Rick goes to Hong Kong to meet Jenna

Rick’s trip to Hong Kong to meet Jenna turns an offstage relationship into a decisive presence in Ever’s final days in Taipei: learning that he has gone, and then hearing that he went to see Jenna, leaves Ever feeling rejected even though their own romance began as a charade for Jenna’s benefit. The trip sharpens the difference between what Ever and Rick have performed and what she has begun to feel, as she approaches a choice that may mean leaving behind not only her parents’ rules but herself.

Departure and Discovery

Ever learns of Rick’s departure from Spencer, who tells her that Li-Han drove Rick to the airport and that he is flying to Hong Kong for a few days. The news is startling: Rick had not mentioned the trip, and Ever understands that he is going to meet Jenna, whose father works for a bank there. With Ever’s own departure approaching, the timing gives the journey particular force: by the time Rick returns, she expects to be gone.

When Rick comes back, Ever blurts out that she heard he went to Hong Kong. He confirms that the purpose was to meet Jenna. Ever’s immediate response is to wonder whether Jenna has overcome her fear of flying; beneath that practical question is a sharper, less settled feeling. Their pretense of being a couple had been for Jenna’s benefit, and Rick had never claimed otherwise, yet Ever experiences the trip as a betrayal and feels rejected.

Jenna and the Cost of Distance

The journey connects the romance’s local, performed arrangement to the real distance between Rick and Jenna. Jenna’s father works for a bank in Hong Kong, and she had been volunteering at a horse camp for children with disabilities; flying out to see Rick had seemed uncertain because she was afraid to fly. For Ever, the prospect of Jenna making the trip changes the emotional meaning of Rick’s departure: it is not merely an unexplained absence but a movement toward the relationship the charade was meant to serve.

Ever’s reaction does not erase the conditions of her bond with Rick. She recognizes that their arrangement was never presented as a genuine commitment, while still discovering that its ending—or its renewed connection to Jenna—hurts. The scene’s tension lies in that mismatch between the stated terms of their pretense and the feelings that have gathered around it.

A Departure Beside Ever’s Own

The Hong Kong trip arrives as Ever faces her last night in Taipei and considers a step whose consequences she cannot predict. She understands that leaving may mean more than departing from her parents and their rules; it may also mean leaving behind the self shaped by them. Rick’s absence and return therefore sit beside, rather than resolve, her own approaching decision: his journey is directed toward Jenna, while Ever is trying to discern what future she can choose for herself.

The episode also brings the book’s wider pattern of distance into focus. Ever’s family history stretches between the United States, Taiwan, and the province in China where her parents were born; family memories and obligations cross borders even when money has made travel difficult. In the Hong Kong episode, travel likewise carries emotional meaning: Rick’s flight gives his relationship with Jenna a concrete destination, while Ever must reckon with what his choice reveals about the limits of her own pretend relationship with him.