Ask Mantik Intikam Episode 12 Review "Cagla Gets Married"
Recap
Well, the writers took the SUPER SECRET MISCARRIAGE reveal and sandwiched it in with Cagla's dream wedding and the whole episode left an underwhelming taste in my mouth. The episode clearly had missed scenes (Esra with some letters where she tried to tell Ozan about the SUPER SECRET MISCARRIAGE?) and dwelled too long on other unimportant scenes. It was a VERY disjointed episode. Ozan and Esra dance around each other while Cagla and her mother compete for who can be most obnoxious. Musa and Zeyno do their best to make sure Ozan doesn't make a mistake but the episode ends with Ozan at the wedding ready to say "yes" even though he knows that the conversation he overheard was a misunderstanding, and the biggest reason Esra was angry with him had to do with her SUPER SECRET MISCARRIAGE.
Bullet Points
-Just when I thought Zumrut, my Queen, was going to be the worst mother on this show... along comes Cagla's mom. She played an annoying mom in another show, but I am too lazy to see which one.
-My man Cinar being the only logical one on this show. Doesn't want to rush into something with Esra, still believes Esra has feelings (and not just hate) for Ozan, wants his sister to be cautious, sees his mom's schemes and shuts her down... I only know they're setting him up for a fall by making him seem nice now. Never trust dizi men. That is what I've learned.
-A word on Cagla. GAH. I hate when they use mental illness as an excuse to be evil. The mentally ill people that I know are kind, considerate, and would never willfully hurt anyone else. Cagla goes about trying to hurt Esra at every turn, and I've said it before... ESRA IS NOT HER PROBLEM. Ozan is the problem.
-They're also eluding to the fact that Cagla was left at the alter previously.
-They've leaned into sad Ozan's gelled curly hair. I do not approve of sad Ozan or his sad hair.
-It IS satisfying to see Ozan look completely nauseous whenever Cagla touches him.
-They abandoned Esra's "flashback hair" and we're all thankful.
-Lots o' wedding flashbacks about the original wedding.
-I laugh whenever they make ridiculously attractive actors 'eat' sweets in these dizis. It was the most lackluster cake eating I've seen yet. We know that Ilhan is not putting sugar into that body. (Those of you who also watch Kardeslerim--it should be all of you because it is great--will remember when Doruk had to eat a bite of Melisa's cookie and took the smallest bite ever then pretended to chew it. Good times.)
-Menekse with the shimmy, watch out girl, you're going to hurt someone!
-Zeyno was putting in work left and right. While I didn't agree with her defense of Ozan, I did appreciate her trying to get in everyone's business. That is a true friend.
-Does it concern everyone else that Menekse's restaurant never has any customers? I mean... never. Zeyno just runs her plots straight from that joint without interference.
-Queen Zumrut. I could kiss this woman. Prancing about the hood, causing trouble... planning to wear WHITE to the wedding.
-Right on brand with love of her son and not tolerating any slander!
-CAN NOT WAIT till post wedding when Cagla decides she doesn't have to pretend nice anymore and they really quarrel with each other.
-I thought I'd be interested to hear what she thought about the SUPER SECRET MISCARRIAGE when it comes out, but I think I'll just be annoyed because it will remind me about how the horrible the reveal was in this episode.
-They had some cute Elif/Eco moments. Mainly that Elif inherited her mom's cooking gene, but she's seeing Eco's good side now and that is important.
-Now for the worst scene in the entire show... As we all learned from the fragman. Zeyno told him about the baby, he left to ask Esra about it.
-She then describes that she had a miscarriage and it is hugely underwhelming. He says he's sorry and if she told him things would have been different... blah blah blah.
-Then off to the wedding to marry Cagla, and the cliffy is whether he says yes or not, which the fragman clearly shows that he did.
Thoughts and Predictions
-So where did it all go wrong? Welp, I'd say in episode 10 when instead of confronting Esra he went AND PROPOSED MARRIAGE to Cagla. I think the writers made the mistake there... now the tension becomes the wedding, and not this SUPER SECRET MISCARRIAGE. Initially, the miscarriage was touted as the reason Esra left the marriage, but at some point the writers decided they were going to bundle a miscarriage into an already failing marriage which is an entirely different animal. Apparently, they were headed for divorce BEFORE the baby, and that was just one more thing according to the AMI version. It makes no sense and means that the writers changed ideas mid stream--maybe at the stream where they decided a hasty engagement was a good idea. It would have been better to have Ozan decide to DATE Cagla, then the miscarriage still would have been emotionally impactful. As it was, just another throw away moment.
-People have said that they were glad the scene didn't show a lot of Ozan's emotions because we got to see Esra's pain, but I'd say that is why the original version is superior. The Ozan character hears the Esra character telling someone else about the miscarriage, so she gets to have her pain while he can have his separate pain. Then LATER they talk about it. I think this would have been more successful in this version as well, but done is done.
-A brief word on Ozan/Cagla's marriage. It was fun doing mental gymnastics with all the other international fans of the show as we tried to absolve Ozan of all guilt in this Cagla marriage thing by saying that MAYBE Cinar put something in that contract for Esra and MAYBE he threatened Ozan and MAYBE Ozan is really just trying to protect Esra and MAYBE.... the reality is Ozan is a douche canoe. Simple as that. HE WAS GOING TO MARRY CAGLA UNTIL HE HEARD ABOUT THE MISCARRIAGE. I repeat... THIS MAN WAS GOING TO MARRY CAGLA and thought it was a good solution to make some people happy and kill the Esra situation. Childhood trauma is not an excuse to be an asshole. Ozan has been an asshole for MOST of these episodes. All I'm saying is these writers better kneel down and kiss Ilhan Sen's feet every time he walks into the room because for his beautiful bone structure and the veins in those hands, this fandom will forgive him anything and justify EVERYTHING.
-Why am I still watching? GOOD QUESTION. The show isn't fun to me anymore. Honestly. I miss the office hijinks of Ozan making Esra wash his car or her revenge with the flowers he's allergic to... But basically I still watch because Burcu and Ilhan are incredibly talented. I've buckled up, and now I'm just ready for all the cliche nonsense that I expected from this dizi initially. Fox is famous for chasing ratings with crazy storylines, so I'll be here to see how far it takes me.
-On the prediction front. Whether Cinar threatened Ozan or he married Cagla out of duty, it doesn't really matter, our boy ain't consummating anything anytime soon. I think he'll actually take off after the wedding for some soul searching time, and in the interim Cinar and Cagla will do a REAL corporate takeover... Esra of course will agree to go with Cinar to Ankara, and we'll get some flashbacks about why the wedding happened or potentially some miscarriage flashbacks that we should have gotten earlier.
-Happy Watching!
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