Crazy Rich Asians

Astrid confronts Michael and asks him directly if the woman is his mistress and if the child is his son. He insists that they are until he sees Astrid sobbing. Then, he reveals that the woman is his cousin and the child is hers: There is no mistress, and he made the entire affair up so Astrid would have an excuse to break things off with him. Astrid is hurt and confused by his actions. He apologizes and says that they should have never gotten married and that they weren’t right for each other. He reveals that it has been difficult to live up to being her husband. He is tired of feeling like the tech support guy to her family, and her brothers showed him how much she was really worth. She begs him not to leave her, but he begs her to let him go.

After fainting at the lodge, Nick carries Rachel out to the car, and they drive back down the road. She asks him to drop her off down the mountain. Nick is hesitant to leave her alone, but she says she needs time to think so he checks her into a hotel and says he’ll be back in the morning. After he leaves, she stops the hotel from charging his credit card for the room and gets a taxi.

She goes to Villa d’Oro and refuses to talk to Nick after what happened at the lodge. She stays at Peik Lin’s for three days before calling her mom to confront her about her father being alive. Kerry doesn’t answer right away, and Rachel asks her about Zhou Fang Min. She yells at her mother for lying to her and hangs up before she can get an explanation.

After a week, Rachel finally emerges from her bedroom at Peik Lin’s place. The Gohs are happy to see her, and she thanks them for their kindness. She tells them that before she goes home to the US, she intends to go to China to meet her father. Peik Lin tells her that Nick has been calling daily, but Rachel doesn’t want to talk to him. Peik Lin ultimately convinces her to see him. A disheveled-looking Nick arrives at Villa d’Oro and apologizes for his family and for underestimating how far they would go. He has been staying at Colin’s place while the newlyweds are on their honeymoon. Rachel tells him that she is going to China with Peik Lin to see her father and then going back to New York alone: They should stop seeing each other. Nick pleads that he loves her, but she says that he belongs in Singapore and she doesn’t. She doesn’t want to take him away from his family or for him to resent her, but she also doesn’t want to be a part of his family. “I’ve had enough of being around all these crazy rich Asians” (510).

Nick, at Colin’s place, is awakened by the sound of a blue jay hitting its beak against the glass wall downstairs. He can hardly sleep now that Rachel broke up with him and he constantly wonders how he could have better prepared her to deal with his family. He hears the tapping sound again and isn’t sure it’s a blue jay anymore. He looks for a weapon to defend himself, thinking someone must have gotten into the house, and he finds a digeridoo in the guest bathroom. He grabs it and goes downstairs ready to strike, but he finds Colin there. He came back early from his honeymoon because several people are worried about Nick, including Mandy, who is apologetic for how she acted toward Rachel. Colin makes Nick breakfast, and they talk. Colin tells Nick about Alistair and Kitty’s breakup, caused by Kitty and Bernard Tai being caught together during the wedding tea ceremony. Laughing at the story cheers Nick up a little, though he feels bad for Alistair.

Nick is certain that Rachel won’t take him back because she has already made up her mind that they will never work because of his family. He believes that he ruined her life. They hear a tapping noise again, and Nick tells Colin about the blue jay that keeps tapping at the glass. Colin decides to open the glass wall, and the bird flies in and pecks continuously at the Damien Hirst painting on the opposite wall. Colin compares Nick to the blue jay and suggests he keep trying to win Rachel back.

A few weeks after confronting Michael, Charlie takes Astrid on an old, Chinese pirate ship in Repulse Bay. They talk about their families. Charlie tells Astrid that she shouldn’t blame herself for what happened with Michael because she was only being herself. Astrid feels awful that he’s being so kind to her after the way she treated him when they were engaged, but he assures her that he only blamed her family and was never upset with her:

Imagine, my parents were once so aghast at the prospect of you becoming their son-in-law. They stuck their noses up at your father’s brand-new fortune made from computers, and now your family is one of the most celebrated in Asia. Now the Leongs are going to have to face the shame of having a divorcée in the family (521).

Charlie reassures her that there is nothing wrong with being divorced. He asks if she was happy, and she insists that she was and that Cassian was. Charlie says that Michael was the one who failed them but admits that her family is intimidating. Astrid thought that Michael was “up for the challenge” (522) and she cries, apologizing again. Charlie realizes that Astrid really loves Michael and that the feelings he has harbored for her all these years are unrequited. Instead of pushing her by confessing his feelings, he decides to be there for her. He tells her not to make any changes when she gets home and to not grant him a divorce for at least a year, because she loses Michael the moment she signs the divorce papers. After they leave the ship, Charlie makes a phone call to his financial advisor and buys Michael’s company for $30 million, hoping that it will help Astrid. 

Rachel and Peik Lin get ready to head to China to meet Zhou Fang Min. Suddenly, an SUV pulls up to Villa d’Oro’s gate, blocking them in. Nick gets out of the SUV, and Rachel starts to admonish him, telling him that she’s going to China without him. However, Nick reveals that he has her mother in the car. Kerry tells Rachel that she can’t go to China to meet Zhou Fang Min because he isn’t her father. Rachel, assuming she’s some other man’s illegitimate daughter, is even more upset by this news.

Eleanor meets Daisy at Carol Tai’s house to stop her from destroying priceless artifacts. Bernard ran off to Vegas to marry Kitty, who is also pregnant with his child, and a church elder decided that Carol’s priceless Chinese artifacts invited evil into her house, causing Bernard’s rash decision to marry “a pregnant soap-opera harlot” (535). The other women frantically rush around the house to save the artifacts. Nadine arrives, dressed down and looking downright poor. She reveals that her father-in-law, Mr. Shaw, didn’t like their excess and opulence and made them get rid of everything and pay him back after waking from his coma. They all joke about their misfortunes and celebrate their only “win”: removing Rachel from Nick’s life. However, Eleanor reveals that Nick still won’t talk to her after the breakup and that she hasn’t had contact with him or Astrid in weeks. She laments everything she sacrificed for him and fears that he ruined his relationship with his grandmother; she allowed Su Yi to raise Nick so that he would get the best inheritance.

Kerry finally reveals the truth about Rachel’s father. She tells Rachel how she married Zhou Fang Min as an act of rebellion against her parents, who didn’t approve because Fang Min was older and because they wanted their daughter to study at a university. Fang Min came from a rich family, but he was abusive and cruel once they married, his alcoholism making him worse.

Kerry then met a young man named Kao Wei who lived in the same building. He was a year younger than her and would help her when Fang Min abused her. They fell in love and soon she became pregnant with his child, which she knew because Fang Min was always either too drunk for sex or only wanted to do sexual acts that wouldn’t get her pregnant. After Rachel was born a girl, Fang Min’s family planned to blind her because China’s one-child rule would only allow them to have a second child if the first was disabled. So, Kao Wei helped Kerry flee, never even knowing that Rachel was his daughter. Rachel apologizes to her mother for being angry, and they reconcile.

Soon, Nick pulls her aside and they finally talk. She thanks him for flying to California to get her mother and bring her back to Singapore. She is impressed that anyone would do that for her. They share a kiss, and with everything seemingly resolved, Peik Lin and Nick argue about where to take Kerry and Rachel to eat. Rachel explains to her mother that arguing over where to eat is a Singaporean thing.