That’ll Do, Pig originally aired January 14, 2003.  This episode was written by Shelia R. Lawrence and was directed by Jamie Babbit.

We open up with episode with the town getting ready for the winter carnival.  Lane’s band can now practice in Lorelei’s garage, so the rehearsal space problem is now solved!

There’s all sorts of things happening at Chilton!  Paris is seen not paying attention in math, and since there’s a light agenda for the supplemental student council meeting, Paris decides to cancel it.  Which means Francie decides that it’s a good time to have the meeting anyway, because she has a “time-sensitive” issue.  Francie was so surprised that Paris canceled the meeting that she didn’t mention it, and “couldn’t find” Paris later, when Francie did want to bring it up.  Francie wants to use the funds for the class gift (a telescope) to have Prom or homecoming or something at some mansion, since it’s suddenly free.  It gets passed, but Rory is done trying to be the go-between for France and Paris.

Richard’s mother, Trix, stops by for Richard’s birthday unexpectedly, and she wants to see where Lorelei lives and works.  Emily goes to Lorelei’s house to make it look presentable, since it’ll be Emily’s fault that it looks like it normally does.  Rory is excused for this dinner because she’s young and should have fun at the Winter Carnival.

Rory is now friends with Dean after they run into each in town and go have some coffee at Westin’s. Dean has applied to a 4-year university, and it’s all because of Rory going on about college and Harvard.  He has no idea how he’ll deal with her dating Jess, but they do decide they can be friends.

Richard’s mother gets a tour of Lorelei’s house, but says nothing about it, and then they go off to dinner at the Inn while Rory goes to the Carnival.  Jess doesn’t want to go, but when they run into Dean and his sister, and Dean’s sister invites Rory to go to the carnival with them, Jess changes his mind.  This is when Jess finds out Rory and Dean are friends, and while he’s not mad, he still would have liked for her to tell him.

Dean is waiting for Clara by the bathroom when Jess stops by to tell Dean about how pathetic he is. Dean says he and Rory are just friends, and since that worked out for Jess…well, Dean seems to think it’ll work for him.

Trix says she wants to live in the U.S. again, for a multitude of reasons, which makes Richard happy, and Emily not so happy.  So Emily takes her time eating dinner.

The episode ends with Rory and Lorelei talking about their night.

Thoughts:

So.  Things are relatively calm in this episode, other than Emily not being happy about Richard’s mom being in town, and possibly coming back on a more permanent basis.  I do love Lorelei the first, and there’s something very regal about her.

The only major thing I want to talk about is what Dean is up to!  He really is waiting for Jess and Rory to break up, isn’t he?  It’s weird, though, because after the whole thing at the dance marathon, you’d think he’d be done with Rory.  It’s like he’s expecting Jess to completely mess things up with Rory, so he can be her knight in shining armor, and make sure she’s okay.  It kind of makes Dean a bit annoying, because one episode, he’s totally done with Rory and wants nothing to do with her, and now he’s waiting for her and Jess to break up so they can get back together.  He really needs to make up his mind!

I kind of agree with Jess about Dean having an ulterior motive for being friends with Rory.  At least we now know what was going on with Dean in the last episode, and I had completely forgotten about it!

And I really dislike Francie for deciding to go ahead with the meeting, knowing Paris wasn’t going to be there.  Paris does deserve to not be so focused all the time, and Francie has decided to use that to her advantage.

Favorite Line:

Paris, to Rory: “Have you had eggnog?”

Pop Culture:

Korn, Weezer, Victor Hugo, Betty Boop, Stuart Little, Spice Girls

Episode Rating:

I liked this episode, and it’s nice to have something a little fun after the last couple of episodes!  It wasn’t completely amazing, but it wasn’t completely horrible.  It’s a pretty solid episode, and it gets 3 mugs of coffee.

A Deep-Fried Korean Thanksgiving originally aired November 26, 2002.  This episode was written by Daniel Palladino and was directed by Kenny Ortega.

This episode opens with Lorelei and Rory watching Grey Gardens, and how they were reminded of themselves.

From there…Thanksgiving!  Sookie is freaking out that Bob will be cooking Thanksgiving dinner at the Inn.  Emily arrives at the Inn to make sure that Lorelei and Rory will be at Thanksgiving.  Emily reminds Lorelei that it was Richard who set up at the meeting at Yale, not her.

At Chilton, Paris is upset that she’s not able to volunteer at a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving, and that the volunteers who aren’t trying to get into Harvard are selfish because they don’t get anything out of it, while she does.

While getting flowers for all the Thanksgiving dinners they’re going to, Jess sees Rory, but when he kisses her, she insists on not doing it in front of Taylor’s because Dean might see.  Jess tells her that Dean is going to have to get over it.  And when Lorelei sees Dean in the market, she tells him that they can still be friends, even if he and Rory aren’t together anymore.

