Crazy Rich Asians

Rachel runs to Sophie’s bungalow, shaking and white. Sophie settles Rachel in a chair with a blanket and goes to look at Rachel’s room—and she returns enraged. She initially agrees to call hotel security, but then she notes that the prankster or pranksters probably want Rachel to make a scene and ruin Araminta’s party. It’d be better, Sophie suggests, to say nothing and not give them the satisfaction. Rachel sees the wisdom in this, so she accepts Sophie’s offer of a cup of tea. The girls sit on the deck, and Sophie observes that Astrid was right to ask her to look out for Rachel—Rachel clearly wasn’t prepared for this. Rachel says she just doesn’t understand the viciousness, since there are other wealthy families with eligible bachelors in Singapore.

Sophie explains that many of these girls have had crushes on Nick since they were kids, since Nick is so attractive. Further, Nick’s family is extremely private, which creates a “certain mystique.” Most people in Singapore don’t even know his family exists, but all the girls that know about him want to be his wife. Rachel notes that Nick hasn’t spoken much about his family, and Sophie explains that he was raised not to. He grew up lonely and always seemed thrilled when other kids came over to play.

Rachel admits that the wildest part is that people here assume she and Nick are getting married soon, when they’ve never spoken about marriage. Yes, Rachel could see herself being married to Nick, but she wasn’t raised to value marriage above all else. Sophie says that here, girls face lots of pressure to marry and aren’t considered “complete” until they’ve married and had kids. That’s why Araminta is so excited to get married.

Sophie then reveals that Araminta is going to be her sister-in-law; Sophie is Colin’s brother, and their mother was Harry Leong’s sister. She admits her mom died when she was young, and Rachel says it makes sense now why Sophie isn’t like the other girls. Sophie says she was always treated differently as a kid, since her family wasn’t perfect. And then she attended school in Australia immediately following her mom’s death, which contributed to her feeling different from her peers.