Netflix’s As the Crow Flies makes us privy to the cutthroat competition and the rivalries that exist between various TV channels and media personalities, the impact it has on the lives of the people involved in it, and all in all, how toxic and emotionally draining it could get for anybody. We saw how Lale Kiran’s life changed when a new intern named Asli Tuna came to work under her and was ready to do anything to be seated at the top of the food chain. A lot of things transpired in the first two seasons of the series, and the lives of the various characters changed completely. So, let’s recap the events that took place and find out where the lives of the characters will lead them in the upcoming season.
Spoiler Alert
How did Asli Tuna replace Lale Kiran?
In the first season of As the Crow Flies, we saw that a young and ambitious woman reached the Mon5 headquarters because she wanted to apply for an internship there. Asli was the kind of person who was ready to cross any boundary to achieve what she wanted. It showed how resilient she was, but it also proved that she was an extremely treacherous and dishonest human being. At least at that point in season 1, we realized that she was ready to throw anybody under the bus if it came to that. She resorted to unfair means and made sure that she was selected for the internship. Asli had met Lale once before, and we saw that somewhere, the former’s ego was hurt after that. Asli didn’t get the kind of response she would have liked, and probably, there was a lot going on inside Lale’s mind, and she didn’t really think it through before saying those words to Asli. Now, Asli knew that she wouldn’t be able to climb the ladder of success with conventional means and methods. She was ready to play the dirty game and reach where she wanted without wasting any time. So, Asli resorted to one of the oldest tactics, i.e., isolating the target and making them dependent.
Asli first plotted against Ozge, Lale’s personal assistant, and made sure that she took her position. Then she tried creating a rift between Lale and her husband, Selim, and causing misunderstandings between her and Kenan. She made Kenan believe that Lale was in love with him, and she made sure that Selim knew that his wife was cheating behind his back. Asli also used several fake social media accounts to tarnish the image of Lale Kiran and spread all sorts of baseless rumors to assassinate her character. Asli’s lies were eventually caught by Lale, but she restrained herself from acting impulsively and rather dealt with the entire situation in a very mature manner. It told us what kind of human being Lale was and why she was such a respected figure in the field of journalism. Things became even worse between Asli and Lale when the former couldn’t hold back her temper and ended up assaulting Lale. Gul and Muge shared a long-standing relationship with Lale, but over a period of time, a lot of conflicts arose between them. Lale realized that it was better for her to step down as the anchor of her news show, The Other Side, rather than fight her own people. Lale was the kind of person who knew how to be magnanimous even in hostile times. At the end of As the Crow Flies season 1, Lale gave her resignation and decided to take a break and focus on her family. Muge and Gul unanimously decided to make Asli the new face of The Other Side, and the latter felt as if all her dreams had come true that day.
What happened between Nazli and Asli?
At the beginning of season 2, we saw that The Other Side wasn’t getting the high TRP that it once used to, and Gul and Muge were secretly conspiring to get rid of Asli and find a new face for the show. It was an eye-opener for Asli, as she was going through something similar to what Lale had gone through back in the day. The graph was repeating itself, and Asli realized that a person in the spotlight always became the easy target, and somehow, people always got a lot of sadistic pleasure from the downfall of such a person. But Asli was not somebody who was going to give up on a fight, and so one day, without telling anybody, she changed the pattern of the show and improvised in such a manner that social media got flooded with praise for her. It made you realize how fickle the perspectives of people were; one day, somebody was incompetent, and overnight, the people made them into heroes. That’s probably why Lale never let the criticism she got on the social media platform affect her. She knew that there were a handful of people who knew the real her, and only their perception mattered.
However, Asli perceived things in a very different manner, and she was a bit sensitive when it came to these things. She was in a really insecure space where she felt like the entire world was conspiring against her. Her personal assistant, Nazil, was the one who was spreading all kinds of false information against her. Asli got a taste of her own medicine, and she realized how it felt to be misunderstood and ridiculed for something she hadn’t done. Things became very ugly between Asli and Nazil when the former was confronted after she realized that she was the one who was orchestrating everything from the very beginning. Nazil framed Muge in such a manner that Asli believed that she was the one who was backstabbing her. After Muge went, Asli realized that she had committed an error in judgment, and Nazil was the real perpetrator. Nazil spilled hot coffee on her body and went out of Asli’s room, shouting for help and telling the people that Asli had assaulted her. Nazil filed a case against Asli, though the lawyers of the latter were able enough to make sure that the case was dismissed.
