Season one of Midnight at the Pera Palace ended with Esra and Ahmet time traveling from 1919 to the year 1995. Esra was holding the infant version of herself and was shocked to find out someone had abandoned her in that year with a key in her child self’s hand. The picture of Lady Eleni holding her also threw her off also, which made her want to find her mother as well.
Spoilers Ahead
What did Esra and Ahmet find?
The second season began with Esra and Ahmet trying to figure out how to navigate through the year 1995. Esra was keen on finding out who could be her mother, but Ahmet insisted not to mess with the past because that would end up affecting her present. Esra was not convinced, as she had made up her mind about wanting to find her mother.
Did Halit join Esra in her quest?
Halit, seeking Esra, made a trip to the future in the year 2022 but used the passage of truth to come back to the 1940s. He met Esra, but he was behaving possessively toward her. Esra was keen on finding Leyla, whom she assumed could be her mother, but the girl was suspected to be a spy working against the Turkish. World War II was raging, and none could be trusted. Halit had joined Esra to help her find her mother, but he had his own secrets as well. Halit had a confrontation with his old friend Mumtaz, which irked Esra initially.
What happened at the hotel?
The Hotel Pera Palace had become the hub for all the forces functioning in the country because of the Second World War. The spy network was at its peak when Ahmet was put under suspicion. Since he was the manager of the hotel in the year 2022, he was aware of the bombing that rocked the hotel in this period. Ahmet mentioning the incident to several people in the hotel alarmed the Turkish intelligence. As predicted by Ahmet, a bomb exploded in the hotel, but unfortunately, he was arrested for his role in the terrorist activity. Thanks to Esra and Halit, Ahmet was out on bail. Ahmet, however, was able to give them intelligence about the bombings as he had the power to go back and forth to find out who planted the suitcase with the bomb. The police and the intelligence were still looking for the real culprit.
Who was Mumtaz?
Mumtaz was a good friend of Halit until the former betrayed the latter. Mumtaz many years ago had been shot on the street, when Halit decided to save him. Both became business partners until Mumtaz discovered the key and the time travel portals in the rooms. Mumtaz used these portals and the key to expand his business and became rich. Him and Halit had a falling out over the misuse of the time travel key and rooms. Halit had to eventually ban Mumtaz from the hotel, but the man ended up coming back to the hotel using different identities. This time Halit caught him, and made sure Mumtaz would not step into the hotel. Mumtaz, using his money, power, and time-travel abilities thanks to the keys, acquired the hotel and became one of the most influential businessmen in the city. Halit was not powerless, but he was helpless as he could not find a way to stop Mumtaz from growing stronger.
Was Halit a suspect in the kidnapping case?
In the city, there was also an increase in the cases of women being abducted by someone. The kidnapped women were nowhere to be found, but the city had become dangerous. The kidnapper, to gain some attention, sent a letter to an upcoming newspaper named Tan, at which Esra and her contemporary Meliha were working as well. The letter stated that the current leader, Col. Kemal Attaturk, must revoke all the laws that empower women and strip them of the powers to be equal to men. The kidnapper also mentioned that he would continue abducting women, but additionally he would kill them if the laws were not revoked. This provoked Meliha and Esra, who wanted to get to the bottom of this case.
Peride’s father, Naim, was a witness to his granddaughter Leyla being kidnapped by someone. He suspected Halit to be the culprit and filed a complaint. Meliha’s research into the kidnapping story also led her to Naim, who mentioned Halit’s name again, which alarmed Esra. Esra had been informed by Ahmet many times about Halit having passed through the passage of truth, which would have a dire effect on him and his tendency to display murderous behavior towards others.
Why did Esra become a journalist?
Long before Esra joined Tan newspaper, Meliha was under the impression she was her competitor. Meliha, however, also stated that a press pass would allow anyone the power to access any VIP area, question anyone, or get into any database to find all kinds of answers. Esra was adamant about wanting to find the details of her mother and how Peride was related to her. Esra joined a newspaper but she was fired because she was considered to be feisty for a female journalist. Tan newspaper hired her for the same reason and she retained the press pass just to be able to find a database on her mother and connection to Peride.
Who was the kidnapper?
The incidents of women being kidnapped were also only increasing, and one of the women who disappeared was Meliha, for writing articles in favor of strong women’s rights. Ahmet was also in love with Lili, the singer at the club at the Pera Palace, but she was kidnapped in the same fashion. He assumed her to be dead, but Esra was keen on finding out the kidnapper and where they were all kept as hostages. Mumtaz was the one who turned out to be the kidnapper, but he was too powerful to be confronted by the police, who it turns out were also on his payroll, which was why they never made any move against him. Esra tried to broadcast the news of Mumtaz being the monster who’d been kidnapping women.
