Part II - First Ever married Wife of Sultan
Before Sadıka is able to kill Süleyman, he manages to disarm her and she is sentenced to prison. Later she is killed by Matrakçı who is found guilty for helping her to post messages and killing Sadika is his punishment.
Spanish Princess Isabella and her servant are kidnapped by Turkish pirates and sold to Süleyman. They live in isolation in forest in a haunting lodge. Süleyman wants to use them as an advantage when he will bargain with European sovereigns. Isabella wants to escape and when she fails several times. Hürrem is jealous and threatens Isabella. Eventually she helps her to escape but the princess is stopped by Ibrahim. Isabella falls in love with Süleyman, she moves in harem and becomes Süleyman's favorite. Hürrem with the help of Gül, Nigar and Nilüfer succeed in killing her.
Meanwhile Bali Bey falls in love with a Jewish girl called Armin. The relationship is against the will of Armin's father and he makes her leave the city. When she returns, she is gravely ill. Bali Bey eventually marries her with the blessing of her father and next day Armin dies.
Hatice gives birth to a boy but she accidentally kills him. She leaves her palace in order to recover. Meanwhile, Ibrahim once sleeps with Nigar and then he sends her to Topkapi Palace. Hatice is heartbroken and the Valide Sultan wants to send her to Edirne. Hürrem saves her.
Hatice becomes pregnant with twins. Mahidevran gives the Valide Sultan a note of Leo about Hürrem. She calls Hürrem to her chambers, but then faints.
Hürrem wants to marry Süleyman. She tells him that she cannot make charity because she is a slave. Süleyman frees her and when he goes to her room for a night, she tells him that she cannot share a bed with him because she is a free woman and her religion forbids her from sharing a bed with a man if she is not married. She is sent to the Crimean Palace under the orders of the Sultan and the Valide Sultan sets a trap for her, she puts some attackers to kill Hürrem but Bali Bey saves her. She is back to Topkapi Palace and the Sultan decides to marry her.
After marrying Hürrem Sultan, Sultan Süleyman comes to give the Valide Sultan the news of his action, but when Hürrem Sultan tries to kiss her hand she stands up and shows displeasure with his deed which she considers unacceptable. She faints in his arms and they take her to her chambers to rest. Mahidevran Sultan becomes surprised then angry, she decided not to lower her head down anymore.
Ibrahim is shot during the ceremony with an arrow and it results that it was poisoned. Hürrem is afraid that they would blame her for this because she did send an archer to kill Ibrahim, but she called off the attack at the last minute when she saw Hatice upset. Ibrahim's attacker was another archer sent by one of the veziers to kill him. Nigar, Matrakçı and Sümbül travel to heal Ibrahim in one of the hot springs.
Furious, Mahidevran comes to Süleyman's door and asks his guardian to announce her, but Süleyman refuses to receive her arguing that he is busy. She makes a scandal and eventually Süleyman listens to her. She requests her freedom to spend her life as a free woman which Süleyman denies. She then asks him to send her to exile with her son as happens when princes become of age, but he tells her she can leave, only his son stays with him. Mustafa convinces his father to send them both to Edirne Palace.
At the Valide Sultan's initiative, her niece Aybige comes to Topkapi palace from Crimea, to be protected from the succession infighting between the Valide's brothers upon the death of their father, the Crimean ruler. They tell Aybige to stay away from Hürrem because she could be a bad influence on her, but she is stubborn and Hürrem is known all the way to her homeland so she decides to be friends with her. She falls in love with Bali Bey during this season as he is the one in charge of security of the entire royal family.
Nigar Hatun is married to Matrakçı Nasuh Efendi on initiative of Hatice and the Valide Sultan. Nigar is not pleased by her wedding because she is in love with Ibrahim, the Grand Vizier. On her first night in her new house, she is surprised to see Ibrahim entering and he tells her that he and Matrakçı had a deal and that he is the one she will be with from now on. Nigar is happy at this turn of events.
Meanwhile, Hatice gives birth to twins, one boy and one girl (Osman and Huricihan) and Ibrahim is happy to see her holding both babies in her hands and also surprised. Nigar is not pleased by this.
Time passed and at the age of 17, Mustafa comes back to Topkapi to be with his father until he is sent into exile.
While the Sultan is in war, the Valide Sultan and Mahidevran conspire against Hürrem. The Valide Sultan places a spy and pretends to let Hürrem lead the harem for a while. During the rebellion provoked by the Valide's spy, Fatma, one of the slaves is accused of robbery of gold and the innocent girl burns herself. The slaves take torches and march towards Hürrem's chambers and try to burn her, but Daye and the guardians save her. Daye gets fired for this.
When Sultan comes back and finds out what happened, he gives the Valide Sultan a lecture about how she is not capable to lead harem and how he is tired of all the fights. He is also angry with Ibrahim because he didn't give him Hürrem's letter while they were in war, but Ibrahim says that he didn't want to worry him and that he gave certain orders to Daye and Nigar to protect Hürrem ever since Sultan made him responsible for her life. Sultan gives Daye back her post.
Hürrem and Mahidevran fight after Gülşah got Daye's position and Mahidevran tries to slap her. Süleyman arrives and makes her apologize after which she goes crying to her chambers. Mustafa barges into Hürrem's chambers to talk to his father and they have a huge discussion about the way Hürrem manipulates him after which Süleyman tries to invite Mustafa to his chambers which he refuses. Mustafa almost loses his father's support when he doesn't want to come to
Hagia Sofia with him, but Ibrahim manages to make him see reason.
Hürrem gets into fight with Mustafa, and Süleyman gives Mustafa his place. Hürrem is displeased so they have an argument.
