The Hamlet has officially gone into production in this week’s episode of The Sympathizer. No, not Hamlet—THE Hamlet. Famous (and fictional) director Niko Damianos (Robert Downey Jr.) has gathered (an also fictional) cast for the ages to stage his recreation of the most violent moments in the Vietnam War.
Because of Niko’s connection to CIA agent Claude (also Downey Jr.), Captain (Hoa Xunde) has been tapped to be the film’s special “Vietnam Consultant.” Niko’s first direction to Captain is to speak “frank and freely” around him, so Captain does, recommending Niko add in at least one line from a Vietnamese person into his script. Niko is pissed about this—no, the Vietnamese people aren’t going to speak. They’re going to look scared in the background. That’ll be their whole thing.
Captain has to say some goodbyes before leaving for the film set. First, he needs to get approval from the General (Toan Le), who is initially upset but, in the end, understands the commitment to Claude. Then, Captain tells Sofia (Sandra Oh) about his new gig, who acts coolly upset about Captain’s dedication to white people. Finally, Captain departs—with a hidden passenger. Lana (Vy Le), the General’s daughter, hides in his trunk, hoping to get her big Hollywood break on the film set. Captain reluctantly agrees to bring her along, but only because she threatens to hitchhike the rest of the way with a stranger.
Finally on set, Captain introduces Lana to the key figureheads on the film. There’s Niko, the loud-mouthed director who is loosely based on Francis Ford Coppola, making The Hamlet some sort of Apocalypse Now. The lead role is belligerent Captain Shamus, played by Ryan Glenn (David Duchovny), a legendary method actor. Shamus is leading the charge with Sergeant Bellamy, played by singer and inexperienced actor Jamie Johnson (Maxwell Whittington-Cooper).
The design of the set feels so real, Captain starts to hallucinate seeing his family. “I can even smell my mother’s cooking,” he says. Captain asks the production designer to mark one of the graves with his mother’s names, just to give her a shoutout.
The production is a bit of a mess. Jamie is terrible at acting, constantly pissing off Ryan, a seasoned pro. None of the Asian extras that production has hired is Vietnamese. In one scene, a background actor has to shout in fear as American troops threaten to shoot her. She babbles in a vague Asian dialect, causing Captain to raise a red flag: Don’t they want Vietnamese actors? Niko demands that 200 Vietnamese extras be on set in a week. Captain pulls through, also landing Lana a featured extra role in the movie.
Bon (Fred Nguyen Khan) is called in to act as an extra. He loves being a stuntman. Finally, Captain says, Bon has found his true calling. For the first time since his wife and baby died, there’s a smile on his face as he’s killed again and again and again in different wigs, posing with blood smeared across his body for the camera.
David Duchovny in The Sympathizer.
Hopper Stone/HBOLana, too, really pushes herself to the front. Eventually, Niko gives her a role. Ryan has been throwing fits over Captain Shamus’ lack of a huge scene—the Oscar-bait scene—so Niko writes him a new one. He’ll attempt to rape a Vietnamese girl. Lana will play said Vietnamese girl. Sergeant Bellamy will bust in, perturbed by his leader’s actions, and save the girl; this makes sense, seeing as Jamie and Lana have started a bit of a fling, much to Captain’s chagrin.
In the days leading up to that scene, Captain really pushes back against Niko, but Niko doesn’t care. Ryan has been wreaking havoc on set—he went missing and showed up with an entire dead deer a few days leading up to Lana’s scene. Ryan cut the deer’s head off and left it in Niko’s bed. The Coppola references are plentiful!
Captain is really struggling with PTSD while shooting The Hamlet. An actor (John Cho) has to shoot a torture scene, bringing back memories from the beginning of the season, in which Captain had to torture another spy. The boiled eggs keep returning in his memory. How is this movie going to be entertainment for the general public? For Captain, it’s a fresh hell.
Before the big rape scene, Captain tries to push back once more against Niko—but Niko is upset, because this is what Captain wanted from the start: lines for the Vietnamese people. After all, Niko says, the Vietnamese language is “garbage,” and he hates that it’s going to end up in The Hamlet at all. Then, Niko drops the biggest bomb—Lana’s character has the same name as Captain’s mother. This is supposed to be some sort of sick and twisted tribute to Captain’s mother, who apparently went through something similar. Captain storms out, quitting the set.
But Captain can’t keep his mind off Lana and what she’ll have to go through on set. He comes back in the middle of the take the next day, demanding that everyone stop filming. His actions somehow result in a fight between Jamie and Ryan—a real life fight, although Ryan thinks Jamie is finally acting well—and a huge temper tantrum from Niko. The film is ruined!
Alas, the show must go on. As Captain leaves the set for good, Niko shoots his final take, blowing up the Vietnamese village created by the production designers. Captain gets caught in the middle of it, bombs exploding around his body as he runs out off set. Now that’s a send-off.
