The Sympathizer recap: The twisted morality of war

The first episode of The Sympathizer felt, in many ways like a prologue. That’s doubled down in episode two, where the plot starts growing tendrils that won’t bloom for another few weeks and our major players are brought more firmly into focus. I said the series premiere had an air of “previously on” about it, and while the pacing of the scenes in episode two remains rapid, “Good Little Asian” lays down the groundwork for the next few hours of storytelling.

First things first: Bon’s wife and kid are dead. I know it was 99-percent obvious from last week’s final scene, but you never know with a “Hollywood cliffhanger,” as the Captain’s prison commander calls it upon reading this version of his confession. Past, present, and past-past blend for a moment: The Captain is still in his POW cell writing out his full account. The Captain is driving through the desert into Oklahoma. The Captain is sprinting with Bon across the tarmac to get to the last plane out of Saigon. All these scenes happen within seconds of each other, and we still barely have context for those first two bits.

Over in the refugee camp in America, the General is still trying to cling to his authority over the huddled masses, which doesn’t go so hot: He and the Captain end up trapped in a trench toilet together, surrounded by flies and filth. It’s here the General floats the possibility of a mole, which, hey! He’s correct! But how much of his bluster, this hunt, is because of a sacred journey for truth and how much is because of a bruised ego?

Thanks to an old professor, the Captain and Bon get sponsorships to leave the camps even before the General, who’s practically sitting by the phone waiting on Claude to send him to sunny L.A. When the Captain goes to meet his professor, it’s—and you might have guessed this one— Robert Downey, Jr. as Professor Hammer, who never met an “Oriental” stereotype he didn’t love. His fascination with the Captain and his treatment of Sofia Mori, an administrator at the foreign studies department (Sandra Oh!) start out weird and quickly morph into straight-up casual American racism. In his Harvey Fierstein-esque rasp, he asks the Captain to write two lists, indicating his “Oriental” and “occidental” qualities respectively. “They object to the very word ‘Oriental’!” Hammer complains to the Captain.

Later, at a party thrown by Hammer (who seemingly broke out his best “racist Hugh Hefner” outfit for the occasion), the Captain is asked to read his list, but instead gives a witty, somewhat pointed speech about his containing contradictions. It’s perhaps the most honest we’ve seen the Captain so far, letting his confusion and rage finally peek out just a bit before Hammer stops him, disappointed his exercise (generous) or ritual humiliation (more likely) was so ably rejected by a former student. It’s here where Mori takes more than a passing interest in him and the two begin fucking in a bunk bed, to the shame of Bon, who turns away the picture of his wife and baby when Sofia is in their apartment.

Yet more friction to this equation is added when the General finally gets his papers, his wife sighing forlornly at the sight of a modest L.A. fixer-upper 99.8-percent of people in my generation would kill for. In his least harebrained calculation yet, the General in short order opens a liquor store, quite sanely reasoning that if you can’t make friends with your neighbors, make sure they’re relying on you for booze. It also allows him to host functions and hobnob with the rest of the South Vietnamese community that’s been shunted to L.A. At one such function, polite conversation suddenly becomes an internal investigation, as the General announces a mole in their midst and has all the men line up for questioning. The Captain, a seasoned liar at this point, throws Major Oanh under the bus. The General and Claude mention that the Captain’s name was brought up by another person and they all laugh it off. Am I reading too much into the fact that Bon went into the office for questioning just before the Captain? Maybe. This show delights in small details and lies, so it’s hard to really get a handle on internal motivations here. Even the Captain—it’s been a powerhouse performance by Hoa Xuande so far—can be a bit of a cipher. I love the rare moments of emotion and turmoil we see from him that aren’t included in the narration. This was a man playing two roles long before he also had to be an American, and I dread to think what’s going to happen when that stack of spinning plates gives way just a little.

But, more pressingly, poor Bon is doing bad and amidst his web of allegiances and a new fling, the Captain still cares about his friend (and, okay, wants to get the heat off himself on the whole “spy” thing) so lets him in on his “suspicions” about Major Oanh. It’s a dirty move, but there’s only so much you can do for a friend once they’ve reached the “drinking malt liquor and watching nonstop action movies” phase. This might be just the lift the guy needs! Jesus Christ, I’m scared what he’s going to do.

Stray observations

• The book the Captain uses to send his coded messages to Man is a fictional little book called Asian Communism And The Oriental Mode Of Destruction by Richard Hedd (give it a moment). Later, when the Captain asks Hammer why he has “racist rubbish” at the top of his reading pile, Hammer laughs.
• “It’s comforting to imagine Man in his new efficient office,” the Captain says on sending one of his secret messages. We do see Man in a fresh uniform and an office with enviable natural light, but is that just what the Captain is seeing? It’s not like the General’s idealizing of “sunny Los Angeles” held up to much scrutiny.
• I love the way this episode, written by director Park Chan-wook, co-creator Don McKellar, and Naomi Iizuka, really brings forth a more existential tragedy of war: the idea of two “sides” and the complete flattening of context. Everything is counted for the cause or against it, and it’s an exhausting way to live. Who would the Captain be without war? Would he exist at all?
• The Captain has some PTSD about eggs, likely related to him murdering someone. He also doesn’t like squid because he once fucked one as a child then ate it to prevent his mother from doing so. For those watching at home with a “weird cephalopod-focused Park Chan-wook scene” counter, it’s time to put another notch on the tally.