I actually haven't done a proper update on 'Larin izbor' for a really long time. This one is the most recent one I can find, which ended with half the cast sailing to a place called Safi in Morocco.
To recap briefly, Jakov and his half-brother Dinko were fleeing Croatia because they were wanted for the murder of Šimun Santini, a baddie who Dinko shot in self-defence when he was trying to kill their father, Tonči. They tried to cover up the crime so that Dinko didn't end up in prison (he was on a conditional discharge for a previous murder) but didn't do so very successfully, and a guy called Lucijan Krstulović figured out that they were the culprits. Lucijan is a corrupt police officer and the son of Šimun Santini; he is totally obsessed with getting revenge on the people who killed his father.
That explains why they left Split. The reason they ended up in Safi was because of Lara's best friend Karmen, who was initially abducted by a gypsy and then sold to a people trafficker who is holding her prisoner in Safi. Jakov and Dinko are there to try and track her down, together with Karmen's boyfriend Nikša (the same Nikša that Lara married in series 1 when she thought Jakov was dead). I hope that's clear.
There must have been about 40 episodes filmed in Morocco and they were, without exception, dreadful. Mainly because the Croatian characters had to speak to the Moroccan characters in varying degrees of painful English. The only comic relief came from Dinko, who couldn't speak English and so just went round yelling at people in Croatian regardless.
We had lots of mournful scenes where Lara and Jakov thought about how much they missed each other:
At one stage Jakov wrote Lara a letter and sent it out to sea in a bottle. By the standards of realism we had at this point, I expected it to turn up in Split the next day. But actually it didn't
Anyway, Karmen is being held in Safi by a Croatian people-trafficker called Leon. Why a Croatian would smuggle another Croatian to Morocco was not very well explained. Leon finds out that Jakov/Dinko/Nikša are looking for Karmen and promises to help them, while obviously not helping them at all. He promises work to Jakov and Nikša but it turns out to be some illegal smuggling of ivory. He also finds out that Jakov's family back in Split are wealthy, so he sails back there and by various tricks and deceits starts to worm his way into the confidence of the family. I should explain here that Lara and Jakov's mother Nela are currently attempting to run the family business, because Jakov's father has been put in prison in Ancona for drug smuggling (the corrupt Lucijan planted drugs on him to get him arrested and out of the way).
The good thing about Leon being in Split for a bit is that Karmen finally gets rescued, and is remarkably un-traumatised by her whole people-trafficking ordeal.
Dinko doesn't really get involved in all these goings on with Leon and Karmen, because he is otherwise occupied. He finds a pretty Moroccan girl, seduces her and is subsequently confronted by her very angry father, who insists Dinko marry her to restore the family honour. Dinko is, of course, already married to Leila back in Split, but the Moroccans don't see this as an issue. Dinko marries her, makes her life a misery and divorces her all within about 10 episodes, so this is really just a side note to the main plot.
In the course of whatever Jakov is doing at sea for Leon, he gets shipwrecked and is found on the beach in some sort of coma. This provides the other characters with an ethical dilemma, because if they take Jakov to the hospital then they risk him and Dinko getting arrested by Interpol, but then they do acknowledge it would be a shame for him to die. They settle for making him cups of Moroccan tea and hoping for the best, which does the trick and he soon makes the miraculous recovery you would expect. But in the middle of all this, someone decides they'd better tell Lara that Jakov is dying.
This is illustrated in the clip below by some more mournful singing by Lara and a few shots of Jakov on his deathbed.
The other girl looking sad in that clip is Dinko's wife Leila, who can't decide whether she still loves Dinko or has fallen in love with the corrupt police inspector, Lucijan, whose life goal is to avenge his father by killing Dinko. That's a dilemma to which we'll return later.
As the wife of a murder suspect, Lara can't just hop on a plane to Safi; the police are watching her every move, and still don't know that Jakov and Dinko are in Morocco. (Un)luckily, the cunning Leon is on hand to help her out. He offers to ferry Lara to Safi in his boat, but halfway there he turns a gun on her and threatens to kill her if she doesn't sign a document turning over the family business to him. Leila and Dinko's son, David, who is desperate to see his dad again, has stowed away on the boat as well, so Lara has no choice but to sign the document. Leon dumps her and the child on an island in the middle of nowhere and you might have thought she would stay there for the rest of eternity, but if you thought that you were failing to take into account the fact that Lara and Jakov are telepathic.
