And I'm kinda disappointed that just seeing Gjoka is what triggered the amnesia. That seems like pretty weak storytelling, unless something else happened in the salon that we're still missing. I was expecting some sort of mind-bending identity crisis or body dysphoria.
It's written kind of weirdly, absolutely. Elena says with an extreme amount of certainty that she remembers passing out and then being in bed.
Let's take that for gospel. Elena sees Gjoka, suddenly has memory wiped along a pretty specific time period. So... this raises no alarm bells for ANYONE involved? Remember, Elena has literally just gotten out of the hospital. So when this woman gets out, goes to a salon, and randomly confesses to Nikos and then passes out... and then, hours later is super confused, disorientated, and then even brings up Andrew...
Like... how does that not immediately trigger her "loving" husband to take her back to the hospital?
To be honest, I've found it increasingly hard to be sympathetic to Andrew even from his POV. Seeing what "really" happened, and seeing what choices he made and why he made them consistently paints a picture to me of the kind of toxic personality that always has an excuse/explaination why it's not their fault. Always finds something at fault with another person to pick at, even when the contexts are completely different.
Of course Andrew didn't ask to be drugged. But there's plenty of choices here that are completely his choices that he did without a single consideration to the person he should value the most.
At best, Andrew is an idiot without any creativity. He keeps making dumb choices, and then when it backfires, he always has an excuse. Even though it's not like any of those choices had an actual endgame that could have been positive anyway!
Andrew insists that they keep this cover story going. WHY?! How does that resolve this problem? It's Marina/the Sisters/Seferi that apparently salvage this idiot plan to lure Toska back to with the wedding to have him arrested. Remember, Andrew had no idea what was going on with Joel. So his plan was basically just stall. Which isn't an actual plan!
Andrew insists that lying to Nikos that his marriage is fake and throwing Marina under the bus is something he has no alternative in. But remember, at this time, he didn't know anything about this wedding plan. From his POV, what's the purpose of keeping up the facade of Nikos and Elena still being a happy couple? You're telling me the super actor that is Andrew couldn't have come up with a performance where Elena gets in a fight with Nikos and "storms off". Maybe even "leaves with her beloved niece back to America?"
Even with "traditional values" Toska, you're telling me, they couldn't sell a cover story that Elena left all pissed, and Nikos couldn't have just told Toska: "You know women. Bitches be crazy." That probably would have fed into the old bastards sexism way easier than whatever absurd story Andrew ended up trying to sell!
I get that there's some extenuating circumstances, and that the initial feminization probably triggered whatever addiction Andrew has that brings his method acting dedication to the forefront. However, there's plenty of choices he's made that consistantly throw particularly Marina under the bus.
Genuinely, are we really supposed to be seeing "both sides" here, or has this set up been slowly unveiling that Andrew is a shitty person? And him being stuck as a single Elena is part of karma for that? I mean, based on this chapter, it seems Nikos was only physically attracted to Elena, and channeling some serious incel energy, as soon as he had a woman confess her love to him, he was on board being married to this person that has demonstrated no noteworthy personality notes. Like, from a personality standpoing, what was it that he fell in love with? Where's the charisma? Intelligent conversations? What actually drew Nikos to Elena?
So now that the ruse is revealed, why the hell would Nikos go through with this wedding? And let's just say that somehow Elena patches things up with Nikos... Is that a happy ending? It's literally a relationship founded on a lie. So where's the satisfaction in that?