Expats Season 1 Ending Explained: What Happened To Margaret, Hilary and Mercy?
On Friday 23 February 2024, the sixth and final episode, entitled Home, of Expats was released on Prime Video, the TV miniseries written and directed by Lulu Wang adapting the novel The Expatriates by Janice YK Lee, starring Nicole Kidman, Sarayu Blue, and Ji-young Yoo. If you too have struggled to get to the end of this painfully beautiful, bordering on heartbreaking series, you probably want to make sure you haven’t missed any details, because seeing it again would be too much. To help you, let’s summarize the ending of this miniseries: naturally from here on out it is full of spoilers.
After the rather disastrous Nine Perfect Strangers on Prime Video (which became an anthology with the renewal for a second season), Nicole Kidman seems to have had better luck by relying on the talent of Lulu Wang, who had already made herself noticed on the platform with the film The Farewell – A good lie with Awkwafina, for the new miniseries intended for the e-commerce streaming service, namely Expats, from the international best-seller The Expatriates written by Janice YK Lee. Alongside Kidman, Sarayu Blue and Ji-young Yoo play three women who must face motherhood in three different ways, united by an unexpected tragedy.
Expats Season 1 Ending Explained: Plot Summary
The plot that all three-protagonist women experience is the disappearance of Gus, Margaret Woo’s (Nicole Kidman) youngest son one day at the market – one of the most chaotic places in the entire metropolis to represent the meeting of different cultures, especially those of the three expatriates. That day Margaret had entrusted him to Mercy Cho (Ji-young Yoo), a girl she had met recently, trusting instinctively and because she had had an argument with the maid, Essie (Ruby Ruiz), a woman who would like to return home to her family but she feels the weight and responsibility of the non-biological one, which she has taken care of since Gus’s birth, and even after his disappearance, including Margaret’s husband, Clarke (Brian Tee).
This also had an impact on the life of the latter’s sister, Hilary Starr (Sarayu Blue) who lives in the same building as the Woos and has always decided together with her husband David (Jack Huston) not to have children; after that tragic event, something clicked in him. But she takes her pill without her knowing, blaming the stress for not getting pregnant with her, and he takes refuge in Mercy’s arms. This is what the second episode was for, a long flashback: telling the tragic event and its consequences on all the characters. As well as the special episodes on the theme of being stuck in Breakfast Club style (the fourth) and during the flood (the fifth, unnecessarily long like a film) show in parallel the point of view of the servants who in addition to knowing the vices and secrets of their employers does not have the real opportunity to cultivate their aspirations, like the character of Puri (Amelyn Pardenilla), Hilary’s maid, because the next morning they have to return to the usual daily routine.
Expats Season 1 Ending Explained: What Happened To Margaret, Hilary and Mercy?
In the previous episode, something had happened to the three protagonists that in a certain sense had given an at least apparent turning point to their lives. Let’s start with Hillary, who after learning from Puri’s maid that David’s pregnant girlfriend was Mercy, had decided to get drunk and apply makeup to Puri to prepare her for the singing talent show she had signed up for. During the alcoholic night, he had confessed to her that his father had beaten, betrayed, and humiliated his mother, and had expressed his best wishes to Puri for the talent show. But then the next morning she had forgotten everything about her, she had asked Puri to help her and goodbye dreams of glory for her maid, while Mrs. Starr decided to ask for her divorce from David.
By the way, David and Mercy had argued, and Mercy had ended up going out with her Hong Kong friend Charly, sneaking into the hotel pool where David was staying. The two girls end up kissing and starting their love story, even though Charly knows nothing about her pregnancy. Then the next morning she was woken up by her aunt who informed her of the arrest of her cousin Tony, one of the leaders of the anti-Hong Kong protests, and she left. Finally, we come to the Woo family. Clarke’s priest friend had come to visit him, and due to the storm, he had been stranded there all night, with Margaret not exactly happy about her husband’s secret religious turn. However, after hours and hours of arguments and arguments and blackouts, Margaret understood that even if Gus was not found she could not force her other children Daisy and Philip to suffer forever away from their home in the USA. And so, she had given her approval to leave Hong Kong.
The last episode begins by showing images of airports, buses, trains, and people walking, including Hillary. Even the woos are leaving, and Margaret leaves her apartment with the violet tub where she took refuge for her moments of solitude. Immediately afterwards the scenes of alternating monologues begin in the restaurant where in the end we will see the three protagonists reunite two at a time. The first is Margaret who turns to Mercy, informing her of their move for the sake of her other children. We return to Mercy, in the tent with Charly who takes part in the protests against China’s policies, and then say goodbye to her and go to show up at the catering company she works for. When she arrives, however, her boss tells her that she has been accused of theft and therefore fires her, even though she also keeps this secret from Charly. And here we are again at the restaurant, where she tells Hillary that her mother is coming to visit her and wants to give her good news for a change. She then confesses that she reads the worst crime news to feel less “cursed”.
Charly and Mercy arrive at the apartment building where Mercy lives, and there is David, the owner of the house, who would like to throw him out since the last time he saw him there he was reduced to a mess. David wants to talk to Mercy, who sends Charly after her, David wants to fix things. He reproaches her for her previous interest, but David insists on at least paying her medical expenses. The two say goodbye, she goes back to the new girl and tells her about her pregnancy and her history with David. And here Charly teaches her a great lesson when Mercy starts with the story that she is very, very unlucky and bad things happen to her. “You’re American, you can go wherever you want, choose whatever you want, and now you’re pregnant by a married man and you say you’re out of luck?” And Mercy finally understands as she explains to Hillary at the restaurant.
