In Episode 3 of Expats, titled “Mid-Levels,” the narrative delves into the individual lives of our three protagonists – Margaret, Hilary, and Mercy. As the story unfolds, their paths converge, leading them to a common ground in the investigation of Gus’s disappearance. This episode serves as a filler to establish an emotional connection with the characters and build anticipation for a shocking revelation in the resolution of the missing case.
Mind you, the article doesn’t follow a chronological sequence of how the episode runs but provides a detailed understanding of the character’s actions. Please note that the article contains spoilers, so read it at your own descrection.
Expats Episode 3 Recap:
The third episode, titled “Mid-Levels,” begins by giving us a peek into Mercy’s daily life. As established in the previous episode, Mercy works as a caterer, and her routine involves working the whole day and returning to her apartment with nothing to look forward to. She has a very lonesome life, and the past only adds more weight to her miseries as she looks up on the registry for lost and found children in Hong Kong, hoping that Gus’s name will pop up. Mercy, a Korean girl born in the United States with limited knowledge of Korean, resides in Hong Kong, a multicultural city where people from various parts of Asia speak different languages.
She would often find herself in a conundrum—unable to fit in or connect with anyone. She would often look around at people enjoying themselves among friends and loved ones, overhearing their conversations that would be cheerful or playful. Despite being unable to understand their language, she would smile, listening to the tone of their discussion, desiring to have such an intimate relationship with someone or even a friendship of some sort.
Why does Mercy leave the Karaoke Party?
When she meets a fellow Korean girl, Charlie, who sees her dining at a restaurant, Mercy feels a spark of friendship. As the two converse and bond on their way back on the subway, Mercy tells Charlie that she didn’t think anyone saw her, to which Charlie jokes, “Why? You think you are invisible?” Charlie feels Mercy is a lovely person to hang out with and invites her to attend a karaoke party with her friends, who are band members. As they meet Charlie’s other friends, who converse fluently in Korean among themselves, Mercy feels indifferent, as they switch to English when interacting with her as per Charlie’s instructions. Feeling exhausted from constantly evading situations where she doesn’t quite fit in, Mercy decides to leave the place immediately.
On her way home, she decides to call her mother, who is not pleased that her daughter doesn’t call her enough but has time to speak to her father. Mercy informs her mother that she can visit her in Hong Kong, but her mother consistently exacerbates her daughter’s misery by employing various gaslighting tactics. Mercy’s increased screen time in this episode suggests that her role will become more significant in the upcoming episodes. This heightened presence is expected to contribute to the drama in Hilary’s and David’s lives, particularly as we observe Mercy spending more time with David, who has moved into a hotel following his marital discord.
Why does Margaret think Hilary is incompetent in understanding her?
As the narrative progresses, we observe Hilary handling her life with grace, even though she experiences the profound pain of a thousand spears piercing through her heart. One morning, when she doesn’t find David in the bedroom, Hilary calls him and reaches his voicemail. In the message, she asks him to make an effort to attend the party she has organized at the house. While purchasing flowers for home decor, Hilary receives a text from David that suggests he is, as usual, subjecting her to another “handle it on your own” situation. In this scenario, she would need to fabricate stories for the guests, ensuring that nobody suspects any issues in their marriage. Meanwhile, she finds her maid secretly doing David’s laundry and Sam, their driver, parceling the same to David’s hotel. In frustration, she tosses the freshly laundered clothes out of the window onto the street and firmly instructs her help not to retrieve them.
Later at the party, her friends arrive, commending her for always up-scaling her party-throwing skills. With a private chef and the best décor, the group of people indulges in various topics that also bring up why Hilary and David are not trying for a baby. Despite Hilary being resolute in not wanting to have a baby, she contemplates that it might be a way to salvage her crumbling marriage with David. However, when questioned by the guests about their future family planning, she provides a vague and ambiguous response. Observing the various reactions to her response, Hilary wears a melancholic expression on her face. This conveys the idea that a woman’s decision on whether to have a child or not is not solely her own but rather a collaborative choice. Unfortunately, societal expectations often frown upon a woman who deviates from the norm in her thinking on this matter.
