S01.E02: Mongkok

[AnimeMania]

One year earlier, Margaret and Mercy meet at an extravagant yacht party forging an unlikely connection, as Hilary wrestles with whether she wants to start a family. An incident occurs that will forever change the course of all our characters’ lives.

Premiere Date: January 26, 2024    Prime Video     

[Snazzy Daisy]

Gus is one mischievous little lad! 😆

It’s 2013 and a brief encounter at a yacht party sets off a chain of life-altering events. Who can be blamed? A babysitter who pays more attention to her phone? Or a mother who’s occupied with petty shopping with her daughter? A simple act of letting go of Gus’ hand leads to unspeakable consequences.

Hope to see how Clarke and Essie cope with Gus’ disappearance as well, not just Margaret. After 2 episodes, Clarke is just an extension of his wife.

I want to know the real reason of Margaret and Hilary falling out. Why Hilary blames David, saying his drinking has caused a tragedy? Just because he’s nearby on that fateful night? Because the police says the perp is usually someone familiar?

Sorry, still not a fan of greasy-looking Jack Huston. 😣

[aghst]

Well Mercy was trying to get a job as nanny and was texting her friend about it while at a busy night market with a toddler.  She wasn't holding his hand because she had two hands on her phone.

What an audition.

Mercy is so out of place among all these friends and mutual friends who are children of rich HK families.  But she went to HK to get away from her mother after graduating from Columbia on a scholarship, without a job?

She's vying to become a nanny and seems to be punishing herself for her mistake.  I forget the exact dialog while she and "Dirk" were having sex but it was something involving humiliation.

They don't make it clear why Margaret gravitated towards Mercy in the first place.  Mercy catches Gus before he gets to the railings of the boat and then she jumps into the water to impress her rich friends and Margaret comforts her after she's shaken after trying to swim under the boat.

Margaret doesn't want to stay in HK but Clarke gets too good an offer to stay another year.  That means another year she delays her own career, because there's not much demand for a landscape architect in a city full of skyscrapers.

She's also alarmed that her kids, especially Gus, is bonding too much with Essie who goes beyond housekeeping and cooking duties to be kind of like a surrogate mother, putting Gus to bed.

Mercy may be more interested in a steady gig than wanting to especially take care of kids.

It seems like they've been to that market before, at least Margaret and her children.  Doesn't seem like a place that affluent people would frequent though.  Sure see it once or twice just to check it off the list but HK is also full of huge, posh shopping centers, which would probably have a lot of appeal to well-to-do families.

Hilary doesn't want children, secretly goes back on the pill while David, who'd agreed that they wouldn't have children, want to "reset" with a child.  He's also drinking behind her back.  Margaret tries to tell Hilary that there's been too much dishonesty in their marriage and Hilary takes offense at her friend telling her about her marriage.

[sadie]

I liked this ep. It moved at a good pace, the impending dread of knowing what was coming (it was obvious) was good. What made no sense was NK meets this girl for 10 minutes on the boat, then has one meal with her and let’s her walk off in a crowded market watching her young child (a child known for not behaving very well), no background checks or references just “here you go take my kid”. Sorry but the only person to blame here is her (not that I’m victim shaming but you know what I mean). NK’s character doesn’t seem to like being Gus’ mom as he appears difficult and she seems moderately depressed. Maybe some of her grief now is her knowing she shouldn’t have so quickly trusted this young girl.

[Anela]

“I should be paying her extra, for giving me my wife back. That used to be you lying in there.” Um.. Why wasn’t he lying in there, too? He was responsible for bringing that third child into the world, too. 

[Anela]

I don’t know why mercy would be expected to pay for their dinner, when she’s on a job trial.  Why would she be expected to pay for a family’s meal? 
so, he was stolen, he isn’t dead? I hope.  
 

 

[Anela]

8 hours ago, sadie said:

I liked this ep. It moved at a good pace, the impending dread of knowing what was coming (it was obvious) was good. What made no sense was NK meets this girl for 10 minutes on the boat, then has one meal with her and let’s her walk off in a crowded market watching her young child (a child known for not behaving very well), no background checks or references just “here you go take my kid”. Sorry but the only person to blame here is her (not that I’m victim shaming but you know what I mean). NK’s character doesn’t seem to like being Gus’ mom as he appears difficult and she seems moderately depressed. Maybe some of her grief now is her knowing she shouldn’t have so quickly trusted this young girl.

Was Essie still with them, after he went missing? I can’t remember.  She seemed envious of the relationship between Essie and Gus - Essie was over-stepping a bit, acting like his mother, laughing at him disobeying his mum.  My first thought was that she had taken him, but where would she hide him?

[Snazzy Daisy]

3 hours ago, Anela said:

so, he was stolen, he isn’t dead? I hope.  

I have no idea how this story ends in the book, never read it.

But I have a sinking feeling that we will never know what actually happened to Gus since this isn’t a psychological thriller. Hope I’m wrong.

[Bluesky]

I think the fault lies mostly with the mother.   She knows what Gus is like, hyper with no self control who goes after everything he sees. He’s a runner!   The potential babysitter doesn’t know this.  Gus had just taken an elevator and was only stopped by neighbors.    If no one was in the elevator he could easily have gotten outside in the traffic.  
 

These are not the type of kids that you take to a market as crowded as that.   People make fun of parents who use “leashes” in kids but they know what their kids are like.    

