Paris Is Burning originally aired January 11, 2001.  It was written by Joan Binder Weiss and directed by David Petrarca.

In Paris Is Burning, Lorelei has doubts about her relationship with Max, while Paris kind of accepts Rory’s offer of friendship.

We open with Rory and Lorelei going through diseases in alphabetically order to decide who will clean out the fridge.  It’s actually pretty funny, and a cute way to decide who will clean out the fridge.  Lorelei gets distracted by puppies, and we learn that Rory had a pet hamster named Skippy, who laughed at Lorelei.  To the point that Lorelei brought Skippy back to the pet store.  At this point, it’s not a surprise that Lorelei would do that, and in all honesty, I can see Lorelei wanting a pet, getting one, and then have Rory take care of it.

Lorelei has dinner with Max, and she borrows a copy of Swann’s Way.  It doesn’t seem like Lorelei’s kind of book, but I commend her for wanting to give it a try.  At Chilton, Madeleine, Louise and Paris are talking about who Max is dating.  Rory, of course, overhears, knowing that Max and her mom are dating.  We learn that Paris’ parents are going through a nasty divorce, and that all of the details are in the local papers.

At Friday night dinner, Lorelei learns about Parent’s Day, but goes because she doesn’t want Emily to.

Later, Rory asks if Max can go ice-skating with them, which freaks Lorelei out.  In a conversation with Sookie, she says that Max is great for someone.  Sookie calls her out on it, and Lorelei says that it’s not good that Rory is getting attached.  Sookie says Lorelei always dumps a guy after 2 months, while Lorelei insists this isn’t a pattern.

At Chilton, Max asks Rory if Lorelei is coming to Parents Day, because he hasn’t heard from her in a while.  The timeline seems a little fuzzy to me- it seems like it’s happened over, like, 3 or 4 days, but maybe it’s been longer.  Anyway, Lorelei tries to get out of going to Parents Day, and wants Rory to give the book back.  She ends up going, of course, but isn’t happy Max asked Rory about her.

At Parents Day, we see Paris’ mom- I think it’s the only time we see either of her parents.  Lorelei and Rory head off to Max’s class, and afterwards they talk, while Lorelei tries to give the book back.  Lorelei doesn’t want Rory to get hurt, but Max thinks it’s because Lorelei herself doesn’t want to get hurt.

I have to agree with Max at this point.  I mean, I get Lorelei is worried about what will happen if it doesn’t work out, in terms of him being Rory’s teacher.  And for her too.  But it really seems like a combination of Lorelei being scared of things getting serious, and wanting to use Rory as an excuse.  Rory is a big girl, and she seems mature enough to handle it.

Then, they make out.  Naturally, Paris sees this, and tells the entire school.  Mostly so people will stop talking about her.  But we’ll get to that in a little bit.  Rory is mad at Lorelei, and thinks the rules Lorelei has in place are stupid (in terms of dating).  We go to Friday night dinner, and Emily isn’t happy.  Lorelei thinks that Max might have been the love of her life…it’s just too bad she kinda screwed it up.

Rory extends an offer of friendship to Paris during lunch one day, after telling Paris that she hurt a lot of people by telling their classmates about Lorelei and Max.  She did hurt Lorelei and Rory, of course, but she also really hurt Max, who really likes her and thinks she’s a great student.  Paris admits that she wanted people to stop talking about her, and this is when Rory tells her that if she ever wants to talk, Rory’s there.  Paris kind of accepts this offer (but not really).

Sookie asks Jackson out on a date, and we end with Lorelei and Max breaking up, because he doesn’t want to put his job on the line.  And because he didn’t want to believe that a relationship with Lorelei would be so complicated.

Favorite scene: The only scene that really stands out is when Jackson tries to sell Sookie a zucchini-tush…a hybrid of zucchini and sucotash, I think.

Pop culture references: Psycho, Rick James, Hugh Grant, Tonya Harding

Final thoughts: This episode established the Lorelei/Max relationship as a complicated one, and it’s not the last we’ll see of Max.  If I remember correctly, I think this is the episode that starts the Paris/Rory starting to get along storyline.  It didn’t strike me as particularly funny, but it does set some things up that I don’t want to spoil.  Paris Is Burning gets 3 mugs of coffee.