All language subtitles for The.Sympathizer.2024.S01E06.WEB.H264-SuccessfulCrab+AMZN.en

Hey!

(Vietnamese)

"Ma chère tante

These men want their country back.

But what they need is
to be recognized

to be remembered,
to be the men they once were."

And you, old friend

what is it that you need now?

I need...

We need to save
our friend Bon from us.

From the guns and swords of our side.

To the Republic

we will be always true!

Stirring speech, sir.

I've been further considering
our predicament

with this troublesome newsman.

Well, that much is clear, sir.

Perhaps you ought to brief the men.

Provide them with a cover story.

If that subversive comes fishing
for his leftist propaganda rag

then our men
need only tell him the truth.

And which truth is that, sir?

That this is
a charitable organization.

And a legally registered
nonprofit, no less.

"The Benevolent Fraternity
of Former Soldiers

of the Army
of the Republic of Vietnam."

We are?

And what is our charitable cause?

Humanitarian aid

for all the poor Vietnamese
still oppressed by the commies.

It's all legitimate.

On the books.

This is how we receive
tax-deductible donations

from certain generous friends.

Whoever these friends are

they must be very generous indeed.

- Chinese laundry's next door.
- No, I'm...

Oh, I'll be damned.

I thought you got blown up.

You know, of course

I don't partake myself, but...

I just like to have somethin' on...
on hand for my constituents.

What can this humble
representative do for ya?

I was rather wondering
what I could do for you, Congressman.

I was so taken by your speech
at the party, I...

Meant every word, kid.

I am makin' a long-term
investment in your community.

Sure, you're not voters yet

but your children, their children.

So, you see

I've located great value
in you people.

And I value that you value us.

So, whatever I might do
to be of value

- offer it to the campaign...
- That's a great idea.

I'd be delighted
to have an ethnic on the trail.

Do you have skills
other than being Vietnamese?

I know when to talk

and I know when to shut up.

Do you know when to play deaf?

That motherfucker
just won't fucking listen.

A touch higher!

Fucking white trash.

Shoot.

That is totally not like me.

I didn't catch what you said, madam.

- Ned sent you?
- Yes, yes, he did.

Now you must let me guess.

Vietnamese?

Only my better half.

No, no.

If there is one thing I learned

it's that here in America

race is all or nothing.

Maria, tell the kids

- to turn off that hippie shit.
- Sí, señora.

I won't allow it in my house.

It's a slippery slope to socialism.

This music is my life!

Tom Collins?

Of course,
I don't usually partake myself.

- Please.
- Help yourself if you don't mind.

I've got some things
to take care of here.

Donors, donors.

I do my best to memorize them

but I just can't.

I could whisper their names for you

when you're greeting them.

That's how I did it for the General
back in Saigon.

I can be very discreet.

No can do.

Ned says
I'm not to show this to anyone.

Of course.

I simply can't wrap my head around

what politicians can and cannot do
with their money in this country.

What in Cuba
we called "electioneering"

here you call "election fraud."

Well, at least our restrictive
campaign laws

can't prevent civically minded
individuals like yourselves

from donating to a worthy cause.

Oh, you're speaking of
your General's Benevolent Fraternity?

So you know.

Ned said it's all in the books.

What... what kinda books?

You know what kind.

Ah, fuck it.

Just a tipple.

I'm with company, after all.

So, what were we talking about?

What's gotten into you

coming here wasted
when the sun's still up, hm?

It's almost down.

And who says I'm wasted?

Right there.

You can see his pad from here.

You fantasized about killing Nicos,
didn't you?

Admit it.

What about now?

Hey, we all fantasize about
killing people.

Just as a passing thought.

Like...

"Oh, what if I...

ran over that asshole with my car?"

Or at least we fantasize what
it'd be like if someone were dead.

Sure, like some motherfucker
who'd write me off as a bastard

and steal my girlfriend.

Sounds like you got
someone specific in mind.

Come on, you bought that?

It sounds pretty specific.

So, when do
they give you the Pulitzer?

Did the General send you
to shake me down?

Why don't we go outside and talk?

Sorry, can't. I just placed an order.

Well, have it to go.
We can talk in the car.

Chaps sitting at the table next to me

were just remarking that
you need to have pho in situ

at the restaurant,
to truly appreciate it.

Apparently, it's not the same
out on the training grounds.

Actually, I just wanted to offer you
some constructive criticism

as an invested reader.

You never could keep
your literary opinions to yourself.

Well, spit it out.

No one here speaks English.

If I were you

I'd trace the money.

Why are we surprised?

