How It All Goes Down
Rachel — New York
- Rachel is peeved that Nick's parents are just finding out she existed. After two years?!
- Nick defends himself saying he keeps boundaries between his personal life and his family life.
- They discuss the differences between their families: Nick's family doesn't discuss their "emotional lives" and Rachel and her mom are super close (1.8.9).
- Nick knows he screwed up not telling his mom about Rachel: when he called she said nothing and only asked where each of them would be staying.
- He called his great-aunt Rosemary for advice: 1) stay in a hotel first but introduce Rachel the first day at lunch; 2) Nick must visit Ah Ma alone and formally request to invite Rachel to a Friday night dinner; 3) as a result, Ah Ma should invite Rachel to stay after dinner. If not, Rosemary will let them stay with her.
- Rosemary seems all right.
- He knows Astrid is right that he should prepare Rachel, but he's conflicted since he's been brought up to not talk about the family.
- How does Nick prepare Rachel for his family?
- He tells her he comes from a big extended family full of loudmouths, eccentrics, and obnoxious folk. That's it.
- Rachel, consider yourself unprepared.
- He seems to think that because Rachel and Astrid get along that the rest will be gravy.
- Rachel tries to reconcile what she knows (which is very little) about Nicks' family with what she knows or has experienced with her friends' families.
- Later Rachel and her mom chat about how unique their relationship is: since Rachel traveled with her single mom around the country as a child, they were able to be closer than other families.
- Kerry tries to help Rachel see the situation through her eyes, the eyes of a traditional Chinese mother. She even offers that Nick's parents may be poor or devout Buddhists. Uh, not quite.
- Rachel wonders if Nick could be embarrassed of his own family.
- Her BFF Peik Lin had never heard of the Youngs. "You sure they're not Korean?" she had asked (1.8.30).
- Peik Lin, in their previous Skype call, is sure "his family's perfectly normal." (1.8.32). Well, let's find out.