REVIEW: The Sympathizer Episode 3 — “Love It Or Leave It”

With suspicions high, last episode, the Captain (Hoa Xuande) and Bon (Fred Nguyen Khan) have a directive: kill the Major (Phan Gia Nhat Linh). With the General becoming increasingly suspicious about the mole in his ranks, the Captain has to do more than acclimate to life in Los Angeles. Now, in The Sympathizer Episode 3, “Love It, Or Leave It,” the Captain pulls the trigger and finds himself stuck between two worlds. The Captain and Bon craft a plan to quell the General’s anxieties. But that’s not all; the Captain meets the Auteur, who wants to make a film about war.

The Sympathizer Episode 3 is written for Television by Park Chan-wook & Don McKellar, and Mark Richard and directed by Park. Based on the book of the same name by Viet Thanh Nguyen, this episode is all about the seemingly liminal space that the Captain finds himself hanging in. While his biracial identity has been an important narrative tool for framing his ability to move within the CIA and as a mole for the Viet Cong, this episode uses it in a more overt but nuanced way.

Despite the constant references to his identity, the Captain himself has presented it as a tool that helps him succeed. He lives in two worlds and, as such, can control two worlds. But now that he’s in the United States, the push for assimilation is all-encompassing as those around him fetishize him and use him as a beacon for some fictional future of full acceptance.

As Bon and the Captain prepare to execute their orders in The Sympathizer Episode 3, the latter gets closer to the Major. And when they talk, you get the crux of the series at this point in the story. To loosely quote the Major, if you fully commit to the land you become an American, but if you don’t, you become a wandering ghost stuck between two worlds.

That is where the Captain finds himself. Even from the cell, as he recounts his story to his captor, he’s hovering between the parts of himself. Being stuck between the two worlds becomes more apparent once the assassination is done. The deed itself was a comedy of errors.

The Captain makes mistake after mistake. Park is keen to frame the event as comedic without losing the grim perspective on what’s happening at the moment. Once it’s done, the Captain is pushed from a Longevity Party to celebrate with other Vietnamese people to be the center of an uncomfortable dinner party with four more egregiously racist versions of Robert Downey Jr.

One of the more striking narrative devices in The Sympathizer Episode 3 is seeing the RDJ gimmick hit its zenith. In fact, it’s clear now that Downey Jr. plays every white character in the series that has any impact on the story. At this point, it’s become a running gimmick that started frustrating and has morphed into an almost fantastical lens of some of the most racist things that the Captain has to endure.

Under each and every one of the character’s thumbs, the gimmick hasn’t gotten stale. Instead, seeing the CIA Claude, the Professor, the newly entered Congressman Goodwin, and the Auteur, the audience can see the visible representation of American pressure exerting itself on the Captain’s psyche.

With each fetishizing the Captain’s biracial identity in their own way, the series hones in on the unpleasant and uncomfortable reality that he is living. This episode continually returns to the Captain’s biracial identity, either externally or internally, as the Captain remembers his mother—but more importantly, what she taught him: “You’re not half of anything. You’re twice of everything.”

But how do you be twice everything when the world is crushing in tighter around you, and you’ve been left to find the right path on your own? With Man (Duy Nguyen) sending fewer and fewer correspondences back, the Captain has to trust his choices, stay hidden, and go with the flow of those around him. No matter how much of himself he sacrifices along the way.

The complexity of life in Los Angeles isn’t lost in any part of the episode. The title of The Sympathizer Episode 3 is “Love It, Or Leave It.” It, here, is America. The Captain can’t leave, so he must love his new life as he watches the debaucherous quartet of Downey Jrs around him.

The Sympathizer Episode 3 is another stellar addition to Park Chan-wook’s first HBO series. It’s stark, comedic, and deeply uncomfortable. While it uses some repetitive elements, the production design and clever scene transitions create new scenarios that all benefit the series’ goal. Once again, Hoa Xuande is one of the best performances on television right now. Not without its small stumbles, the series continues on a strong path that doesn’t curtail any of its themes in the name of comfort for white American audiences.

The Sympathizer Episode 3 is streaming now on MAX (formerly HBO MAX), and new episodes premiere every Sunday on HBO.