Ask-I Memnu Episode 2 "The Awkward Family Dinner Episode"

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear...Where to begin on this one? I have unraveled a few of the relationships that were confusing to me in the past and answered some critical questions. Then some OTHER bizarre questions arose such as another potentially disturbing love triangle. In the opening scenes it looks like Behlul* and his cousin Nihal are more friendly than I am with my cousins. Besir thinks so as well. I really hope that Besir and I are just reading into things because... yuck. The age thing... the cousin thing... the fact we have sufficient love triangles to keep us busy for DAYS.

I will just say, I do not have high hopes for this couple. They've already started arguing, Nihat is keeping the secret that he paid off Peyker's mother for her to sign the prenup (using money he apparently didn't have and now they need to sell land to get). She's receiving flowers from Behlul that drive her mad. Basically this relationship is built on a foundation of lies... so that should be fun in the future.

--Here I should note that I made it to the 35 minute mark in this episode before I had to change my player to 1.25 time. Too many long drawn out shots of nothing in particular with violin music. It makes the laughter a little weird but the rest of it very tolerable--

Speaking of foundations of lies... Adnan invites Firdevs and company over for an awkward family dinner in which Nihal acts like a nightmare to balance out Firdevs who is also being a bit of a nightmare. Their power struggle is comedic and tragic. At this point I don't know if I admire Nihal for clinging so to her dad (being a bit of a Daddy's Girl myself) or if I find it all very unhealthy and co dependent. All I know is watching these two circle that poor old man while he only has eyes for Bihter is hysterical. Only Mademoiselle (who it turns out isn't a mistress, she's just been in love with Adnan secretly since his wife died) Deniz can see what is going on. Then Bulent, who is hopefully REALLY too young to figure into love triangles, develops a little crush on Bihter. What is with all the men in this family being in love with her? Is there no one else? 

Adnan chooses to confide in Deniz about his plans to marry Bihter, which is good since he's already working on a wood carving of her which isn't weird at all, particularly since he stopped working on a woodcarving of his daughter in order to focus on this... symbolic, I think so and if I'm not mistaken Nihal with think so as well. Deniz makes a quiet drama about leaving, but we all know this woman ain't going anywhere. We'd lose a weird love triangle, and this show is all about MORE love triangles. 

Meanwhile Firdevs is crowing about how she will marry Adnan and how interested in her he is, which I find odd because I've never seen him show even more the most cold form of politeness to her. She is THIRSTY and Bihter is just egging her on which makes me think that Bihter is getting involved with Adnan for revenge and we all know how well relationships that begin for vengeance turn out...

Predictably, Nihat isn't happy when she finds out that her dad will marry, even though it isn't Firdevs, the hag. Nihat wouldn't have been happy either way, cause she's a brat. Behlul seems surprised... I've noted his feelings and will keep an eye on them. He spends an inordinate amount of time looking at Bihter in photos of her sister's wedding. The servants gossip about things, but they all bore me so the less said about them, the better.  

In the last scene we have a big reveal where Firdevs thinks Adnan is coming to talk to her about marriage (they haven't even been out on a date?!) when he tells her he wants to marry her daughter... Stay tuned because I predict this will NOT end well. 

*You will note my lack of accents and occasionally incorrect spelling. I did try to set my keyboard to Turkish so I could write the accents correctly but it was a disaster trying to type all the rest of the words I needed so here we are. Also, why so many similar names? Behlul, Bihter, Besir, Bulent? Nihat, Nihal? For real Turkish Dizi writers TAKE PITY on your international fans. Go with WILDLY different names.