The Sympathizer Episode 2 Recap: 8 Biggest Reveals

WARNING: SPOILERS ahead for The Sympathizer episode 2.

Summary The Sympathizer episode 2 introduces new characters and explores the aftermath of the tragic events from episode 1.

Professor Hammer, played by RDJ, and Sandra Oh's character Sofia Mori play key roles in The Captain's journey in Los Angeles.

The intricately woven plot includes coded messages to Man, suspicions of a spy by The General, and a shocking set-up by The Captain.

The Sympathizer episode 2 titled "Good Little Asian" chronicled the aftermath of episode 1's tragic cliffhanger ending. The Sympathizer's cast is led by recent Academy Award winner Robert Downey Jr. as Claude, an eccentric yet incredibly resourceful CIA operative, who is just one of the four characters that RDJ plays in the series. His second character, Professor Hammer, is an Asian-American Studies professor at a college in Los Angeles who used to teach The Captain (Hoa Xuande). The Captain was one of Professor Hammer's most prized students before the events of The Sympathzier take place.

The Sympathizer episode 2 also introduces Sandra Oh's character Sofia Mori who works in Professor Hammer's office. RDJ also appears as the CIA operative Claude in The Sympathizer episode 2, although Claude and Professor Hammer do not meet in the episode. Following the shocking conclusion of The Sympathizer episode 1, The Captain must continue to keep tabs on The General (Toan Le) in the United States for Man (Duy Nguyen) and the Viet Cong. Despite The Captain nearly dying in the artillery strike at the end of the first episode, he does not question the attack in his covert communications with Man.

Set in the 1975, The Sympathizer is a work of historical fiction that is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name written by Vietnamese-American professor Viet Thanh Nguyen. The HBO limited series will run for seven hour-length episodes from April to May 2024, with its series finale premiering on May 26, 2024. The acclaimed series currently has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 87% and is already being heralded as one of 2024's must-watch miniseries. The series was created by Don McKellar and Park Chan-wook, the celebrated writer and director of Oldboy (2003), The Handmaiden (2016), and Decision to Leave (2022).

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8 The Captain & Bon Make It To The United States

The Captain sends a coded letter to Man back in Vietnam

The Sympathizer episode 2 begins with The Captain and Bon (Fred Nguyen) driving through the desert of the American West. The Captain drives through Oklahoma and makes a stop in Texas where he purchases corn starch in order to send a coded letter to Man back in Vietnam. At the end of The Sympathizer episode 1, it was unclear whether Bon and The Captain made it to the American airplane during the artillery strike, but episode 2 confirms that they were able to make it on the plane at the last second. Bon is traumatized from losing his wife and his young son during the attack and is clearly still deeply affected by it in the United States.

The Captain sends a coded letter back to Man using the book "Asian Communism and the Oriental Mode of Destruction: On Understanding and Defeating the Marxist Threat to Asia". Man, who received a promotion by the Viet Cong and is still stationed in Vietnam, uses the same book to relay cryptic messages back to The Captain in the United States. While Man uses rice starch, The Capitan uses corn starch based on their geographical differences. The Captain would write the page number, the line number, and the word number in a corn starch based liquid in the spaces underneath the lines of his letters, which Man would be able to discover using an iodine solution.

7 The General & The Captain Arrive At Refugee Camp In Arkansas

The General begins to suspect there is a spy among them

The Sympathizer episode 2 jumps back in time five weeks before The Captain and Bon make it to Texas when The General and the plane occupants make it to a refugee camp in Arkansas. It's revealed that Bon had to bury his wife and child in Guam before the plane reached its final landing zone at a refugee camp in Arkansas. While at the refugee camp, The General starts to realize he is losing the faith of his supporters in South Vietnam, and several mothers of fallen soldiers attack him. This leads The General to suspect that a sympathizer among them has been working against him, although he has no idea that it's The Captain.

6 The Captain Reunites With His Old College Professor In Los Angeles

Professor Hammer gives The Captain an unusual assignment

Once the Captain arrives in Los Angeles to scout for a place for The General and his family to live, one of the first things he does is reunite with his Asian-American Studies college professor, Professor Hammer. The eccentric professor, the second character played by Robert Downey Jr., is excited to see The Captain, although his true name has yet to be revealed. It's in Professor Hammer's office that the Captain meets Sofia Mori for the first time, who listens in as The Capatin is interviewed by a college student for the college newspaper. Professor Hammer invites the Captain to a party and asks him to write about what makes him both "Oriental and Occidental."