This is the Vietnamese joint,
after all.

Your soup should be here any minute.

Time doesn't matter to her.

Not when it comes to cigarettes.

Let's go outside.

Wait, what... what is this?

If you don't return
by the time I'm down to the butt

I am coming to rescue you, darling.

No, no, it's... it's men's business.

Be right back.

Is it safe here?

What if one of
the General's men sees us?

Officially, I'm questioning
who your informant is.

Oh, that's a good...
that's a good cover.

You could be a spy.

Why'd you tip me off?

You're the General's man.

'Cause we've got something in common.

What's Sofia got to do with this?

No, leave her the fuck outta this.

I'm trying to say

that we don't want any more
of our people to die for nothing.

You said to follow the money.

Is there a paper trail?

I can try to get you one.

Get one, by any means necessary.

I've got a friend at the LA Times.

I can make sure everyone in America
reads this story.

Is he looking?

Oh shit, he's right behind us.

Don't forget we need enough time

to shape them into soldiers again!

Oh, thank you
for getting me up to speed!

You forget yourself, General.

Here's how this relationship works.

For future reference

I say, "Eat shit"

you grab a goddamn fork and knife.

This fuckin' reporter's
changed everything.

Our investors are freaking out.

Get a grip on yourself.
Fucking jagoff.

Don't come back here. I remember.

- I remember your stupid faces.
- Easy, man. Easy.

Motherfucker!

What's goin' on in here?

You put him on recon detail, huh?

This fucking idiot?

Get the car.

Where are we going, sir?

Drive. Don't talk.

You think Sonny's a threat?

- Potentially.
- He makes our investors nervous.

I'll leave it in your hands.

Strip.

- Sir?
- I said strip.

It's good for arthritis,
skin infections

sore muscles.

Not to mention blood circulation.

It smells.

Ah, the sulfur.

Tend to smell like rotten eggs.

Breathe it in.

It's good for you.

You're wondering how I lost them?

No, sir.

I never told you the story

of how I made it through nine months

in the communist prison camp, did I?

No, sir.

Well, no need for graphic details.

Suffice to say,
it was not all at once.

The pinky toe, it was infected.

I had bad boots.

And the next one

were electrocuted under torture

until all the nerves were dead.

And the rats snapped 'em off.

Just for somethin' to chew.

Is it my toes?

The smell?

It's a sin to waste food.

Swallow it.

Well done, Captain.

Thank you, sir.

The cold, the vermin

that was nothing.

I knew that whatever I lost in there

I had to get out of that camp
with my mind intact.

For her.

My little girl.

I lost everything to this country.

America, they eat your heart

then complain about indigestion.

And now they have Lana too.

But I'll get her back.

I'll get everything back.

Put me on the mission too.

No.

No, out of the question.

You'd be more useful here
working with me

on the planning and logistics.

I need you, my boy.

You are the only one I can trust.

Please, sir.

Bon's lost so much already.

He made his choice.

A choice only granted to someone
who has lost so much already.

Don't stand in his path.

"Bon volunteered to join the mission.

I beg your leave
to end my mission here

and return to Vietnam."

So you think you can save Bon?

And what makes you think that?

There must be some consideration.

Some clemency?

In the event that we're captured,
can't I defend him?

Can you? Why?

Because I'm a hero of the revolution.

I infiltrated the enemy.

I worked in their ranks
for three years

enduring risks untold.

The danger of being exposed?
That was nothing.

No, the real danger

was the contamination
of one's mind with capitalism

with Western culture.

The rank-and-file
of the foot soldiers?

They never had to worry about that.

All they had to do was
stoke their hatred of the enemy.

They never feared
they might become them.

- Brother...
- No!

We win the war.
What do I get in return?

Banishment to America.

But I did what you asked of me.

I was tasked to serve
under a pathetic clown.

I even killed for him.

No, for our cause.

Or was it the General's cause?

Or Claude's? Or yours?

I don't even know anymore.

You think you'd be better off
if you come here?

Think carefully, my friend.

What happens to a mole
that has lived too long in darkness

when it is suddenly
thrust into the sun?

It is blinded.

No. You are better
suited to the underworld

that goes by the name America.

You belong there.

You're American.

Admit it.

Yeah, d'ya get that?

All right, we got that. Good one.

Thank you, brothers.

- Thank you for your support.
- Of course.

Part of the problem
is simply discursive.

We let those unwashed hippies
and the Negroes

steal the meaning
of the word freedom.

Sure, yeah, yeah. Definitely.

What's a fuckin' gook doin' here?

...their basic freedoms.

