'Asaf' Recap (Episodes 1-6) Explained: Is Cuneyt Bozkurt Dead?

Asaf is a 2024 Turkish crime thriller drama series out now on Netflix, with an intriguing subtitle stating it to be the action-filled story of a serious man. The six-episode-long series is centered around a man named Asaf Erdem, a taxi driver by profession, who is suddenly pulled into a life of serious crime and violence following a small fender bender on the busy roads of Istanbul. Along with figuring out his next steps while being forced to work for a criminal gang, Asaf also has to deal with his failing marriage, which forms the dramatic crux of the tale. Ultimately, Asaf falls short in impressing or exciting in any aspect, with its plot and the set of characters being too superficial and unrealistic, and the series becomes quite a forgettable watch by its end.

Spoiler Alert

What is the Netflix series about?

The series begins with the titular protagonist, Asaf Erdem, waking up to answer his ringing phone one morning, only to realize that he had mistakenly accepted a ride in his sleep, and an angry customer is waiting for him. Asaf is a taxi driver by profession, currently driving for the fleet of a private cab-hailing app company, much to the disappointment of his regular taxi driver friends. Being a hard-working and respectful man, Asaf gets ready in a hurry and then leaves for the pickup location, despite the mix-up. During the entire ride, he tries to make polite conversations with the passenger, but the latter is just not interested. In fact, the customer claims that the only reason for Asaf’s rating on the app being so low is his irritating habit of making conversation, and the protagonist is a bit saddened by this remark. 

Just then, a car hits Asaf’s taxi from behind and quickly tries to drive away, even though there is a lot of traffic during the morning rush hour. Asaf is able to stop the black SUV, but the driver refuses to get into an argument and simply hands him a few bundles of money and asks for the matter to be resolved. Asaf has no option but to take the money and let the matter go, and he is also surprised after the mysterious driver gives him a business card and tells him to get in touch if more money is required for the repairs. Although he does not initially want to get involved any more, the driver happens to be in a terrible financial situation in life at the moment, and it only keeps getting worse. His six-year-old son, Atlas, suffers from a rare heart condition, the treatment for which will cost a lot of money. Although Asaf and his wife, Sema, had made an appointment at a hospital in the country for the procedure, they were suddenly informed that they would have to wait longer. Frustrated by her husband’s inability to stand up for his family or to earn enough money, Sema now wants a divorce from Asaf and also wants custody of their son.

Horribly frustrated at his own stuck situation in life, Asaf tries to get in touch with the driver who had rammed into his taxi, leading to very expensive repair costs, but to no luck. Therefore, when he spots the same SUV once again, he does not waste any time smashing it up as an act of revenge. However, this impulsive action soon turns Asaf’s life upside down, when he suddenly discovers the dead body of a police detective in the trunk of his taxi and an unknown young boy in the backseat. 

What is Payen Kuyern?

The main antagonist is a mysterious business group named Payen Kuyern, and the primary stakeholder of this company is Nasuh Alphan. While the series never fully explains the exact nature of the Payen Kuyern group, or what their motive is, there is enough evidence to suggest that it is a shady company that essentially works on the acquisition of wealth through unlawful means. On the outside, Payen Kuyern has a swanky modern office building with receptionists and busy employees, and it almost looks like some investment company of sorts. In fact, there are many part-time employees, or members, of the group as well, and it is considered a matter of prestige to be invited to be a part of the elite group.

Taking the name of Payen Kuyern, or stating that one is a member of the group, immediately eases matters in their lives, making it evident that the company has immense influence over all businesses in the city, big and small. Who exactly their members are is also a matter generally kept secret, except for during the gala party that is organized for the members during certain times. It is a fairly common matter to suddenly run across someone you know in your personal life at this party and realize that they are a part of the elite group. This is exactly what happens to Asaf when he learns that his elder brother, Aziz, a successful bank manager by profession, is also a part of the VIP club. However, beneath the surface, Payen Kuyern seems to be an elaborate system created by Nasuh Alphan to get people to commit crimes that would benefit him in some way. If Nasuh needs to get something unlawful done, like threatening a business rival or getting rid of incriminating evidence against him, someone from the streets is made a member of Payen Kuyern, and they are compelled to do what the top boss asks of them. What is interesting is the manner in which the group makes its members commit crimes for Nasuh, as they are blackmailed into doing so, with threats of either harming their family or exposing some secrets of theirs. If any member decides to turn against the group or Nasuh, then a new member is inducted to get rid of them, and such a cycle keeps on repeating. 

