Expats' Sarayu Blue And Ji-Young Yoo Weigh In On Premiere's Big Tragedy And The Messy Dynamics That Follow
In Prime Video's Expats, three American women's lives intersect in complicated ways when tragedy strikes their small, tight-knit Hong Kong community.
Throughout the series' first two episodes (which are now available to stream), Margaret (played by Nicole Kidman) experiences devastating loss after her toddler Gus goes missing one night at a busy outdoor market. Mercy (Ji-young Yoo), the twenty-something who was watching the boy at the time, now lives with the guilt of losing the child and tearing Margaret's family apart.
As a result of the traumatic event, the bad feelings floating through Mercy's head echo what her family always told her growing up. That things will never go her way. That she's cursed. That she'll never marry or have children of her own. All that negativity had been weighing heavily in her mind even before the boy's disappearance.
"After that tragedy occurs, I think it's just confirmation that everything she's thought about her life is right," Yoo tells TVLine. "And even worse, I think maybe she had thought she could contain it to her life, but now she feels like she's spread it onto a ton of other people. I think a lot of what she's going through in the show is trying to find a way to 1) figure out if she even deserves to be forgiven for everything that's happened, and 2) [see] if there's any way for her to vanish without causing too much more trouble for people around her."
While Margaret does have a support group comprised of other expats like herself, her mental health vacillates between feelings of loneliness and depression, and trying to stay positive to retain normalcy for her two older children. Her close friend Hilary (Sarayu Blue) lives in the same building, but it doesn't take long before the two friends experience friction, partly due to an as-yet-unseen falling out between Margaret and Hilary's husband, David.
Making matters even more complex is the fact that Hilary isn't quite sure she wants to be a mother, despite her husband being under the impression that they're trying.
"It's a really great storyline because you watch two women who are adults, who have this very close friendship, and this tragedy happens," Blue tells TVLine. "The fact that one is a mother and one is questioning motherhood becomes a part of that and really plays into the fracturing of this friendship."
In the premiere (which takes place after the events in Episode 2), an awkward elevator ride hints at the drama that unfolded when Margaret invites her (former?) friend to a birthday party she's throwing for her husband, Clarke. Begrudgingly, Hilary attends, but after coming to Margaret's rescue mid-party and dancing to Blondie over ramen, the two share yet another icy exchange when Margaret tells her that "no relationship can sustain the kind of lies David was telling." Hilary shoots back, "You think you know everything, Margaret, but you don't." (Oh, did we mention that David is having an affair with Mercy? More on that in the coming weeks.)
What happened to Gus remains top of mind moving forward, but the strength (or lack, thereof) of Margaret and Hilary's relationship is another uncertain element throughout the series' six-episode run.
"There's something really interesting about their dynamic and watching how they communicate," adds Blue. "Each of them feels lonely in this friendship."
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