You know, what I'm sayin' is,
ignorance is not a sin.

They can't sympathize with
the communists all that much.

I hear they killed
quite a few of them in Vietnam.

Rita, what's the occasion?

Havin' a little drinky-poo
this afternoon?

Oh, my. I thought it was seltzer.

My fault. I'll get the seltzer.

- Here we go.
- All right.

My god, she is just a gem of a woman.

Professor?

The quiet Eurasian.

What brings you into my lair?

Well, I might ask you
the same question.

Well, as you can see

I've alighted to greener pastures.

Our beloved Oriental Studies
has at long last been slaughtered

upon the altar of identity politics.

I've been lending
the Congressman my expertise.

Who knew I'd have a knack
for speechwriting?

But I do.

At least there are still those
in public service

who value my insights into
The Oriental Mode of Destruction.

The Oriental Mode of Destruction?

Still don't understand
why you're such a fan of that book.

A fan?

- Yeah.
- I admit

I've been accused
of intellectual narcissism

but I don't think
I'm quite that extreme.

One can't write everything one wants

within the inelasticity of
formal scholarship.

- So then you...
- Oh, and you never surmised as much

with that marvelous brain of yours?

R.H. Robert Hammer.

Richard Hedd.

Dick Hedd. Pleasure to meet you.

"If the Orient has one inexhaustible
resource, it is people"?

"Life in the Orient
is plentiful and cheap"?

That Dr. Hedd?

How could you?

Oh, dear.

I had such hopes for you.

But there it is

bubbling under the surface,
that primeval fury

that irrepressible Oriental urge
to destroy.

My duality is difficult to parse.

Not unlike your Hammer and Hedd.

If one side wins,
then the other side must die.

All right, settle down.

This is comin' right off the cuff.

- That's right, brother...
- You have such hate for me.

But what was it that
Hesse wrote in Demian?

Ah, yes.

"If you hate a person

you hate something in him
that's part of yourself."

Does that resonate?

You know, I admit
I prepared some remarks

but we're all military men here,
so, right?

How 'bout I just mix it up

and speak from
the damn heart instead, huh?

I don't need to make big speeches
about what happened in Nam.

You know, brother,
you know, sister, we lost.

It was a failure, a failure of will.

A war of obliterations, right?

That's the only kinda war

the Oriental
understands and respects.

Yeah. Nota bene. Hiroshima. Nagasaki.

But, well, see, we Americans

who respect the sanctity
of human life.

We pause before
we annihilate our enemies.

And our Oriental enemies

they read this reluctance
as weakness.

See, if the communists in Vietnam

have one inexhaustible resource,
it is people.

Life is plentiful in Vietnam.

Life is cheap to the communists.

The generals who fought
the Japanese in World War II

you know all too well
the Oriental perspective

their mode of destruction.

But their voices
were muted in this war.

- Yeah.
- Just look at Cuba, China, Russia

and, of course, Vietnam.

The flower that disguises
itself as idealism

is being exposed
for what it really is

a corrupt, carnivorous plant
of crowny thorns, huh?

In the battle of ideologies

communism will always lose.

We must fight for the rights

that our founders fought for
all those centuries ago.

Come on!

- "Dignity, justice
- Dignity, justice

- freedom for all.
- freedom for all!

- We must not rest
- We must not rest

- until these rights
- until these rights

- are possessed by all peoples
- are possessed by all peoples

- of all nations.
- of all nations."

All nations!

- Yeah!
- Yeah!

I thought you went to bed.

Would you like me to take you
to the Congressman?

Please.

He just needs me there so I can
speak Spanish to the fucking valet.

You also here for a drink?

Congressman told me
to put these in here.

Ned thinks I don't know his game

throwing these beautiful
young things at me.

Like that counterbalances him
bedding every blonde with a pulse.

Well, then I guess the Congressman
doesn't know his wife very well.

I'm sorry?

Well, such a blatant tactic
would never work.

Not on someone as...

astute as you.

- Yes.
- Right.

Quite.

Okay.

- Hello?
- I've got the money trail.

Tomorrow. Noon. Where?

My place.

No Sofia?

No Sofia.

- Hey.
- Hey.

What do you think we're...

The money.

Napalm Ned and the CIA.

Holy shit.

Holy shit.

Send them to your contact
at the LA Times.

Yeah, right.

And if I were you,
I wouldn't disclose your informant.

You'll get the CIA on your case

and then it's only a matter of time

before it reaches the General's ears.

Sure, the scale of this

well, it's... bigger...

a lot bigger.

And... and I do try not to actively
invite assassination.

