The Exchange season 2 begins from where it left us off in the previous season. We saw that Saud was fired from his position after he lost consciousness and had to be admitted to the hospital during the market crash. Amir, the VP of the Bank of Tomorrow, believed that he needed people who could bear the pressure and not succumb to it. Munira and Farida were made a part of the Alpha IPO team, and they were quite confident they would be able to show the world what they were capable of. Omar, Farida’s ex-husband, still wanted her to quit her job and focus on taking care of their daughter. But Farida didn’t give in to his wishes, and she did what she felt was right. So, let’s recap the events of The Exchange season 2 to see if the IPO of Alpha Real Estate was a success or not.
Spoiler Alert
Why was Sabiha’s company not able to find an anchor investor?
The Bank of Tomorrow, under the leadership of Amir, was working tirelessly to make sure that the Alpha company IPO was a success. According to the evaluation done by Farida, the company could expect to amass a sum of 73 million dinars through the public listing, which in itself was an achievement, as there hadn’t been a bigger IPO for a real estate company in the history of the Kuwait Stock Exchange. But Sabiha wanted more, and she believed that Farida had underestimated her company’s potential. Sabiha was eyeing a considerably larger amount, and she was quite confident that a sum of 93 million dinars was easily achievable. Sabiha invited Farida and Munira to meet her at her favorite restaurant, and there she gave them tips about how to tackle patriarchal mindsets and how to make sure that everybody around them respected them. She also told the women that she had a wildcard that would greatly boost the valuations and make a lot of people trust the company and invest their money. Sabiha’s son, Rakan, came on board the IPO team as the co-CEO of the company, and he made it very clear from the onset that he had a very different way of dealing with things. Sabiha needed an anchor investor, as she knew that without one, she wouldn’t be able to achieve her target. There came a change in Sabiha’s perspective where, though she started out liking the way Farida functioned, she grew a bit wary of her opinions. Farida felt that the revenue forecast that Rakan and Sabiha had made was exaggerated. The wildcard that Sabiha talked about earlier was actually an island named Failaka that Alpha wanted to invest in and redevelop. The company was teaming up with the government, and they had already created a blueprint for revamping the entire island. Even after analyzing that, Farida didn’t feel that Sabiha’s forecasts were right, so she tried to negotiate with Sabiha in a meeting. As a result, Farida was asked to step down from the coveted IPO team and go back to the floor to handle the day-to-day trading.
Around that time in The Exchange season 2, Farida met Nabil, who was supposed to be the broker for the IPO, and also Saud, who had started working for a big investor named Laith Nasir. Laith had deep pockets, and Farida wanted him to be a part of the deal and be the anchor investor. Laith agreed to meet the team at the investor’s summit in Cairo, and though Amir and his entire team tried their level best to pull in investors, Rakan’s reputation as a failed leader became a burden for them. Similarly, many other people who would have been interested in investing in the company refrained from doing so just because they didn’t believe that Rakan had the credibility to win their trust.
What happened between Omar and Farida?
Omar’s quest to make Farida quit her job also continued in The Exchange season 2. He wanted Farida to prioritize their child, as according to him, and actually also according to society in general, she wasn’t a good mother if she went out and toiled hard to achieve financial independence. The moment Omar got the slightest opportunity, he didn’t fail to criticize Farida. Farida also, at times, felt pressured by his constant nagging, but she didn’t give in. Farida wouldn’t have been scared if the country’s justice system had been fair towards women. Had the laws not been so unfair and biased, Farida probably wouldn’t have stopped herself from giving a befitting reply to Omar. There was a time when I felt that even Farida’s mother did not vouch for her daughter. She threw tantrums at Farida as she had to look after Jude at times when Farida was busy with her work. I didn’t quite understand the kind of woman Farida’s mother was, because the conversations she had with her daughter made me feel that she made all sorts of excuses not to take any sort of responsibility. She even complained about the financial losses that the family had to endure due to Farida’s divorce. Omar made Jude join horse riding classes, and everybody felt that he was just looking out for the welfare of his daughter. But in reality, it was just a way to get close to a girl named Rose, who also attended those classes, and with whom Omar’s mother wanted him to get married.
Neither Farida nor Jude had any clue that Omar was going to propose to Rose for marriage. Rose was merely 21 years old, and based on the conversation she had with Farida and Jude, it was quite clear how naive she was. She believed that Omar was a good man and that he wouldn’t treat her like he treated his ex-wife. Farida wanted to break her illusions then and there, but she didn’t say anything as she knew that Rose needed to experience everything herself; otherwise, she would feel that Farida was just jealous of her. I don’t think that Farida had any feelings left for Omar, but was cordial with him just because he had the power to take Jude away from her. There came a time when Farida’s father lost his temper after he saw Omar belittling his daughter and questioning her credibility. I believe that Farida’s motivation to keep going forward came from her father’s belief in her abilities. In that day and age, when women were objectified and treated unfairly, Farida’s father was a godsend, and he made sure that she didn’t feel like a lone warrior.
What personal issues was Munira dealing with?