Naturally, Payen Kuyern needs to have informants and moles in positions of authority as well, and so they do have a number of police officers and even commissioners on payroll. One such man of authority is the police lieutenant Cuneyt Bozkurt, who is a central character in the series, and in fact, it is he who ropes Asaf into the whole matter. Based on the sheer scale of the whole operation, Payen Kuyern is almost like the mafia, which runs several facets of society, including the police force, through the senior officers. Incidentally, it was Cuneyt who had driven his SUV into the back of Asaf’s taxi on that fateful morning and then paid him off for it. But instead of revealing his own identity, Cuneyt had given Asaf the business card of Payen Kuyern, essentially bringing him into the company’s fold for a very special reason.

How did Cuneyt start working for Nasuh?

Amidst its questionably arranged narrative, Asaf does provide a background report of why Cuneyt Bozkurt became associated with Nasuh Alphan and Payen Kuyern. The elite members-only club, or company, was so big and influential in stature that every police officer knew about it. Cuneyt had seemingly come very close to the company for the first time when he investigated a member named Servet Karaman in some case of financial fraud. But the lieutenant always had corrupt intentions, and instead of arresting Servet or investigating the case further, he probably started working with him, much to the frustration of Nasuh. As the leader of Payen Kuyern, Nasuh wanted total control over all shady dealings and financial scams, and so he did not hesitate to call Lt. Cuneyt to an informal meeting and confront him. Although Cuneyt initially wanted to bring down Nasuh by having him killed by a police sniper, the situation was turned entirely against him when one of Nasuh’s men found and killed his sniper first. 

As a result, Cuneyt was forced into becoming a member of Payen Cuyern, and he had no choice but to work for Nasuh, who had selected him for a very specific reason. This is because Lt. Cuneyt has close ties with the social services, and Nasuh needs an insider who would be able to cover up for his crimes in this regard. Payen Kuyern is clearly involved in child trafficking, and Nasuh wants random children to be kidnapped from the orphanages in Istanbul so that they can be trafficked out of the country, earning him incredible amounts of money. Therefore, he decided to bring Cuneyt onto his payroll, as a police lieutenant with social service ties would be able to easily sabotage the kidnapping cases and ensure that no link to Payen Kuyern would be found. 

Cuneyt agreed to be a part of the criminal enterprise for his own financial gain, and he even kidnapped a young boy from an orphanage to be delivered to Payen Kuyern. However, as the series progresses, it also becomes evident that the lieutenant is more interested in trying to cover his tracks and protect himself, even at the cost of selling out Nasuh. Therefore, a predictable bitterness emerges between them, which ultimately leads to both turning against each other. 

Why is Asaf made a member of Payen Kuyern?

During the time when Cuneyt got close to Payen Kuyern and started to work for the group, a senior police detective named Kemal Argun had found out about it and had tried to warn him. Argun had actually been investigating Payen Kuyern for quite some time now, and he was being helped by a renowned investigative journalist named Ruya Deren. The detective had found out about Nasuh as well and was seemingly trying to figure out whether there were moles in the police department when he coincidentally came across Asaf Erdem. As Argun had been tracking one of Nasuh’s cars, he naturally intervened when he saw Asaf trashing it and arrested the driver. Asaf eventually told Argun that his taxi had been damaged by the man driving that car and described how he had been given a card for Payen Kuyern. 