Rory and Lorelei have big plans for Thanksgiving- they’re going to Lane’s, Sookie’s and Luke’s before making their way to Emily’s. Lorelei tries not to eat tofurkey at Lane’s, listens to Sookie talk about how deep-fried turkey is wrong, and at Luke’s, they just have a chance to relax before heading over to the insanity that is Thanksgiving with Emily and Richard.

Naturally, college applications come up, as some of the other guests have grandchildren who are also applying to college.  Lorelei seems shocked that Rory applied to several other colleges.  Lorelei, of course, wants to know what other colleges, and Rory doesn’t want to tell Lorelei that she applied to Yale.  Richard, according to Lorelei, forced Rory’s hand, even if she doesn’t know.  Because Rory’s nice, and not applying would hurt Richard’s feelings.  And even when Rory says that she would be able to stay at home if she went to Yale, Lorelei accuses Emily of putting the idea in Rory’s head.  Even Rory saying that she figured it out on her own doesn’t change Lorelei’s mind about the fact that Richard and Emily got Rory to apply to Yale.

Lorelei ends up going outside, and Emily goes to talk to her.  Lorelei is not receptive to Yale being a back-up plan or an alternative to Harvard, because it’s been about Harvard for 17 years.  Emily makes a statement that Lorelei hates them so much that she can’t let Rory have one piece of Richard and Emily’s life, even if it’s Rory’s choice.

They go home, and since they didn’t eat at Emily’s, they realized they didn’t have to skip on eating rolls that day.  Lorelei knows that wherever Rory goes to school, Rory will have a great time and become a better person but still gets a weird feeling anytime her parents are involved.  They stop by to see Sookie, who is really drunk…but also really funny.  And we see Lane, who is still confused as to why Dave wants to go on a date with her.

Rory finally decides that it’s okay to kiss Jess in public, and when Jess goes to throw some trash away, he sees Dean, who apparently saw Jess and Rory kiss.  Dean is giving Jess a really hard time, and it really seems like he’s trying to provoke Jess.  Jess, by the way, isn’t going to fight Dean because of Rory, but Dean is done trying to be nice to Jess.

The episode ends with Lorelei and Rory going home.

Thoughts:

Before I get to the really interesting stuff…Paris.  Paris is sometimes hysterical of how she acts!  In this case, the fact that people might want to do something nice for others on Thanksgiving, and help out somewhere didn’t seem to occur to her.  It’s almost like her attitude is that they’re taking away a spot from her, who needs it because her reason for helping is better than their reason.

So, Thanksgiving dinner with the Gilmore family.  The Yale stuff is still a really big issue, and it’s not surprising that Lorelei is ignoring Emily because of what Richard did.

The whole thing about Lorelei not understanding the college application process…I felt like that carried over into this episode, because Lorelei seems truly shocked that Rory would apply to other schools.  A school like Chilton would probably frown upon applying to only one college, but even then, it’s ridiculous to assume that Rory’s going to apply to just one school.  I get Rory doesn’t want to mention applying to Yale, but Rory’s smart enough that she can figure out on her own that she could live at home if she went there.

This is really the first time where I’ve felt like Rory is more open to going to a college that is not Harvard.  And for the first time, I wonder if it’s something Lorelei has latched onto, and Rory doesn’t want to say anything for fear of hurting Lorelei’s feelings.  While we’re told that it’s what Rory wants, bits and pieces of other episodes have come back.  Like when Rory went to that guys house to talk about applying to Harvard, and how Lorelei’s happy with whatever Rory wants?  I think I remember Richard telling Lorelei that Rory only wants to go to Harvard because she thinks Lorelei wants her to go there at one point.  I’m sure Lorelei will be happy with wherever Rory goes, but I think they’ve focused on Harvard so much that Lorelei doesn’t know what to do with the idea that Rory would consider other schools.

I’m feeling like the whole Harvard thing is more Lorelei than Rory, because Lorelei really does seem so resistent to Rory even applying to other schools…even non-Yale ones.  It just really seems like Lorelei doesn’t have a good grasp of applying to college. Of course, this could have been avoided with actual communication, but then…you really wouldn’t have any conflict…

And I want to end on Dean and Jess really quick.  I know Dean is up to something, and for the life of me, I cannot figure out what it is.  But I think it’ll come up soon.  It’s like Dean is trying to provoke a fight so Rory will dump Jess for fighting Dean or something.

Favorite People:

No favorite line, but Mrs. Kim is always funny, and drunk Sookie was absolutely hysterical.

Pop Culture:

West Side Story, Deep-Fried Turkey

Episode Rating:

I really liked this episode, and I liked four Thanksgiving dinners!  And by the way, I’ve had tofurkey, and I don’t think it’s that bad…but I can barely manage one Thanksgiving dinner, much less 4.  This episode had a really good balance of funny and serious. This episode gets 4 mugs of coffee.