[Anela]

10 hours ago, Bluesky said:

I think the fault lies mostly with the mother.   She knows what Gus is like, hyper with no self control who goes after everything he sees. He’s a runner!   The potential babysitter doesn’t know this.  Gus had just taken an elevator and was only stopped by neighbors.    If no one was in the elevator he could easily have gotten outside in the traffic.  
 

These are not the type of kids that you take to a market as crowded as that.   People make fun of parents who use “leashes” in kids but they know what their kids are like.    

I was shocked when she left him outside the apartment, as punishment.  Not in a bedroom, but outside their home, even if he didn’t run off.  

[Cementhead]

1 hour ago, Anela said:

I was shocked when she left him outside the apartment, as punishment.  Not in a bedroom, but outside their home, even if he didn’t run off.  

I was shocked at that, too, but then after seeing what happens at the market, this earlier scene was both foreshadowing and telling to the viewer, in that it showed the dismissive and cavalier attitude Mom had with Gus. 

On the one hand, she's complaining because she sees Essie 'crossing a line' and getting too close but then on the other hand, when she's all alone in watching Gus and in mom-mode, she can't really handle dealing with him much past sticking him out in the hallway for a time-out.

So, which is it?  She couldn't have it both ways, it seems.  I love watching shows like this.  It's all about human scruples and behaviour and how life can change on you in an instant based on something seemingly innocuous that you did or did not do.

[Straycat80]

I wasn’t sure about this show after the first episode but now I’m hooked after this second episode. Nicole Kidman is hard to look at to me because she looks anorexic and ill. Beyond  that I’m looking forward to the rest of this series. When do new episodes air? 

[Mellowyellow]

She meets some random girl at a party and puts her in charge of her runner toddler in a busy market? People probably do dumb stuff like this all the time but I’m shaking my head at the stupidity! What if the nanny girl was in a child kidnapping ring and befriended her to get access to her kids????

 And she lets the other nanny give him a lolly in the morning? I know she expressed horror at it but she should have known about it and laid down rules for it to never happen!

 Haha sounds like I’m complaining a lot but I love love love the show! Was skeptical about episode one but now I’m hooked!

Love Nicole’s yellow dress with the flowers! I wants!!!!!

 

[aghst]

4 hours ago, Mellowyellow said:

She meets some random girl at a party and puts her in charge of her runner toddler in a busy market? People probably do dumb stuff like this all the time but I’m shaking my head at the stupidity! What if the nanny girl was in a child kidnapping ring and befriended her to get access to her kids????

 And she lets the other nanny give him a lolly in the morning? I know she expressed horror at it but she should have known about it and laid down rules for it to never happen!

 Haha sounds like I’m complaining a lot but I love love love the show! Was skeptical about episode one but now I’m hooked!

Love Nicole’s yellow dress with the flowers! I wants!!!!!

 

I heard in the book that Margaret meets and gets to know Mercy for awhile before they go to the night market.

They've made some changes and kind of compressed events or timeline it sounds like.

[Bluesky]

On 1/29/2024 at 10:26 AM, Cementhead said:

I was shocked at that, too, but then after seeing what happens at the market, this earlier scene was both foreshadowing and telling to the viewer, in that it showed the dismissive and cavalier attitude Mom had with Gus. 

On the one hand, she's complaining because she sees Essie 'crossing a line' and getting too close but then on the other hand, when she's all alone in watching Gus and in mom-mode, she can't really handle dealing with him much past sticking him out in the hallway for a time-out.

So, which is it?  She couldn't have it both ways, it seems.  I love watching shows like this.  It's all about human scruples and behaviour and how life can change on you in an instant based on something seemingly innocuous that you did or did not do.

I don’t get mothers who are jealous over close relationships between their child and the child’s grandma or nanny.  I’m thrilled when that happens.  The more people who love my child the better.  

[millennium]

Gus' abduction is totally on Nicole.  Probably her hysteria is a product of guilt, knowing that she's to blame, that she finds him annoying, and maybe, in the dark chambers of her heart, is just a little relieved he's gone as she marinates in her plastic tub.

"Somehow, child abduction feels good in a place like this."

[amarante]

On 1/29/2024 at 8:47 AM, Straycat80 said:

I wasn’t sure about this show after the first episode but now I’m hooked after this second episode. Nicole Kidman is hard to look at to me because she looks anorexic and ill. Beyond  that I’m looking forward to the rest of this series. When do new episodes air? 

It really is difficult to watch an actress who can only move her lips - especially when the lips are a bit distorted from filler.

I get the pressure to look young but there are actresses who aged without sacrificing the mobility of their faces so completely like Meryl Streep. 

[smartymarty]

Really needed to see this episode to become interested after the first episode.  Almost want to re-watch E1 to remind me what happened. Kind of hate flashbacks for this reason -- no reason to remember much from the first episode without the context of the second.

I'm having no problem with NK's appearance, other than occasional amazement at how tall she is compared to a co-star. Curious why Hilary is cold to her.

[SunnyBeBe]

On 2/6/2024 at 2:47 AM, aghst said:

I heard in the book that Margaret meets and gets to know Mercy for awhile before they go to the night market.

They've made some changes and kind of compressed events or timeline it sounds like.

I’m late to the party. Just started binging this last night.  I must have missed it, but how is Mercy getting immigration status to live in Hong Kong? She was doing various jobs, right? With no sponsoring employer….?