sheikh Edebali:
What an outstanding performance by Seda Yidiz. All his scenes and especially his & his daughter Bala’s scene – the lines, the lessons, the way he said them, the way he cried, the reason he cried – it was all so brilliantly written and enacted and so very touching. What a fitting tribute to the spiritual founder of Ottoman Empire – Sheikh Edebali.
I love both Edebali & Ibn Arabi and it was in this episode that a fundamental difference in their portrayals dawned upon me. While Ibn Arabi’s portrayal was a beautiful – often mystical – embodiment of Islamic Spirituality, Edebali’s (& Dursun Faqih) portrayal encompasses both the Spirituality – the values, the relationships, the life purpose – & the Law – the do’s, the dont’s, the moral rules, the ethical codes. The finer details of the boundaries.
🏹 Edebali’s Daughter – Bala Hatun
And how well Sheikh Edebali has raised his daughter, Bala, the moon that rose from his chest to sink into the man who would lay the foundations of a great empire with this spiritual light – the light of the Oğuz. The word for moon in Arabic is Qamar and it is from this word that the word ‘kamariye’ one of the nick names of Edebali’s daughter is derived from.
🏹 The Heart Is A Flower Of The Day Of Judgement & Aşk its Tendril that reaches toward Allah.
As always, Burak & Ozge did a brilliant job delineating with silent eloquent eyes this immortal aşk that Osman had talked about in early Season 2
With this episode, especially with that blue scarf resurfacing 🥲, their story, right from the moment they first met – that golden fall afternoon – flashed before my eyes….
It was incredibly poignant.
Twenty years.
Seasons came & went. Their world changed. Much water flowed under the bridge but their legendary love – never forgotten to be mentioned by early Ottoman chroniclers – survived….
A truly rare love that dwells quietly in their hearts like incense in old wood….love that, like Osman once said(2), all the world’s iron melted into swords wouldn’t be able to remove…
I’m not a fan of overt sentimentality but got to admit, this particular love story tugs at my heartstrings like love stories seldom do! I think it’s a combination of the way it steers clear of clichés plus the touch of pathos – poetic pathos – mixed into it – that does the trick for me😄
🏹 Turgut Bey: Interpersonal Frictions that Impede The Fruition Of Dreams.
I felt the unfortunate situation was less due to a cold desire for castles or gold & more a result of an emotionally complex interpersonal equation with Osman, his expectations from him, his high regard for him on one hand & a possible need for validation/ approval/ appreciation/ acknowledgment – return/ reciprocity – from him on the other. He possibly felt hurt, under appreciated, like he was suddenly being valued less than a newbie like Oktem Bey – who later on proved to be totally undeserving of the honor accorded to him!!
I think what they are trying to show here is a dose of reality.
It has been proven by history, even well intentioned people working toward a common cause will have interpersonal frictions, differences, misunderstandings every now & then. It’s often what impedes fruition of dreams. It’s often what crumbles reality back into dreams.
Both parties need to sit down & try and resolve their differences, preferably under Sheikh Edebali’s arbitration, but like Sheikh Edebali himself said to Turgut, there is a time & place for everything.
As his trusted commander in chief, Turgut chose the worst possible time to leave Osman Bey alone…
And the way he failed to see the true face of Ismihan & put Konur in harm’s way….I don’t blame Osman for still being angry – for not wanting him back in his team. Even though he doesn’t allow his ego or grudge to taking Turgut’s help when needed…in the desperate times they are living in. The Cause above the Nafs always…
All in all, it was a brilliant episode with the cruelest possible noosehanger!!! (Turkish historical shows seem to have a thing for noosehangers, don’t they? 😂)
Can’t wait for the next episode!!
