Follow The Snake
Episode 6 of Atiye (The Gift) Season 3 begins with our two groups finding their own paths through Dara. While Atiye and Aden are led by the strange woman through the caves, Erhan and Umut head above ground. They find the star symbol on the wall and believe they’re on the right path. However, they remain intent on finding the tree. Underground, the girl touches Atiye and tells her the stars are about to align. Atiye needs to proceed under to figure out how this slots together. Remember Ouroboros on the walls in Ozan’s beach hut? Well, a red and yellow snake slithers off and through the ruins of Dara. They follow the reptile as it slithers into a crevasse in the rock. It seems this is as far as the clues go to the tree’s whereabouts though, as they’re left to their own inhibitions. It turns out this rock has another symbol of a star on. Interpreting this in their own way, Atiye decides to follow Aden’s lead as they progress through this strange, barren landscape. Eventually they make it into the ruins of a town where Aden manages to conjure up water from the ground. A slick rotating shot actually precedes this though, hinting that Aden and Atiye are in a different world to that of Erhan and Umut. Based on this assumption, Cansu drives up to meet the group in our world while Ozan watches from afar. He’s worried about Aden and Atiye, especially as he’s lost them. Melek simply tells him to return to Instabul for the time being. Erhan continues to search through the books and uncovers a legend regarding a tree. According to this book, whenever Simurgh flew off from atop the Tree of Life he scattered its seeds and the plants would take root. Now, the prophecy mentioned the first seed so it seems like this first tree holds the clues. A little on the nose perhaps but Erhan claims this is the “tree that resurrects the dead with its sap” which is called Gaokerena. Is this what brought Melek back to life? On the back of this, they decide to use the expertise of their guide, Selim, in finding Persian maps to figure out the origins of the trees. Given how shady he’s acting in this scene, any guesses for whether he’s a rogue agent? As they head out, Ozan tries to speak his piece to Cansu but she turns him away – as does everyone else who notices him outside. When Erhan and the gang arrive at their destination they find the Persian maps have been stolen. Erhan immediately suspects it’s Ozan but when he shows up with them under his arm, the not-so-shocking truth is revealed. It was Selim all along! He was double crossing them but Ozan thwart the threat for now. Selim is working for Melek, as it turns out, and he’s tasked with bringing her Aden no matter what. Unbeknownst to Melek though, Erhan and Ozan both work together to uncover a place called Mitra within Dara, which is presumably where this tree of life is. As they head out, the camera pans across to the TV, which flickers on and suddenly shows Aden sitting in the beach cabin, seemingly watching this play out like some sort of conduit. Anyway, she hurries outside and screams, bolting the Aden currently in the other world to life. Both Erhan and Atiye make it to the spot with the tree in very different worlds. When Aden passes out however, Atiye uses the tree sap to bring her daughter back from the brink. They both collapse and eventually awaken to find themselves back in our world. Only, Selim happens to be watching from afar. Erhan and Ozan show up first though, as Aden finally speaks again and calls out for her Mother. When she notices Ozan, she hurries over and gives him a big hug too. As the episode closes out, the ground shudders and growls as something stirs and protrudes out the ground. From a distance, it looks like two pillars.
The Episode Review
Atiye’s latest episode delivers more parallel world drama as Atiye and Aden find themselves following the clues to the tree of life. Seeing how this juxtaposes to Erhan’s methodical hunt for the star charts is a nice way to have both sets of characters arrive at the same goal. However, this is still a little contrived with the way it’s explained everything so far, and the not-so-surprising surprise with Selim being a bad guy serves as a proverbial cherry on the cake. The show has done a good job with its mystery though, with Aden seemingly some sort of conduit that can bridge the realities together. This would make sense given what we’ve seen with the rocks and the TVs, but how this Egyptian iconography ties into the more Christian influences this show flirts with is still the biggest mystery of all. For now though, it seems Ozan has switched sides although Selim looks like he’s on course to bee a more much dangerous threat and more powerful asset for Melek. We’ll have to wait and see if that comes to fruition or not though.