Munira’s parents wanted her to get married, and after she called off her engagement with Saud in The Exchange season 1, she had no option but to get married to a guy of her parent’s choice. To understand why Munira felt so compelled, we need to understand the kind of ideologies people had at that time in Kuwait. If we take that context out of the picture, then the entire narrative seems quite absurd, and it doesn’t make sense why Munira felt like she was under so much pressure. So, Munira was 33 years old, which was way past the proper marriageable age; she was working, which was not acceptable in society; and she had called off her engagement, which allowed people to question her character. Basically, nobody really wanted to marry her, and from what I understood, her father wanted her to just get married, even if it was to an 80-year-old man. Munira was shocked when she saw the man with whom her father wanted her to enter into a matrimonial alliance. The man literally had one foot in the grave, and apparently, he was doing Munira’s family a great favor by agreeing to marry her. Munira, during that time, grew quite close to Sabiha, and the latter wanted her to get married to Rakan. Now, marriage with Rakan was also no less than a transaction.
Just like the IPO, Rakan’s marriage was also a business deal for Sabiha, and she told Munira about the benefits of becoming a part of her family. Munira, realizing that she didn’t have a better option, started to entertain the worst-case scenarios. Marrying Rakan had its own benefits, and the biggest of all was that Sabiha was fine with her working and holding a powerful position in the company as she was a working woman as well. Just before making it public, Munira went and talked to Saud. He was probably the only guy who loved her for who she was, and now that Munira realized that, it was a bit too late. Saud, with a heavy heart, told Munira to take the offer that Sabiha was making. Munira never told her cousin Farida throughout season 2 that her father, wanting her to get married to such an old man, was bothering her. I believe that if Munira had confided in Farida, things would have been a bit different. But Munira had always been somebody who had faced her battles without being dependent on somebody; only this time, no matter how hard she tried, she wasn’t able to turn the odds in her favor.
Why did Saud and Laith betray Alpha?
In the end, Laith Nasir did something that, in the financial world, was known as flipping. So, after much convincing, Laith agreed to be the anchor investor, and he had a huge number of shares of Alpha at his disposal. The moment the IPO got listed, and he saw its prices shooting up, he started selling his own shares. In layman’s terms, he turned a wedding into a funeral, and the IPO launch of Alpha Real Estate became a disaster. When Farida asked the man why he did so, he said that he never believed in Sabiha’s vision of a utopian world. Sabiha, at the beginning of season 2 had told everybody how she wanted to transform Failaka island into a paradise. Laith didn’t believe that her vision had any merit, and so from the day he decided to come on board, his real intention was to actually flip the table and leave the moment the IPO was listed. Saud, though, I believe, might have had some ulterior motives. He knew that the moment the IPO was a failure, Munira’s wedding would be called off. It was quite evident in season 2 that he still had a lot of feelings for Munira, though after what had happened in the past, his ego had been severely bruised. After the debacle, the onus to make up for the revenue lost was laid on the Bank of Tomorrow. Sabiha had teamed up with the government for her Failaka project, and Amir knew that when the time came, he would be held accountable and blamed for the failure of the IPO. Amir realized that he would have to make somebody the scapegoat if he wanted to save his job and reputation. So, he fired both Munira and Farida, though he told them quite honestly that it was not their fault.
Will Farida Join Laith’s Company?
It was quite evident from the way Laith looked at Farida in the end that he felt attracted to her. Maybe I am reading too much between the lines, but it did seem that Farida reciprocated his feelings as well. We saw the sudden change in her facial expressions when she got to know that Laith had separated from his wife amicably and that he was living all by himself.
During The Exchange season 2’s ending, Laith met Farida, and he told her that though he didn’t have any faith in Sabiha’s visions, he felt bad that Farida and Munira lost their jobs. He offered Farida to come and work with him, and he promised that he would give her a post that suited her caliber, i.e. a senior trader at Al-Fajer holding. Farida, being the good sister that she was, made Laith agree to hire Munira too. Farida went to meet Munira, and she quite excitedly informed her that she had a job offer for her. That’s when Munira told her that she was planning to move abroad and had received a lucrative offer from somewhere else. Munira did not disclose where she was going or with whom she was going to work. Farida felt a bit disheartened as she had probably imagined that they would once again work together. Farida suffered another setback when she was informed by the authorities that her ex-husband, Omar, had filed a case of incompetence against her. Omar basically wanted to destroy Farida because he didn’t feel that she was worthy of looking after their child and deep down he was jealous of her success. Omar had seen Munira and Farida jumping into the swimming pool in the Sheraton hotel, and considering the society they lived in, it was quite a disgrace to do something like that. Farida’s father assured her that they would hire a good lawyer no matter how much he charged, but still Farida panicked as she didn’t want her daughter to be taken away from her. Farida had no clue what the future had in store for her. She knew that she trusted her abilities and that she would fight till the very end. It would be interesting to see how things pan out in Farida and Munira’s lives if, in case there is a season 3, and if they are able to stand their ground against an oppressive and unjust society.
