Think back to Waverly's description of her relationship with her ex-husband and her new fiancé Rich. How did her mother's influence on Waverly affect those relationships?

When Waverly and her first husband Marvin Chen eloped, Waverly's mother picked him apart until Waverly too saw his flaws and lost interest. She almost aborted Shoshana because she resented being pregnant. But when Shoshana was born, she knew her "feelings for her were inviolable." Rich loves Waverly just as deeply as Waverly loves Shoshana. But Waverly is afraid her mother will show her everything wrong with Rich as she did with Marvin. Waverly devised a plan to get her mother to meet Rich. She took Rich to Auntie Su's (Suyuan Woo's) house for dinner, and then told Auntie Su that Rich said hers was the best Chinese food he had ever had. To show up Auntie Su, Waverly's mother invited Waverly and Rich over for a family dinner. Rich did not understand the Chinese customs of politeness, and he unknowingly made a bad impression. The worst was when he insulted Waverly's mother's cooking. Waverly's mother was disparaging her own favorite dish, expecting someone to compliment her in return. Instead, Rich poured soy sauce all over the platter.

The next day, Waverly cannot take the tension and tells her mother she and Rich are getting married. Her mother is not surprised, and she acts as though she had never tried to criticize Rich. Then she tells Waverly about her heritage from her mother's side, the Sun clan from Taiyuan. She says that like herself, Waverly comes from a line of strong and clever women. Finally, Waverly realized that her mother was not a tricky chessboard queen, planning secret attacks on her. She was an old, traditional woman who wanted to be loved just as much as she loved her daughter. Waverly fantasizes about bringing her mother on her honeymoon so that she, her mother, and Rich could all put aside their differences and fly from San Francisco to China, "moving West to reach the East."