Sofia an Eva are still acting super weird. Genuinely, why are they so obsessed with this idea of Elena and Nikos being "in love"? It's so far beyond just "keeping in character".
I suspect that the answer to #1 and #2 is the same person: Joanna. She's obviously been plotting behind the scenes, and it would make sense that a spurned ex-lover of Nikos would want revenge on him. Also her being in jail for years would explain why Eva and Sofia seemingly don't have a mother, and it would also make sense for her to get plastic surgery on her face so that Nikos wouldn't recognize her.
I think the part that throws me off the most is that
1) We have no real clue as to why anyone would want revenge against Nikos.
2) How the hell does any of this work as a revenge against Nikos?
Also, how has Joanna been "pushed everyone too hard"? After drugging Elena before the surgeries, Joanna's basically been a non-entity. Also, I wouldn't categorize anything she's done so far as a "mistake". So far, she's been the only one who has (through the shear will of the plot) happened to drug our protagonist in the exact way possible to get him feminized. If anything, Seferi's had way more mistakes.
So Joanna was in jail, according to Joel; is she the partner? Do men and women coming in Greek jails? I have no idea. Who else? The bald cop? He's the right age and appeared out of nowhere but seemed to know Nikos, and somehow managed to get with Marina quick. Gjoka? I just don't see that, who knows?
Seferi says he's known this person "since prison" but that doesn't necessarily mean they were cell mates or were in the same prison. This could be that during visiting hours, Seferi crossed paths with this person.
For example (and this is a HUGE stretch), if Eva was visiting someone else at the prison and met Seferi there.
I feel like it's gotta be James. When James was first introduced I thought he was supposed to be a love interest for Marina, but that seems to have fizzled out. So if he's not a love interest, there must be some other reason he's in the story.
The problem here is that the line "I see how you're manipulating even my son!" is super bizarre. We've never seen Joanna interact with James. If James is the son, then the closest person we'd consider being the one manipulating him would be Marina.
Going back to my previous "huge stretch", it is possible Marina is actually Seferi's daughter. Or Marina's father is Seferi's brother, the one that also got imprisoned. So Marina visiting her own father as a child could be where she first met Seferi.
This would also align with the young woman we see blurred out at the hospital and Marina talking about "finishing this" as taking her revenge. Plus, she's the only person "making moves" recently, which could be the "pushed everyone a little too hard".
That said, the language and writing doesn't support this. First, we go back to, why the hell do people want revenge on Nikos? Second, Marina is PISSED at Andrew for continuously being Elena. This isn't just dialogue we can dismiss as lies/acting.
This is inner thoughts! She is livid about Andrew being Elena. You can't feminize your husband to honeytrap your Uncle and then also get pissed that it worked!
Also, it REALLY wouldn't make sense because Marina just torpedoed the wedding. Seferi wouldn't just be giving a warning, he'd be LIVID in that case. So I think we can rule out Marina.
Here are my rough thoughts:
Taken at face value, Seferi's partner could have been someone he first met in prison as a visitor (this means the person could be as young as a 4-5), or it means it's someone who went to jail and met Seferi there (so likely at least 18). So, the person we're looking for is at the youngest in their late twenties, or early 40s.
I would generally think the person that's Seferi's "real" partner is the blurred out girl at the hospital. That's the most "open" we've seen Seferi beyond Joel. This is really weird though because the phone call just does NOT sound like someone close to their partner in crime. It really comes across as an alliance of convenience. And that doesn't feel like something a grown man came up with a preteen girl.
So, this means the blurred girl is a misdirect. That blurring was just to hide how involved Marina/Eva/Sofia were getting (as I really don't think that image looks anything like Joanna).
My best guess is:
Phone call is with Gjoka. If James is Seferi's son, then the "meet cute" with Marina wasn't an accident, it was planned. Gjoka and James plotted to get Marina to fall for James (to get her away from Andrew and leave him helpless).
It didn't work. And all of a sudden, James visits Marina? Just in time for her to be out of the picture for Andrew to get way more extensive surgeries that were paid for?
Hence why Seferi's chewing him out. Yes he wanted Marina out of the picture, but bringing James here is a risk, and so he's upset.
Now there's a potential plot hole here: If the plan was for James to seduce Marina, it's a little weird for Gjoka to intimidate her while Seferi presents Andrew a picture of Gjoka. Because the only way this works then is that Marina comes back and talks to Andrew again to sell this "danger plot". But maybe that was the original plan: Prioritize selling the story, and maybe as a cherry on top, if Marina HAD slept with James before returning from her trip it would start a rift between them.
One thing does help close the story though: If Gjoka is Seferi's partner, then the possibiltiy that Toska isn't actually behind any of this rises considerably. This threat being manufactured works if Gjoka and Seferi are partners. And really works if Gjoka has beef with Nikos (even if we don't know what that beef is). Before, we'd always assumed Gjoka was in it for money. But if it's personal, going along such an insane plan does make more sense from a motivation standpoint.
