Like Mother, Like Daughter originally aired November 11, 2001.  This episode was written by Joan Binder Weiss and was directed by Dennis Erdman.

This episode opens with Lorelei and Rory at Luke’s and are talking about how it’s busier than normal because they can’t get a table.

Lorelei’s car won’t start, so she calls Michel for a ride to work.  Meanwhile, Rory is rearranging her backpack so all of her reading-for-fun books can fit.  Lorelei keeps asking why she needs different books, and Rory’s explanation is that she needs to be able to switch between different books if she’s not in the mood for a particular type of book.

Lunchtime, part one: Rory is sitting at a table by herself, listening to music, and reading when a counselor arrives, wanting to talk to Rory when she’s done eating.  The counselor and the headmaster are concerned about Rory’s social behavior at school, because she talks to people in class, but doesn’t socialize outside of class, except for the Franklin.  Lunch is when Rory catches up on reading, and disagrees (super politely, of course) when the counselor says that colleges and universities don’t look too kindly on loners…because loners are those guys that wear outdated clothing and walk around with duffel bags.  The counselor thinks that Rory is denying she has a problem, and how it could affect her future because good grades aren’t enough, even though Rory seems to think so.

Later, Rory tells Lorelei about what happened at school, while Kirk is fixing Lorelei’s car.  Lorelei thinks it’s ridiculous and is mad that the counselor did that to Rory, and doesn’t want Rory to doubt herself because schools like Chilton try to stamp out every vestige of individuality a person has.

Mini-Rant: It is not ridiculous for Rory to be involved.  She spends a lot of time with her classmates, so the counselor and Headmaster are not out of line.  Seriously.  And why is it a problem all of a sudden?  It wasn’t a problem before, why now?  And you’d think Rory would be more involved, since it’ll get her into Harvard.  Apparently her freaking out about not having the extracurriculars Paris does in season one didn’t last very long.

Lorelei goes to the school, and meets with Headmaster Charleston and talks to him about how she raised Rory to do what she wants as long as it doesn’t hurt anybody, and doesn’t get why listening to a Walkman and reading a book is hurting Rory.  She disagrees with the Headmaster when he says that it’s hurting Rory.  Based on Lorelei’s lack of participation, Headmaster Charleston seems to think Rory not participating is because Lorelei isn’t involved with anything.  He hopes she will find a group to volunteer with, especially if she wants to do what’s best for Rory.

Rory arrives home, wondering why Lorelei didn’t pick her up.  Lorelei fills her in on the meeting, and has been thinking about how they did the Chilton thing so Rory could get into Harvard.  Lorelei suggests going along with the “fanatics” that run Chilton, since they write the recommendations that will get Rory into Harvard.

Mini-Rant #2: Yes, it is hurting Rory because she’s not getting involved and making herself stand out from all the other A+ students who will be applying to Harvard!  And heaven forbid those “fanatics” educating Rory do their damn job by making sure she goes off into the world able to socialize with other people and getting involved with things and participating instead of just watching from the sidelines.  And raising Rory to do whatever the hell she wants is kind of backfiring…at least in my opinion.

Lunchtime, part two: Rory goes to sit by herself, but changes her mind at the last minute, and sits with a group of girls…who turn out to be the secret sorority at Chilton- the Puffs.  Paris asks Rory her secret for sitting with them, and Rory mentions that she just sat down.  Paris asks Rory to talk her up, because her entire future is dependent on getting into the Puffs.

At Friday night dinner, Emily brings up Lorelei’s meeting, and how humiliating it was after everything they did to get Rory into Chilton.  Emily blames Lorelei for Rory’s lack of involvement, when Lorelei reveals that she’s joined the Boosters.  At the Booster Club meeting, they are talking about the fashion show fundraiser they’re planning.  Lorelei volunteers the inn, and tells Emily about how Emily is going to be one of the models since she was so concerned about her education.

The fashion show happens, it is a huge success, and when Lorelei gets back, she tells Rory that the Puffs are coming by in the middle of the night to take Rory out to breakfast…when, in reality, they’re going to the school for the Puff induction ceremony.  Rory doesn’t want to go along with it but does anyway, only to get caught.  The headmaster lectures them and talks about possibly suspending them and giving them detention and how they’ll have to do extra credit to maintain their grades.  Rory talks about how it’s unfair she’s getting in trouble for doing what the headmaster said, and how she has a boyfriend and friends and is really close to Lorelei, but they don’t see it because she doesn’t live there.  He says she won’t be suspended, because they may have acted hastily in her case and Lorelei picks up Rory who explains what happened.

