First and Last: What Happens When Two People’s Pasts Collide?

In the families they grew up in, children are shaped sometimes by carrying their parents’ emotional burdens and sometimes as extensions of their narcissism. First and Last is a successful series that shows how these children grow into adults, how they form relationships, and how these relationships evolve over time, with a narrative that compares the beginning and the end of love. With its recently released third season, the show revisits different characters and stories through the same psychological lens. In this article, we will explore how the characters’ choices reflect real-life dynamics and whether relationships trapped between the ‘first’ and the ‘last’ have alternative paths.

First and Last is not a conventional show that glorifies love and ends with a reunion. The series doesn’t just tell how a romance begins or ends; it explores how a relationship can break, where it might transform, why love sometimes isn’t enough, and even what love truly is and how it can take on new forms. In the first and second seasons, the narrative followed a more cyclical pattern; characters often unconsciously projected the traumas stemming from their family backgrounds onto their relationships, with conflicts unfolding in repetitive cycles. In the first season, Barış and Deniz’s relationship was built around trust issues, different attachment styles, and fear of abandonment; as a result, understanding each other became increasingly difficult, creating a clear gap between the beginning and the end of their love. In the second season, Cihan and Nilüfer’s relationship was strained by conflicts revolving around control and the need for approval, leading the couple to grow distant; insecurities and personal fears gradually caused them to withdraw into themselves, cutting off their communication.

In the third season, Serkan and Güneş’s relationship is portrayed with greater depth and complexity compared to the previous seasons. This layered approach also reveals the characters’ unresolved knots with their families, allowing us to observe family conflicts and the concerns of secondary and tertiary characters in closer detail. The characters confront their past traumas with more awareness. Conflicts within the relationship are not as sharp as in earlier seasons; they unfold more gradually and are handled with greater control. The process of separation is approached with a calmer attitude. This may be due to the characters’ age and experience, which differentiate their approach to love from that seen in previous seasons; perhaps this maturity tempers impulsiveness and allows for more deliberate attempts at resolution. However, some mistakes are repeated, and the relationship still suffers without receiving the support it needs. While the couple avoids replicating past cycles exactly, their handling of crises still reveals the parts of themselves that have not fully matured.

The evolution across seasons and the stories told through different family backgrounds and personal breaking points show viewers how confronting the past can shape present relationships; and this influence is not limited to romantic connections alone. However, even if these reckonings are completed and all issues resolved, a relationship’s ultimate happiness is not guaranteed. Just as two plus two does not always equal four in life, relationships are not mathematical problems that promise certainty once flaws are fixed; they are living, evolving, and transforming structures. Perhaps in future seasons, we may see another couple who successfully navigates their critical obstacles, avoids irreparable damage, and still reaches a meaningful conclusion. In this way, the true measure of success in relationships is not whether they last or end, but how well the partners understand each other’s feelings, honor and meet each other’s expectations, and cultivate moments of shared happiness.

To conclude by referring back to the initial reflection, whether there is an alternative path between the beginning and the end only makes sense when we remember that we did not arrive in this world as fully formed balloons and that each of us carries a story from the past. These stories are shaped by the families we grew up in, our environment, our temperament whether dependent or independent, the people we encounter along the way, our choices, and our experiences. How well we know our breaking points, perhaps our traumas, what we have resolved in the past, and what we have learned from these experiences, in short how curious and willing we are to change, determines the course of our relationships. There are of course things we cannot change, but there are touches, improvements, and colors we can add. At the end of the day, relationships are a matter of nuance, and this subtlety only finds meaning when both parties consciously and carefully bring it to life. It is a story of mutual awareness and intent.