Hillary has returned home because her father is ill and has to undergo a delicate surgery. She goes to visit him in the hospital, where she finds her father’s other family and her mother tells her that they are now dating. However, his father is asleep, so the visit is postponed. Her mother tries to convince her that her father has changed, that he has a lot of respect for Hillary/Harpreet, and that she has patience for the violence, abuse, and betrayals that her husband has inflicted on her. At a religious ceremony, Hillary meets her half-brothers, who tell her the same things, also because they have only experienced their father’s good side. But Harpreet, rightly, doesn’t buy it. And when the next day she goes to visit her parent, she first lies by saying that she is pregnant with David’s child, then seeing him too happy she decides that she can’t risk seeing him for the last time without reminding him of all the evil that infamous man has inflicted. to her and her mother. Hillary returns to Hong Kong, where David is waiting for her, and expresses his condolences for the death of her father…
She breaks down, screaming that she killed her father with her words. “I’m tired of being angry” she sighs, before moving on to inquire about Mercy, with whom he has not yet reconnected, even though she asked him for Hillary’s phone number. The two say goodbye, and she begins her monologue at the restaurant with Margaret in which she talks about how she felt homeless after her separation from David, and so we see her preparing to move. The Woos also move, and together with Essie (who accepted the proposal to follow them to the USA) leave their apartment in Hong Kong and go to the airport, while in the meantime we see the meeting between Margaret and Mercy. The woman tells her that she knows about her pregnancy, and we begin to understand the reasons for these two-by-two meetings between the three protagonists: asking for and accepting apologies and moving on.
Mercy does so, finally agrees to be examined, and finds herself in the situation of not being able to answer any of the gynecologist’s questions, who also tells her that she is expecting a girl. She even plans to give it to Margaret to repay the loss she caused by being distracted. Margaret doesn’t accept. Mercy then picks up her mother at the airport, and she can’t help but point out her baby bump. Her mother would like to take her to New York, but her daughter doesn’t want to. At the restaurant, the confessions, declarations, and connections between the three women continue, with Margaret explaining how she lives with the pain and occasionally finds herself humming so as not to hear the silence. Meanwhile, here we are again with Woo departing. Margaret says she will leave, but we see her as unconvinced. She stops at the last minute, changes her mind, and decides to stay longer, with Daisy saying she hates her and Philip appearing more understanding, or perhaps resigned.
Hillary begins her new life alone with a new carpet on her shoulders, while Mercy’s mother finally manages to make her daughter loosen up, who now feels free to hug her, cry, and vent all the accumulated tension. She will never get over the guilt of losing Gus that night, but at least she understands that she will have to live with that pain while continuing to seek her happiness. As Margaret will have to do. One step after another, one breath after another, humming against the silence. And with her walking alone this dramatic miniseries ends we will never know what happened to Gus, and we too will have to deal with it.
Three Shades of Motherhood
Greater than the pain of losing a child is only not knowing, remaining in a practically eternal limbo, living with a sense of guilt towards oneself and others for one’s choices on that unfortunate day: all this frustration comes perceived by the surviving children, Daisy and Philip, who treat Margaret badly and are certainly a little spoiled. Also, they grew up in the “good” neighborhood of Hong Kong, synonymous with privilege. To be precise, Mong Kok, which is located in the Kowloon West district and is full of multi-story tall buildings with various types of commercial activities together with fast food chains. Margaret experiences the condition of other wealthy women of having governesses who act as mothers for them and therefore finding themselves in a strange limbo. Hilary, on the other hand, feels the burden on society and her mother for not having children.
With the short trip home to India, we discover that her father beat her mother which he has always quietly accepted for the sake of a quiet life and her family’s reputation. But now the young woman is no longer there and, on her deathbed, she manages to tell her father what she thinks of him, lifting an enormous weight from her heart. In the meantime, Mercy becomes pregnant with David, creating an incredible short circuit that truly confirms the paradoxes of life and destiny. She, too young to think about anyone other than herself, now finds herself with another human being in her womb and a potentially different future ahead of her.
Decisions
The finale of Expats is shot almost entirely through three suggestively edited dialogues at a restaurant table, during which the three women meet in pairs at different times, to explain their choices to their respective interlocutors and the public. Hilary decides that her life, which she has laboriously built for herself, is fine as it is and she wants to try to start again starting from a symbolic carpet that she goes to buy herself, with or without David whether she is her. Mercy, after revealing her pregnancy to the girl she met through the protests of the so-called Umbrella Revolution and being left, finds comfort in her mother who wants to help her with the baby on the way, officially becoming aware of her condition as a mother-in-being. Margaret finally understands that her family must return to the United States because otherwise, she will live forever in the shadow and the memory of Gus, without being able to move forward, especially her remaining children.
Yet in the end at the airport, she chooses to stay in Hong Kong because the thought that at any moment she could find the little one from home on the street would not make her feel at ease. That mystery therefore remains unsolved, as often in real life. Essie decides to follow the Woos to the United States at Margaret’s request when she can return to her family in Indonesia and finally meet her granddaughter in person. Demonstrating the central theme of Expats: the condition of a mother is truly peculiar and multifaceted, also made up of many shadows and not just lights, of difficult and, at times, impossible decisions. The final shot of Lulu Wang, who lingers on Margaret amid the Hong Kong crowd, represents feeling like a stranger in a foreign land but also lost in the wind.
