Word Street Journal

One of the craziest shows ever, A Round of Applause has taken over the world like anything. 

The Turkish series is so offbeat that everyone has their own way of interpreting it. 

While it is a masterpiece, no doubt, the show has a difficult-to-understand ending. 

I tried to grasp it with whatever little analytical skills I had. So, this is a detailed explanation of A Round of Applause’s ending. 

Usually, I take up the last thirty minutes but here I will describe the final episode, followed by possible questions one might have after watching the series. Let’s go.

A Round of Applause Detailed Ending Explained

In his last life, Metin was an Orange, which is the starting scene of the sixth episode. 

The camera zooms into an Orange and creates an illusion before zooming out of Metin’s perspective, who is sitting on a levitation platform, lost in meditation. 

His focus is finally thwarted by the barking of a stray dog. Metin shoos him away but also gets off the platform while doing so. 

Dressed in Orange color clothes from top to bottom, he grabs his articles, smokes a cigarette, and leaves for an unknown destination.

The scene cuts to Zeynep’s house, where she is again meditating. When she opens her eyes, the first thing she sees is one of Mehmet’s young photos punched on the wall. 

It is from those days when he wanted to become a rapper. She keeps staring at it for some time without blinking an eye. 

Suddenly, Zeynep starts crying. It is one of the very few times we see her expressing her emotions, a probable result of motherly affection.

Once her little kid, Metin’s strange endeavors in the outside world make her sad.

Zeynep goes to Mehmet’s room where he is sleeping peacefully on the bed. She calls his name but he doesn’t wake up. 

The woman asks if he is still asleep. Mehmet replies in the affirmative. Her next question is whether he is dreaming. 

In response, he replies with the description of a weird dream. Zeynep tells him to snap out of it. She wants to talk about something important. 

He gives her a verbal thumbs-up. She says opening up is easier when he’s asleep. Normally, she is unable to say such things. 

Zeynep again confirms if she is interrupting his sleep. But Mehmet ridicules her and tells her to just say it and she begins. 

The starting point is the phone call that she received from Mehmet’s alter ego on the day Metin had crawled back into her womb. 

Mehmet had always wanted to know what his wife had discussed with him back then. 

Zeynep says that the call was a big deal for her as the guy on the phone was brilliant and brutally honest. 

She found the whole thing so hot. Mehmet thanks her for the compliment without realizing that she was actually praising his alter ego and not him. 

This infuriates Zeynep. She calls him obnoxious for being so ignorant. 

Moreover, just as she gets angry, we see Zeynep’s appearance change into her younger self. 

She irritatingly tells him that he is not the same man, which is precisely the problem.

On being asked to elaborate, the woman replies saying she has been lying to herself for so many years, hiding her feelings by trying to accept Mehmet’s personality as different. 

She would try to cover all his fallacies by making excuses to herself. 

But now, it’s enough and she no longer wants to hide her true feelings or pretend to feel something for him when it is clearly not the case.

Zeynep says Mehmet’s alter ego highlighted every important point. He was honest with her in a way she had never felt before. 

Moreover, he had the courage to admit his mistakes. His insecurities never became intrusive.

For example, he knew not to make a big deal about a bit of her bra showing when they were out. 

He wouldn’t keep talking and blabbering just because he was nervous, unlike Mehmet. 

If his alter ego never called her again, she would still be in love with him. 

In continuation of her outburst, she suddenly drops a bomb seeking divorce from Mehmet. 

The man replies saying they are too old for separation. And seeking a divorce at this age would be childish, to say the least. 

Zeynep says this is the problem with him. He is thinking of dying already. She warns him to not pass away before they mutually agree to a divorce.

Mehmet asks if would she get into pole dancing at her age after getting a divorce? What purpose would it fulfill exactly? 

Zeynep says all of her heavy, emotional baggage is wrapped up in this relationship. She dated him because she was lonely and hopeless back then.

She couldn’t bring herself to break up with him, then they had a kid and suddenly, it’s been thirty years.

She literally pleads in front of him for a divorce before they drop dead. But Mehmet isn’t giving in. He sticks to his argument that it is too late and she should let it go. 

Zeynep begs again but to no avail. Mehmet again asks her to let it go.

This is when Zeynep’s physical appearance reverts back to her old self and says she cannot let it go.

In the subsequent scenes, her visage switches between younger and older versions as Mehmet continues to propagate his stance of letting go. 

While the young Zeynep is more furious, the older is a tad softer in approach. 

