“The Sympathizer” is an American war drama spy thriller series, which is currently streaming now in HBO Max & JioCinema. In this article, we are gonna discuss the recap of the second episode. Before we start our discussion let’s have a quick knowledge of the Story of this series.
The series is based on The novel by American professor & Novelist “Viet Thanh Nguyen” of the same name. The series tells us about the lifestyle of a man known as “The Captain”, he is a half-French, half-Vietnamese & moreover he is a spy.
The Commandant wished to meet with the captain & Captain handed him the story that he wrote about him. Is it true? Because last time he handed over a Hollywood cliffhanger to the Commandant. Later we see the exact scene where the first episode ended. In the airport bombing scene, The Captain succeed in rescuing Bon’s son, and Bon takes up his wife’s dead body on the plane. What we saw, they survived.
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Captain is now in Oklahoma after that tragic airport scene. Bon is alive & living with him. We understand Bon is going through trauma so Captain totally taking care of him. First of all, he faces trouble food as Americans prefer corn rather than rice. Captain knew a person in Paris, he called her ” Parsian Aunt “. He also sends letters to contact with Man in Hanoi. He thought that Man might read these letters in his corporate office. He used to send coded letters to him.
He make secret coordinates in this later with the help of a book named ” Asian Communism & the Oriental Mode of Destruction”. These coded numbers in the letter can be revealed by a brush of iodine solution. He took three sets of numbers for each word, so the sentence became concise. He surrounds himself & Bon with the merciless prodding of the magic fingers and the nightly news, as he is unable to forget the general & his awful incident in that time in Vietnam.
Let’s back to the past, It was the 30th of April. Captain went back to Fort Chaffee & tell us about the refugee camp in Arkansas. Where they first set foot on the US mainland. It was a story of five weeks earlier in Fort Chaffee. General is trying to communicate with Claude but is unable to do it. General wants to take his people into Los Angeles as they are in a very bad situation.
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They stay together in a refugee camp with unhygienic foods. People are really angry with the general where General is still trying to talk with Claude. He was badly beaten by women as they were getting misinformation of General’s organization. This is about how they lost through corruption & incompetence. General wants to know who spreading this negative but it’s not anyone. Those women just know the reality. General understands that they must be a Sympathizer or a spy who influenced those women to turn against him. General thinks that a spy went in their plane & he suspects that it was the Captain who made the list of passengers.
He ordered the Captain to recheck the list & report him, who could be the suspect. Captain understood that in this situation he might maintain distance from the general. While checking the list, he got an opportunity that a professor from Captain’s college days agreed to sponsor him & Bon.
Later Bon & Captain went to meet that professor. In Los Angeles, they found him & he wasn’t anyone infact Claude himself. He introduced the captain to his boss Ms. Sofia Mori-san, who is Japanese. They made a secret Japanese room inside the library. Later a reporter comes to meet with Captain asking him about the communists. The reporter claimed that he was on the side of the Vietnamese people. Captain asks him to mention in which part of Vietnam is north or south and the Reporter has no answer.
Jokingly, the Captain said that he could be an undercover spy & the reporter went speechless after hearing it. The guy also asked him if he ever killed anyone or not. Captain replied he didn’t but we can’t completely agree with him. Later we see how he spends his life with Bon. As Bon barely speaks some words. He also joined an American party where Claude & Mori-san were also there. Oh, this time CLAUDE’s name is Professor Hammer. One thing, we have to see whenever Captain watching Egg is that he got a glimpse of any past incident. Anyways, Hammer introduced the captain in front of others telling them that the captain’s mother is from Vietnam & his father is from France.
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He gave an assignment to the Captain to make a list of his Occidental & Oriental Traits. Captain has done his assignments. So he presented his assignments in front of guests and they were impressed. Later, In the night Captain talked with Ms. Mori. As Mori said she is actually an American. A good chat between them happened where Captain talked about his past. He said how his mother used to make squid as a special treat. Captain said how he had intercourse with those baked squid & later he never let anyone eat this. This is disgusting! & All these things he has written inside the notebook and handover to The Commandant.
Later he also intercourse with Ms. Mori. He worked very hard in the first seven weeks in Los Angeles, gathering information & learning everything about Los Angeles.
Later, we see General & his family reach there in Los Angeles. Ten days later, they started to settle there. Captain enjoying drinks with General, when General asks him, is he already found that spy or not?! Captain said he is thinking about it & there must be not any spy. But the general is totally sure, so, captain as him is anybody there whom he suspects. General Suspecting as he witnessed an assassination attempt. Captain thinking about it more. His mother was from a small village in North Vietnam & she was very devout & catholic but she died. Ms Mori ordered Captain to tell her Sofia. As the captain is slowly falling in love with her. Later he introduced her to Bon. Bon is coming out from the liquor store of General. He worked there.
Men always told the Captain to never underestimate the general. In the general’s shop, someone painted his cartoon on the wall. General thought it was still assassins or spies but Captain said it must be people of America. But the captain doesn’t want to believe.
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Later we see, the opening ceremony of the Liquor shop & everyone enjoying it. Bon is also there he is unable to accept how a general easily accepts the abandoning of his own home country. Bob is totally unhappy with the behaviour of their general. Infact, he isn’t happy about the party too.
Later in the party, Captin met with Tran Thuyet Son. The man selling human news is kind of weird. The man started to motivate people after the party. Later general invited all the men to present there one by one to understand who was a spy. Meanwhile, Claude reaches there. They Both entered to talk with the general. Claude gifted a 44 Auto Mag. Meanwhile, the Captain named it ” Major Oanh” who is the suspected spy.
Captain said he must involved in some kind of other business, business related to candy. Then he gave a candy box that Oanh had given to him. They are not believing that Onha could be a spy. But, the Captain tells them to check with Saigon to find out whether he is suspicious or not.
Later they come out from there as Onha is on the suspect list. After coming out from there, Captain asks Claude why didn’t he get the general’s family out of the refugee camp sooner. Claude didn’t reply anything clearly but he said he wanted him(the general) to be grateful to America. Then he left from there.
What we understood is that Bon has lost his both child & wife, and that’s why he became mentally unstable. In this main time, Captain thought it could be a great idea to frame Bon. That’s the safe passage for Captain to be safe. So, he did what exactly he wanted & took Bon to meet with the general. That’s how it ended.
Two episodes of “The Sympathizer” are currently streaming now in JioCinema & Max with English language & subtitles.