Gravity
Episode 1 of Fatma begins with Fatma Yilmaz sitting in the police station interviewed over the murder of several men. She tells them she’s a cleaner, scratching the table anxiously. As she looks up, a murderous look crosses her eyes. We then jump back in time, where we see Fatma working as a clear. Her husband Zafer rings, but he’s silent, allowing the alarms to wail in the background before hanging up. As we soon find out, he’s been missing for a while now and no one seems to know where he is. There’s clearly no love lost for her in the neighbourhood though. Fatma heads up to a local restaurant, clutching a picture of Zafer. She asks Ismail to put it up in the window but he refuses. He hands it back and tells her to leave. Instead, Fatma heads off to see his wife, Kadriye. She too simply tells Fatma that Zafer has gone and she needs to move on. That evening, knocking at the door brings back traumatic memories of the past for Fatma. The banging eventually grows louder, as Ismail breaks the glass and calls out for girl. She refuses to answer and he eventually heads back home. The next day Fatma continues her rounds, heading over to various different houses and offices to clean. Among those is Bayram, who admits that Zafer owed money to Sevket which could explain his absence. Against Bayram’s wishes, Fatma heads in to see Sevket at his office. When she reveals that she’s Zafer’s husband, Sevket begins pounding the table. He’s desperate for his debt to be paid back and demands she be the one to do it. Panicking, Fatma brandishes a gun and shoots the man dead. Sevket’s death immediately sees police sniffing around Bayram’s business. Fatma shows up though and eventually slips away without being detected. Outside, Fatm continues to see a strange man outside watching her from afar. Fatma eventually heads into the police station and begins telling them what she’s done. However, the lieutenant interrupts and reveals that Zafer went to prison originally because he shot Sevket. Fatma is taken aback, clearly not aware of this. According to her, he took the fall for someone else and he wasn’t the one who fired. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have any evidence of that. As she leaves, Sevket’s associate (the one she keeps seeing everywhere) passes and heads inside the room. Fatma hurries away, but eventually runs into that sane man at the train station. He too is looking for Zafer and decides they should work together. Zafer owes him a lot of money and this could be mutually beneficial for them both. Bayram is involved in all this too, and this man is acting as a liaison between the two. He tells Fatma she’s going to have to pay Zafer’s debt, and turns to smoke a cigarette. Fatma however, seizes her opportunity and pushes the man into a speeding train.
The Episode Review
Turkish series Fatma wastes absolutely no time with its first episode, speeding out the gates. This quick-paced thriller immediately sets up the search for Zafer while establishing Fatma as a woman desperate to find her husband no matter what. It’s clear Zafer owes debts all over the place and him shooting Sevket in the past does tie in conveniently with his presumed death now. However, it does seem a little sudden that Fatma would suddenly shoot the man dead. There’s not much time for her to process all this either, eventually culminating in her killing a second man; Bayram’s goon. The music swells and sudden bass notes do feel a little over the top, and the melodramatic way this suddenly leans into extreme close ups does cheapen the effect a little. How will these killings effect Fatma going forward? The ending sets up a blood-soaked thrill ride to come, although one can’t help but feel this train station would probably have cameras. Anyway, with more episodes already released, there’s no time to waste. Onto the next!
