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.

Cinnamon’s Wake originally aired on November 2, 2000.  It was written by Daniel Palladino and directed by Michael Katleman.

In Cinnamon’s Wake, Rory acts awkwardly around Dean.  The death of Cinnamon, Morey and Babbette’s cat, brings the entire town together for a memorial.

We start off with Friday night dinner, with Lorelei making jokes about Nazi’s.

From there, Rory and Lorelei talk about the bake sale and how Lorelei has it covered.  We get our first look at Cinnamon, who’s being pushed in a wagon because she’s not feeling well.  It’s too bad we don’t see a lot of Morey, because I like him.  I’m glad Star’s Hollow is so strange.

Dean and Rory talk on the bus…right after he scares Rory.  At the inn, Michel pretends he is from Texas and isn’t from France.  Of course, the French businessmen are glad he’s from France.  I love the conversation between Lorelei and Michel about how he left France because the French are insufferable.

At the bake sale, Sooki makes the tablecloth catch on fire, and Lorelei uses lemonade from the stand next to them to put it out.  And Lorelei is still annoyed at Max over the Shakespeare test.  He talks to her at the bake sale, and asks her out on a date.  Lorelei has mixed feelings because he’s Rory’s teacher, but at the same time, I don’t blame her.  It’s an interesting relationship they have, at least in these early episodes.

Rory goes into Doosey’s market, because she sees Dean in there.  She runs into Miss Patty, before going to a different part of the store.  She buys some lettuce and a mouse-trap before realizing she doesn’t have enough money.

Lorelei and Max have a pre-date at a coffee shop and talk about why they should date.  Lorelei is still resistant to the idea, and Max isn’t.  She hesitantly agrees to go out to dinner with him.

At Luke’s, Lorelei and Sookie are talking about Max.  Sookie starts fixing people’s food at Luke’s while they’re talking about Max and how Lorelei feels about him.  Luke isn’t happy Sookie is behind the counter “helping.”  And we learn Lorelei hasn’t told Rory, but before Lorelei can finish explaining how she was speaking metaphorically to Sookie, we find out that Cinnamon dies.

There’s a memorial at Babette’s house, where there is a wake for Cinnamon.  Michel’s reaction was funny…and how did they fit so many people into that tiny house?  Naturally, Sookie and Luke are fighting about placement of food.  Sookie’s trying to be all organized while Luke just sets the food down and lets people go at it.

Rory finds out about Lorelei’s date with Max, which Lorelei forgot to cancel (because of the wake).  She reschedules and goes back to the wake, where she talks to Babette about Cinnamon and her medications.  Babette is so sad about Cinnamon and her relationship with Morey.  That house is designed for Babette.  I wish I could live in a house where everything was designed for my height.  The joys of being not quite 5 feet tall.  Fun fact: Sally Struthers, who plays Babette, is 5’1″

Rory tells Dean she’s interested in him and then runs off.  She and Lorelei finally talk about Lorelei’s now-cancelled date with Max.  Rory’s upset (again, I don’t blame her) but they work out the weird feelings the date brought up.

The episode ends with Lorelei and Emily talking about how Emily couldn’t reach Lorelei.  Emily’s not happy that Lorelei didn’t go to her cousin’s funeral but went to a cat’s wake.

Crazy References: Henry VIII, M. Night Shamalan, Iran Contra scandal

Favorite Lines/Scenes: Emily, to Rory: “Rory, correct me if I’m wrong, but men have landed on the moon, regardless of whether your mother remembers it or not.”

Rory: “That’s the rumor.”

Michel, to a French business man: “I am from Texas.”

Emily, to Lorelei: “Hold on, I’m looking up aneurysm in the medical dictionary to see if I just had one.

Final thoughts: I like this episode, but it’s just average.  The town attending a wake for a cat really is Stars Hallow, and it’s the first of many town events we get to see during the series.  Granted, it’s not, like, a festival or anything, but we do see some fun things.

This episode gets 3 mugs of coffee.

The Deer-Hunters originally aired October 26, 2000.  It was written by Jed Seidel and was directed by Alan Myerson.

In this episode, a deer hits Lorelei’s car while Rory drives to Chilton.  It causes her to miss a Shakespeare exam, which could have disastrous consequences for her GPA.

This is one of the more memorable episodes of Gilmore Girls…all because of a deer.

We start off with Rory shopping for school supplies.  Rory needs serious school supplies, because she’s going to a serious school.  Lorelei, of course, has to make fun of Rory for this.

Rory gets a bad grade on an essay, and starts worrying about her Shakespeare test.  She, of course, gets shit from Paris.  From there, we go to the Independence Inn, where Lorelei reads a review about the restaraunt at the inn.  I love Sookie’s reaction to her magic risotto being described as just fine.

I just love Mrs. Kim.  Every time I see her, I can’t help but laugh.  The way she says things just cracks me up.  And Drella playing Black Sabbath (I think).  Very funny.

We meet Max Medina, one of Rory’s teachers, at a parent-teacher meeting.  I like Max, and I’m glad he sticks around for a while.  This is when Lorelei finds out Rory got a bad grade on an essay, and Rory’s behavior afterwards makes much more sense to Lorelei.

No episode is complete without going to Luke’s.  Rory’s studying, and Luke feeds her.  They talk about Rory’s essay and how humiliated she felt.  Rory doubts herself and her ability to catch up at Chilton.

Sookie has Lorelei taste-test several different risottos and is totally freaking out.  It’s nothing unusual from Sookie.  She even talks to one of the waiters, trying to figure out what happened.