A conclusion seems far away when Mehmet decides to wake up. 

His wife doesn’t want him to rise without coming to a decision regarding their divorce but he doesn’t give a damn.

Mehmet opens his eyes and after a deep inhale, says that he had a pretty good nap. He gets off the bed and leaves the room, quietly. 

Zeynep says he could have slept a bit longer and the man agrees with her.

Did the Couple Really Talk or Was it an Imaginary Conversation?

It was an imaginary conversation between Zeynep and Mehmet from the former’s perspective. 

In her own words, “she found it easier to talk to him when he’s asleep.” 

Normally, she is unable to say such things. This was the reason Zeynep was continuously asking him in the beginning whether he was sleeping or awake. 

If he had replied saying she was interrupting his voice, she wouldn’t have continued.

Moreover, this was not the first time they indulged in such a tactic.

In the very first episode, we saw Mehmut trying to conversate with his wife internally while she was meditating.

This gave her a chance to vent her inner stress.

The scene cuts to Metin who is lost in meditation, sitting on his levitation platform. A loud thudding interrupts his focus.

Soon, he realizes that those were the sounds of gunshots. The clamor around him increases as he starts to cough probably due to the smoke arising out of the firing. 

People are running in the street, fearing for their life. He joins them and takes refuge inside a café, along with others. 

There, he meets Kudret, the infant he had met when he was inside her mother’s womb. 

Naturally, his first reaction upon seeing him is that of utter surprise. Mehmet had never expected to see him again in his lifetime. 

A shocked Metin tries to talk to him but Mehmet doesn’t seem to remember him. 

Metin tries to remind him of their meeting long ago by dropping references from their conversations. But Kudret is unperturbed. 

Metin thinks he has forgotten the day they met. Kudret ponders over if they have ever met. 

A book signing, or a book fair, or if he had read one of his books. Metin rejects all his guesses and expresses surprise at him becoming a writer. 

He reminds him that he had predicted him to become a writer, who would write self-indulgent novels. 

But again, Kudret doesn’t reciprocate as expected. When Metin tells him that his name is Kudret, the latter thinks he must have confused him with someone else. 

He then says his name is Sertac and not Kudret. Fed up with him beating around the bush, Metin asks him to give up already. 

He again references some of the lines he had said back then. Metin thinks he forgot about everything after his birth, including his cause for justice. 

Sertac still doesn’t remember anything. 

He asks Metin if he is high and mocks him further for what he calls foolish endeavors. 

Sertac doesn’t want him to stress him further when the country is already in turmoil of sorts.

However, Metin continues to drop references from the past. This time, he imitates him word to word while matching his vocal intonations. 

An irritated Sertac warns him that he will smash his face. Metin doesn’t stop him either. Instead, he requests him to do that. 

Throughout the conversation, Sertac never loses his temper externally. He keeps smiling even when proposing to hit him. 

Metin wants them to leave together and go back to their past lives, where he was an Orange and Sertac was an Apple. 

He then takes two flowers from a seller nearby and offers one to Sertac. 

He asks him to smell it and when he does, Metin says that the roses don’t have any scent. 

Then he pays the florist and tells Sertac that she is selling the roses he wanted to divide equally, referring to Mehmut’s ideology of social justice. 

Suddenly, he turns all angry and throws the rose at someone. People around open their cameras and start filming his actions. 

Metin angrily calls them reflections and mirrors in the street. 

He curses them in so many words but his primary message is that all the people in the world are reflections of each other. 

They are the same despite wearing different clothes. Security personnel escort him outside as Metin begins to get vocally aggressive.

Metin’s mother gets off of a bus, holding a folded chair and a bag in her hands. She goes to the place where her son is sitting in meditation like a saint. 

Zeynep places the chair beside his spot while simultaneously telling him to not end his musing. 

She says she doesn’t want to disturb him but keeps blabbering about something or the other. 

The woman asks him to pick a color for the sweater she is knitting for him. Then she offers her some homemade kefir and puts the bottle nearby. 

Zeynep notices the snake attached to the levitating platform and calls it pretty. She tries to kiss her son on the cheek but he turns his face to the other side. 

Another attempt, and he again ducks. All this while, Metin pretends to be in deep meditation.

Zeynep takes a dig at him, saying he has time for clicking pictures with strangers but won’t let his mother kiss him. 

She settles on the chair and expresses her feelings. She says motherhood is harsh. 

Mothers raise children, love them, and do everything for them, but, in return, they get ignorance.

