Not a Stranger
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Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A painter desperate to get back to her studio hires the perfect nanny for her baby daughter, not knowing the young woman was once her husband's lover and wants her place.
Funda, a painter, has not worked since her daughter, Mavi, was born. She has an exhibition coming, a marriage to İlker that has gone quiet and no one she trusts with the baby, until she keeps meeting Nazlı, the calm instructor at Mavi's swimming sessions. When Nazlı says she is leaving the pool, Funda hires her as a live-in nanny while İlker is away on a work trip. He comes home, finds Nazlı in his kitchen, and tells Funda that he once spent a single night with her. Desperate to get back to her studio, Funda keeps her.
It was not one night. İlker and Nazlı were together for four months before he left for London. Later Nazlı lost a pregnancy in an accident and was told she could not carry another, and she had been following Funda's life online long before she came to the pool. In the house she is good with Mavi, and İlker, who tries to keep his distance, goes back to her. Nazlı's boyfriend, Emre, follows her to a hotel, finds İlker in her room and leaves Funda a message that there is something she must know. İlker chases him on the road, Emre's motorbike hits a truck, and he dies in hospital.
Funda, meanwhile, suffers headaches, lost hours and dizziness, and puts cameras around the house without catching anything: Nazlı has been putting sedatives in the teas she makes her. On the opening night of her exhibition, drugged, Funda runs after a man on a motorbike with Mavi in her arms and falls with the baby. Afraid that she has become a danger to her daughter, she asks İlker for help and checks herself into a clinic.
Away from the house she recovers within days. Kemal, a man from her past who still has feelings for her, learns that Nazlı was dismissed from nursing and confronts her; she admits what she has done and persuades him to keep quiet and wait for the marriage to fail. After six weeks Kemal collects Funda from the clinic. The season ends with Funda outside her own house, watching Nazlı, İlker and Mavi inside, still believing the breakdown was hers.
Starring
Elçin Sanguas Funda
A painter and new mother who stopped working when her daughter was born and needs help to get back to her studio.
Funda’s story
Funda has not painted since Mavi was born, her marriage to İlker has gone quiet, and she trusts no one with the baby until she meets Nazlı, who is calm and whom Mavi loves. When İlker confesses a single night with Nazlı, Funda keeps her anyway, because she wants her studio back. She paints, prepares an exhibition and slowly falls ill: headaches, lost hours, dizziness. She puts cameras around the house and never suspects the tea. On opening night, drugged, she runs after a stranger with Mavi in her arms and falls, and, afraid she is a danger to her daughter, she checks herself into a clinic, where she recovers within days. Six weeks later Kemal collects her, and she stands outside her own house watching Nazlı, İlker and Mavi together, still believing the breakdown was hers.
Melis Sezenas Nazlı
The swimming instructor Funda hires as a live-in nanny, who hides that she was once İlker's lover.
Nazlı’s story
Nazlı was İlker's lover for four months before he left for London; later she lost a pregnancy in an accident and was told she could not carry another. She has been following Funda's life online, and takes the job at the pool where Funda brings Mavi. Hired as the nanny, she cares for Mavi well, draws İlker back into an affair and keeps Funda ill with sedatives in her tea. When her boyfriend, Emre, finds İlker in her hotel room and sets out to warn Funda, İlker's chase ends with Emre dead, and Nazlı is left with the memory of her own accident. When Kemal uncovers her dismissal from nursing, she admits everything and talks him into silence. The season ends with her inside the house, with İlker and Mavi.
Ozan Dolunayas İlker
Funda's husband, who calls his past with Nazlı a single night and keeps the rest to himself.
İlker’s story
İlker is away on business when Funda hires the new nanny, and comes home to find Nazlı, his lover of four months before he left for London, in his kitchen. He tells Funda it was a single night and that he does not want her in the house; when Funda keeps her, he tries to stay away and fails, and the affair begins again. When Emre finds him in Nazlı's hotel room and sets out to tell Funda, İlker chases him on the road until Emre's motorbike hits a truck, then waits at the hospital, afraid Emre will wake and talk. After Funda checks herself into a clinic, he drinks, does not take the baby to see her, and settles into his days with Nazlı and Mavi. He is never made to answer for what he hid.
Cemal Hünalas Kemal
A man from Funda's past who still has feelings for her, and who looks into Nazlı's history.
Efe Taşdelenas Emre
Nazlı's boyfriend, who discovers her affair with İlker and tries to warn Funda.
Why it matters
Not a Stranger borrows the frame of the nanny thriller, but its first subject is ordinary: a new mother who loves her baby and badly wants her work back, and who is made to feel that wanting both is a failing. Its creator and writer, Tuğba Doğan, keeps returning to how quickly the people around Funda, and Funda herself, read her exhaustion as proof that she cannot cope; the drugging makes that doubt literal. The series also puts a husband's small lie at the centre of the damage: İlker's 'one night' is what lets the danger into the house. And it gives Nazlı a history of her own, a lost pregnancy and a love İlker treated as temporary, without excusing what she does. The season ends with the mother outside her home, recovered and uninformed, and leaves open the question of who is believed about a mother's mind.