Following his miraculous recovery, Jakov realises Lara is in danger and sails to exactly the right spot on exactly the right island, just on time to save her. They are happily reunited and return to Morocco, only to find that corrupt policeman Lucijan has found out that Jakov and Dinko are in Morocco and arrested Dinko at gunpoint. This may or may not have something to do with the fact that Dinko's wife Leila is now dating Lucijan. Lucijan is taking Dinko back to Split, so Jakov decides it's time for him to return as well.
Finally everyone leaves Morocco and we are spared more scenes in excruciating English
Of course, not long after returning to Split, Jakov is arrested and ends up in prison, in the cell next door to Dinko. Cue a lot more mournful scenes featuring Lara. There follows a long trial during which it looks like both Jakov and Dinko will be sentenced to life in prison for premeditated murder. Their defence lawyer is trying to prove that it was self defence and the key witness who will help prove this is Jakov's sister, Nikol. Lucijan, desperate to see them go down, kidnaps Nikol and gets Leon to keep her locked up in a room somewhere. Hold that thought.
Meanwhile Dinko's wife Leila has been pretty irritating. She decides she has no more feelings for Dinko, moves in with Lucijan, agrees to marry him and visits Dinko in prison to get him to sign the divorce papers. She seems to have no concept of the fact that Lucijan is a dangerous maniac and can't understand why Lara doesn't want to speak to her. When it got to the stage that there were only five or six episodes left and she was still with Lucijan, I wasn't sure we were going to have a happy ending at all.
Lara is obviously thinking the same thing and she decides that, even if there isn't going to be a happy ending for Leila and Dinko, there should still be a chance of a happy ending for her and Jakov. Together with Jakov's mother Nela, she convinces poor Dinko that his life is not worth living now that Leila is marrying Lucijan, and so there's no point him being released from prison anyway. Dinko, under pressure, agrees to therefore testify in court that the entire murder was his fault and that Jakov had nothing to do with it, with the expected result that Dinko will get life in prison, and Jakov will be released to live happily ever after.
It's worth noting here that Jakov does have some moral backbone, and that when he finds out what Lara has done, he is absolutely furious.
Anyway, the court cases is ongoing and the judge is on the verge of sentencing at least one of the brothers, if not both, to life in prison, despite Dinko's attempts to throw the blame on himself. The progress of the case isn't helped by the fact that they are missing the testimony of the key witness, Nikol (due to her afore-mentioned kidnapping by Lucijan).
What I guess I should have mentioned earlier re Jakov's sister Nikol is that she is actually his half sister. This was a plot twist somewhere earlier in this season. Jakov's father, Tonči, had always assumed Nikol was his, but Jakov's mother had had an affair with the (now murdered) Šimun Santini. This is part of the reason that Tonči and Šimun had a feud which ended with Dinko murdering Šimun in the first place. If you're keeping up with the family tree here, this means that Nikol is also Lucijan's half sister and it turns out that Lucijan does have a small amount family feeling after all...
Leon has kept Nikol locked up for several days at Lucijan's request. Nikol happens to be pregnant, however, and develops a life-threatening medical complication of a highly unspecified nature, from which she will completely recover within two episodes with no harm done to her or her baby. But for at least half an episode it looks like she might die. In an unexpected twist of fate, Lucijan has an attack of conscience and takes her to hospital.
This is Lucijan's undoing and as soon as Nikol is well enough to speak, Lucijan and Leon's entire web of lies is exposed. Leila realises that Lucijan is a dangerous maniac and leaves him. The judge realises that Lucijan has been perverting the course of justice. Leon testifies against Lucijan, which leads to Lucijan admitting the truth to the court: that Dinko did in fact kill Šimun in self defence.
In the clip below you can see the moment when the sentence is finally read out in court. I decided to do some listening practice and (very roughly!) paraphrase the judge's decision.
The court has established that Dinko Bilić shot and killed Šimun Santini in the garden of the Zlatar villa.
The court has established that it was not a matter of premeditated murder, but that it was self defence.
Dinko Bilić afterwards - together with his brother, the other defendant Jakov Zlatar - fled the country while their father Tonči Zlatar gave them an alibi with his false testimony.