This is when Margaret knocks at the door, asking Hilary to hand over Christopher – her dead neighbor’s house keys. Initially hesitant about Margaret going through the personal belongings of a deceased man, Hilary reluctantly hands over the keys when Margaret loses her temper. Margaret dismisses Hilary, claiming that she is incapable of understanding a mother’s pain and agony since she is not a mother herself. This remark, however, shatters Hilary’s heart, as her life is torn apart with her relationship showing no signs of progress with both her husband and her best friend.
Do Hilary and David put behind their differences?
Once the night comes to an end, she puts on a cold brave face and a pretty dress to meet David after she asks her driver not to pretend in front of her any longer. Upon meeting David at his usual bar somewhere near the night market, the two try to put behind their differences. They share how they cannot live without one another and that they can keep trying to have a baby. However, with how the circumstances have unfolded in all of their lives, David suggests it is not the best time to have a child. As the two come to a common ground, Hilary’s posh behavior of asking for a different wine glass at the bar puts off David, making him feel that Hilary is posing again and wants to win over their differences.
Hilary is confused, but the two are left with a strained relationship that cannot be repaired with kind words or a desire to make things better. The episode concludes on a somber note for Hilary, depicting a situation where the couple is leading separate lives, deliberately avoiding any form of intervention or reconciliation.
Why does Margaret start clicking pictures of her children’s birthmarks?
The episode also explores Margaret’s arc and her constant suffering, not knowing where the little boy, Gus, is. Margaret is deeply engrossed in replaying every detail in her mind, meticulously examining every clue and analyzing the actions of everyone connected to Gus’s disappearance. In the process, she has completely overlooked the fact that she has two other children who also need her attention. Margaret regularly visits her apartment in Kowloon and gazes at a photo of Gus with Christopher’s dog. It is during one of these moments that she notices a small bruise on Gus’s left arm. She believes that if people investigate this detail, it could potentially provide a lead in the search for the missing child.
This overlooked matter of Gus’s photo makes Margaret turn her worst fear into an obsession of overprotecting her other children. To the extent that Margaret even captures several photos of her children’s birthmarks as evidence, this behavior starts to deeply affect Daisy, who becomes unsettled by her mother’s unusual actions. At that point, Clark intervenes and manages to restore balance to the family’s mental well-being. He brings an adorable puppy through the church notice boards, seeking a solution to provide comfort and support for the children.
Expats Episode 3 Ending Explained:
What does Margaret find in Christopher’s house?
Margaret’s fixation on understanding why Christopher, now deceased, was never questioned about Gus prompts her to approach Hilary for the keys to the deceased man’s house. Now, is Margaret’s paranoia about Christopher something meaningful? Could the old, dead Christopher really be a point of interest in Gus’s missing case, or is this Margaret’s obsession in trying to find answers? That being said, let’s refrain from delving into the morality of the situation, as Lulu Wang distinctly explores the intense emotional turmoil experienced by a grieving mother and the extraordinary measures she might take to locate her son.
Once she gets the keys to Christopher’s house, she lets herself in and goes through everything. While looking for any kind of clues, she stumbles upon a postcard from Thailand, leading her to believe that Christopher has been following the family. She takes the photo and runs back to her apartment, only to find Clark sitting with two detectives. Upon settling down, the detectives share that the body of a small child has been found matching Gus’s description. They want Margaret and Clark to go with them to identify the body. As Margaret absorbs the information, her attention remains focused on the postcard she discovered in Christopher’s house. Behind the postcard, there is a note from Jenny wishing Christopher to be with her in Thailand.
Is Gus Dead?
Episode 3 of Expats ends with Margaret and Clark preparing to meet with detectives who have called the Woo’s to identify the body of a child. David visits Mercy at her small apartment as a refuge from his tumultuous life while Mercy attempts to comprehend the nature of their relationship arrangement.
Is Gus dead? How did he die? Could the body the detectives are referring to really be Gus? Episode 4 will most likely reveal answers to these mysterious questions.
