This article contains spoilers for Expats episode 5, "Central". Expats is a Prime Video drama that explores the intertwining lives of three female expatriates living in Hong Kong — Mercy (Ji-young Yoo), Margaret (Nicole Kidman), and Hilary (Sarayu Blue).
Expats' feature-length penultimate episode sees our wealthy main characters taking a bit of a back seat. Instead, it illustrates what life is like in Hong Kong for many of the supporting stars from the story so far. Chiefly, that means we get to learn more about Essie (Ruby Ruiz) and Puri (Amelyn Pardenilla), Margaret and Hilary's "helpers", as the show refers to them.
The fifth chapter provides historical context for the series and still reveals new details about our main trio; Mercy reconnects with a friend, Hilary files for divorce from David, and Margaret and Clarke finally commit to leaving Hong Kong behind.
There are a lot of different characters and overlapping stories to deal with in what's easily the best episode of the series so far, so here's a full recap of how Expats episode 5 played out.
What happens to Essie in Expats episode 5?
Essie is first seen early on in the episode on the phone to her son, who is keen for her to return home since he's started a family of his own. She's still working both for Margaret and is seen working as a catering assistant for another circle of expats.
Later, we see her bump into Puri in a queue for a Western Union counter. The pair catch up, swapping stories about their lives. Essie gets upset when Puri brings up Gus; she misses the young boy, and feels sad that his family is going through the ordeal as she thinks they're otherwise a good group of people.
Later, we see the two women meeting at a McDonald's. Essie does want to head back home, but she's worried about leaving her employers behind. She feels a sense of guilt over what happened to Gus; she had sensed that Margaret was upset with her the day he went missing (that's why Margaret gave her the night off), but Essie doesn't know why. She tells Puri that she keeps thinking about how the night would've played out differently. After all, she can't understand how Margaret handed the responsibility of Gus over to a woman she barely knew (Mercy).
The pair dash back to the Peak together as the rain continues to worsen. Essie arrives home to find Margaret's home somewhat tense, as Pastor Alan has dropped by (more on that later), but Margaret has her go and starts heating up some dinner for the kids.
When the storm knocks the power out at The Peak, Essie is on hand to help out. Dinner is served and things get heated as they once again discuss Gus' disappearance. Comments from the kids eventually lead to Margaret saying that it is time they all went home. Essie is asked to make up the couch for Pastor Alan to sleep on (since he can't get home in the storm). Afterward, she phones her son to tell him that she's got good news: she's going to come home after all.
The following day, Margaret sits down with Essie, telling her that the family could never have gotten through their time in Hong Kong without her help. Margaret goes on to apologize to Essie, telling her she was jealous of the bond that she had with her kids and that's why she dismissed her that fateful evening when she took the three children to the night market with Mercy.
Essie then gets a shock when Margaret tells Essie she wants to bring her back to the US with her, to help the family "adjust". She says she and Clarke discussed it all, and offers to source her US work visa and pay US wages if Essie comes along. Essie doesn't give her an answer, but Margaret tells her she has some (but not a lot) of time to make her choice.
What happens to Puri in Expats episode 5?
Puri's arc in this episode chiefly revolves around her relationship with Hilary as she continues to argue with David.
She's preparing for a singing competition, but when she meets up with some other helpers, they tell her that she can't have the same kinds of dreams as those that Hilary has. Puri tells the group she sees Hilary as more of a friend than an employer, but they warn her not to get too close, whilst also revealing that the woman David's been having an affair with is Mercy, the girl who lost Gus.
Hilary reveals to another friend, Olivia, that she's filed for divorce from David in a restaurant. Olivia warns her to consider whether this is the right path for her (though as we see later on, Olivia's relationship with her own partner, Max, isn't perfect, either).
After meeting up with Essie, as above, Puri returns to Hilary's apartment at The Peak. There, she overhears an argument between Hilary and David. It's the first time in weeks that David's come home, and Hilary makes Puri stand there and listen whilst they fight, with Hilary blasting him for abandoning his responsibilities.
David reveals that the reason he came by was to tell Hilary that the woman he's gotten the woman he's been having an affair with pregnant. At this, Hilary dismisses Puri to her room, then she starts telling David her worries about how this will make her look to the rest of he circle before kicking him out, feeling humiliated. David grabs his fancy coffee machine and takes a cab to the fancy hotel he's been staying at.
Once he's gone, Hilary enters Puri's room with a glass of wine, telling her she doesn't want to drink alone that evening. Hilary then leans on Puri emotionally, offering to do her make-up and lending her a dress that she says will make her stand out in her big competition the following day. And when the power goes out, the pair entertain themselves at the piano: Hilary plays, whilst Puri sings.
