A missing child, moodily-shot insights into the lives of one percenters, Nicole Kidman running around in designer dresses looking perplexed: Amazon Prime Video’s new series has all the hallmarks of the American-Australian actor's last dramatic turn, The Undoing, or even Big Little Lies.
But Expats is a great, twisting, layered take on the genre. Set in Hong Kong, what starts out as a classic soapy thriller morphs to encompass cultural and social struggles across all classes in the country, the idea of being outsiders and the suspicion from others around you.
But the main thrust of the six-part series – created by Lulu Wang – is the disappearance of Margaret Woo (Kidman) and her husband, Clarke’s (Brian Tee) young son, Gus. The show opens almost a year after Gus went missing, who was lost in a night market when he ran away from Mercy (Ji-young Yoo), a Korean-American woman undertaking a trial to be his babysitter, and Margaret.
It’s a split-second tragic moment that’s already been driving debate as to who is at fault – was it Mercy, for texting on her phone? Or Margaret for entrusting her young son with a virtual stranger? – but as we’re just two episodes into the whole storyline, viewers already have thoughts about where Gus is (and whether he’ll be found alive).
While we could just read the book the series is adapted from, Janice Y.K. Lee's novel The Expatriates, where’s the fun in that? Instead here’s all the best speculation about what’s happened to Gus (with spoilers for the first two episodes):
The neighbours, Hilary and David, are somehow involved
Can’t quite put our fingers on it, but as one X user pointed out, there’s something “sus” about the couple who live on the floor below. They “def have something to do with it”:
But are they just a bit aloof and socially awkward, rather than being actual kidnappers? Seems unlikely that they’re behind the year-long abduction, but we’re not ruling it out completely.
Mercy is behind it all
Again, seems unlikely, as she seemed so shell-shocked that Gus vanished under her care, but then again, everyone’s a suspect here. “Is that Mercy girl somehow involved?” one X user asked.
And why did she run away when she bumped into Margaret at Clarke’s 50th party, rather than talk to her?
Essie the helper has Gus
Margaret was envious of the bond between Essie (Rube Ruiz) – their home help who’s “like family”, she’s at great pains to keep repeating to everyone, in a bid to diminish her privilege – which is why she told her not to join them at the night market. Over on Reddit, this has led one user to think Essie might be involved in some way. “I believe an officer mentioned something about how the captor is usually someone who knows or is close to the family,” one person explained, while another added: “Are [they] setting us up to wonder if their “helper” Essie has Gus?” Did she get wind of the fact that it looked like Margaret was going to sack her and wanted revenge?
The (now dead) neighbour and Pinot the dog are responsible
Surely not? But it does seem strange that the neighbour just randomly popped his clogs, leaving behind just his little white fluffy dog, Pinot, that we know Gus loved to stop and pet. Will police find Gus – or his remains? – in the neighbour’s flat upon searching it? As one user on X put it: “Anyone else think the neighbour with the dog had something to do with it? They did say in cases like these it’s usually someone they know?”
Gus is dead, sorry
One year on and there’s no body, and apparently no leads. Maybe he’ll never return alive, or they’ll never uncover his remains, and what we’re watching will be a study into the lost, limbo-like state of grief without ever getting closure; just while wearing really, really nice clothes.
Expats continues on Prime Video, with weekly episodes on Fridays.
