Aahana Swrup
‘Kübra,’ the Netflix Turkish show, follows the story of Gokhan Sahinoglu, who ends up embroiled in an Artificial Intelligence experiment after receiving messages from a mysterious sender, Kubra. However, the man interprets his communications with Kubra as divine intervention, convinced that God has chosen him to spread his will. Consequently, Gokhan’s connection with the all-powerful AI tech ends up charting a path of social revolution as the man cultivates a following for his holy mission.
Merve, Gokhan’s partner and eventual wife, has been one of his most adamant supporters and collaborators from day one. However, the woman makes a mistake while trying to preserve her husband’s reputation in season 1, fabricating an act of God that leads to adverse complications. For the same reason, going into season 2, Merve’s predicament remains turbulent, compelling fans to wonder about her fate. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Merve Discovers The Truth About Kubra
Merve’s character has always been a complicated element within the show. While the woman bestows her unflinching faith and trust in Gokhan and his ability to do good, she also retains a fair amount of doubt regarding his connection with God. For the same reason, she was quick to stage a fake assassination attempt to affirm people’s belief in Gokhan and bring her husband’s spirit back to life. Nevertheless, the fallout from her stunt ends up costing him direly, planting weeds of distrust and treachery between the couple. Despite her good intentions, Merve falls from her previous pedestal in Gokhan’s eyes.
Therefore, as the second season begins, Merve remains aware of her precarious place in Gokhan’s life and tries to offer him a way out of their marriage. In turn, Gokhan maintains that he is willing to overlook their past and hold up their wedding vows. Nonetheless, the man continues to keep secrets from Merve about the details of his plans. Before Gokhan learned the truth about Kubra, he maintained transparency with his followers, insisting each development furthered God’s will. However, now that he knows Kubra is an artificial intelligence program, he knows that people’s faith in him will waver with the information.
Although Gokhan is willing to perceive Kubra as another medium through which God speaks to him, he knows everyone won’t be as liberal in their interpretation of the events. As such, he keeps his secrets close. Eventually, the same leads Merve to spy on Gokhan, witnessing his meeting with Berk, which gives her a glimpse at the bigger picture. In the confrontation that follows between the couple, Gokhan reveals the entire truth about his connection with Berk and his technology to the woman. Predictably, Merve doesn’t take the news well.
However, rather than hurling blame at Gokhan, Merve is more concerned about the fact that Berk is using her husband to perpetuate his own agenda. Even though Berk has had Kubra for a while, he can’t bring about any real change with it if he doesn’t have Gokhan’s help. His charismatic personality and hardened conviction naturally attract people to follow his vision. Consequently, once it becomes clear that Gokhan isn’t operating under God’s will but rather the whim of some rich kid, Merve decides to put an end to the charade on her own.
Merve Betrays Gokhan’s Cause
After Merve learns the truth about Gokhan, she realizes the necessity behind bringing his plans to a halt. Once it becomes clear that Gokhan’s actions aren’t God-sanctioned, she recognizes that her husband has been selling his people a lie. Therefore, the people who lose their lives aren’t doing so as a part of God’s plan. Instead, it is all entirely up to Berk and Gokhan’s personal games. Thus, Merve concludes that she needs to collaborate with the Detective on Gokhan’s case, Kara, and help him apprehend her husband.
Even so, the fact that Merve’s actions are pure remains evident. Upon offering the deal, Merve ensures that she puts in safeguards to protect her people from conviction. She establishes that after the raid, only Gokhan and she would be arrested, so no one else would have to pay for his misdeeds. By including herself in the arrest warrant, she affirms her devotion to her husband, prepared to spend her time by his time, even if in jail. Furthermore, she pleads for a shorter sentence for Gokhan, expressing her love for the man.
Nevertheless, Merve’s actions result in a tragedy when Kara uses their meeting to track the woman and find the bunker sheltering Gokhan’s fugitive camp. Therefore, in the ensuing raid, several people lose their lives, including Gokhan’s mother. The incident confirms to Gokhan that he can no longer trust his wife. Additionally, Berk’s manipulation compels him to believe he must deliver punishment to the woman to ensure the safety of his cause.
Likewise, Gokhan’s camp members turn on Merve, with people who lost loved ones in the police raid calling for violence. As such, Gokhan ends up delivering his own wife, Merve, to her demise. For her part, Merve remains receptive to the punishment since she can’t help but blame herself for the recent deaths. Moreover, she realizes that she will never be able to regain Gokhan’s trust, landing her in an impossible situation. In the end, Gokhan drives Merve out to the same lake that he took her out to on their first date. Similarly, he procures the same apricot juice box for the woman as he did all those years ago.
Merve realizes that Gokhan has chosen the spot as the location of her death and embraces her fate head-on. Still, before meeting her end, she asks Gokhan to refrain from moving on from her and remarrying. Gokhan insists that he truly loves her— but lets her drink the poisoned juice all the same. Ultimately, Merve dies choking on her own blood as poison enters into her bloodstream. Her husband cradles her body as she dies, saddened over his actions. Her death continues to haunt Gokhan throughout the narrative, as evident in his decision later to embrace his own death in the same lake when he meets his end.
Read More: Kubra Season 1 Ending, Explained
