Diksha Sundriyal
A terrible tragedy befalls a mother in Prime Video’s ‘Expats’ when she loses her youngest child. Margaret, played by Nicole Kidman, moves to Hong Kong with her husband after his promotion and confines herself to the life of the household. Her entire day is taken up by her children, whom she takes care of with the help of a babysitter. Her children’s safety had never been a concern for her because she never let them out of her sight and thought they were always protected. But then, one lapse of judgment, one moment of inattention, costs her her son, Gus. How did he disappear? What happened to him? SPOILERS AHEAD
Did Christopher Kidnap Gus?
Gus’ fate in ‘Expats’ remains a mystery as the case is never solved. The boy isn’t found, which means that his parents don’t even know if he is dead or alive, and if alive, who has him. Gus disappears in the middle of a busy market, and when the cops are called, they remark that a child’s disappearance is usually connected to someone they know. It could be a family friend, a neighbor, or someone the child and the parents trust enough.
At the end of the second episode, Margaret’s neighbor, Christopher, is found dead in his apartment. The reason for his death is not revealed, but it was probably due to natural causes. The cops look through his apartment for any sign of foul play, but it doesn’t look like someone killed Christopher. They also find a picture he had of Gus, which they give to Margaret, who is shocked to discover that her neighbor had a picture of her child without her knowledge.
Seeing Gus’ picture leads Margaret’s mind to dig out all possibilities. Why did Christopher have that picture? What does it mean? She is reminded of the cops saying that a neighbor could be behind the kidnapping, but when she points it out to them, they shrug her away. She is confused by their lack of interest in what is clearly (to her) a strong lead and could help her get back her son. She shares this concern with Hillary, but even she takes Christopher’s side and asks Margaret to let go of the subject.
When no one comes to her help, Margaret decides to look into the matter. She sneaks into Christopher’s apartment, hoping to find something, anything that can prove that he had Gus all along and that she could have her child back. Just when it looks like there is nothing of import, she comes across a postcard he had. A while back, when Gus was still with them, Margaret and her family had gone on a vacation to Thailand. When she finds Thailand’s postcard in Christopher’s house, she takes it as a sign. The man was also there, and he must have spotted Gus at the time and started planning the kidnapping.
Of course, at this time, Margaret is not in the right state of mind. She doesn’t stop to consider that Christopher’s trip may have happened before or after their trip. She doesn’t know the details of his excursion or even the whole picture behind the postcard. It only dawns on her when she turns the card around to discover that it was sent to Christopher by someone else. He had never been to Thailand, and this scraps Margaret’s theory, the entire story she’d concocted in her head.
It is clear that Christopher had nothing to do with Gus’ disappearance, but it still doesn’t change the fact that the boy did disappear. However, it is quite unlikely that someone planned his kidnapping or that they’d been waiting for someone to slip up so that they could get their hands on the boy. What happened was quite simple: inattention. At the time, Mercy was supposed to be looking after Gus. She should have held on to his hand and kept an eye on him, especially because she knew he was prone to running around.
Instead, Mercy got distracted while texting her friend, during which Gus slipped away and disappeared into the crowd. He was most likely taken away by someone because they saw a child unaccompanied by an adult. A kidnapping plot, on the other hand, seems quite unlikely, and all the theories regarding his kidnapping are just Margaret trying to make sense of her situation.
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