The Turkish Rug Pull
The Dating Detectives
Dear Media
4.7 • 3.2K Ratings
🗓️ 26 January 2026
⏱️ 109 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A milestone birthday trip to Turkey is supposed to be Lena’s main-character moment: sunrise photos at a historic mosque, solo-traveler bliss, and a little flirtation that feels harmless—until it turns into a full-blown romance-and-tariff scam run by a charming “uncle,” a too-good-to-be-true heartthrob, and a pressure-cooker handoff that leaves Lena scrambling for a flight… and suddenly out tens of thousands of dollars. But just when the story seems destined for the familiar ending, Lena snaps out of the shame spiral, flips the power dynamic, and goes on a creative, scorched-earth mission to get her money back—leading to one of the most unexpected outcomes we’ve ever had on the show. This one is wild, infuriating, darkly funny, and ultimately empowering.
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***The following Program contains names, places and events that have been anonymized or fictionalized for the purposes of protection and safety. The following Program is provided for entertainment purposes only and any commentary from the hosts are strictly conjecture and should not be held as making any definitive statements about the truth or identity of any particular individuals or circumstances.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following program contains names, places, and events that have been anonymized or fictionalized for the purposes of protection and safety. |
| 0:08.7 | The following program is provided for entertainment purposes only, and any commentary from the hosts are strictly conjecture and should not be held as making any definitive statements about the truth or identity of any particular individuals or circumstances. |
| 0:21.3 | If you or a loved one are involved in an abusive relationship, |
| 0:24.2 | please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-723 for support. |
| 0:40.3 | Happy Dating Detectives Monday. |
| 0:41.1 | Yay! |
| 0:42.4 | Hi, Mackenzie. |
| 0:44.6 | You have the cutest glasses on their, like, hearts. |
| 0:45.8 | You look so happy. |
| 0:47.1 | Aren't they cute? |
| 0:48.8 | They're little prescription glasses. |
| 0:51.5 | And I was like, oh my gosh, I had to get these in prescription. |
| 0:52.4 | They're heart shape. |
| 0:54.9 | And yeah, my assistant had some and I was like, I want some. |
| 0:55.7 | And so I copied her. |
| 0:58.0 | If that doesn't sum you up. |
| 0:59.3 | It's so cute. |
| 1:00.3 | I love them. |
| 1:05.3 | It's honestly a good, not to be like, here's a seamless segue. But like this story, as crazy and as annoying as it is, you're going to leave feeling like, hell yeah. |
| 1:16.0 | Like there's rare that we leave feeling super positive. But I'm like, I feel revved up after this |
| 1:21.0 | one. Yeah. You guys are, today's episode is wild. You're going to think you know what happens |
| 1:26.3 | at the end. But hold the phone, hold your panties on because you have no idea. It's just wait. It's so good. |
... |
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