Mini-Rant #3: How does the headmaster go from considering suspension to not suspending Rory?  If it was only considered, why would change his mind out suspending her?  Anyway, yes, they did make a snap judgement about Rory at school, and didn’t see what her life was like outside of school, but I also understand why they acted they did.  And who the hell is Rory friends with?  I mean, there’s Lane and Dean, who are only friends her own age.  Other than that, we have Sookie and Lorelei- and I’m not completely sold on other people in Stars Hollow, because I’ve never gotten a friends with Rory vibe from any of them.  So, like, does Rory have a bunch of friends that we don’t know about because it was never mentioned on the show?  I think I’m going with Rory having a super-small group of friends, because if she did have other friends, I’m pretty sure we would have seen them.

Luke and Lorelei have a fight about the best way to Hartford and how Luke shouldn’t date a Chilton mom, who thought he was cute.  The episode ends with Rory sitting a table by herself, reading when one of the Puffs asks if she can sit there.

Favorite Lines:

Michel: “I am not talking to Carol, she ate all of my cheese.”

Pop Culture:

Macarena, Walkman, Wizard of Oz, Disney, Barry Manilow

Final Thoughts:

Well, if you’ve made it this far, thank you for sticking around to read this post!  There’s just a lot going on, and some things I need to rant about…so…this episode is my least favorite episode to date, and is easily the most frustrating one to watch.  This episode gets 1 mug of coffee.

Presenting Lorelei Gilmore originally aired November 6, 2001.  It was written by Sheila R. Lawrence and was directed by Chris Long.

We open this episode with the requisite Friday night dinner.  Lorelei and Rory arrive to find that Richard and Emily are fighting about Richard turning down invitations to events on their behalf, and how Emily is the co-chair of an important fundraiser and how she’ll look bad if they don’t go.  Rory wants to leave, but it’s really entertaining to Lorelei, who says it’s dinner theater.  Finally, Richard and Emily notice Lorelei and Rory are there, and they’re just standing there awkwardly as the credits start rolling.

Another week where I comment on the opening scene!  This time around, I found myself wondering why Emily can’t go by herself.  Granted, appearances are really important to Emily (and probably important to her friends and acquaintances) but couldn’t she tell people Richard couldn’t make it, or bring someone with her?  It’s a little weird to me but then again, the world I live in is very different than Emily’s.

We next see Lorelei and Rory at Luke’s, where we have this moment where Jess comes down to help out Luke, wearing a Metallica shirt…and Luke tells Jess to go change into proper clothes, because he’s not wearing proper work attire.  This sets up a great moment later on in the episode.

Emily is having tea with her friends, and learns how much she’s missed out on over the last few weeks.  Rory stops by to get a book, and meets Emily’s friends.  Next thing we know, Rory’s home, and telling Lorelei how she’s going to be in the ball.  Lorelei doesn’t like this, because I think it’s pretty well-established at this point that the life Emily and Richard has doesn’t appeal to her, and she talks about how when she ran away from that life, she thought Rory would be running with her.

There are random moments like these when the thought that Rory might want bits and pieces of that life never occurs to Lorelei.  It’s really like Lorelei assumes that because she doesn’t want it, Rory won’t want it either.  Was part of it Emily?  Probably.  And was part of it Rory wanting to make Emily happy even though a debutante ball isn’t her thing?  Also likely.  But seriously, I really felt like it never occurred to Lorelei that Rory might want it.

Rory’s father is supposed to present her to society, and Chris agrees…and actually shows up to do it.  Chris shows up driving a Volvo, gives Rory the compact Oxford English Dictionary that he couldn’t afford to buy back in season one.  Lorelei makes fun of Chris for driving a Volvo, and is surprised that Chris has a job and is driving a car.

Emily and Lorelei went shopping, and Rory is good on pantyhose for quite some time…because Emily is convinced Rory needs 12 pairs.  Richard can’t pick up his suit, Emily says she’ll get it, and Lorelei asks if things are okay, and Emily says things are fine.  Patty teaches Dean and Rory how to waltz, while Chris and Lorelei talk about how Chris likes the stability of having a job.

