The Loreleis’ First Day At Chilton originally aired October 12, 2000.  It was written by Amy Sherman-Palladino and directed by Arlene Sanford.

In this episode, we see Rory’s first day at Chilton, where we learn you get extra points for singing the school song in Latin.  And Chilton is not a place where cutoffs and cowboy hats are considered fashionable.

This episode gets off to a funny start, with Lorelei waking up late because her fuzzy alarm clock didn’t go off.  The cutoffs and cowboy hat?  It’s because she woke up late, couldn’t pick up her dry-cleaning, and thus had nothing to wear.

The rodeo comment by Rory was hilarious.

Of course, we get our first look at Chilton a few minutes into the episode- it definitely looks like an elite prep school in New England.  Or at least, what I imagine an elite prep school in New England to be.  I love how Lorelei starts to go off on tangents when they’re meeting the Headmaster- and what I love about the series.  It’s just full of tangents.

I love the crap Lorelei gets for wearing shorts for Rory’s first day at Chilton.  Part of me would love to go to Chilton, because it doesn’t seem like your typical school.  I don’t know what what’s going on with Chilton, but it seems like they have majors.  In high school.  And with the classes and the class schedule, it seems more like college than high school.

I forgot how annoying and high-strung Paris was in high school.  She’s just like that, period, but much more amplified at Chilton.  The Rory-Paris relationship is an interesting one, and it starts off a little bit hostile.  Don’t worry, though, it changes.

Jackson cracks me up, and I love the relationship he has with Sookie.  I love them on their own, but when you get them together, hilarity ensues.  And Michel is hilarious.  Babette is one of my favorite characters.  Actually, I love the colorful people that populate Star Hollows.

We meet quite a few characters in this episode- Paris, Madeleine and Louise (who I can never tell apart), Headmaster Charleston, Tristan, Jackson and Babette.  And Mick, who later turns into Kirk…which is one of those weird continuity errors and a tale for another episode.

Pop culture references include The Shining, Alice In Wonderland and The Dukes of Hazzard.  Plus a few I probably missed because I wasn’t on the look-out.  I really need to pay attention to these things.  What I did notice, however, was the first reference to Al’s Pancake World.  Spoiler alert- for all the time Al’s is mentioned, we never actually meet Al or see Al’s Pancake world, which is a disappointment.  That’s one place and person I’d love to see.

Favorite line: From Emily: “Do you want a ride or is your horse parked out front?”

Miss Patty, to her dance class: “you don’t want to drop harry potter, then he’ll die and you’ll never know what happened.”

Final thoughts: I liked this episode.  It’s introducing us to a lot of the people and places, which continues for at least one or two episodes (if not more).  And that seems like a really low estimate, but it’s the first season and all, so it’ll take time before we meet everyone.  Especially with the huge cast that Gilmore Girls has.

This episode gets 3 out of 5 mugs.  I liked it, but it’s average.