The Sympathizer
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What role does Man play in all of this?
Who exactly is the Captain writing to?
Is he still a bleeding heart Commie?
The ambitious finale rushes to address these indeterminacies, some more superficially than others.
This condensed pacing is not unusual to the shows peripatetic nature.
The Captain begrudgingly returns to his cell to recall the Thailand operation.
Just as he had predicted, it was a suicide mission, though one quietly endorsed by the CIA.
Claude takes the men to a Thai strip club as a morbid send-off.
But the Captain is the reason that Claude is in Thailand.
The Captain refuses this last-ditch offer, even though he knows a worse fate is on the horizon.
Claude pauses, and a hint of regret, or maybe anger, flashes across his face.
Its your funeral, pal, he says.
The next day, everyone except for Bon and the Captain is killed trying to cross into Vietnam.
The two surrender and are driven to a camp, where they spend the next year undergoing reeducation.
Here, the Commandant interrupts the Captain to suggest he end his story with their surrender.
But these words ring hollow, as there is no redemption to be found.
Just the despair of indefinite imprisonment a fate little better than death.
The finale dwells in this post-revolutionary disillusionment as we learn the truth of the Captains detainment.
No matter what he admits to, there will always be something more to confess.
Above them, the Commissar begins to hoarsely lecture on the danger of individualism.
Bon interrupts, only to be struck down by guards and imprisoned as punishment.
The Captain follows in Bons example, interrupting the Commissar to sing a revolutionary anthem.
He raises his hand towards the bandaged figure: All for one, and one for all!
Man explains that he was burned by napalm on the Day of Liberation and injects himself with morphine daily.
Thats why I was slow to respond sometimes, Man explains, eerily reclining his bandaged head.
Man/Commissar can only do so much to protect the Captain and Bon at the camp.
Its what you failed to confess.
He is repeatedly electrocuted and forced to stay awake for three days straight.
He hears Man respond: Do what?
No one volunteers for this hellhole.
But I requested the post when I heard you two were sent here.
All Man can offer is bleak sympathy to his friend.
He, too, is just another cog in the Partys machine.
Man departs with a harrowing warning: All they can do is play their respective parts well.
The Captain is nearly electrocuted to death, but a power outage grants him a brief reprieve.
He sat down and watched while she was raped, nervous that she would betray his identity.
Nothing surprises her anymore.
Nothing disappoints her either, not even the Party.
Even Man is hardened by cynicism in his commander role.
Nothing, he tells the Captain, is more important than independence and freedom.
There is no grandeur to this nothingness.
It has to be learned the hard way.
Independence and freedom are secondary to it.
Instead, the Captains story ends on a note of hopeful uncertainty.
Surrounded by ghosts, he sails towards the promise of redemption on the horizon, towards a self-determined life.