Why did Muge hate Lale?
It came to be known that it was Muge who had conspired against Lale in the first season of As the Crow Flies, and for the longest time, the former believed that her deceit and lies would never be caught. Lale was restless from within after she resigned from her position, and staying at home and not doing anything was just not her thing. She was trying to distract herself by cooking and doing different things, but she was still not at peace. Selim realized that, and that’s when he contacted Kenan and told him about it. Kenan convinced Lale to revoke her reservation and come back to the anchor of a show or a different network. At first, their ratings were low, but Lale had such a high rating that people couldn’t ignore her for a very long time. She toiled hard for days, but ultimately, her efforts paid off, and her program topped the rating charts. Around the same time, Muge was fired by Asli, and she didn’t know where to go or what to do. Muge was jealous of Lale, as she also felt that if she had been given the opportunity, she would have been a great anchor. Her illusions were shattered when she went to Gul, and the latter denied making her the anchor for the new show. Gul told Muge she had talent, but she was just not cut out to be an anchor. Muge stomped out of the room, raging in anger, and when all the doctors were closed, she went back to Lale.
In As the Crow Flies season 2, we saw how Muge anonymously defamed Lale on social media. She thought that nobody would ever come to know about it, but Yusuf and Kenan had realized that it was Muge a long time back. They hid the information from Lale because they didn’t want her to get hurt. When Muge came to ask for help, Lale decided that she was going to bring her on board in whatever capacity she could. That’s when Yusuf revealed to Lale that the person she believed to be her best friend had gone behind her back and tried her level best to defame her. When Lale confronted Muge, the latter blessed her, and she accepted that she didn’t believe that she had less talent than Lale. Muge created a scene at the cafe, and Lale quietly walked out from there, knowing that her jealousy and enmity would eat her from within.
Does Lale start working for Guliz?
At the end of As the Crow Flies season 2, Guliz realized that she would need Lale as the anchor for her show, and so she told Kenan that she was ready to accept all the terms and conditions they had. A twist came when Lale came to meet Guliz and told her that she didn’t want to join as the anchor as she had somebody else in mind who was better suited for the job. She recommended Yusuf’s name, who proved his mettle working for Kenan and Lale as the reporter. He was a man of ideals, and he didn’t shy away from doing hard work. It also told a lot about the kind of human Lale was, as back in the day, Yusuf conspired with Asli and spread misinformation on social media about Lale. This was the reason Lale was so respected in the fraternity: her decisions were not prejudiced, and she had the capacity to look beyond herself. Asli was really disappointed when she learned that Yusuf had replaced her in her show. Asli felt betrayed, and even Yusuf felt disappointed, as he expected her to be a little happy for him. They had a heated argument, and Yusuf realized that sitting on the throne came with its own set of complications, and at times, it felt as if the peak of the mountain was the loneliest palace to be. The irony was that people did everything in their power to sit on the throne, but when the moment finally came, they realized that it didn’t give them the sort of happiness and ecstasy that they would have expected. The baton was passed from Lale to Yusuf, and she knew that the latter would do a fabulous job.
What’s next for Asli and Lale?
At the end of As the Crow Flies season 2, we saw that Gul offered Asli a new position for her show, and after the first couple of episodes, they got a very good response from the audience. So, in season 3, we would once again see Asli at the helm of affairs, and she made it very clear that she was still not done. As of now, Lale has taken a step back, though I personally do not believe that she would be able to keep herself aloof. Looking at the trailer for season 3, it was apparent that a lot of new developments were going to take place in the future, and Lale will have a very crucial role to play. Kenan and Lale came together after the former got to know that she had separated from Selim. Kenan was going to leave Lale and start something new with Gul, as he didn’t have any knowledge about what had happened in Lale’s personal life for the longest time. Selim was not wrong in asking for what he did because clearly Lale, for the longest time, was in a dilemma, and she was trying to suppress whatever feelings she had for Kenan. She loved Kenan, but her marriage and her ideals were stopping her, and she just didn’t have the courage to end things with Selim. It would be interesting to witness the kind of conflict that arises in the lives of the characters and how it brings about a shift in the landscape.