By sheer coincidence, Cuneyt had come to the police station around this very time, along with the boy he had kidnapped, but he told his colleagues that he was just a lost child. Although these two incidents took place at two different sides of the police station, the young unnamed boy recognized Asaf from that morning’s car crash and told Argun about it. Thus, the detective finally realized that Cuneyt was working for the traffickers, and so he asked Asaf to meet him that night, possibly to decide on their next course of action. However, Cuneyt caught wind of this development and went over to Argun’s apartment, killed him, and once again took the boy hostage. 

Meanwhile, Nasuh had grown angry at Asaf for having trashed his car, and he had wanted to involve him in some odd job, definitely not minding if it was a criminal act. Thus, Nasuh had already hired a driver on the one side, while Cuneyt needed someone to get rid of Argun’s body on the other, and this is exactly how Asaf got roped into the whole matter. As the driver went over to Argun’s apartment, Cuneyt dumped Argun’s body in the trunk of his taxi and left the boy in the backseat so that he could arrest Asaf shortly afterwards and pin the blame for the murder and the kidnapping on him. In this way, both Cuneyt’s and Nasuh’s involvements in the crimes would get covered up, and an innocent taxi driver would be made to take the fall.

How does Asaf completely change the game in the end?

Although Cuneyt’s plan depended on Asaf getting caught by the police and just being a simple-minded driver, the protagonist actually turns the game around by using his intelligence and sharp wits. When Asaf finds Argun’s body in the trunk of his taxi, he searches through his pockets and finds a USB stick before eventually dumping the corpse in a river. This stick had been given to the detective by Ruya Deren, and it contained detailed information about Cuneyt’s involvement with the traffickers. Based on this information, Asaf actually gets Cuneyt’s money found and seized by the police, putting pressure on the lieutenant. This decision goes a long way in ascertaining that Cuneyt and Nasuh’s relationship breaks down, and the two ultimately turn against each other. 

At the end of Asaf, Nasuh gets hold of the kidnapped boy to create pressure on Cuneyt, while the lieutenant decides to enlist the help of the protagonist to kill the leader of Payen Kuyern once and for all. There is a serious lack of trust between all the characters, obviously, and so Cuneyt actually fits a bomb inside Asaf’s taxi to ensure that he would not go anywhere other than Nasuh’s boat. His plan is to have Asaf drive the car onto the boat and then blow it up, killing Nasuh and also the young boy in the process. However, Asaf had already developed a strong bond with the boy by this time, and so he decides to try and protect the child at all costs.

Asaf eventually figures out that the bomb is supposed to go off based on the location of his phone, and he also finds the detonator stuck under his taxi. In a very clever move, he drives the taxi to the spot where Nasuh had buried the dead bodies of his former group members, knowing well that Cuneyt would come to the spot. Surely enough, the police lieutenant goes to the location in the hopes of digging up the bodies and solidifying the criminal case against Nasuh, and this is when Asaf blows up his taxi, killing Cuneyt instantly. He then uses this as a favor to negotiate with Nasuh and ensure that the boy is safely rescued from the scene.

Meanwhile, another police officer named Akil Akif had started to suspect Cuneyt for some time, and so he had started to find some evidence against him. He is finally able to find major information from the bank manager, Aziz Erdem, and also brings him in for further questioning. While Cuneyt is dead and Nasuh seems to be getting away, all the remaining members of the corrupt Payen Kuyern group are arrested by the police. 

Did Asaf reunite with his family once again?

At the very end of Asaf, the protagonist suddenly learns that Nasuh has betrayed his trust in the same way as earlier, for he has sent an assassin to kill young Atlas and also Sema. Thus, he realizes that the only way to stop his family from being killed would be to stop Nasuh somehow, and thus Asaf bravely crashes his car into Nasuh’s, ensuring that the criminal mastermind is halted in his tracks. Right then, Akif and his team arrive at the scene and arrest Nasuh, while his hired assassin hears of the arrest through the radio comms and decides to walk away from Asaf’s family. Thus, in the end, Asaf not only protects his family members but is also able to reunite with them, as Sema realizes that he genuinely loves and cares for them. There is no longer a divorce on the cards for the couple, and instead, they have a new family member, in the form of the young kidnapped boy, whom they now decide to adopt. 

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