In the light of all the happenings up to now and the evidence of the witnesses, plus the many twists and turns during the process, it has turned out the person who was supposed to be the representative of law and justice, Inspector Lucijan Krstulović, lost that trust and, led by his desire for revenge, to which he had a moral but not vested right, threatened both the legitimacy of this case on several occasions, and unfortunately also the life of an important witness, his own sister.
There is no doubt that Dinko Bilić committed this murder and that his brother helped him to hide. But that murder was not planned; it was in self defence. The court has ordered an investigation into the case of his father, Tonči Zlatar, who is serving a prison sentence in Italy, for which Inspector Krstulović was also responsible.
The brothers were trying to protect their father, who had an unresolved dispute with Šimun Santini. The court has also investigated the criminal past of Šimun Santini. As a mitigating circumstance, we are taking into account the fact that Tonči Zlatar brought up the child of Šimun Santini as his own. A second mitigating circumstance is the fact that Inspector Lucijan Krstulović helped another accused, Leon Lozar, to acquire the property of the Zlatar family in a criminal manner.
The court, after all this, pronounces the murder of Šimun Santini to be self-defence and throws out all accusations against Dinko Bilić and Jakov Zlatar. The accused will be set free. The hearing is finished.
Later in the clip you will see Jakov and Dinko leaving the courtroom and giving the good news about their freedom to Leila and Lara. I'm explaining this very badly, so I need to go back in time slightly and explain to you that Leila and Dinko are now back together
You see, Leila had a late realisation that she had never wanted to marry Lucijan anyway. And when she heard that Dinko was prepared to sacrifice his own freedom for the sake of getting Jakov off the hook, she decided he couldn't be completely bad after all. So she went to the prison and proposed to him. Dinko was as shocked by this sudden of heart as you probably are. Leila does have the grace to look a bit sheepish.
So, we finally have a happy ending Jakov and Dinko are free and back together with Lara and Leila respectively. They are also now the best of friends; the bonding in prison seems to have enabled Jakov to forgive Dinko for kidnapping his son on his (Jakov's) wedding day and hiding him on an island for six years. The clever lawyer helps Jakov get all the family property back from Leon and Jakov grants Dinko and Nikša shares in the ownership of the business to thank them for all their help. And is it possible for this happy ending to get any happier? Only by Leila and Dinko getting married for the second time.
The clip below shows this wedding and the final scenes of the series as follows:
0:00 - 02:45 - Leila and Dinko in bed with a lurid purple duvet, on the morning of their wedding day, talking about how much they love each other
02:45 - 03:39- Leila reminiscing about Dinko's first proposal and their first wedding, six or seven years ago, which ended awkwardly when the person Dinko had stolen the money off to fund the wedding assaulted Leila in the toilets, Dinko subsequently murdered him by locking him in a walk-in freezer, and Leila was so freaked out by Dinko's behaviour she faked her own death to escape him. That isn't the bit she is reminiscing about, just a bit of background knowledge
03:39 - 04:05 - Dinko getting ready for the wedding. He doesn't want to wear a tie
04:05 - 05:11 - Leila getting ready for her wedding with Lara and Karmen. Lara remarks how this is going to be a great day; one which they will remember for a long time
05:11 - 07:17 - Lara reminisces about some particularly memorable days in her life; the day she met Jakov at the masked ball, their first kiss on the beach, the day he proposed to her (for the first time) and their first wedding
07:17 - 08:55 - Dinko is still getting ready. Everyone is sad that Tonči (the father) is still in prison in Ancona. It turns out Dinko doesn't know how to tie a tie, so he asks Jakov to prove he can do it. And then Tonči appears at the door and takes them all by surprise
08:55 - 11.23 - Wedding ceremony. Everyone laughs when the celebrant says they're getting married for the second time, this time for ever
11.23 - 13.07 - Tonči is reunited with his aged mother indoors, and everyone enjoys the party outdoors. The music is the theme tune from the first series.
13.07 - 14:46 - The camera cuts to Lara and Jakov, standing at the top of the stairs. Jakov remarks that Lara is quite quiet today. Lara explains she's quiet because she is happy. "We've been on a long journey, my captain". Jakov reflects on the fact that if they hadn't met, if he hadn't caught sight of her at that party, his life would be empty now. Lara agrees and adds that none of this would exist: their children and their love. Jakov counters that none of the bad things would have happened either, but Lara says that she would repeat everything, in exactly the same way - the good and the bad - and that she would never choose a different life, even if it was happier that this one.
The end!