The pair continue to bond through the evening. Hilary opens up about changing her name from Harpreet Singh to Hilary, explaining that she was bullied and singled out by her white peers as a young girl... but she also wonders how her life would've gone differently if she'd stayed as Harpreet. She also tells Puri that she feels alone in Hong Kong, but Puri reassures her she isn't. Then, Puri works up the courage to reveal that she knows the woman David's been sleeping with is Mercy; Hilary does not take this news lightly.
The following morning, however, whatever new dynamic had arisen the night before is gone. Hilary's hungover, and she orders Puri to make her breakfast. Devastatingly, we see Puri putting the dress away in Hilary's closet and going about her usual chores, suggesting she never got to go to her competition after all.
What happened between Charly and Mercy?
Expats fifth episode takes place against the backdrop of the 2014 Hong Kong protests, and Charly (the woman Mercy briefly established a friendship with earlier in the series) is one of many students taking part alongside Tony, a fellow scholar.
They attend one of the demonstrations early in the episode, but the next time we see them, Charly and Tony have an argument. She wants to go home and study for her last exam, a view of getting a good job and going elsewhere, but Tony has decided he's skipping their impending exam to attend a protest, as he sees the movement as a bigger deal. The pair end up going their separate ways; later, Tony goes home and has a disagreement with his mother, Wen, who isn't keen on him getting involved with the movement, either.
At home, Charly is surprised to receive a text from Mercy, seeing as they've seemingly not had any contact since Mercy abandoned Charly and her friends on a night out. The pair meet up at a restaurant, where Mercy makes her apologies for not reaching out sooner.
They continue to hang out as the rain gets worse. Mercy eventually takes Charly back to the hotel that David's been staying in (the reception staff seem to know her, too). She and Charly sneak into the indoor pool at the hotel for a splash together. Mercy misses a call from David (who tried to reach her after his big fight with Hilary).
In the pool, Charly and Mercy get closer and share a kiss. Mercy pulls away though, and starts to tell her about how she feels "cursed" and how she thinks she doesn't deserve to be happy, ever since she lost Gus, but Charly comforts her, and they spend the night sleeping on two of the loungers inside the pool room.
The following morning, Mercy wakes up to find Charly hurrying off. She's had a call from Wen, summing it up as 'something's happened', but she promises to call Mercy later.
Last night, Wen had returned from work to find Tony not at home. Whilst watching footage of the protests on the news, Wen wasn't able to reach Tony, and when she later went to the police station, she was simply told that her son had broken the law, but was given no further info about him. Charly is later seen meeting Wen at her home.
What else happened in Expats episode 5?
The disagreement at Margaret and Clarke's home was caused by an unexpected visit by Pastor Alan (as we mentioned above). Another member of the community had mentioned that Clarke hadn't come to work, so Alan went to the Peak to check how he was doing after the visit to the morgue.
Clarke said he just needed some more time to grieve, later admitting that he'd felt guilty because he had prayed that the body in the morgue had been Gus. The Pastor understands his guilt, seeing that this would have been the worst kind of resolution to their ordeal as a family, but it nevertheless would have been a resolution to what they've been going through.
Alan was about to leave when Margaret returned with the kids and was not thrilled to see him, explaining they aren't a religious family and that they weren't "grieving" about Gus' disappearance, as he phrased it. But because of the storm, Alan was stuck in the apartment, and his presence at the dinner table caused some painful questions at the dinner table from the kids, culminating in Daisy asking her mother how she could ever let something happen to Gus. He spends the night on their couch and then heads back to the church the following morning to clean up after the storm.
We also saw Olivia Chu in this episode. She was dropping her daughters off with her grandmother at the start of the episode, having just had to part ways with her latest helper.
After warning Hilary to consider whether divorcing David is the right move for her, Olivia returned to her own home, where we saw her strained relationship with her partner, Max. That evening, with the storm getting worse, Max prepares to leave, but Olivia asks him to stay as she doesn't want to be alone that evening and she knows he's not going to "the office". Max goes regardless, explaining that it was Olivia who made this arrangement.
When the power goes out at her place, Olivia tells her mother she feels so alone. Her mother tells her the feeling will pass, and to just go to bed. This prompts Olivia to go upstairs and start packing her things to leave. Later, though, she spots the leak in her ceiling (which she'd been asking Max to fix) has finally collapsed, so she temporarily fixes it with a tarp.
At the end of the episode, her mother brings the two children back to the house. She tells her daughters that their father will be back after the finish school, and is seen interviewing a new helper, so it seems she might not leave after all.
Expats is now streaming on Prime Video.
