Expats Episode 5, Explained

Warning: Spoilers for Expats Below

Expats is the newest drama from Prime Video starring Nicole Kidman as Margaret, an expatriate living in Hong Kong with her family whose youngest son, Gus, was kidnapped a year before the main events of the series take place. While at the night market one evening with her three children and a prospective babysitter named Mercy (Ji-young Yoo), whom she met on a friend’s yacht, Margaret entrusts Mercy with Gus. However, when Mercy becomes momentarily distracted by text messages on her phone, she drops Gus’ hand, and he vanishes without a trace. In the wake of such a tragedy, Margaret and her family refuse to leave Hong Kong, while Mercy lives with guilt because of her actions.

The series primarily focuses on Margaret and her insular community of other expatriates, including her seemingly estranged best friend, Hilary (Sarayu Blue), whose husband, David (Jack Huston), is actively having an affair with Mercy. After crossing paths with her on the night of Gus’ disappearance, David is the only one who offers Mercy any kind of compassion or sympathy, which clearly sparked something. With such dynamics at play, the show highlights the upper-class lives and sorrows of its Western protagonists while seemingly ignoring the domestic workers who run the households and care for the children. Episode 5 of Expats changes that and explicitly puts the show’s two domestic workers front and center.

Aptly titled “Central,” Expats’ fifth episode finally highlights the lives of the domestic workers and the families at the heart of the story. The episode strikes a much different tone than any other episode and provides a necessary shift in perspective to fully understand the characters at the core of its narrative. The length of a feature film, the episode manages to cover quite a bit of ground when exploring the lives of Essie (Ruby Ruiz) and Puri (Amelyn Pardenilla).

Who Are Essie and Puri in Expats?

Essie and Puri are the two main domestic workers front and center in the latest episode. Essie works for Margaret and her family, while Puri works for Hilary and her husband. Each live-in worker knows almost everything about their employers, which was demonstrated at the beginning of the episode when Puri mingled with a group of other workers who were all discussing the personal lives of their employers. In fact, it’s during this time that Puri learns that David’s affair involves Mercy. Unlike the rest of the women, however, Puri seems to genuinely empathize with Hilary, given her husband is cheating.

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Throughout the episode, viewers see Puri and Essie’s lives beyond the background of Margaret and Hilary’s posh world. Puri has dreams of singing and even entered a singing competition she’s continuously preparing for throughout the episode. On the other hand, Essie has a family of her own, including a grandson, whom she’s never able to visit because they live in the Philippines. As she cares for another person’s children, she’s relinquished to video calls with her own. Despite her love and affection for Margaret’s children, it highlights the inequities of her situation and the apparent ignorance of Essie’s life on Margaret and Clarke’s end.

As the episode unfolds, Essie and Puri meet one afternoon and discuss their own feelings regarding the situation at the center of it all, Gus. During their conversation, Essie expresses regret about whatever she might have done to upset Margaret because if she had gone to the night market instead of Mercy, Gus would still be with them. Unsure of what she did, she further expresses concerns about how a mother could so easily let her child go off with an essential stranger. Clearly conflicted about her feelings, given how much she cares for the children, Essie’s love for the family is genuine. However, it further represents the disproportionate relationship the domestic workers have with their respective employers.

Essie and Puri’s Personal Lives Are Seemingly Ignored

While Margaret and her family purport to care for Essie as if she were actually part of the family, Puri’s relationship with Hilary is more fleeting. Hilary encourages Puri to follow her dreams but then completely disregards Puri’s personal life the moment she requires her services. After roping Puri into a night of wine because Hilary doesn’t want to drink alone, she gives Puri a makeover and a fancy dress for her singing competition the following day. While Puri sees the interaction as a bonding moment, it becomes clear the following day, when a hungover Hilary calls for Puri to fix her breakfast, that it was no such moment. As such, Puri does her job and misses her competition.

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Although seemingly ignorant of Essie’s life, Margaret and her family at least value her contributions to their family, unlike Hilary does with Puri. As such, when they finally make the difficult decision to return to the U.S., they ask Essie to go with them. However, not once in the entire series do they ask Essie about her own family. Believing they would end her employment upon leaving Hong Kong, Essie happily informed her family she would be moving to the Philippines to be with them. Although now that Margaret and Clarke want to continue her employment, Essie must make a tough choice.

While the latest episode didn’t change Essie or Puri’s life, it managed to shine a light on their experience, which audiences hadn’t fully seen until now. Pulling them to the forefront affords viewers a richer understanding of the dynamics at the core of the show’s narrative. Because without the contributions of Essie or Puri, it would all fall apart. The first five episodes of Expats are currently streaming on Prime Video. The season finale will be available on Friday, Feb. 23.