Love 101 Season 1, Episode 5 recap: Burcu finally tells Kemal the truth

In episode 5 of Love 101, Burcu finally tells Kemal the truth while Sinan tries to confess his feelings to Isik, and Kerem and Eda fight.

Sinan is okay, and that is all that matters. Joking. Sort of. But seriously, I need that kid to get a loving family who takes care of him. As it stands, at least Episode 5 of Love 101 begins with Isik stopping by to take care of him. She shows up at his doorstep with food and vitamins to help him get through his sickness.

The two share a somewhat tender scene with Isik sort of revealing her feelings to a clueless Sinan. He has no idea what it’s like to be loved by someone. He starts putting the medicine back in the bag when Isik confronts him and tells him she’s not expecting anything from their friendship.

Sinan doesn’t really understand, to him, love and affection are all equatable to wanting something so he thinks, “well obviously she wants this back if she’s upset.” He certainly doesn’t understand the concept of “unconditional love.”

She also has some bad news too, news we learned at the end of Episode 4: Burcu is engaged.

Işık seems resigned to their fate (even though, as Sinan points out, she won’t be affected like the others will). But then Eda shows up and she’s all “f**k this, what’s the plan?” And the gang is back to plotting.

Forming a new plan

The new plan is for Osman to work on tempting Tuncay (Burcu’s fiancé) into staying in Istanbul while the rest keep the Kemal door open. Sinan points out that they’ll never win over Tuncay because he has a cheap soul and doesn’t value much. Osman is already turning the whole thing into another hustle, placing his odds on Tuncay caving.

With money on the line and a bet in his head, Osman works fast on Tuncay and it doesn’t take long to persuade him into considering relocating to Istanbul full time.

He cleverly gives Tuncay the jacket Kemal lent to Sinan. It is much more expensive than Tuncay’s jacket and yet he doesn’t say no to it anyway despite obviously knowing it isn’t his. Sinan definitely called it right, this guy is one cheap soul. He has money on the mind and not much else.

To keep Kemal as a potential option, the students come up with a plan to have Isik propose Burcu and Kemal help with the student projects for Youth and Sports Day, a national Turkish holiday celebrated on May 19. Burcu isn’t thrilled about it (neither is her friend who has the hots for Kemal) but Kemal seems to delight in teasing her about their sexual tension.

Sinan gets a doctors note to excuse him from school for ten days. It seems like he actually gets a chance to rest. Isik may have had an effect on him after all since he stops his dad from taking a painting she liked and gives him the same reason for liking it that she did. He even goes on a boat and enjoys the day.

Everyone has a lot of feelings

Then Sinan shows up at school and all but CONFESSES HIS LOVE for Isik. Unfortunately, she misinterprets what he’s saying and thinks he’s trying to make fun of her. It’s such an adorable scene with Isik participating in rehearsals with her umbrella, making part of a giant red heart. The show is named Love 101, after all.

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Yet she can’t quite grasp what Sinan is trying to tell her. He looks so confused and crestfallen when she walks away. My poor heart, these dumb teens are killing me.

On the flipside of Sinan and Isik’s adorable and innocent romance, we have Eda and Kerem’s passionate and crazy romance. I mean Kerem definitely has some deeply-rooted issues stemming from living with a verbally abusive father, but it seems he genuinely cares for Eda — even though I’m not a fan of the manhandling.

Regardless of my personal feelings, Eda is super into Kerem. She even says his aggression excites her and she cares about him too much. Everything is too much — oh so dramatic.

Also, remember that random dude Burak that Eda pretended to love as part of the scheme to get Burcu to the rock concert? Well, he pops up again and is suddenly like “yo, Kerem I like Eda so can you back off?”

After Eda yells at Kerem to leave her alone because her teen angst meter is too high for the day, Kerem tells Burak he can do whatever he wants because he and Eda are “over,” but does Eda even care about Burak at all?

Later that night, Kerem, Sinan, and Osman have a bro moment where Kerem sadly gives up the bracelet Osman had given him. But Sinan wants it now. Maybe he’ll have better luck than Kerem.

Burcu and Kemal hit the brakes

As for Burcu and Kemal, the teens were definitely onto something with their “spark.” The two have a lovely lunch together. Kemal takes her to one of his favorite lunch spots and even offers to cook with her someday.

Compare that to the awful greeting Burcu gets from her fiancé and it’s hard to see why she doesn’t ditch the ring and get with Kemal already. Tuncay all but demands Burcu make him dinner the second she walks in the door and seems to expect she they succumb to traditional gender roles forever.

The episode hones in on the obvious comparisons with a hilarious montage of Burcu being joyous and having a great time with Kemal with scenes of her forlornly peeling fruit and tending to her boring fiancé.

The teens meet up together again to go over their current plans. Osman provides them with some baklava and regales them with his reasoning for obsessing over money.

“You have to have money to not think about it,” he says.

Sinan chimes in with a question about love, “what if you want someone to love you?” He really tugs at every heartstring, doesn’t he?

Overall, they believe things will work out if Tuncay decides to stay in Istanbul. It isn’t exactly what they wanted, but the end result is the same.

Except it doesn’t work out like that. Instead, Tuncay is just as much of a scumbag as Sinan warned. Tuncay spills the beans on the entire canteen-school agreement to Necdet and causes all of the canteens to go out of business. Initially, he did it so he could get control of the whole thing, but all he did is ruin it for everyone, which is exactly what Sinan predicted.

A guy without dignity really can win over intelligence and everything else, it is a very familiar story.

The heart of Osman’s money obsession appears to be his working-class parents. His dad is a chauffeur and his mother is a maid. That explains why he’s desperate to make enough money that it doesn’t become an obstacle.

As for Burcu and Kemal, Burcu finally admits to Kemal that she is engaged. He is understandably heartbroken, especially because he feels like she’s been leading him on all this time. But he tells her he’ll make things easier, I wonder if that means he’s going to leave the school or simply ignore her forever now.

The episode ends with him walking into the teacher’s lounge while they’re celebrating Burcu’s engagement. Awkward.

Odds & Ends

• Osman asks his dad if he knows anyone at the Land Rights Center. Hm, does he have something in mind as payback against Tuncay?

What did you think of episode 5 of Love 101? How will things pan out with each couple? Will Burcu really marry Tuncay? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

The first season of Love 101 is now streaming on Netflix.