Now we get to the part of the episode where things get a little more interesting.  Rory arrives and gets ready, while Lorelei (surprise, surprise) is at the bar.  Lorelei is surprised that she and Rory were there before Emily, who isn’t happy with the folding chairs and how the debutante ball looks.  Emily and Richard didn’t come together, and we see them fighting about how Richard didn’t want to come.  Richard is tired of all of the social responsibilities.  We learn that Richard is getting phased out at work, and how he doesn’t want to do something different, even though Emily says he could do something different.  Rory comes out and says she’s next…so Lorelei goes out, and watches Rory get presented to society with Emily, who says that nothing has turned out the way it was supposed to.

After it’s over, we see Lorelei, Rory, Dean and Chris walking through Stars Hollow.  Dean needs to get out of the tux, Chris needs to go bed early because he needs to go back to Boston, and Lorelei and Rory are hungry.  Chris and Lorelei talk and says that since Chris is now living in Boston, he can come see them, and if traffic’s bad, he could spend the weekend.  This is when we learn that Chris is seeing someone named Sherry, who told him to get it together, or he would lose her…so he got it together.  He goes home, while Lorelei looks a little disappointed by Chris seeing someone.

Remember when Jess wore the Metallica shirt, and Luke said it wasn’t proper work attire, and that it was setting up something later on?  Well, here is that moment, when we see Jess dressed exactly like Luke!  Definitely amusing.

We end the episode with Lorelei going to see Emily, just to hang out, and how Lorelei is there if Emily needs anything.

Favorite Lines And/Or Scenes:

Nothing really jumped out at me in this episode.

Pop Culture:

Trident Gum, Endless Love, George Lucas, Spinal Tap, Metallica

Final Thoughts:

There’s more recap than commentary in this one, but…there’s not much I actually want to comment on this week.  I’m not surprised by Emily’s reaction to Richard’s work problems, and I can get the social responsibilities are tiring…but what do you expect, when you have the life you do?  This was an okay episode, so it gets 2 mugs of coffee.

Nick and Nora/Sid And Nancy originally aired October 30, 2001.   It was written by Amy Sherman-Palladino and was directed by Michael Katleman.

We start off this episode with Rory not wanting to be late for school because she has new classes, her locker’s been moved and she needs to find the best way to her classes and time to get a new locker in case the one they assigned to her doesn’t open or something.  Lane comes in with an order for the music store near Rory’s school, and we see Taylor comes in with boy scouts.

Back to Luke, who is now carrying all kinds of groceries and runs into Lorelei.  We learn that Luke’s nephew is coming to stay with Luke because his sister can’t handle Jess.  Lorelei asks Luke a lot of questions, like how old Jess is, how long he’s staying and what sort of trouble Jess is in and Lorelei is concerned about Luke being able to handle it and how Luke needs to ask Liz some questions.

At school, Paris and Rory see each other and Rory tries to get Paris to agree to co-existing peacefully, because they’re going to be working on the paper together and have classes together.  Paris tells her the time of the first school newspaper meeting- which is after school, at 4 pm.

Here’s another random annoyance with Chilton.  It’s Chilton, this fancy, expensive private school that offers obscure Russian poetry and Shakespeare during summer school BUT DOESN’T HAVE A PERIOD SET FOR THE SCHOOL NEWSPAPER?  You’d think Chilton would be able to fit in the school paper as a class.

We take a quick break to see the arrival of Jess, who looks like your typical bad boy.  Before we know it, we’re back at Chilton, where Rory is waiting for the newspaper meeting to start, only to hear talking in the room where they’re meeting.  She goes in to find that the meeting started at 3:15, and Paris had given her the wrong time- on purpose, naturally, because we’re talking about Paris.

Rory gets assigned to cover the re-paving of the faculty parking lot.  After it’s over, Rory runs into Max before they head in different directions.  Paris sees this, of course, and is probably figuring out how to use it against Rory.

At the diner, Lorelei asks Luke about Jess, because she wants to meet him.  Luke says he’s out, but minutes later, Jess arrives, only to go upstairs.  Lorelei suggests Luke and Jess come over for dinner the next night.  Rory arrives, complains about  Paris, and says she hasn’t run into Max, even though she’s in one of his classes, before telling Lorelei about running into him in the hall.

