Midnight at the Pera Palace is a 2022 Turkish Netflix original, which is all about time travel. Set in the historical hotel Pera Palace, the show talks about incidents leading up to the plot to assassinate Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the leader who was fighting for the independence of his country, Turkey, as the English had colonized Istanbul and were not happy with the resistance force the legend had created. Season one of this 2022 show has been created based on a fictional character named Peride, who claimed to have saved Col. Kemal Atatürk from being assassinated.
Spoilers Ahead
How did Esra get to see the historic hotel Pera Palace?
Esra was a journalist who was assigned to write about the historical hotel, Pera Palace, on the establishment’s celebration of their 150th anniversary. The hotel manager, Ahmet, was assigned to give her a tour of the hotel along with the history of Peride, who was known to have saved Col. Kemal Atatürk from being assassinated. Esra was a fan of Agatha Christie’s works. The fact that the author lived in that hotel fascinated her and she was keen to know more details about the author’s stay.
What did Esra witness?
Esra came across a vintage key and took the item to the room in which Agatha Christie stayed, only to find herself being teleported to a different year in the past. She quickly realized the key was a time travel portal, as a result of which she was in the year 1916 trying to navigate around the same hotel, Pera Palace. She was surrounded by people in the fashion and vehicles of that era. She also came to know this year was when the British had occupied Turkey, which was why Istanbul was surrounded by the English forces.
Ahmet, the hotel’s manager, also felt some changes around him and found himself to be in the same year as Esra. As he was trying to get a hold of her to figure out what was transpiring, they came across the dead body of Peride in her room’s washroom. Ahmet and Ersa were stunned, as this could not have happened, since she was responsible for saving Col. Kemal Atatürk. With her gone, the fate of Turkey would change.
Who joined Esra on the time travel expedition?
After going through Peride’s photographs, it was established that Esra looked just like the woman. Ahmet, who had joined her in the expedition to find out who killed Peride, helped her assume Peride’s identity to find out who killed her and with whom she was in contact. Esra, as Peride, got in touch with Halit, who also used to run the bar at the Hotel Pera Palace, and he had many questions for her. This made Halit a prime suspect in Peride’s murder, and both Esra and Ahmet were after him in no time.
What did Esra learn about Peride?
Esra learnt that Peride was a widow living with her dominating father along with her siblings. She soon came to know Peride was a mother to a young girl named Leyla, who doted on her mother. Through Leyla, she came to know of a diary maintained by Peride that could get her the names of the people Peride used to meet on a regular basis. Ahmet was informed about the diary, and both were in a hurry to find out what connects the hotel to the time travel phenomenon, and if Peride was aware of this as well.
How did Ahmet find out about Fahretin and Dimitri?
Ahmet was in possession of the diary when he read about Fahrettin and Dimitri in it. Esra, as Peride, was shocked to find Ahmet injured and the diary stolen. This was an indication of the fact that they were on the right track and someone was stalling them. Fahretin was the one who had informed Peride about the assassination attempt on Col. Kemal Atatürk. Soon after she was killed, Fahretin was kept hostage below the hotel bar by Halit, and he was found by Esra, who had begun to refer to herself as Peride, because everyone saw her as the popular figure in Istanbul. Fahretin revealed some details about Halit’s brother Osman, and claimed he could help them. The man was killed by Halit, which angered Peride.
Who was Dimitri?
Ahmet, who introduced himself as a private detective, began his research on Dimitri. Dimitri was found to be living alone with many ancient keys that could lead to many portals. Dimitri initially refused to help Ahmet, but he took help from Resat, a police officer in Istanbul, to arrest the man. Dimitri eventually revealed the story behind the key that worked as a portal. The original key maker had come across the Passage of Truth, and passing through it several times to time travel changed him, as he killed his own wife. Through this, Ahmet was quick to deduce there existed a room, which, in combination with one of the keys in his possession, would turn into a portal for time travel.
Who kidnapped Peride’s daughter Leyla?
Peride learned that her father was also a supporter of the British and wanted more details about the assassination attempt. As her father initially had thrown her out for not living in the house as per his rules, she chose to move back in with the help of Resat, the police officer who was in love with her. She convinced Resat to push her father to bring Peride back into his house for the sake of her daughter Leyla. On coming back to the house, she hatched a plan to kidnap Leyla to get her father to talk about the warehouse where the British weapons were stored.
