The Sympathizer: The Biggest Differences Between the Novel and the Series Featuring Robert Downey Jr. and Sandra Oh

Note: This post contains major spoilers for the novel and TV series Sympathizer.Exciting Limited Edition Sympathizer ends today. Both the HBO original now airing on Max, created by Park Chan-wook and Don McKellar, and the 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Viet Thanh Nguyen, on which the TV series is based, follow an unnamed, Vietnamese-French police captain, who secretly working as a communist spy in Vietnam and Los Angeles. A political thriller and sharp satire set during the fall of Saigon in 1975. Sympathizer raises thought-provoking questions about identity, politics and loyalty. The series features Hoa Xunde as Captain, Sandra Oh as Sofia, Toan Le as General, Fred Nguyen Khan as Bon, Duy Nguyễn as Man, Vy Le as Lana, Alan Trong as Sonny, David Duchovny as Ryan Glenn and John Cho as James Yoon. Robert Downey Jr., executive producer of the series, also appears in several roles, including CIA agent Claude, Professor Robert Hammer, Congressman Ned Godwin and film director Niko Damianos. There are some changes, significant and minor, between the limited series and the novel, however. Read on to see the biggest differences.

The novel and the TV series begin differently

Van Brunelle, Nguyen Chac Chi Bach and Phan Huy Khang in ‘Sympathizer’.

Hopper Stone/SMPSP

Both versions Sympathizer they revolve around the captain, who writes a confession after being imprisoned. The television series, however, begins differently than the book. The show immediately reveals that the captain is writing his confession, which tells of his journey from Vietnam to Los Angeles and what ultimately led to his capture. The series moves back and forth through time, with the captain often talking to the officers in the camp about what he’s writing. In the novel, the captain’s capture and imprisonment is revealed only at the end of the book. The novel is also told in chronological order, unlike the TV show.

There are some differences compared to one of the captain’s targets

Throughout the series and the novel, the captain must kill numerous people in order to throw others off his trail as a communist spy. One of his targets is a major who worked under the captain’s superior, known as The General, who also came to America after the fall of Saigon. The captain offers the major’s name as a potential mole in the general’s ranks to protect himself.

Robert Downey Jr. bold and gets ginger curls in the first look at the spy drama Sympathizer

There are some slight differences with this character in the television show. First of all, the major lives with his mother, along with his wife and twins, in Los Angeles. The Major’s mother complicates the Captain’s murder plans, as he must bypass an additional potential witness. In the book, the captain lives only with his wife and children. The Major’s death also varies from page to screen. In the TV show, the captain’s friend and soldier, Bon, also assists in the assassination when the major doesn’t die immediately after being shot. In the novel, Bon pulls the trigger and personally kills the Major.

Lana joins the captain on set Hamlet

John Cho as James Yoon, actor in ‘Hamlet’.

Hopper Stone/SMPSP

Both versions Sympathizer see the captain working as a research consultant on a fictional film called Hamlet, although the TV series took some creative liberties with this part of the story. One of the biggest differences is that the general’s daughter, Lana, goes on a movie set with the captain, after sneaking into the trunk of his car. Lana joins the film as an actress and strikes up a flirtatious friendship with Jamie Johnson, a popular R&B singer who plays a soldier in the film. Lana’s involvement in the film becomes complicated when the director, who disagrees with the captain over his criticism of the Vietnamese national team in his script, writes a scene in which Lana’s character is sexually assaulted by a soldier. The captain, fearing for Lana’s safety, interrupts the scene during filming. In the novel, the narrator goes to consult Fr Hamlet alone. Although there is a scene where a character is sexually assaulted, it is not Lana’s character.

Sofia accuses the captain of being a spy

Alan Trong as Sonny and Sandra Oh as Sofia in ‘Sympathizer’.

Hopper Stone/SMPSP

During the novel and series, the captain is in a relationship with Sofia Mori, the secretary of the captain’s former college professor. However, their relationship falters after the captain goes on surveillance Hamlet, and loses contact with Sofia. When he returns to Los Angeles, the captain learns that Sofia has started seeing Sonny, a Vietnamese journalist who has been following the General’s activities in America.

Robert Downey Jr. is unrecognizable as he transforms into a balding redhead for HBO’s ‘The Sympathizer’

A new development in the series occurs after the captain kills Sonny — both because he wants to throw the general off his trail and because Sonny has started dating Sofia in his absence. After the captain kills Sonny, he visits Sofia. She gives him an alibi of his whereabouts during Sonny’s murder, but later confronts the captain, accusing him of being a spy and killing Sonny. In the novel, Sofia does not suspect the captain of his secret missions and does not confront him after Sonny’s death.

The captain meets an unexpected character again

Near the end of the story, the captain returns to Vietnam to fight alongside the general’s exiled troops, whereupon he and Bon are captured and sent to a camp. The captain is tortured there because the camp officials are adamant that he withhold important details from his confession — particularly the one about a fellow communist agent whom he watched being tortured by other officers under the general. In the TV series, it is revealed that this agent is also imprisoned in the camp and ordered to write her own confession to corroborate the narrator’s. The captain meets her again and realizes that he forgot about her abuse, thus leaving it out of his own confession. In the novel, the agent is not in prison, and the captain never meets her. He came to know about the missing part of his confession after he was encouraged to do so by another policeman.

The captain and Bon escape from the camp under different circumstances

Fred Nguyen Khan (center) as Bon in ‘The Sympathizer’.

Hopper Stone/SMPSP

Both the novel and the TV series end with the captain and Bon leaving the camp, although they do so under different circumstances. The head of the camp is Man, the captain and Bon’s old friend, and the captain’s direct superior as a secret agent. The man is severely disfigured after a napalm attack and wears a mask to hide his identity from the prisoners, as well as his two friends, after they join the ranks.

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At the end of the series, it is revealed that the captain trapped the man in order to escape. He disguises himself using the Man’s mask and rescues Bono. The two drive away from the camp and eventually end up on a speedboat with other Vietnamese refugees, heading for a new future. In the novel, The Man helps the captain and Bon leave the camp after approving the captain’s confession.

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Source: HIS Education