"До живот" - нов сериал по ATV с Фахрие Евджен и Енгин Акюрек - тема 5

Regret - Deception + Love - Vengeance + X = Happy Ending
Is the equation in the title of this article possible at all in our fast-paced series “Until Death”? I guess the answer would be “no” unless the writers meant “Not until they all die and unite hereafter” and therefore named the series “Until Death” and forgot to add “… you’ll see a happy ending only in your dreams” to the title. So, what are those variables in this article’s title? How do they affect this story?
Regret is like realizing that you are on the wrong train that left the station and there is no getting off. It is one of the worst feelings that a person can experience. It means there was another path which you didn’t or wasn’t able to take. It means things could have been different in a better way. However, sometimes, regret also means that you did something horrible and you can’t take it back anymore. Therefore, no matter how hard you try, your conscience would never feel at ease even if you were forgiven for what you did and this feeling will haunt you forever. Sure, you can always take a lesson from this experience, turn it into something positive and try to move on with your life as best as you can. Therefore, regret also means a new beginning that leads you to repair, or at least, to try to patch what’s torn apart. It’s better late than never.
Deception causes another person to acquire a false belief or to continue to have a false belief. Dictionaries define deception as a form of lying. Isn’t it the same thing as a lie? After all, whatever you call it, deception or lie, it may really hurt or harm people who are subject to it; even if it is done to make things better. People lie or deceive others for several reasons; to protect themselves, to make other people feel better, or simply out of love or fear since they are afraid of losing their loved ones. Whatever the reason is, it always comes back to bite you and you will be bitten hard.
Love and vengeance are the severest feelings of all and both can consume you easily. Love is beautiful in every form whether you love a flower, a pet, a friend, an actor, an artist, a musician, a soccer team, your country, your parents, your child, your siblings, your family, or a person who have no idea whom you are… It is even more beautiful if the person whom you are in love with requites your love. But, love is also a rabbit hole you don’t want to find yourself in. It can easily become a passionate obsession which can take a dangerous turn. People can lie to or hide things from each other and fight, harm, or kill others in the name of love. They can use love to vindicate their behaviors.
Vengeance makes you do things that you think you were incapable of doing. It makes you feel alive because it takes you beyond the unthinkable and the impossible. However, it also buries you alive because of its unexpected and dire consequences. Where there is vengeance, there may be some degree of satisfaction in the end but there is no happy ending. How can you find happiness or satisfaction after you lost most precious things in your life because of someone else’s ferocious act? Like your youth… Like your bright future… Like your innocence… Like your loved ones… Nothing or no one can fill that void. Nothing can make you feel better unless you turn your loss into something good that helps others.
The thing that puts things in motion in “Until Death” was Selvi’s regret about what she had done, or rather, what she was forced to do. The moment she saw how her action tore Daghan apart at the police station, she had realized the harm she caused even though she was too young to comprehend what was going on. After that, she spent most of her youth to undo her wrongdoing. Her regret made her a lawyer and got Daghan out of prison. I can’t imagine the magnitude of her remorse when she saw Daghan and his family at the breakfast table after she spent the night there. Even though she did something good, no amount of remorse can undo the damage that has been done. Furthermore, this hasn’t led her to confess everything yet. It also made Beril, Daghan’s ex-fiancee, the mother of his son, express her regret over not believing Daghan and giving up their baby for adoption. She also probably regrets that she married Ender.
Both women deceived Daghan; Selvi, by keeping her real identity from him and, Beril, by hiding the fact that their son was still alive. Selvi did it out of love for Daghan and out of fear of losing his brother. I’m not sure why Beril did it. Maybe, she really planned to have an abortion at the time when she visited Daghan in the prison and changed her mind later on. In any case, she’s never told him the truth.
Yilmaz, who is actually in the center of everything and who loves his sister to death, killed a man for the first time to save her sister’s life, according to him, out of love and desperation. Later, he killed Osman and Halil; this time out of fear to save his ass. He managed to ruin everybody’s life in the series including his own sister. Ender, who is the real mastermind of all these, is a very good example of how love can turn into an obsession that harms others. Now, his real father is getting into the picture. We will see how this will affect him.
Orson Welles said “If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.” It seems like we’ve already passed that stop where a happy ending was possible. So what is the variable X in our equation then? What can balance all those negative things out and make this series have a happy ending? That variable is forgiveness. “To err is human; to forgive, divine” said English poet Alexander Pope. The quote implies that anyone can make a mistake but forgiving is a very difficult and godly thing to do. Forgiving doesn’t mean to excuse what happened or what was done to you, but it brings you the peace that you need to move on with your life.
However it seems there is no forgiveness on the horizon in Daghan’s case yet since he’s already been consumed by his vengeance at this point. We have yet to learn what Daghan’s reaction will be when he finds out Selvi’s real identity or that her brother was the one who committed the crime which Daghan was accused of and, on top of that, who killed two more people whom he cared for. What is he going to do when he finds out that he has a son? Will he be able to see that his determination to get even caused two people’s life and even may endanger more lives? Our choices define us. What would you do if you were in his shoes?