Listen, we never did have the talk
we should've had about Sofia.

I apologize for that.

Honestly, Sonny,
I don't care about Sofia.

I'm being a bad host.

Haven't even offered you a drink.

How 'bout it?

Yeah, sure.

Hey, can I turn that up?

Sure.

...Draconian measures
to reshape Cambodian society

in accordance with his vision.

Despite public diplomatic
exchanges of solidarity

friction simmers beneath the surface

- Hear that?
- between Cambodia...

After all the Cambodian
attacks on our border towns

- we're now raiding Cambodia.
- ...territorial disputes...

You'd think we had enough of war
that we wouldn't want another one.

I'm sick and tired of talkin'
about politics, Sonny.

- You were the one that turned it up.
- ...instability

and the skirmishes along
their shared borders have been...

That's it.

I swear not to talk
any more politics today.

No, I confess I don't really know
what to talk about besides politics.

Most people can't stand it

but Sofia can.

- That's love.
- So you're in love with her?

You weren't in love with her,
were you?

You know, it...

I understand.

Losing her, it... it hurts.

It's... it's very painful.

Even if you didn't love her,
that's human nature, right?

But...

try to see it from my point of view.

It... it's just that
when we started talking

at that poor Major's mother's
longevity party

we couldn't stop.

That's love.

Let me ask you something.

If it's not about Sofia

why do you hate me so damn much?

Who says I hate you?

Then what? You envy me?

I don't know, Sonny.

Perhaps it's because you seem...

unburdened.

Because you simply picked a side

and then you lived
with the consequences.

- I have something to confess to you.
- So, you do love her.

Just get it out.

No, I already told you
I'm not here for Sofia.

I asked you before
if you were a communist

and you said
you wouldn't tell me if you were.

But what if I told you that I...

was a communist?

What's the point
of playing such a game?

It's not a game.

I am a communist.

I've been an agent for years

for the revolution.

I infiltrated the Secret Police
and sent intelligence back to Hanoi.

Even now

I report on reactionary activities

and do everything I can
to undermine them.

In fact, me handing you
these documents now

is part and parcel of
my anti-anti-revolutionary strategy.

You want me to say
I'm a communist too.

- I'm being honest for once.
- Did the General put you up to this?

You two are setting me up to report
on some concocted CIA conspiracy

so you can discredit me
and my criticism?

That's what you Secret Police do,
isn't it?

How stupid do you think I am?

What, did you think you'd suddenly be
attractive to Sofia again

if you said you were a communist?

I told you, I'm sick and tired
of talking about Sofia.

When? You said that about politics.

You know, for a long time,
I've worn a mask.

I just needed a chance
to safely take it off

at least once

even if it's just for a moment.

And since I've taken that one off

here's another one.

I killed him.

Major Oanh.

With that toy?

That's it?

That's it?

That's all you have to say to me?

Request denied.

And our brother?
You'd just let him die?

Should I tell him that?

Tell him that "all for one"
was a bunch of bullshit?

Request denied.

Thank God you picked up.

I am so sorry. Why...

Who could've done
such a horrible thing like...

- We'll be in touch.
- Thank you.

Officers, thank you so much.

I...

I said you were here
the day before yesterday

for an afternoon delight.

That should cover you for a while

even if it makes me
a two-timing slut.

These cops are not meatheads.

What do you mean?

It won't be too long
until they identify you as a suspect.

A jilted lover blinded by jealousy?

Is that what you think, too?

Well, then why'd you come up with
an alibi for me?

You don't love me that much.

And even if you did,
you wouldn't kill over it.

Because you're not impulsive.

Indeed.

- "Indeed."
- Everyone knows

the General is livid at Sonny.

And everyone knows
you're the General's man.

A man who'd commit a murder
at the General's order?

Is that your theory, too?

Then again, why the alibi?

I know.

What?

Sonny told me that the source
who informed him

about the General's mission was you.

You're a spy.

- I'm not.
- And he told me

that you were planning on
meeting him again

at his place

the day before yesterday.

Are you...

thinking of killing me too?

No. Sofia.

No.

How did you become this?

Go.

Far away.

Sofia.

Ms. Mori.

Is it raining?

I ran here.

- From where?
- Sawtelle.

Are you crazy?

What's goin' on?

Good night. Take care.

I would like to join the mission.

I feel guilty sitting behind
the safety of a desk.

When an American
has an ulterior motive

he looks you straight in the eye.

I guess you have become
fully American.

Flight attendants,
prepare for departure.

- Mind if we come along?
- Mind if we come along?