Rory gets to the next newspaper meeting early, and we learn how successful the past editors would be, all because Madeline asked if she could write a gossip column.  The teacher wants Paris to give Rory better articles…which, for this episode, is to interview the teacher voted most popular.  Naturally, it’s Max, and Paris gave it to Rory because she’ll be able to get something really special and in-depth.

At dinner, Sookie is convinced there isn’t enough food, when Jess and Luke arrive.  There’s not a lot to note here, but Jess seems intrigued by Rory’s books and says he doesn’t read much.  He ends up on the patio, with a beer, when Lorelei goes out to talk to him about how lucky he is to have Luke.  He doesn’t like her little speech, and thinks it’s because she’s really naive or sleeping with Luke.  Lorelei tells Luke, who is tired of Lorelei giving him condescending advice.  She thinks he’s in over his head, and since she’s had a kid, she knows more than Luke.  Before Luke leaves, he mentions that Lorelei got lucky with Rory, especially since Lorelei got pregnant at 16.

Lorelei was particularly irritating in this scene.  Her intentions may have been good, but they didn’t really come across that way.  Luke does have a point in that Lorelei got SUPER lucky with Rory.  The next morning, Lorelei refuses to into the diner, and wants Rory to get something for her.  Luke will only give her one coffee and one danish, and then gets a call from Taylor, because Jess did something.  Later on, we learn that Jess may have taken some money of the jar that’s related to saving the bridge in town.  Jess isn’t happy about being there, and I don’t blame him.  They walk by the lake on their way home, and Luke ends up pushing him in.

Rory interviews Max, and it’s really awkward at first but have a nice moment.  Later, Rory is working on the article when Luke comes over, regretting taking Jess in but Lorelei reassures him, and they make up.  Luke goes home, to tell Jess that he will not fall off the face of the earth, only for Jess to go out, run into Rory and give her a book back.  He seems to take to Rory, more so than anyone else in town.  The episode ends with both of them going their own way.

Favorite Line:

Lorelei: Jackson grows fruit and then scares people with it.

Pop Culture:

The Breakfast Club, Oliver Twist, Dr. Laura

Final Thoughts:

I’ve wavering between not liking this one and thinking it’s just okay.  Lorelei was irritating, even though she had really good intentions. Paris…she’s just Paris, but her pettiness is also annoying.  She grows on you though.  As for Jess…let’s just say it’ll be an interesting season with Jess around.  Stuff gets set in motion, but it’s also an episode I sort of don’t really think about.  It gets 1.5 mugs of coffee.

Season 2, Episode 4- The Road Trip To Harvard originally aired October 23, 2001.  It was written by Daniel Palladino and was directed by Jamie Babbit.

We open this episode with Rory and Lorelei on the road.  Lorelei is complaining about forgetting her music, and needing to listen to AC/DC, while Rory needs to have map, and is complaining about how they don’t know where they are and where they’re going.

Lorelei calls Sookie, and asks her to tell Miss Patty, so the entire town has talked Lorelei’s broken engagement out of their system by the time they get back.  Lorelei also asks her to not worry about the cake, and would be horribly upset if Sookie had gone to the trouble of making this amazing cake…and what we know is that Sookie has made the cake, because she’s Sookie, but naturally, Lorelei doesn’t know that Sookie already made the cake.

They head to New Hampshire, where Lorelei has a friend who owns a B&B, only to learn that he’s sold it to a woman who has named it the Cheshire Cat and has redecorated it to look like a typical B&B.  They decide not to eat dinner, even though they’re hungry, because Lorelei doesn’t want to talk to any of the people staying there.  Lorelei and Rory have this…interesting…discussion about the broken engagment.  I wouldn’t necessarily call it a fight, but Lorelei and Rory have this talk about Max.  Lorelei clearly doesn’t want to talk about it, but Rory really does, and is going on about how Lorelei loves Max but is just scared, and is throwing their life away, and how Lorelei will regret it, and just won’t give it up, even though Lorelei says she doesn’t want to talk about it several times.

I thought this scene was really interesting, because they’re both insistent about talking or not talking about Max, and they aren’t listening to each other.  Rory brings up how close they are, and how they’re best friends.  I do love their relationship, and how close they are- they really are friends first, mother-daughter second, and this is the first time where you really see them not get along in any way.  To a certain extent, Rory has a point- they are close, but at the same time, Lorelei is trying to establish some sort of boundary where her relationships are concerned.  And Lorelei has an excellent point when she points out the fact that they’re best friends when they’re at a U2 concert.  I get Rory’s upset, but she just really needs to accept that Lorelei doesn’t want to talk about it.  They go to bed, and Lorelei says she’s sure about breaking off the engagement and that she wishes she loved Max.