Mustafa falls in love with a concubine named Nora (later Efsun) and she gets pregnant. Mustafa doesn't know that Efsun works for Hürrem Sultan and has orders to poison him. She puts poison in his food, but at the last moment she regrets and trips over the food. Mustafa gets sick, and Mahidevran concludes that it was all Hürrem's doing even though Mustafa didn't drink the poison.
Fatma Hatun blames Efsun for working for Hürrem so Mahidevran asks her to tell her a secret about Hurrem. Efsun asks Hurrem if she has another plan, Hurrem asks Efsun to tell Mahidevran about Aybige and Bali Bey's affair so that Mustafa and Mahidevran get hurt. When Aybige leaves to go back to her homeland with Bali Bey, Hurrem sends another message using Efsun that both of them are running away and they shall never come back. Mahidevran tell Süleyman about them who sends ships after them to bring them back.
Cihangir, Hürrem's youngest son gets sick, and she doesn't tell Süleyman which infiuriates him, but after seeing his son so sick, he and Hürrem unite and he calls a doctor. Cihangir is developing a hump and they try to fix it by physiotherapy while he is still a baby. Cigangir gets better even though he can't recover fully and Süleyman has a heart attack. Mahidevran is conscious that when Süleyman dies, her son would be the Sultan so she tries to convince Mustafa that he needs to take precautions with his brothers which he refuses. She then talks with Ibrahim, the Valide Sultan hears this and sends Hürrem and her children to Hatice's saray to protect them. When Süleyman wakes up Mahidevran falls even more from grace.
In the mean while Bali Bey and Aybige are brought back from the sea and Bali Bey tells the truth to Süleyman infront of Mustafa and Ibrahim. Süleyman asks Mustafa to decide Bali Bey's fate. First Mustafa announces Bali's death but on the day of punishment he forgives him. Bali Bey resigns and returns to his homeland. Aybige also returns to
Crimean, her homeland.
Mahidevran finds out that Efsun is pregnant and wants to make her abort, but Mustafa stops her and sends Efsun to his chambers. Hürrem tells the Valide about Efsun's pregnancy and the Valide sends Daye to get rid of the baby. Mustafa doesn't manage to save her this time, and baby and Efsun die. But before her death she is warns Mustafa to stay away from Hürrem as Hürrem tried to poison her. Mahidevran tell this to Süleyman who offers poison to her. As Hürrem shows no reluctance in drinking the poison, Süleyman believes that she is innocent. She survives as Süleyman was just testing her with a medicine.
Nigar gets pregnant with Ibrahim's baby. Gülşah intrigued against Daye which caused Daye to kill a healer by accident so they fired her and threw her out of harem. Mahidevran is happy because she thinks Gülşah will get the post again, but is surprised to hear the Valide giving the post to Nigar. Then Valide finds out about Ibrahim's affair with Nigar Hatun, because Adrees Ağa followed Ibrahim Pasha and told all the relation between Ibrahim and Nigar to the Valide Sultan that's why she wants to fire her. She comes to Süleyman's chambers to inform him, but suffers a stroke before saying anything. She eventually passes away and Mahidevran rules the harem which she immediately uses in her favor to get the Valide's chambers which Süleyman doesn't allow. She also buys many unnecessary things and exceeds the budget and she has to take a loan from a Jewish loan shark. Gülfem is given Daye's former post.
Hürrem wants to get rid of Mahidevran and Mustafa. Mustafa is set to leave to the province of Manisa but Ibrahim convinces Süleyman to let Mahidevran stay in the harem. Hürrem with Gül's help makes a plan that would convict Mahidevran of trying to murder the Valide. However Nigar witnesses Gül's action and tells it to Ibrahim. Gül is fired for it and leaves the saray.
After the Valide's death, Daye leaves the saray. She gives all her property to charity and works as a servant of a wealthy woman. Hürrem wants to help her but Daye refuses. Eventually Daye commits suicide.
Gülşah tries to get rid of Mahidevran's maid Fatma but it all turns against her. She is fired and Mahidevran wants her to marry. Desperate, Gülşah wants to be Hürrem's servant but Hürrem sends her away and tells her that she would have no profit from Gülşah being her maid. Gülşah later overhears a conversation between Ibrahim and Nigar about Nigar's pregnancy. She accidentally breaks a vase and Ibrahim and Nigar realize that someone heard them. Gülşah wants to tell Hürrem what she found out but Hürrem isn't in her chamber and Gülşah is driven out of the saray before Hürrem's return. Nigar later realizes that it was Gülşah who overheard her and she tells it to Ibrahim. Ibrahim orders Gülşah to be killed and she is stabbed several times and left in wilderness to die. However she survives and tells Hürrem about Nigar's pregnancy and eventually becomes Hürrem's maid.
Nigar is supposed to leave the saray and go to Ibrahim's brother. Hürrem kidnaps her during the journey and hides her. Gülsah takes care of Nigar. Hürrem sends a message to Hatice that Ibrahim is unfaithful and reveals the whereabouts of Nigar. Nigar successfully escapes but Hatice arrives and stops her. She arrests her but Nigar says that the father of her baby is Matrakçı. Matrakçı confirms it. Hatice confronts Hürrem who sends for Gülsah who witnessed Nigar and Ibrahim. Hatice later confronts Ibrahim who admits cheating and being father of Nigar's baby. Hatice divorces with him.
Hürrem intrigues against Mahidevran making her look like someone who wanted to strangle Gülfem. Süleyman gives Hürrem the leadership of the harem and the season ends with everybody bowing to her and Mahidevran looking at her angrily.
