Lucky

In 2008, Lucky, who is extremely hungover, wakes up in Gloria’s deck chair that she passed out in the night before. Gloria is gone, along with Lucky’s lottery ticket. Lucky calls Reyes and learns that Reyes has been trying to get hold of her to tell her that John was released from prison. When Reyes meets Lucky at the camp, she has Betty and John with her. Reyes explains how she helped John get released and that John is having issues with his memory and cognition.

Lucky confronts John about his lies: that Gloria was her mother and he was her father. She is upset that he raised her as a criminal and tells him that Gloria stole the ticket. John offers to cash the ticket for her if they can find it. John claims that he truly wanted to help Lucky when he saw her on the church steps, and Lucky feels betrayed.

Valerie and Sister Margaret Jean meet for lunch, as they have been doing for many years. Valerie has become Manhattan’s district attorney and still wants to find her daughter. Margaret Jean never told her about John taking the baby. Valerie thinks that the woman on the news—Lucky, under her alias Alaina—looks like she could be her daughter. Margaret Jean disagrees and feels guilty for not telling Valerie about John.

After taking some time in Gloria’s cabin alone, Lucky goes to the camp’s office and tries to call Gloria, but there is no answer. Gloria’s betrayal reminds Lucky of Cary’s. Reyes comes into the office and says that John truly cares about Lucky, even though he is not her biological father. Reyes says that she was jealous of Lucky’s relationship with her father, because her own father was abusive. When Reyes tells Lucky that she knows about the ticket, Lucky becomes suspicious of her motives. Reyes assures her that she wants to help and offers to contact a private investigator in New York City.

Reyes drives them to St. Monica’s cathedral in New York City. John thinks that the nun’s name might be Mary Jean (211). Once inside, John lights a candle. As Lucky starts to light candles, he explains that the candles are for people you have lost. She thinks about her recent familial and romantic losses. Then, she blows out the candles. A nun comes up to them, and John asks if she is named Mary Jean. She pretends not to recognize John and leaves them.

This chapter begins with the scene in the church, but from Margaret Jean’s perspective. She sees the crucifix she gave John around Lucky’s neck, as well as her green eyes, and decides that Lucky is Valerie’s daughter. After she leaves the church, Margaret Jean writes down the license plate number of Reyes’s car. Then, she goes to Valerie’s office.

When John and Lucky get back in the car, Reyes tells them that the nun wrote down her license plate number. While Reyes visits her PI friend in the Bronx, John apologizes for lying to Lucky, and she acknowledges that she wants a relationship with him. Reyes’s friend tracks Gloria’s credit card to a hotel near the camp. When they discuss how they will get the ticket from Gloria, Lucky says that she can threaten to reveal the scam they did at the camp together.

After taking Betty to a boarding kennel, the trio goes to Gloria’s hotel. Lucky grifts the front desk clerk into revealing Gloria’s room number. Reyes knocks on Gloria’s door, pretending to be housekeeping staff. Gloria does not let her in. When John knocks and tells her who he is, she opens the door. Gloria admits that Lucky told her about the lottery ticket when she was drunk, and Gloria stole it when Lucky passed out. However, when Gloria left camp, she was run off the road by one of Priscilla’s people, who took the ticket. Lucky tells the others that she is going for a walk, but she secretly plans to turn herself into the police. Before she can, Valerie pulls up to Lucky in a car and introduces herself as Lucky’s mother.

Valerie explains that she was 16 when Lucky was born and that she tried to go back to the church where she left Lucky. Lucky shares her name (Luciana) and nickname with Valerie. Valerie apologizes and offers to help Lucky with her legal problems.

Valerie and Lucky continue talking. Lucky learns that Margaret Jean and Valerie were searching for her. Valerie wants to get Lucky a plea bargain for helping in the arrest of Priscilla and possibly also Priscilla’s husband (Joshua) and son (Cary). Lucky learns that Cary was beaten up near the Bellagio and put in a rehab facility, where he is claiming to have amnesia. After being fitted with an FBI wiretap, Lucky calls Cary and he admits to laundering money for Priscilla. He asks her to come to the rehab facility and she agrees. Then, Lucky arranges to meet with Priscilla at a restaurant and Valerie coaches her. Lucky needs Priscilla to confess to laundering money with Cary and confess to hiring someone to beat up Cary.

At the restaurant, Lucky gets these confessions from Priscilla. After Priscilla gives her the lottery ticket from a small purse safe, Lucky confesses that she isn’t pregnant with Cary’s child anymore. When Priscilla threatens her, FBI agents arrest Priscilla. Valerie compliments Lucky’s performance, then explains that the lottery ticket will be held until after Priscilla and Cary’s trial, at which Lucky will testify. Valerie arranged for John and Reyes to testify as well. Lucky declines to press charges against Gloria. Valerie tells Lucky that she was originally named Julia. However, she is a lucky person, so the new name fits. It’s up to Lucky if she wants to keep it.