Posted by The TV series on Amazon Prime is inspired by the 2016 book, but with some differences: what happened to Gus in Expats? Do they find him?
Expats finally landed on Amazon Prime Video in January 2024, portraying the intense story based on the book published by Janice Y. K. Lee in 2016. Nicole Kidman, Ji-young Yoo, and Sarayu Rao are Margaret, Mercy, and Hilary, three women living as expats in Hong Kong, connected by some tragic events that changed their lives. It’s a complex and emotionally intense plot, and some aspects deserve to be explained, especially if you haven’t read the book.
The first two episodes already show how the three women are linked. The biggest tragedy in Expats is what happened to Gus: Margaret’s youngest child disappears while Mercy is supposed to look after him, destroying Margaret & Clarke’s family. The whole plot of the series and the book revolves around the consequences of that tragedy. Margaret struggles to process her grief. Mercy enters depression, and after that, she enters a clandestine relationship with David that will change Hilary’s life, too.
The Expats plot focuses on the emotional progression of these three women, reaching a surprising ending. However, there are several differences between the show and the book, and it’s worth taking them into consideration. Starting precisely from what happened to Gus.
What happened to Gus in Expats, do they find him? The differences between the series and the book
In Expats, Gus is Margaret’s 3-year-old son. As you see in episode 2 of the TV series, one night, Margaret and his children meet Mercy: they visit Hong Kong’s street market all together, and at some point, while Mercy is alone with Gus and his older brother Philip, she loses sight of the young kid. Gus disappears, and the police start the investigation, evaluating the chance that he was kidnapped. They will never find him: Margaret will have to continue with her life despite the tragic loss, and Mercy’s life will change because of her guilt. For a couple of episodes, Margaret and Clarke have to deal with the burden of seeing a dead body and eventually identifying their child. Ultimately, they discover it’s not him, and that will keep them in this never-ending limbo of uncertainty.
Regarding Gus’ disappearance, there is a crucial difference between Expats the series and the book that inspires it. In the series, Gus disappears in Hong Kong, where Margaret lives as an expat. In the book, the kid’s name is G, and he gets lost in Seoul: Margaret’s family is in South Korea to meet the relatives, and Mercy goes with them to help with the kids. The disappearance conditions are the same: Mercy loses Gus in a crowded street in Seoul.
The TV show has changed this critical detail to make the loss even more tragic. Margaret is an expat in Hong Kong, and losing a child while she’s far from home is much more challenging. In the book, she spends weeks in Seoul after G’s disappearance, close to family. One of the book and series’s pivotal topics is what being an expat feels like: by setting Margaret’s tragedy in the city where she is an expat, the plot becomes more dramatic.
The Expats plot will focus on how the lives of Margaret, Mercy, and Hilary change after that tragedy. Mercy will have a role even in Hilary’s life because of her relationship with David. Many other things happen after Gus disappears: we know how the book ends, but we’ll let you enjoy the series ending autonomously.