Children act like they don’t know their mother. It is shameful that she came all the way to ask for his son’s choice of color but he didn’t even let her kiss him on the cheek. 

In a strongly worded statement, Zeynep says she would be thankful even if Metin spat on her face.

Moreover, she hopes her presence is not bothering him. However, her words don’t evoke any reactions from him. 

Metin would have understood her feelings only if he was a parent. But since he has chosen the path of being a monk, this would be an impossible task. 

Zeynep lies to him about looking at his childhood photo a few days ago. She says she was blooming with happiness reminiscing her son’s rapping years. 

Metin had a lot of potential but he never realized it truly. He could have gone places but decided to beg on the streets. 

Talking about his capabilities, Zeynep starts crying. She decides to go with the orange color to knit his sweater, thinking he would be able to go to work wearing the clothing. 

Further, she asks him if Orange has been his favorite color since birth, trying to deliberately seek a response from him. 

But even on repeated requests, Metin remains quiet. Before leaving, Zeynep mysteriously caresses the snake a couple of times.

Metin lets it all out upon her exit and starts crying heavily. Everything he had been holding up until now comes out in the form of tears. 

In the next scene, we see Zeynep walking on the roadside after meeting her son. She suddenly feels pain and witnesses a shocking jerk. 

The snake in Metin’s levitation platform comes alive and bites him. He falls on the bottle of kefir brought by his mother and dies. 

Zeynep looks at her tummy and finds out that she is pregnant again. A wide, unexpected smile takes over her face as she holds her belly in awe. 

The moment is so overwhelming that she starts crying. A Round of Applause ends here.

I know what you want to read. So, without wasting any time…

What Does the Ending Mean? What is the Significance of the Snake in A Round of Applause?

Just like everyone, I also have my own interpretation of the Turkish show’s conclusion. 

In the first episode of A Round of Applause, when Metin and Kudret are having a conversation inside their respective wombs, Metin shows him how Zeynep is from the inside.

There are dolls, old sandals, shorts, etc., but what’s unusual is the photo frame of a snake. It looks exactly like the one on Metin’s Levitation platform in the sixth episode.

Now, there are two ways to look at the final scene of the snakebite. First is to call it a creative disruption to make Metin go back from this world, something he always wanted.

He might get another chance to live as an Orange. Moreover, Zeynep would also get another chance to be a mother.

At her age, it would be a task but at least, she can do things differently this time around.

On the other hand, another way of looking at the ending of A Round of Applause is by making connections within the plot and going a bit deep.

Let’s talk about the snake first. By nature, if you call a person a snake, you are probably referring to them as deceitful or fake.

Now, let’s assume that the photo frame inside Zeynep’s womb signifies the same about her. She is somewhat deceitful and manipulative.

An example of this is in the fifth episode’s ending. After Metin leaves his parents’ house, he overhears Zeynep from outside narrating the exact opposite of how things went at his Q&A event.

She was the first person to know that Metin had gone back into her womb. So, we can safely say she was the closest to understanding the phenomenon.

Zeynep’s womb was full of bottled-up feelings, regrets, and emotions.

When she finally opened up to Mehmet and Metin in the final episode and expressed her bottled-up feelings, her deceitful side (signified by the photo frame) also came out.

She knew if Mehmet could go back inside once, he could do it again, regardless of his age. However, she had no idea how it could happen.

This is when creative freedom comes in. Zeynep caresses the Snake before leaving for home. 

The makers use her negative side to show the Snake as a medium to transport Metin back into her womb, giving him an entirely new life.

He was anyhow not interested in living the current one. As soon as the snake bit Metin, Zeynep found herself carrying a child in her womb.

It was clear that Metin died in this life but got his next one as Zeynep’s son again. Now, both have the chance to do things rightly.

For Metin, her mother would not have many things bottled up, which would change the whole setup for Zeynep and Mehmet as parents.

This is just a wild theory. Although not as wild as the series itself.

Why Kudret Did Not Recognize Metin?

Metin met Kudret even before the two had taken birth. He remembered him for sure, possibly because he had a good memory.

But it was absolutely natural for Kudret to forget him because nobody remembers childhood things.

On the flip side, maybe the Kudret he had met had already died. And this one was someone else in their next life with the same face as Kudret. 

Anything is possible. 

Did Metin Die?

Yes, in my opinion, Metin died in A Round of Applause. However, he got his next life almost immediately as Zeynep’s child once again.