Great post Sherry.
Good to have Ahem back!
Rashi's little trick by influencing Gopi and hurting her in the process in turn brought about Gopi to convince Kokila of Rashi's needs. It was the use of the same cheap tactic from Rashi from days gone by. She made sure she hurt Gopi where it hurt the most, had the final say on it and walked away, leaving Gopi empty and useless.
Gopi still never learns from these experiences too. It seems that she holds her relationship with Rashi much higher than her role as the elder DIL.
Yes, Rashi's play succeeded but failed miserably at the hands of the adoption agency.
There was moments of Rashi being genuine, for example when she expressed that the gender of the baby did not matter. However her influence by her mother is very strong and unbreakable.
The hilarity was watching Urmila shopping for a baby as though she was at the supermarket.
The funny thing out of all of this is the failure for Rashi to see that she could be repeating the same life as her mother had - with the chance of Rashi having her own baby at some time and having an adopted child.