Was Ahmet’s memory affected?
Ahmet’s memory was getting affected, probably because of his frequent time travel. He was, however, not mentally deranged when he referred to Halit as his father. Halit, however, was not ready to believe it, and wondered if he was mentally unfit to be calling him his father. Ahmet, however, wanted to help Halit and Esra find out where the kidnapped women were being held hostage.
Did Esra find the location of the kidnapped women?
Esra realized the only way to find out where the women were being held hostage was to get kidnapped herself. Her broadcast about Mumtaz got his attention, and he kidnapped her as expected. Minutes before that, she had requested Ahmet to follow the car so that he could later inform Halit about the location. Ahmet’s car unfortunately met with an accident, and he was arrested on charges of conspiring and carrying out the bombing of the hotel. Halit learned that the women were on the train.
Who rescued Esra and the women?
Esra was thrown into the train bogie as well, along with many women, including Meliha and Lili. She was shocked to find Meliha to be fully pregnant. As Meliha went into labor and gave birth to twins, one of the infants was having breathing difficulties, and at the same time, Esra was having the same issue. If the audience were to join the dots, it was clear Meliha was Esra’s mother, who eventually died in the train bogie of childbirth complications. The adult and the infant Esra came back to life only for her to realize she had just lost her mother. Esra wanted to find her mother, and she was all the while along with her. Esra was shocked and upset and probably won’t get over the fact that her mother was Meliha. Meliha died without knowing her daughter was by her side. Matters got worse when Mumtaz took the twins away to the hotel, which further distressed Esra.
Halit rescued Esra and every other woman in the train bogie. Halit recovered the dead body of Meliha as well. Halit did all of this to proclaim his love for Esra and prove he would go to any extent out of his love for her. It was an extreme reaction, but it worked on Esra, as she and other women in the bogie of the train had survived because of him.
Who were Esra’s parents?
Esra discovered her mother was Meliha, but she was not sure who her father could be. She followed Mumtaz to the hotel, where he left the time travel keys with the twins he placed on the hotel beds. Esra wanted to save the children, as she assumed Mumtaz was a bad person who had no good intentions with the children. Esra was shocked to find out Mumtaz and Meliha had had a brief affair, which had resulted in her pregnancy. Essentially, Mumtaz was the father of the twins; one of whom was Esra. This again proves the point Halit was correct in the first season about Peride having a twin. There was something he might have known that made him come to that conclusion. Peride and Esra were identical twins, but since Mumtaz was a twisted man, he wanted to send his two infants to two different eras. Mumtaz was an awful father who had no plans to raise the girls. He was so obsessed with the idea of time travel that he wanted to make the lives of his infants miserable by separating them at birth.
Esra saved the infant version of herself by asking Ahmet to take her away in the year 1995. Peride, the other twin, had disappeared with the key to the year 1892, the era she was raised in as per the season one storyline. This will connect all the dots mentioned in season one about Peride and Esra.
Midnight at the Pera Palace season 2 ended with Halit killing Mumtaz, which shocked Esra again, as she hardly knew her father. The only side of Mumtaz she’d seen was his misogynistic attitude towards women. Mumtaz died because Halit could no longer allow him to take advantage of the hotel to prosper as a businessman. Time travel had consequences, and Halit wanted to stop people messing with the past, which would eventually affect the future. Halit eventually died of the wounds caused by traveling through the passage of truth, which devastated Esra. He had to face death as it was the consequence of his actions. Esra and Ahmet decided not to mess with the timelines and wanted to go back. However, they came back to 1919 and Ahmet found Esra, who had initially time traveled in season one. He soon understood several timelines and people would collide, which would cause chaos and deaths as well. Ahmet was the smart one; he wanted to find a way out of the mess created. Since the year was 1919, Esra ran into Halit again and they declared their love for each other. Ahmet was not happy, as Esra was setting herself up for another heartbreak. The constant time travel would make her rely on it to be with the person she loves.
Ahmet connected the dots and found out they would have to go back to the year the construction of Pera Palace had begun to put an end to the time travel. It was a messy affair, which would force them to stay back in the olden times and not come back. Ahmet knew no other way, and along with Halit and Esra, they would embark on another journey.
