Rory’s Dance originally aired on December 20, 2000.  It was written by Amy Sherman-Palladino and was directed by Lesli Linka Glatter.

In Rory’s Dance, events at the Chilton Formal convince Rory and Dean they are indeed boyfriend and girlfriend.  Something unexpected happens that sets the town buzzing and makes Lorelei super-concerned.

We start off with Friday night dinner, where Emily just happens to mention the Chilton formal.  Emily wants her to go, but Rory’s not really interested.  We learn Rory hates dances, even though she’s never been to one.  Lorelei wonders if Rory doesn’t participate in stuff because she’s too shy or if it’s because Rory really doesn’t want to.  I tend to agree with Lorelei here, because Rory’s shy but also really focused on school and Lane and Dean.  Rory decides to go, and asks Dean.

Lorelei makes a dress for Rory, but hurts her back.  Sookie came over, and busts out a lot of different pain medication.  It looked like they were all prescriptions…and while it was funny the first couple times I saw this episode, you have to wonder why she just randomly gives an entire bottle of one of them to Lorelei.  I know it’s t.v., and not everything for me has to be totally accurate (or legal or ethical or whatever) but it is a little weird to me this time around.  Lorelei invites Emily over to be there when Rory goes off to the dance.  Emily stays over in case Lorelei needs something, and they talk about the monkey lamp Lorelei has.

Meanwhile, Rory and Dean go to the dance, run into Madeleine, Louise, and Paris and her date.  Tristan watches them dance, and we later learn Paris couldn’t find a date, so she had to bring her cousin.  She accuses Rory of telling everyone, only to learn that Rory didn’t tell anyone.  Rory and Dean decide to leave, but before they do, Tristan and Dean get into a fight.  Dean, of course, tells Tristan to never go near Rory again.  That was slightly annoying because they go to the same school, so it’s not like they can avoid each other.  I kinda thought Dean was overreacting a little.

They take a walk, end up in Patty’s dance studio, and fall asleep while reading a book.  Patty wakes them up, and Rory realizes she never went home.  Meanwhile, Emily and Lorelei realize that Rory never came home, and are really worried that she wasn’t there.  Lorelei and Emily have a huge fight, and Rory overhears how Emily thinks that Lorelei is going to lose Rory the way Emily lost Lorelei.  Honestly, their fight is more about the long-standing issues they have, and how Lorelei was suffocated her whole childhood.  Emily, on the other hand, tried to give Lorelei the best of everything.

Random side note: So Lorelei has back spasms in this episode, right?  Well, upon hearing that Rory never came home after the dance, Lorelei’s back healed up awfully fast.  You gotta love the miracle healing of t.v.

So, Emily leaves, and Rory comes in, only to get in a fight with Lorelei.  Rory pretty much apologizes for screwing up in front of Emily, but says she knows that Lorelei knows that nothing happened.  I thought this sequence of events was pretty interesting, and I kind of agree with Rory, in that Lorelei’s partially mad that Emily was there to see it happen.  Emily did make a good point, in that she does seem to want the best for Lorelei.  While they clearly have different opinions on what that means, it does get tiresome to hear how horrible living with Richard and Emily was.  We kind of get their side, and it would have been nice to see their side of things a little more.

Pop-culture references: 16 Candles, 98 Degrees

Favorite Lines/Scenes: Lorelei: “Meet my mother, Emily Post.”

Final Thoughts: I really liked this episode, and the fight between Emily and Lorelei and Rory and Lorelei bring up some really important issues that have shown up before- and continue to show up for the rest of the series.  This episode gets 4 mugs of coffee.