This makes me wonder if she ever loved Max- and if she did, was it really enough to spend the rest of her life with him?  I mean, we randomly see them go out on a date but we never see Lorelei completely in love with him and excited about the wedding…it really did feel like she was going through the motions with Max sometimes.

The next morning, Rory apologizes, reads what Lorelei wrote in the guestbook and changes it to make it nicer.  They try to escape with no one noticing, but unfortunately, it doesn’t work, and (to their dismay) actually have to socialize with the other guests.  They manage to escape and take a trip to Harvard, where Lorelei takes Rory on a tour of the school, get coffee, sneak into a dorm and wander into a class.  Okay, how is it that they manage to sneak into a dorm?  I have never lived in one, and while this episode aired just over 12 years ago, you’d think there would be some sort of security…especially at a school like Harvard.  Yeah, that’s never mentioned because Lorelei just needs to have Rory in that dorm, but still a little strange.

Rory sits in on a class- which is my least favorite scene in the episode- and it’s just painful to watch.  I don’t know if it’s because she’s just wandering around or if it’s because she’s an exceptionally smart high school student pretending to be a college student, but it was still hard to watch.

So, they get back to the Cheshire Cat, and head home, where Lorelei looks like she’s going to cry as she looks at the hoopa.  It’s actually seems to be the first time she seems to show some emotion about her engagement.  Fast forward to Friday night dinner, where Lorelei did slides of their trip to Harvard.  Once it’s over, Emily wants to know why she took a trip so close to her wedding and if Max minded.  Lorelei clearly didn’t tell Emily that the wedding is off, and Emily automatically assumes Lorelei eloped so Emily couldn’t see Lorelei get married.  She does tell Emily, who says she’ll return the gift.  Rory reading while Lorelei is trying to figure out the gift was highly amusing.

After dinner, Rory hangs out with Lane, while Lorelei goes to Luke’s, and asks him about opening a line of credit.  I think he’s slightly confused by this question, but Lorelei has decided it’s time to move forward with opening her own inn.  She leaves the diner, and calls Sookie to talk about it as she heads home.

Favorite Lines:

Sookie, to Lorelei’s wedding cake: “You were a good cake, Clyde, never should have named you.”

Emily, about Lorelei’s thumb being in a picture: “This one makes me feel just like I’m in your finger.”

Pop Culture:

Hootie And The Blowfish, AC/DC, Liberace, Alice In Wonderland, Anarchy In The U.K., Louis And Clark

Final Thoughts:

This is probably my least favorite episode of the season…well, so far anyway.  Definitely the last season plus the start of season two.  There were some things that were a little too hard to believe (Harvard) and other things that were a little irritating (Rory wanting to talk about Max and not leaving it alone, when Lorelei clearly doesn’t want to talk about it).  I was bored watching it, and it was an episode that didn’t really stand out the first few times I watched it.  It gets 1 mug of coffee.

Hammers And Veils originally aired October 9, 2002.  It was written by Amy Sherman-Palladino and was directed by Michael Kattleman.

We open Hammers And Veils with Lorelei using newspaper to decide on the right veil length.  She asks Rory for her opinion, but Rory is more interested in reading the newspaper on Lorelei’s head than she is giving an opinion.

At Chilton, Rory happens to be in the same area as Paris, Madeleine and Louise.  Madeleine mentions a build for a Habitat For Humanity-type company, and Paris starts talking about how Rory wouldn’t like doing the Habitat For Humanity.  She runs into Henry (the guy she and Lane met at the Chilton party) and talk about what classes they’re taking.  It’s physics, Shakespeare and obscure Russian poetry for Rory and trig for Henry.

I know I’ve said this before, but Chilton…what kind of school is this?  It feels more like a college than a high school sometimes!  Henry gives Rory his number because he’s scared of Mrs. Kim answering the phone again.

