Many would think that Lale’s fight in As the Crow Flies season 2 has been for gaining back her position in “The Other Side,” or at least defeating them at their own game for what they did to her. Lale left the newsroom when she was at the top of her game, and she did it on her own terms, or that is what it seemed like. Lale left because she was pushed out by everyone around her. In season 1, Lale could deal with Asli’s betrayal since the girl did not matter much to her. However, her own colleagues trying to backstab her was what broke her heart. What set Lale apart from the rest was that she cared about the truth and about being a good journalist. It was her dedication and passion for the field that came first, and the good ratings followed that. But it was the reverse for the rest of the team.
Even Kenan believed in being flexible sometimes for the purpose of a good story or higher viewership. It is an entirely different thing that he had standards and loyalty for Lale, so he would never do what the others did to her. Gul and Muge orchestrated the entire set-up for Lale because they were jealous of her importance to the network. These were people who always had her back, and now they were out for her throat. For Lale, journalism was a team effort. Someone brought the news, someone else compiled it, and someone else delivered it. She considered herself a part of a system, and when Gul and Muge proved they were not on her side, she knew she could not stand alone. Maybe she would have persevered if Kenan had been on her side, but she had to let go of him for her marriage and family.
In As the Crow Flies season 2, Selim says that Lale is not feeling confident about her work since Kenan is not by her side. This makes sense since he had been with her since the beginning of her career, and they had unrivaled teamwork. Lale married Selim because he made her feel secure, which is what she looked for in her home life, but when it came to going to war every day in the newsroom, it was Kenan she counted on. For the first time in her life, Lale was forced to confront what she was without her team and if she was really as insignificant as Asli liked to taunt her.
We sincerely believe that, along with the self-doubt, the trauma of the betrayal weighed on Lale. She had distanced herself from any kind of news at the beginning of As the Crow Flies season 2, and that is why she did not leave the house at all. But once she got a taste of it, there was no stopping her. It helped that Selim made sure that Kenan was once again by her side, giving Lale the strength she needed. However, things were different this time.
Previously, Lale had lived a fast-paced life where Selim and Kenan were always by her side. She never had to stop and consider what she would do without either. But now she keenly felt the difference, and she couldn’t ignore those feelings anymore. She realized that what she felt for Selim was less than love, and what she felt for Kenan was more than friendship. Lale saw this as a failure of her personal life, which enhanced her feelings of competition with Asli. Lale did not respect Asli’s journalism, but Lale needed her numbers to prove a point to herself. She needed to know that the principles she was fighting so hard to stand by actually had the power to win. That is why she worked so hard.
While Lale attributed her wins to the team effort, she took her failures personally because she had become very sensitive to the game of the networks that influenced the news cycles. One of the reasons Lale drove herself so hard was because she did not want to depend on Kenan anymore. She wanted to see how she could make it on her own so that she knew her worth as an individual journalist. She got her answer soon enough, and she won over Asli in a way that no amount of gimmicks on the latter’s part could ever hope to compare.
This journey of finding her proof had taught Lale to work without the security she had always cherished. Her separation from her husband was the biggest shock for her. Lale worked hard for her family, but she did not love her husband. Selim deserved more than to be a companion to someone because they felt a sense of duty towards him. With him gone, Lale was forced to understand that her not being honest had hurt everyone she was trying to protect. On top of that, when Lale discovered Muge’s betrayal, she became aware of just how protected she had been this whole time.
There are two things that can happen when someone is left in the wild. They either become more cautious and refuse to move for fear of being killed, or they become absolutely fearless and are ready for anything. The latter happened to Lale. This is why she got back together with Kenan. Morally, she couldn’t tell him about her breakup and asked to be with him. But once he asked, she did not hesitate to say yes. Similarly, when “The Other Side” contacted Lale to come back, she knew she had already won the game. The people who had conspired against her were out of the office, and the network knew they couldn’t do without her. She had proved that the ratings followed her and not the other way around. Therefore, Lale had nothing left to prove in As the Crow Flies season 2, which means she could do exactly what she wanted.
Lale had no reason to return to “The Other Side” and risk putting herself in the same situation that she had walked out of. Journalism was Lale’s passion, and she wanted to do it independently, without being subject to anyone’s politics. Lale is either going to start a channel of her own, or she is going to run her own YouTube channel where she is in charge of things. Lale is simply removing herself from the rat race that cost her so much in life and is choosing to walk her own path. Lale has never denied the power of social media or influencers. She has only urged caution and fact-checking while using the platform. She can do exactly that by jumping into the fray. Lale will make new enemies, or maybe the old ones won’t stop coming after her. The video of hers at the end of the last episode is proof that she has a lot more battles to fight. But she will come out of them, shining in the way only she can.
