Face-Off originally aired February 18, 2003.  This episode was written by John Stephens and was directed by Kenny Ortega.

Face-Off opens with Taylor going over the details of his upcoming family reunion with Lorelei, who needs Rory to pretend to be sick so Lorelei doesn’t have to talk to Taylor anymore.  He also gives them buttons that show support for the Stars Hollow High hockey team making it to the championship or finals or whatever.

Richard’s mom Trix is going to be staying with Emily and Richard while her floors are getting re-done, which isn’t going over well with Emily.  Lorelei has a date with Alex after Friday night dinner, while Rory is waiting for Jess to call.  When she tells Lorelei about her night the next day, we learn that it never occurred to Rory to call Jess.  Rory wants to know why Lorelei asks her if she’s going to tell Jess before starting to compare Jess and Dean.  Lorelei says it’s not fair to compare them because Dean and Jess are different, and that Rory got lucky with Dean as a first boyfriend.

Mrs. Kim set Lane up with someone, and it makes Dave jealous.  Dave even runs to the hockey game to check on Lane and Yung Chu, and finds out Yung Chu has a girlfriend.

Rory ends up going to the hockey game since Jess still hasn’t called to make plans.  Lane is wondering if everything is okay, since Rory is there without Jess.  Rory and Lane run into a girl named Lindsay, who acts a little weird around Rory.  Lane tells Rory that some people at Stars Hollow High think that Rory thinks she better then them because Rory is going to Chilton, but it turns out that the weirdness is because Lindsay and Dean are dating.  Lane keeps asking Rory if she’s okay, and Rory says she’s find because it had to happen sometime.  Lane feels bad for not knowing, but Rory says it’s not a big deal.

Meanwhile, Jess shows up at Rory’s to find she’s not there, and is really surprised that she’s not home.  Lorelei pretty much tells him to get it together before going to Emily’s to drop off some things for something Trix is planning.  When Emily gets back to her house, she finds Trix kissing a man in a jogging suit before leaving the house.  Emily is in an especially good mood because she has something on Trix, and accidentally spills the beans when Trix pushes Emily a little too far.  Emily apologizes to Trix later than evening.

After the hockey game is over (and Stars Hollow High loses the game), Dean and Rory talk.  He wasn’t sure how to tell Rory about him and Lindsay.  Rory leaves a message for Jess, ranting about how she’s not going to going to wait around for Jess to call her, because she wants specific plans, not a vague we’ll hang out later. She also mentions that she’s spoiled and likes being spoiled, and Jess is just going to have to deal with it, otherwise he’ll have to find someone else.  She leaves the rink to find Jess waiting for her with tickets to the Distillers concert.

What I Thought:

I don’t really have thoughts on the Emily and Trix stuff, so I’m just going to talk about Rory and Jess, who both really annoyed me in this episode.

I’m surprised it took so long for Rory to compare Jess and Dean…at least, a comparison that we see on screen.  Jess doesn’t strike me as the type of guy who calls someone to make plans, and at this point, you’d think Rory would actually know this.

And her whole I’m spoiled and I like being that way, and Jess is just going to have to deal with it?  Good heavens, I wanted to smack Rory for that.  It is one of the things I dislike about Rory, because she seems pretty used to getting what she wants and she does seem to have this big sense of entitlement.

Also: Dean moving on.  I’m not surprised that she thought Dean would still be pining after her.  Rory says it’s fine that he moved on, because it had to happen eventually, but I wonder if it’s really okay with her.  I could be reading too much into it, but given what we’ve seen of her up to this point (and Rory in seasons to come) it does seem like Rory to be taken off-guard and hoping he’s still pining after her.

Favorite Or Funny Moment Or Line:

Nothing really jumped out at me in this episode.

Pop Culture:

Michael Moore’s documentaries, Miss Manners

Let’s Rate It:

I was pretty annoyed with how Rory acted in this episode, and I thought it was an okay episode.  I think it does bring up some interesting things we’ll see later on, but it’s definitely not one of my favorite episodes. Face-Off gets 2 mugs of coffee.