The Bloody Knife
Episode 3 of 50M2 begins with flashes of the past as a young Shadow holds a bloodied knife over a dead body. Bolting upright, Shadow questions whether he really did kill his parents or not. Muhtar arrives at the tailors and asks Shadow for his ID to confirm his identity. Of course, Shadow doesn’t have this and tells him not to worry. When he arrives at Dilara’s bakery, Shadow’s talked into taking the young boy Kerim to school. On the way, Shadow encourages him to hand over the cigarettes he’s been holding and gives him some advice to hit back at the bullies. Well, there’s no time to dwell on that as Shadow’s chased off the scene by an angry mob. With his cover close to being blown, Shadow steals cash from a donation box and heads back to see his contact, Ismet. He wants a new ID but unfortunately Ismet has been compromised by Servet and his men. Shadow thwarts the threat and finds out that Servet has placed a bounty of 1 million on his head. Ismet wanted to cash in on this but Shadow is too smart for that. After leaving the man in a pool of his own blood, he sends a voice recorder across to Servet informing him he doesn’t have the guns anymore – Mumtaz does. However, Shadow also has a new lead thanks to Ismet, and that comes in the form of a man called Cemal. Meanwhile, we’re introduced to a guy called Civan who reminisces on times gone by and how he could have been a great footballer. Unfortunately things went awry and he blew his big chance. Yakup also happened to be the goalkeeper at the time, a man who’s the sibling of his love interest Aysel, whom he’s currently speaking to. As we find out later in the episode, Civan happens to be Turan’s son and he’s due to be wed to this girl soon. On the way out the door though, both Civan and Yakub see Aysel with another guy in her car, kissing and hugging. This breaks Civan’s heart as he walks away, defeated. With a gun in hand, Civan is grief-stricken and desperate for revenge. Mesut arrives and sees an opportunity, determined to coerce this guy into working for him. After convincing Yakub to fire at her car, the two walk away in glee. In a dimly lit, smoky office, Shadow shows up before Cemal who tells him to cough up 10,000 dollars in order to get his ID and a new life. Unfortunately his picture is snapped down by the docks, which is fed back to Mumtaz. Shadow hands over the money though and finds himself bundled onboard a lorry full of refugees. Seeing the frightened faces of the kids brings back memories of his own past as Shadow thinks twice about his actions. He quickly snaps, grabbing a young child and taking him off the lorry. Unfortunately in doing so, this separates him from his Mother. When gunfire ceases, Shadow takes this child back home, unsure what to do next. Servet meets Mumtaz later that evening and finds himself groveling and apologizing to this crime boss. Dropping to his knees, he begs for forgiveness. Only, this is all a ruse as he quite literally stabs Mumtaz in the back and claims he’s able to get his hands dirty when need be. Meanwhile, Shadow shows up at the church as news breaks that the refugees onboard the lorry have all died in the water. After replacing the money he took in the donation box, Shadow heads home and tries to get his head together. He’s blinded by the past, unable to remember crucial details of what happened surrounding his parents. After smashing his head on a mirror, Shadow relives painful memories of the past were he hid under the bed and witnessed a strange man arriving and wrestling with his Mother – presumably his Father although this isn’t actually told to us. The shots of Shadw with a bloodied knife from before were actually after his Mum was stabbed, revealing that he didn’t actually kill his own Mum.
The Episode Review
Shadow is just starting to warm up as a likable protagonist after some initial rough episodes and his past is definitely becoming more intriguing in these later episodes. What happened to his parents? It seems like Servet may be responsible in some way while the additional characters being introduced helps to add a bit more depth to this show. Servet will stop at nothing until he gets his guns back though and after seeing him kill Mumtaz, it’s only a matter of time before he closes in on Shadow. While the show doesn’t necessarily do anything unique or different, 50M2 is certainly interesting and has enough mystery and intrigue to stick with for the time being.
