Summary
The Sympathizer takes a sharp turn in Episode 4, skewering Hollywood and certain iconic filmmakers, leaving the Captain in a surprising and difficult position.
I imagine when The Captain left Vietnam, he didn’t imagine he’d find himself on a movie set. And yet that’s where he ends up in Episode 4 of The Sympathizer, “Give Us Some Good Lines”, fighting the righteous fight by ensuring that the Vietnamese people are accurately represented in Hollywood.
It’s a bit of a leap, but it is an important stretch of the original novel, so what can you do? It also matters in the grand scheme of things, since it cracks a window into the callousness and general disinterest with which America views the Vietnamese people and their plight.
Niko Is A Parody Of Francis Ford Coppola
We met Niko in Episode 3, the fourth and final Robert Downey Jr. character. He’s a narcissistic director intended to skewer Francis Ford Coppola, which means his film, The Hamlet, is basically Apocalypse Now.
But while Apocalypse Now is one of the best war films ever, The Hamlet… is not. Niko is a wannabe auteur who thinks he’s giving voice to the Vietnamese people, but it takes The Captain reminding him that the Vietnamese characters a) aren’t Vietnamese and b) don’t have any lines for him to even consider the possibility that his magnum opus isn’t performing as advertised.
A Stowaway
She was in the previous episode too, but the General’s daughter Lana features heavily in Episode 4 since she stows away with the Captain so she can participate in the production. And by “participate”, I mostly mean cause the Captain a litany of problems.
If nothing else, the set’s authentic. At first glance, it really does seem like Niko is striving for something resembling an accurate depiction of Vietnam and its people, but that illusion is quickly dispelled. Still, Lana is enjoying herself and even manages to worm her way into the production as an actual character.
Cameos!
As if multiple Robert Downey Jr.’s weren’t enough, the production of The Hamlet is a good opportunity to rope in a few more high-profile guest stars, including David Duchovny as a lunatic Green Beret and John Cho as a Korean American Communications Officer.
Lana also gets a love interest in Jamie Johnson, a charismatic young actor whom the Captain is immediately compelled to protect her from.
The fun of this episode is that it’s impossible to tell where the genuine racism and antagonism ends and the self-obsessed idiocy begins. The set is such a hodgepodge of conflicting ideals and intentions that it becomes riotously entertaining the more things go wrong. The initial extras don’t speak Vietnamese, so the Captain has to round up some more authentic actors – including Bon – to play the minor roles, but he has to teach them communist propaganda lines, which they refuse to say. Niko loves the authenticity of their dialogue, not realizing they’re cursing him out for paying them next to nothing.
Things Take An Explosive Turn
It should come as no surprise that all of this goes very badly wrong.
It’s difficult to say who’s to blame. Niko should take some fault for rewriting a sexual assault scene for Shamus (Duchovny’s character) and Lana, whose character he has named after the Captain’s mother as a way to “honor” her and the Vietnamese people who were exploited en masse.
But The Captain doesn’t handle it well either. He assumes that Shamus will get a little too Method about the role and actually assault Lana on set, so he gets Johnson to attack him and interrupt the scene. For this, the Captain is roundly ostracised. But is it an offense worthy of death?
That seems like an extreme question, but The Sympathizer Episode 4 ends with the Captain almost being killed in a pyrotechnic scene gone wrong. A deliberate attempt on his life? Well, stranger things have happened.
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