Midnight at the Pera Palace – Season 2 Episode 7 Recap & Review

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Episode 7 of Midnight at the Pera Palace season 2 jumps back to 1941, where Lili is captured and taken away. As for Halit, he updates Esra on what’s been happening in her absence. Apparently the last 5 months have been hell. The Gateway has got to Ahmet and he’s not himself.

Not only is Ahmet calling Halit his father, but he’s also acting like a child too. The country is also in a state of chaos. Mumtaz’s influence has grown and chaos grips the streets.

Lili has also been killed, having been found on the streets. They identified her by her jewellery but numerous other women have been killed. The streets are dangerous for women, so Halit heads out to find Ahmet, who has raced out on his own. He encourages Esra to stay behind but when he catches up to Ahmet, Halit believes he can change the past and save hi. He doesn’t tell Esra any of this though and instead, braves the Gateway of Truth again and jumps back in time.

Esra is sick of sitting around doing nothing, so she decides to hit the streets… despite knowing the dangers this poses. There’s a predictable amount of abuse thrown her way of course, and she has to be careful to avoid all the authorities too.

Esra shows up at the Tan Newspaper, where they’re surprised to see her alive and well. Here we find out that Meliha resisted the movement, but was kidnapped for the articles she wrote. Esra has an idea and decides if she follows suit and writes articles under her name, she might be able to trace where Meliha and the other women are being kept.

After spreading the news and getting a front page story published, Esra shows at the broadcast center and takes control of the airwaves. She reveals that she’s very much alive and antagonizes Mumtaz, calling him a coward and revealing the truth around just why those women were kidnapped. Esra somehow manages to evade 5 or 6 guards as they surround the room, and through the power of plot armour, she’s picked up by Halit’s right-hand man downstairs and saved.

Esra returns to see Ahmet. She knows that she’ll be kidnapped for the broadcast and she’s going to allow herself to be captured. She gives Ahmet instructions to follow them and when he finds out where they’re being kept, tell the police and Halit so he can then save her.

Esra exposes herself in the middle of a busy courtyard and she’s bundled in the back of a car after being knocked out. Ahmet does follow her, but he ends up crashing his car before finding out where she’s being taken. It turns out Mumtaz is there by the train station, where a whole bunch of women are being kept prisoner in the train carriages – including Lili, who’s alive after all!

Ahmet does head to see the police but unfortunately, in his delirious, crazed state, he’s not believed. With the investigation already concluded, Ahmet is locked up and ready to be sentenced to death the following day.

Meanwhile, on 1st January 1941, Halit arrives and crosses paths with himself. He warns his younger self not to deal with Mumtaz and get involved. The older Halit tells the younger one everything he knows, including finding Esra and the journey up to this point. He wants to let Mumtaz die in that alleyway. Just then, they both end up with nasty headaches, which is the result of the Gateway.

Halit jumps back through time to the present, and when he emerges, it appears nothing has really changed. However, Halit is feeling the effects of the Gateway and ends up having some sort of seizure.

Back at the train, Esra is shocked when she finds Meliha’s water has broken and she’s about to go into labour. Naturally, we get the obligatory “super quick” birth which is literally like two pushes. Honestly, if only all labours were that fast right? Funnily enough, it seems she’s actually having twins. After giving birth to both children, Meliha appears to be dead. As for Esra, she clutches her throat, crying out for help and struggling to breathe. As fate would have it, one of the babes appears to not be breathing either.

The Episode Review

So it all come down to this. The penultimate episode of Pera Palace plays hard and fast with its time travel, and a lot of cracks appear in the writing too. Somehow Esra managed to get out the radio room despite all those guards in the doorway, and the labour scene was literally two pushes. I know other shows do this as well but it does feel like a rather lazy trope by this point.

That’s before even mentioning what’s happening with Ahmet, who apparently has the mindset of a child but only when the script calls for it? And that’s before mentioning the time travel and the ramifications of Halit talking to his younger self, which apparently hasn’t really changed anything. 

That meeting should have had serious consequences on the timeline. Why hasn’t it? And as for the situation involving Esra, what’s going on there with the twins? And why is she affected so? Could it be that Meliha is actually her mum and she’s one of the twins?

There are a lot of unanswered questions in this one leading into the finale. Everything is set up for a dramatic conclusion to follow so we’ll have to wait and see what’s in store for us next.