Atiye (The Gift) – Season 1 Episode 6 Recap & Review

Shahmaran

Episode 6 of Atiye sees our protagonist return to her painting while Erhan opens a box belonging to his Father and looks over the items inside. Breathing heavily, he looks at a picture and notices behind it, a hidden book. Given the pages are empty, he instead shines a torch on it and finds plenty of excerpts around dangerous men tracking his Father down and trying to stop him revealing the truth.

He phones Oner and questions him over what happened in the past, and he corroborates the story that men were indeed after Erhan’s father. He apologises and it’s here he reveals that Erhan’s parents were killed in the car crash. Enraged, Erhan stops in his tracks when he finds a tape holding strange words that seem to point toward another clue. That clue, as it happens, leads him to that of the Shahmaran – a fable around the Queen Of Snakes and of souls transporting from Mother to Daughter.

It turns out the tape is actually a series of repeated numbers, which Erhan manages to have translated. Soon after, Erhan is arrested over stolen items and inside the cell, speaks to Atiye about his parents being killed and the aforementioned numbers.

Meanwhile, a stronger and more self-assured Atiye stands up to her Mother over the reveal of Zuhre and walks away from her. As she does, Ozan weakens and succumbs to his Father, who implores him to make up with Atiye and marry her given his family legacy depends on this. He immediately heads to her house and asks whether she’s even a tad bit sad about what happened but she’s defiant, telling him she’s not sorry despite them being together for 6 years.

As it happens, the numbers that Erhan have been repeating are actually verses that his cell-mate has been repeating and as he finally stops and listens, the words begin to make sense as the pieces of the mystery come together. Resurrection after death. The Tree Of Life. Before he can get to the bottom of this however, Erhan is released from jail thanks to Oner’s assistant testifying on his behalf.

Atiye heads off to find Bekir Tilki regarding clues around the car crash that occurred 23 years prior. As she touches the man on the back, she experiences visions from the past where the baby involved in the car crash seems to have survived. As she deliberates over this plot reveal, Serdar’s TV crackles to life and seemingly appears to control him in a bizarre scene that feels completely out of sorts with what’s happening.

While Cansu gives Ozan an ultimatum regarding them sleeping together, Atiye heads to Erhan’s and tells him about the baby surviving the crash. After hugging, she heads home where Cansu admits there’s something rotten inside of her. Just before revealing the truth however, she looks upon a picture, wide-eyed, while Erhan digs up the baby grave and finds a doll inside where we leave things hanging in the balance.

Atiye faces a bit of an identity crisis in this episode. After the big mystery last time out and the dramatic reveals in the cave, Atiye seems to have devolved into much more of a familial drama, complete with relationship woes and backstabbing. Serdar’s TV controlling him is an utterly bizarre scene too that seems to have come out of left-field and right now, the show feels like a far cry from the same one we experienced back in the first episode.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s still enjoyment to be had here but with only a few episodes to go, I’m concerned we’re not going to receive any answers to the mysteries being raised so far, given the emphasis on Atiye and Erhan’s past rather than the symbols and their meaning.