5 The Captain Tells Sofia Mori A Shocking Story At Professor Hammer’s Party

This leads to the two of them becoming intimate & starting a fling

The Captain arrives at Professor Hammer's party wearing a particular suit that Professor Hammer had lent to him in his office. The Capatain gets to know Sofia Mori better at the party after reciting his elaborate answer to Professor Hammer's prompt aloud to his party guests, explaining what parts of him he believes to be Oritental and Occidental. Sofia Mori hands out deviled eggs at the party, which triggers an obscure, unexplained flashback for the Captain that is sure to be expanded on later in the season.

As the party goes on, Sofia Mori establishes to Professor Hammer and the group that while she may be of Japanese descent, she is an American who was born in Gardena, Califronia. Sofia is intrigued by The Captain and claims to see through his "teacher's pet" facade, although she can't quite place what exactly it is that the Captain is concealing. The Captain goes on to explain a wild story from his childhood in which he pleasured himself with a dead squid. Sofia Mori makes fun of the Captain for his bizarre tale but ultimately ends up sparking an affair with the Captain, who takes her to the apartment he shares with Bon.

Related Robert Downey Jr's New 88% RT Hit Makes Me Glad He Turned Down This Show HBO Canceled After 2 Seasons Robert Downey Jr.'s big return to television in HBO's The Sympathizer is well worth the wait after his incredible MCU run & Oscar win for Oppenheimer.

4 The General & His Family Move Into A New Home In Los Angeles

The General’s suspicions of there being a spy continue to grow

The General and his family arrive in Los Anegels from Arkansas, where they move into a modest home, although The General's wife does not seem very thrilled about it. During his first days in Los Angeles, The General essentially hides out at the house and doesn't do much besides indulge himself in cigarettes and alcohol and his suspicions of a mole in among them grow stronger. The Captain takes note of The General's increasing sense of paranoia and vows to discover who the mole is. The General takes out a gun and points it at the Captain's head in an attempt to intimidate The Captain to work harder to find the spy, oblivious to the fact that he is sitting right in front of him.

3 The General Opens Up A Liquor Store In Los Angeles

The Captain meets an old college rival at the grand opening

Eager for a way to establish his newfound residency in Los Angeles, The General opens a liquor store which offers a picturesque view of the famous Hollywood sign in the background. Bon is enlisted to help The General operate the liquor store once it is opened, which provides some sense of responsibility and purpose for Bon in his new life in California. At the grand opening of the liquor store, the General makes a speech announcing that there is a spy among them and that it has become their top priority to discover who it is and have them killed. The Captain has no choice but to join in the chanting for what is secretly his own death.

Before the opening of the liquor store, someone sprayed graffiti on the side of it calling The General a butcher, which The General uses as more evidence that there is a spy among them, since what American would have that type of knowledge about his reputation in Vietnam? The Captain also encounters an old classmate and apparent academic rival from college at the grand opening of the liquor store named Tran Thuyet Son, who goes by Sonny. Sonny provides a glimpse of The Captain as an American student before he became a mole for the Veit Cong and could become a bigger character in later episodes of The Sympathizer.

2 The Captain Tells Claude & The General That Oanh Is The Spy

He makes up a theory that Oanh has connections in Saigon through candy

After The General announces that he will be cracking down on discovering who the spy is among them, The Captain makes up the lie that it is Major Oanh, one of the "presumably capable but incapable" officials he had handpicked to board the plane out of Vietnam to the United States. Oanh has been giving out Vietnamese candies to people in the United States, which The Captain is able to spin as evidence that Oanh has secret connections to Vietnam that he is not being fully transparent about. The General, who is eager to kill the mole, starts to support The Captain's theory alongside Claude, who helps out with the investigation.

1 The Captain Asks Bon To Help Him Kill Major Oanh

The Captain thinks about asking for permission from Man, but doesn’t

Realizing the severity of the predicament he is in, The Captain thinks about asking Man for authorization to kill Major Oanh before deciding to take matters into his own hands. The Captain had initially intended to send a coded message to Man asking for permission to kill Oanh, but later burned that evidence and asked Bon to help him take out Oanh himself. Bon agrees, and the episode ends with this new lead. While it's possible that Oanh is actually another sympathizer like the Captain, it's much more likely that the Captain is setting Major Oanh up to take the blame for his deceitful role in The Sympathizer.

Related When The Sympathizer's Finale Releases & How Many Episodes There Are Robert Downey Jr.'s new limited series The Sympathizer is available exclusively on HBO & MAX. Here's how to watch the entire series.