Summaries

Synopsis

In 1997 in Istanbul, Turkey, Omer Uçar (Ismail Filiz) and his family lived a comfortable lower middle-class life, until one day his life was changed forever. Omer had two best friends that he had known for years, Ali and Cengiz. Omer worked with Ali (Baris Falay) as a motor mechanic, and Cengiz (Yigit Ozsener) when Omer met and fell in love with Eysan (Cansu Dere). Ali and Cengiz soon become convinced by Serdar Tezcan (Salih Kalyon), who is also Eysan's father, to rob a casino. Serdar devises the whole scheme, and figures that it will require four people to pull off a successful robbery. Cengiz was up first in the plot to rob the casino, he was the mole and was working there in order to gain access. Ali comes into play next as the ruthless killer on the night of the robbery. The third accomplice is Eysan (Cansu Dere), the skilled con-woman who manipulates men for their money as a career and this time her victim would be Omer. In Serdar's plan, Omer would be the fourth person to complete the job. Omer is blamed for the robbery by way of implanting false evidence, misleading the police and ceasing all other investigations on the matter. Serdar's primary motive was the money, though his love for a good con also played a role. Eysan's, Cengiz' and Ali's motives would be revealed later in the series.

Ali and Cengiz at the time believed that Omer would only get a few years in jail for stealing the money; however, the robbery went wrong and Ali had to shoot and kill the security guard. The same gun that was used in the robbery was pointed at Omer by Cengiz just a few days before the crime. After having too many drinks, Cengiz, in a drunken state and wearing gloves, points the gun at Omer, after which he manages to take the gun away from Cengiz only to leave his prints on the gun, sealing his fate. Further evidence to implicate Omer to the crime is a jacket that he had previously worn which was also dumped with the gun ensuring the police a swift arrest.

In 1997, when Omer was blamed for the crime, the commissar (Mesut Akusta) went to the prison cell where Omer was in there for a couple hours. Whilst the chief commissar was inside the cell, he kept inquiring about the whereabouts of the money, even though Omer kept denying having done the robbery. Because of his lack of cooperation, Omer was beaten up for hours. Afterwards, during Omer's trial, the judge showed the picture of the murder weapon used in the robbery, a gun, and a picture of a similarly related jacket. Although Omer was still insisting that he was innocent, a witness was called to the stand. That witness was revealed to be Eysan, who falsely testified that it was Omer who robbed the casino and murdered the security guard. Eysan's testimony was to re-establish the evidence and accusations, cementing her betrayal. The plan worked successfully and all the while Ali, Cengiz, Serdar and Eysan got away with murder and millions of dollars. Omer went to jail for the crime he didn't commit the day after he proposed to Eysan.

During his incarceration, Omer had some very hard times, being beaten almost daily by the chief prison warden who was convinced that Omer had indeed committed the crime, and wanted to know the exact whereabouts of the money. His family was even threatened, and so his hatred for his old friends grew for what they had done to him. Omer's only luck was to be taken under the wing of Ramiz Karaeski (referred to as Uncle Ramiz, played by Tuncel Kurtiz), once a powerful mafia type figure who treated Omer like one of his sons and offered him some protection while imprisoned.

In 2005, Omer had his face badly cut by the chief warden with two other guards by using a riot in the prison as an excuse to beat Omer, so he would tell where the money was. Omer pretended to tell him, so that when the warden dismissed the other guards, a fight to the death meant the head warden was killed. With help from Ramiz, it was made known that Omer had died but his face was unrecognizable, when actually Omer escaped the jail and had full plastic surgery. Omer Uçar then changes his name to Ezel Bayraktar (meaning "eternity" in Turkish) (Kenan imirzalioglu), and returns to get his revenge, unknown to his previous friends, Eysan and Cengiz (who are now married and have a son), and Ali (who is head of security at Cengiz's hotel) The once simple boy becomes a man exceptionally skilled at gambling, reading people, and fighting, and has considerably high class in society. He is helped by his assistants Kamil (Güray Kip) and Sebnem (Bade isçil), as well as his prison mentor Ramiz Karaeski.

Eysan's motive for framing Omer was to save her sister Bahar's life. Serdar explained to Eysan that Bahar was terminally ill and would need expensive treatment out of the country at better medical facilities, such as in England. The money would be the only way to pay for that treatment. A torn Eysan ultimately chose to send her love to what she thought would be a short prison sentence in exchange for her sister's recovery. Cengiz went along with the plan because he fell in love with Eysan the moment he saw her, and he would do anything she asked. Besides, Cengiz figured that with Omer in prison he would have a clear path to winning Eysan's heart.

Ali's motive was the big mystery. Like Eysan, he greatly regretted sending Omer to prison, and much later in the series it was revealed that he did so only at Eysan's prodding. She reminded him that Ali's own father had gone to prison years earlier, having taken the blame for Ali's accidental fatal shooting of a young boy when Ali was a teenager. Ali's father made his son promise him to "become a big man," and so Ali figured his time was running out, and the casino robbery would give him the money and power that would fulfill his promise to his father.

As the first season closes, Omer, now Ezel, eventually reveals his identify to his former friends, after he believes that he has punished them enough. A second plot comes to the forefront, however, and intertwines with the first. A new villain emerges, more powerful than Ramiz in terms of connections, considered the most powerful man in Turkey, in fact: Kenan Birkan. It turns out that Ramiz and Kenan were best friends 30 years earlier, bitterly torn apart by their common love interest, Selma. It is also revealed that even though Ramiz genuinely loves Omer/Ezel like a son, part of why he groomed him was to create a good and trustworthy right-hand man to help him battle Kenan.

As the second and final season winds to an ultimate conclusion, the plot moves along at a furious pace, with main characters killed off in substantially every episode. In the final episode (71), the only ones left standing are Ezel, Eysan, their young son, Ezel's mother and father, Ali, his wife (Ramiz' daughter) Azad, their baby boy Tevfik aka "Tefo" (named after Ali's deceased right-hand man and dear friend), Bade (Ezel's brief love interest), and Sebnem, Tevfik's widow. Ezel (Omer) and Eysan have recaptured their love, but an insanely jealous Cengiz rapes Eysan and nearly kills her, informing the police that Ezel did it. As she lies in the hospital in critical condition, Eysan reveals that it was Cengiz and not Ezel who did that to her. Meanwhile, Ezel and Ali catch up with Cengiz at a lighthouse and kill him. Ezel then returns to the hospital where the doctors tell him that Eysan has only a few hours left to live. She wants to die in Omer's arms.

In a vague and rather metaphysical conclusion, Ezel and Eysan ride on a train as Eysan's eyes close and it appears that she has died. Ezel then drinks some liquid from a ring that Ramiz had given him with the instructions never to "wear the ring" (i.e., drink from it) unless he was ready for a new life. Ezel's eyes also close and he tells Eysan that he is coming to be with her, and that Bahar (who had been killed much earlier in the series) is waiting for them, too. The camera pans to other passengers on the train, the beloved friends and family of Omer and Eysan that had been killed, including Ramiz, Bahar, and Ezel's little brother, Mert.

In the final scene, a young man on a motorcycle pulls up to the lighthouse and tells the guard "I am here to see my father." When asked to identify himself, the young man reveals he is Omer's son. As he approaches the door, the camera shows a silhouette of a man opening the door, and making a gesture as if to scratch his head, much like Omer/Ezel used to. The audience is left wondering what really happened: Whether that is Ezel, whether he died on that train with Eysan, or whether he lived. Whether that liquid in the ring was poison or not. Whether or not the train scene, in fact, was real or imagined.