At Friday night dinner, Lorelei is really amused by Rory building a house.  She takes off her engagement ring, and still hasn’t told Richard and Emily about her engagement, even though the wedding is in 3 months.  Rory is giving Lorelei two weeks, before Rory says something.  Seriously, three months to plan a wedding?  It’s one of those things that seem like a lot of work…work that takes more than three months.  This episode is roughly a week after Sadie, Sadie, so things have moved awfully fast…or the timeline just got really messed up and the writers didn’t notice.  Richard apologizes to Rory again, and they really didn’t like fighting.

Meanwhile, Lorelei does tell Emily about her engagement.  Emily hopes they’ll be in town.  If not, she’ll send a nice gift.  After dinner, Lorelei rants about how it was a mistake to tell Emily, and how she regrets mentioning it.  I know they don’t have the best relationship, but Lorelei and her unwillingness to see things from Emily’s side is starting to get annoying.

Rory goes off to help build a house, with Lane dropping off instructions for her escape from Korea, and Dean laughing at Rory for wanting to do this.  It is a little strange, I’ll admit, Rory building a house.  But they make plans for that night.  Paris starts talking about all the extra stuff she’d done to get into Harvard- study groups, charity work, and tutoring, to name a few.  Rory realizes she is behind on such activities and wants to cancel her plans with Dean.  Not surprisingly, this doesn’t go over well with Dean.  Remember h0w last week, I felt kind of bad for Dean?  Well, it didn’t last very long, because Dean was super-annoying.  He thinks summer is a time for relaxing and hanging out, and could care less about Rory getting in Harvard.  You’d think by now he’d know how important Harvard is to Rory and that she has a bit of tunnel vision about it.

Lorelei and Max have dinner, where Lorelei’s still frustrated about what Emily said.  We do learn how one plans a wedding in a week, for a date 3 months in the future- by having Sookie cook, by having the ceremony at her house, and by having Patty supply the chairs.  Pretty impressive, doing all of that planning IN A WEEK.

They make a stop at Emily’s, where Lorelei wants to know what Emily said what she did, and if Emily knows how it felt to hear Emily say what she did.  Emily says it’s probably how Emily herself felt when she realized that Lorelei got engaged and told everyone else in her life first, and having to hear from a complete stranger that Lorelei was engaged.

Emily has a good point, and I really feel bad for Emily.  Lorelei doesn’t really look good in this scene.  Yeah, Emily and Lorelei have a ton of issues, and I do get Lorelei being worried about what they’ll think…but putting it off and wishing she never told Emily in the first place…it’s like Lorelei doesn’t even want to try to work things out or make an effort.

Lorelei learns about the party, Sookie babbles about how she wasn’t sure if she should invite Emily and Richard, but decided to invite them anyway, and we see the engagement party.  People dance, Rory and Dean make up, and Lorelei asks Luke to come.  A note about Rory and Dean making up- he apologizes, as does Rory.  Rory really shouldn’t have to apologize, but she’s Rory, so she apologizes for having tunnel vision, while Dean admits he got jealous of Harvard…even while liking Rory is going to go to Harvard.

We end the episode with Lorelei asking Emily for advice about veils.  Emily tells her that she’s capable of making her own decisions.  And Lorelei does apologize for not telling Emily, and talks about how she doesn’t know how to tell Emily things.  She does admit to maybe being partly to blame for the vicious cycle they get in…which really sounds insincere.  Emily tells Lorelei she might want to try a tiara, because it’s what she wore at her wedding.

Favorite Lines Or Scenes:

Rory reading the newspaper veil on Lorelei’s head

Pop Culture:

Thelma And Louise, The Beatles, Frank Sinatra

Final Thoughts:

This is a pretty interesting episode, and stuff definitely happens.  Lorelei and her rant about regretting telling Emily was irritating- and her “I hate my parents, who are evil and horrible” mentality is starting to get annoying and tired.  Still, Lorelei does appear to realize she hurt Emily by waiting to tell her about her engagement.  Hammers And Veils gets 3.5 mugs of coffee.

Sadie, Sadie originally aired on October 9, 2001.  It was written and directed by Amy Sherman-Palladino.

We open Sadie, Sadie with yellow daisies all over town.  Rory is coming up with all kinds of wedding suggestions for Lorelei’s wedding.  Lorelei hasn’t made up her mind about whether she gets married or not.  Which is actually pretty smart.

