Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers

Julia helps Vera prepare her dinner party and her dramatic reveal. Oliver storms in late, yelling at Vera for giving his draft to the police. Julia tells him that Officer Gray took it from her, not Vera. She then yells at him for pining for her and fantasizing about Emma as his daughter and demands to know what he did to Marshall. Oliver admits that he planted drugs on him, as he was always blamed for Marshall’s troublemaking. He planned to call the police on him but couldn’t go through with it, and when Marshall died, Oliver was terrified that he died of an overdose. Confused, Julia asks Vera who killed Marshall and broke into her shop. Vera confesses that she broke into her own shop, as she noticed some jars had been moved around or taken. She realized the killer must have been searching for the flash drive. To bring attention to the break-in, she made it more obvious.

Vera confesses to taking the flash drive for Marshall’s laptop—which contains NFT files and Riki’s bot app. The mention of the bot makes Sana realize that Riki was involved in Marshall’s scam. Julia is furious that Vera deceived everyone and kicks her out.

Heartbroken, Vera returns to the shop. Tilly calls, concerned because she hasn’t called or texted for a while. She says the shop seems empty, and he enthusiastically assumes she means to sell it. Vera grieves for the shop but thinks he has a point. She hangs up, curls up in bed, and wishes she could disappear.

Vera lies in bed, too depressed to get up for three days.

Three days after the dinner party, Riki is still angry with Vera and sad about Sana, who hasn’t spoken to him since that evening. He finished fixing Vera’s furniture, so he packs and takes them to the shop. He finds the shop open, but Vera isn’t there. Alarmed, Riki goes upstairs. He finds Vera in bed, looking small and old. She doesn’t respond, so he calls 911.

Sana bursts into Vera’s hospital room. Riki tells her that Vera was dehydrated and might have bronchitis but is otherwise healthy. Julia and Oliver arrive, and they stand around the bed talking about how much they miss Vera. Riki turns to Sana and says he misses her, and she admits she misses him too. While hurt by his scalping, she has always been financially supported by her mother and never thought about what it must be like to need money.

Tilly arrives and is surprised to find his mother surrounded by people who inform him that they are Vera’s family and that he hasn’t treated her well.

While Riki fixed Vera’s furniture, Sana painted a beautiful mural for her shop, and Oliver fixed her wiring. Being a lawyer, Tilly represents Oliver and pushes Officer Gray to drop her investigation of him. Oliver apologizes to Julia for using her in his draft. He admits that he had a crush on her in high school but has since moved on. He promises that he never fantasized about taking Marshall’s place and simply wants to be friends again. The pair reconcile.

When Vera is released from the hospital, her young friends take her to the shop. She is touched by their changes and makes tea. As she works, she realizes that her jar of bird’s nest is missing. Vera last used it to make tea for Alex. She realizes that he murdered Marshall and that he must be Marshall and Oliver’s father.

Vera gathers her friends at Alex’s house and shares her deduction. Oliver is incredulous, but Alex admits that Marshall made him believe Oliver was the bad son. The day of the murder, Julia called Alex and told him that Marshall was leaving her. Unable to believe it, he agreed to meet Marshall at a restaurant. There, he saw Riki hit Marshall. In the restaurant, Marshall told his father that he recently made a fortune and was leaving Julia due to her and Emma “holding him back.” Alex insisted that he should care for his family as he did him—bringing groceries every week. However, Marshall’s expression told him that he never brought groceries.

When Marshall went to the restroom, Alex looked at his phone and saw messages about Marshall cheating people. After dinner, he asked Marshall to come to his house for tea, hoping to talk him out of leaving his family. Marshall insulted his mother and Oliver, and Alex felt shame for having bragged about Marshall to Vera. He saw her gifted tea with bird’s nest and remembered Marshall’s allergy.

Dying, Marshall stumbled out of Alex’s house and down the street. He broke into Vera’s shop, and Alex thinks he did so to hint at the bird’s nest tea. Riki wonders why Marshall was holding a flash drive, and Julia suggests that he did so to bring attention to his death—as Vera did with her break-in. Alex apologizes to Oliver for misjudging him all his life.

Vera moves back in with Julia and Emma while her young friends continue to fix her shop. Julia uses the payment from Marshall’s life insurance to pay Riki what Marshall owed. Riki’s brother, Adi, will be coming to San Francisco, and Vera looks forward to spoiling him. One of Tilly’s associates represented Alex at his trial, and Vera brings food to the jail guards as a “bribe” for Alex’s special treatment.

Julia and Emma accompany Vera to the shop. Oliver published an article about the shop, paired with Julia’s photographs. Vera, Julia, and Emma arrive to find a small crowd outside her door. Tilly is there with Oliver, Riki, and Sana. Vera looks at her friends and customers and realizes that this family is what she always wanted.