Leyla was at Peride’s new residence, being taken care of by her roommate, the waitress Sonya, who was also working at the Hotel Pera Palace. The kidnapping standoff did not last long, as George, the British officer, took Leyla away forcefully. Peride had learned of the assassination attempt from Halit and left a note to Col. Kemal Atatürk about not visiting Hotel Pera Palace. George, the British Officer, admitted to have kidnapped and kept Leyla hostage until Col. Kemal Atatürkl visited Hotel Pera Palace.
Who did Esra get help from?
Esra, as suggested by the late Fahretin, approached Halit’s brother, Osman, to move the weapons ordered by the British as a part of the occupation of Istanbul. Osman agreed to do so, but Halit knew this would happen on the day of a prestigious boxing match in the city. Halit and Osman had a standoff just before the latter was about to rob the warehouse. Esra had not heard from Osman, which made her head to the warehouse, only to find out Halit was making a deal with one of the resistance leaders.
Esra was pleasantly surprised to hear Halit was a supporter of Col. Kemal Atatürk. He also claimed his brother could not be trusted, as he could have sold the British weapons to any other highest bidder. However, Hailt was shocked to find out George would harm Leyla, which made him change his allegiance. In no time, Halit was assassinated as well, which revealed many truths about Ahmet. Halit’s assassination deeply affected Ahmet, as his palm had burned and turned black. The reason for this phenomenon was Ahmet learnt he was Halit’s son. Ahmet however did not know who his mother was. As Esra went back and forth in time several times, Sonya was seen selling off her ring and necklaces to a pawn shop. At one point she was also seen taking the injured but slowly recovering Halit back to the hotel from the hospital.
Was Sonya a spy for English officer George?
It was Dimitri who identified Halit as the person he had seen on the night of the murder of Peride. Halit was confronted by Esra as Peride, who revealed that he had heard a commotion in her room. On entering the room, he found Peride dead and escaped the scene of the crime through the window. He also revealed he was sure Peride was dead and assumed the woman in front of him, Esra, could be Peride’s twin sister. He revealed Peride was adopted, which made him assume Esra could be her long-lost sister taking over the identity to find out who killed her sibling. Sonya was identified by Dimitri as well on the night of the murder. She was found strangling Esra when Ahmet stopped her. Sonya eventually revealed she was a princess who was forced to leave her country and move to Turkey and sell off her jewelry to start afresh. She was married to Halit, who chose to leave her for Peride.
A pregnant Sonya accidentally got the ancient key and a note that took her to the Passage of Truth, which transported her to a timeline much before Halit could meet Peride. Sonya was helped by Dimitri as she followed and entered Peride’s room and killed her. Sonya assumed Peride had never died, which made her want to kill Esra, who had merely assumed her identity. Sonya also revealed she was George’s spy, and had helped him gather intel about Col. Kemal Atatürk and his movement. Ahmet sadly learned that Sonya was pregnant with him at the time of Halit leaving her, and he questioned her intentions behind abandoning him. He let her go and went back to help Esra with saving Col. Kemal Atatürk.
Who saved Col. Kemal Atatürk?
Esra was in possession of her smartphone from 2022, and used it to record George’s real intentions after killing Col. Kemal Atatürk. He planned to eradicate Turkish culture and turn Istanbul into another London. Esra showed the video to Resat, the police officer, who was astounded by its contents. He claimed it was too late as he, along with George, had planted a bomb in the timepiece on the ship that carried Col. Kemal Atatürk.Esra and Halit left for the port in no time, and saved Col. Kemal Atatürk from being killed in the bombing accident. Both received accolades from the man, which finished the circle of the story of Peride, as history stated she offered her personalized handkerchief to Col. Kemal Atatürk.
Did Esra bid her goodbyes to Leyla and Halit?
Esra, as Peride, was proud of her achievements. Halit was in love with her and was very vocal about it to her. She chose to walk away from him as she was not Peride, and she never wished to reveal that to him. Esra made sure to offer her goodbyes to Peride’s daughter Leyla. Leyla was now safely living with Peride’s father and sisters, and she hoped the young girl would be fine.
Was Esra Peride’s daughter?
As Esra and Ahmet used the key as the portals to try to go back to their original timeline, which was 2022, they found themselves in the same room of the same hotel in the year 1995. They found a toddler on the bed of the room, and they were not sure who it belonged to. Ahmet suddenly remembered the day, as it had been his first day at work and they had come across an infant without a mother or a father. From his memory, he recalled that the infant was named Esra Koksuz. Esra was shocked to find the weird time loop continuum led to her holding an infant version of herself, and she found a photograph of Lady Elina of the hotel holding her. The photograph had something written on the back that said her mother was in trouble. Either Esra was the daughter of Peride, or her daughter Leyla.