From there, Rory drops off some flowers at Lane’s house, where we learn Lane is going to Korea for the summer.  The problem is that Lane’s parents got her a one-way ticket and won’t tell her when she’s coming back.  Meanwhile, Lorelei is looking at a bridal magazine at Bootsie’s newsstand.  Miss Patty sees her looking at the magazine, gets excited and then asks if Luke knows.  Lorelei and Rory walk to the diner, and a lot of people are following them to see her tell Luke.  At this point, it’s no big secret in town that Luke has a thing for Lorelei, so naturally everyone wants to see his reaction.

She tells him, and he’s asking her things like where she’ll live and if they’ll have more kids.  Lorelei isn’t happy with Luke’s questions, so she goes back to the table.

At Friday night dinner, Emily tells Lorelei and Rory that Rory is in the top 3% of her class, having heard it from Headmaster Charleston’s wife.  Lorelei says she knows, and Emily wants to know who Lorelei knows at Chilton…that person being Rory, of course.  Richard comes in and announces Rory’s big accomplishment, only to learn they already knew.  Emily tells Rory they’ll have an extra-special dinner the following week.

Lorelei randomly calls Max during dinner, and starts asking him the same questions Luke had asked her.  She accepts his proposal, goes back inside, and silently lets Rory know she and Max are getting married.  They start jumping up and down screaming, and they tell Emily and Richard it’s because of Rory doing well at school.

Dean comes over, and since Rory can invite someone to Friday night dinner, she asks him.  He agrees, but when they finally arrive, Emily isn’t exactly thrilled Dean is there.  I don’t blame her, after the dance.  But she does act pretty nice to Dean, which is very different than Richard’s reaction.

He is less than thrilled, and during dinner, starts asking Dean a lot of different questions.  Like, where Dean wants to go to college, and what grades Dean gets.  Dean isn’t sure about where he wants to go to college, and gets a couple A’s, a couple B’s, and a few C’s.  Plus, he’s not sure what he wants to do once he graduates college.  Richard responds to this by saying that Rory is smart, is going to an Ivy League college and is going to need top grades to get into a top school.  She also has plans and wants to travel.  Richard also talks about how when he was 10, he knew he wanted to go to Yale, travel, work in an office, and wear a nice suit.  And then he says the family has high standards and how Rory has to live up to those standards.  And since she does, everyone she’s in contact with needs to live up to those standards as well, because there are some people (meaning Dean) who are going to bring her down.

This whole time, they’re trying to get Richard to leave Dean alone, and go easy on him, but it doesn’t work.  Rory defends him, and Rory, Lorelei and Dean end up leaving.

I never thought Dean and Rory were well-matched, and I am not a big of Dean.  But even Dean doesn’t deserve the questions asked and things Richard kept saying.  I mean, saying that Dean is going to bring her down because he doesn’t get the grades she does, and doesn’t know where he’s going to college or what he wants to do is uncalled for.  I’m 26, and half the time, I still don’t know what I want to do.  Besides, Rory is pretty unusual, and not everyone knows what they want to do at 16.

After they get home, Lorelei tries to reassure Rory and tells her that it’s more about Lorelei not being the daughter they expected.  We also see how Emily isn’t happy with Richard, who didn’t expect her to bring Dean.  Richard thinks proper socialization is important, but she shouldn’t date one boy, and she most certainly should not date Dean.  Sookie calls Emily while she and Richard are talking, and invites them to Lorelei’s bridal shower.  This is the point where we learn Lorelei never told her parents she was getting married.  I know it’s been around a week, and that Lorelei still doesn’t have the best relationship, but it’s weird that it takes her a while to tell them.  Emily tells Richard he needs to apologize to Rory because Lorelei’s getting married and didn’t tell them, and she wants Rory to tell them when she gets married.  Emily did (understandably) look upset.

The episode ends with Lorelei and Max talking on the porch.

Favorite Lines And/Or Scenes:

Nothing really jumped out at me in this one, except for the first Friday night dinner

Pop Culture:

All In The Family, Sally Field, Cujo, Frank Sinatra

Final Thoughts:

There is a lot going on in this episode, but that’s not surprising, given that it’s the first one of Season Two.  Richard was pretty horrible to Dean and Lorelei gets engaged but doesn’t tell her parents.  These are pretty important happenings, and they’ll show up again.  I didn’t love Sadie, Sadie, but it was still a pretty decent episode, so it gets 4 mugs of coffee.