Midnight at the Pera Palace – Season 2 Episode 6 Recap & Review

Changing History

Episode 6 of Midnight at the Pera Palace season 2 starts with Halit heading back to the warehouse in the 40’s timeline and finding Mumtaz gone. The guard is passed out on the floor, and as for Mumtaz, he speaks to the Nazis and strikes a deal with them.

He believes they can rule the world together, but first they need to overthrow the president of Turkey to make that happen. Kidnapping all these women has simply been a smokescreen to actually focus on the real plan – putting himself in a positon of power.

Fast forward to ’79 and both Ahmet and Esra are shocked by this turn of events. The patriarchy is in full swing, and there are strict rules for women to adhere to. They’re not allowed out on the streets, and anybody disobeying or trying to rebel are going to be thrown in a reformation center.

Ahmet smuggles Esra in to see Eleni but she’s actually passed away. The madam in charge, Eva, is desperate for change and knows that they’ve travelled through time. After updating her on the Mumtaz situation and how he ties into this, Esra believes they need to stop the baby from time-travelling, which will undo this whole mess.

So how to get close? Well, Madam Eva manages to sneak them into the Palace that night dressed as dancers. Mumtaz has a big entourage though for the show he’s attending, so it’s not going to be easy to get to him. However, Ahmet gets a bit close for comfort when he sneaks into Mumtaz’s room and is forced to hide behind the alcohol counter.

He leaves just in time to find Esra taken off stage for causing a commotion. Funnily enough, she ends up reunited with Halit, who’s older now and has been dreaming of this meeting. She was thrown off by Halit sitting at Mumtaz’s table earlier on, hence the commotion. Here, he explains why. Apparently, he stole the portal keys from Mumtaz and threw them into the Bosporus. He kept Mumtaz close just in case he had a key and prevented the guy from traveling through time. He never lost faith that fate would bring him and Esra back together again.

That is, until he hands over Esra willingly to Mumtaz and double-crosses her. Of course, he doesn’t have a choice and had to do this to keep his cover intact. When Ahmet shows up,
they remain fixed on finding a way to save Esra. Halit suggest they visit Halime, as she may have some answers.

When they rock up at her place, she shows off a photo of her baby as an 18 month old. It turns out that Halime is not Esra’s mum after all.

The next day, Mumtaz’s briefing goes ahead as scheduled, but Esra is being kept captive there upstairs. Halit manages to talk his way into the room, and he saves her and the other women being held prisoner. When the guards return, they find the room empty. When Mumtaz finds out, right in the middle of his briefing, he’s rattled.

As they regroup with Halit, he reveals where all of this really began. It turns out there was an explosion back in ’41. October 17th at 11.57am to be precise. It occurred at the Bulgarian border. Mumtaz blamed this on the soviets and this sparked a war with the Nazis. Ahmet believes their only hope not is to go back to ’41 and stop this. And the way there is through the Gateway of Truth.

Ahmet shows up and jumps back through the Gateway, while Esra goes the conventional method of time travel. Only, when she shows back up, it appears she’s gone too far, as she’s 5 months late.

The Episode Review

So with Ahmet and Esra both jumping back in time in their own ways, it all rests on the final two episodes to find out how this one will wrap up.

The time travel rules are a big point of contention in this series, especially the way we see the Gateway of Truth and the conventional method of jumping back play out. It would appear the show is not too bothered with the implications of time being changed entirely, or how that affects any of our characters already in that timeline.

However, there’s enough here to enjoy even with this sticking out like a sore thumb. With Mumtaz now unveiled as the true threat in all of this, it’ll be interesting to see just which direction this one takes next and how this guy is going to be stopped. Everything is gearing up for a dramatic conclusion to this one!