Turkish drama Asaf, the story of a “serious man”—whatever that means—is in essence about a father who will do anything in his power to get his son a better life. The thriller show is filled with action and loads of twists. Essentially, Asaf goes from being a mere taxi driver to a makeshift detective to bring down a criminal mob. At the same time, Asaf grapples with his divorce and seeks custody of his son. This show is basically a melodrama disguised as a thriller to hook people, but I’m not sure it manages to blend the two genres too well. Anyway, during Asaf’s ending, the titular protagonist becomes some sort of agent and saves the day in order to keep not only his son Atlas but the other orphan boy safe too. The 6-part series might be a thriller, but the real story here is one of the heart. How Asaf turns his wife’s view of him around and how the end of the series isn’t really an end, but a new beginning.
Spoiler Alert
Who is Irfan?
In Asaf we don’t really know exactly what Payen Kuyern is until the end of the series. All we know is that it is a “system” which those who are already in cannot escape from, and those who aren’t are dying to join. It is, of course, just a massive business owned by Nasuh Alphan. Unfortunately, Asaf becomes embroiled in Nasuh’s business after banging up his car because of a highway accident. A frustrated Asaf decides to mess up Nasuh’s car after being told not to go to the police for the damage and instead take some cash under the table and deal with his problems. This seems to be a regular look at Asaf’s life because he seems to have always been a doormat. In episode 6, Asaf finds himself in the middle of the central crisis because Cuneyt plans on blaming him for Kamel’s death and essentially making him the scapegoat for all of Payen Kuyern’s work. He plants a bomb in Asaf’s car and tells him to find the “boat,” which Asaf knows nothing about. The bomb is set in such a way that if Asaf leaves the car for more than 5 minutes, it’ll go off. Also, if he doesn’t pick up his phone every time Cuneyt calls, he’ll call the phone that’s connected to the bomb, which will immediately set it off.
In the meanwhile, Harun gets Ruya Deren, the journalist, released. He thinks he’s doing it for Mr. Irfan, but it seems there isn’t anybody named Irfan, and everybody is being fooled by Nasuh, who has been pretending to be Irfan himself. To Ruya’s shock, she’s invited into the “system,” i.e., the Payen Kuyern family. Ruya then interviews Payen Kuyern about the shooting incident that took place in his office, but he claims she’s just speculating and no such thing occurred. He even turns the whole thing on her because she was the one arrested for Captain Kemel’s death. In the meanwhile, the cop named Akif is eager to investigate the whole case and has caught on that Cuneyt is part of the “system.” He goes to Aziz, Asaf’s brother, to find out if Cuneyt has an account at his bank. Aziz is the only survivor of the shooting, but nobody knows he was there at all, especially not the cops. He then says he has only one family member, his mom, leaving Asaf out of the whole thing. But Asaf calls him when Akif is there and tells him that he just needs him to apologize to his wife and son for him because if anything happens to him, they should know that he wasn’t involved in any of the stuff that Payen Kuyern will pin on him. Ironically, Asaf’s mum always believed that he was the good-for-nothing son because he was just a cab driver who never achieved anything in his life, but the truth is that his brother was part of a cabal of criminals, which is much worse.
How Does Asaf Save The Boy?
On the other hand, Harun takes Sema and Atlas to the boat. He thinks this is going to impress them, but in truth all Sema wants is for her son to be well and to be able to grow up like a normal child. Harun doesn’t care for any of these things; he’s just blinded by Payen Kuyern. He wants Sema to bury her lawsuit against the hospital, which didn’t give Atlas a heart because it’s part of the Payen Kuyern system too. On the other hand, Cuneyt plans on blaming the orphan Asil for the murder of Kemal, because he’s murdered all the members of Payen Kuyern anyway.
Asaf realizes how he can save the car from exploding. He manages to get to the boat and meet with Nasuh. On the other hand, Sema learns that Atlas invited his dad to school for career day. She watches his video and realizes how much he cares about his son, and that being a cab driver is a hard and demanding job. Later, Asaf finally makes it to the boat, and he’s got on a fresh coat and everything. He tells Nasuh that he knows exactly what his system is. He’s left the car at the construction site where Cuneyt’s just found the bodies of all the people who ended up dead at the shooting. So I suppose Cuneyt wanted Nasuh dead, which is why he sent Asaf there with his car, but Asaf doesn’t let Nasuh die, because he wants to save the orphan kid. He tells Nasuh that he wants the boy after the car explodes at the construction site. Before Nasuh can escape, Asaf tells him that he knows he’s Irfan. Harun’s at the site too, and after punching his face, Asaf takes his car to go save his son Atlas because Nasuh claims he’s saved the wrong kid. At the same time, we see Asil go up to Sema’s house and nearly open the door, but before he does this, something crazy happens. Asaf rams into Nasuh’s car in the middle of the road, and Akif arrives there just in time to arrest him (man, the A-names are getting hard to keep track of!).
In Asaf’s ending, Ruya exposes all of Payen Kuyern and Nasuh’s doings on the news, shutting down the system for good. We already knew that Atlas wasn’t able to get his heart because of the business giant Payen Kuyern; with Asaf’s work, the entire system is completely dismantled, which means that patients will get much better treatment and more quickly, essentially fixing the healthcare system as a whole. While the orphan kid never tells Asaf what his real name is in the fear that he’ll send him back to the orphanage, he finds a new family with the man. Atlas also gets his heart transplant, and Asaf invites the little boy to join their little family. In the end, even Sema realizes that Asaf is a good man and she doesn’t need to leave him because he’ll be the one who gives her a happy family.
Does The Show Have A Happy Ending?
In Asaf’s ending, the family goes to the beach with a red kite, just like Atlas always wished for. This time it isn’t just one boy flying the kite but two… brothers for life. While Asaf himself was always compared to his own brother, I don’t think he’d let that happen with Atlas and the orphan kid. One could speculate that Asaf is an adopted kid himself because of the way his mom treats him, specifically after the boy asks her if she is Asaf’s “real” mom. But I don’t think there’s any need to; it’s simply to show that sometimes even your own mother might not treat you right because you turn out to be such a disappointment. I suppose the kite signifies freedom not only for Asaf and his family but for everyone who was once a part of the “system.” Guess this is your sign to escape your system too. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how Asaf saved his family; it simply matters that he gets his happy ending as a cab driver who did it all.