Lorelei helps Rory study, and she eventually falls asleep while studying.  She wakes up late, drives to school…and on her way, a deer hits her.  She doesn’t hit the deer, it hits her while she’s at a stop sign talking to Lane.  She arrives late for her Shakespeare test and isn’t allowed to take it.  She has a melt-down in class, yells at Paris and Tristan, and gets sent to the principal’s office.

Back at the Inn, Sookie discovers that the restaraunt critic ordered the wrong wine with the risotto.  Lorelei goes to Chilton to talk to Headmaster Charleston and Mr. Medina and has a freak-0ut of her own.  Headmaster Charleston refuses to change the rules and says that if Rory can’t handle the pressure, she shouldn’t be at Chilton.

Sookie goes to the critic’s house to serve him the risotto with the proper wine.

Rory and Lorelei talk about Rory’s future at Chilton while looking for the deer, and Rory decides to stay at Chilton.  Max calls and leaves a message for Rory saying that there is an extra credit opportunity for Rory that will make up for missing the test.

Pop culture references: Black Sabbath, B-52’s, Saved By The Bell, Flash Dance

Favorite lines and scenes: Rory and her multiple trips to get all her stuff off of the bus.

Rory and Lane playing Marco Polo at Kim’s Antique’s so Rory can find Lane.

Rory, to Tristan: “And the name is RORY.”

Final Thoughts: I like this episode.  It’s the whole getting hit by a deer, but everyone thinking she hit a deer that makes it memorable.  Rory’s still adjusting to Chilton, but I think she feels better about attending by the end of the episode.

The Deer-Hunters gets 3 mugs of coffee.

The Loreleis’ First Day At Chilton originally aired October 12, 2000.  It was written by Amy Sherman-Palladino and directed by Arlene Sanford.

In this episode, we see Rory’s first day at Chilton, where we learn you get extra points for singing the school song in Latin.  And Chilton is not a place where cutoffs and cowboy hats are considered fashionable.

This episode gets off to a funny start, with Lorelei waking up late because her fuzzy alarm clock didn’t go off.  The cutoffs and cowboy hat?  It’s because she woke up late, couldn’t pick up her dry-cleaning, and thus had nothing to wear.

The rodeo comment by Rory was hilarious.

Of course, we get our first look at Chilton a few minutes into the episode- it definitely looks like an elite prep school in New England.  Or at least, what I imagine an elite prep school in New England to be.  I love how Lorelei starts to go off on tangents when they’re meeting the Headmaster- and what I love about the series.  It’s just full of tangents.

I love the crap Lorelei gets for wearing shorts for Rory’s first day at Chilton.  Part of me would love to go to Chilton, because it doesn’t seem like your typical school.  I don’t know what what’s going on with Chilton, but it seems like they have majors.  In high school.  And with the classes and the class schedule, it seems more like college than high school.

I forgot how annoying and high-strung Paris was in high school.  She’s just like that, period, but much more amplified at Chilton.  The Rory-Paris relationship is an interesting one, and it starts off a little bit hostile.  Don’t worry, though, it changes.

Jackson cracks me up, and I love the relationship he has with Sookie.  I love them on their own, but when you get them together, hilarity ensues.  And Michel is hilarious.  Babette is one of my favorite characters.  Actually, I love the colorful people that populate Star Hollows.

We meet quite a few characters in this episode- Paris, Madeleine and Louise (who I can never tell apart), Headmaster Charleston, Tristan, Jackson and Babette.  And Mick, who later turns into Kirk…which is one of those weird continuity errors and a tale for another episode.

Pop culture references include The Shining, Alice In Wonderland and The Dukes of Hazzard.  Plus a few I probably missed because I wasn’t on the look-out.  I really need to pay attention to these things.  What I did notice, however, was the first reference to Al’s Pancake World.  Spoiler alert- for all the time Al’s is mentioned, we never actually meet Al or see Al’s Pancake world, which is a disappointment.  That’s one place and person I’d love to see.

Favorite line: From Emily: “Do you want a ride or is your horse parked out front?”

Miss Patty, to her dance class: “you don’t want to drop harry potter, then he’ll die and you’ll never know what happened.”

Final thoughts: I liked this episode.  It’s introducing us to a lot of the people and places, which continues for at least one or two episodes (if not more).  And that seems like a really low estimate, but it’s the first season and all, so it’ll take time before we meet everyone.  Especially with the huge cast that Gilmore Girls has.

This episode gets 3 out of 5 mugs.  I liked it, but it’s average.

The pilot episode originally aired October 5, 2000, was written by Amy Sherman-Palladino and was directed by Lesli Linka Glatter.

In this episode, Rory gets accepted into Chilton, an elite prep school in Hartford.  Her mother Lorelei has to make amends with her parents in order to borrow the money for Rory’s tuition.  But it comes with strings attached- in the form of a weekly Friday night dinner.

Seeing this episode was such a trip.  It’s not as fresh in my mind as some of the other episodes, and seeing how different a lot of the characters looked (in comparison to the series finale) was a little startling.  It was also strange to see how different some of the sets looked, especially Luke’s Diner, Emily and Richard’s house and Lorelei and Rory’s house.

So much is set up in this episode- we see a lot of the places and meet a lot of characters that will stick around for the rest of the series.  I’ve already mentioned Luke’s, Lorelei’s house and Emily’s house, but Chilton will be a pretty important location over the next few seasons.  Same thing with the Independence Inn and Miss Patty’s.  Plus a few other locations that we’ll see over the course of the series.

As for other characters (besides the Gilmore’s anyway), we meet Sookie and Lane, who are Lorelei and Rory’s best friends, respectively.  We also meet Luke, Miss Patty, Mrs. Kim (Lane’s mom), Michel and Dean.

One thing I really love about this series is the different relationships between Rory, Lorelei and Emily.  And really, that’s what the series is about: mother-daughter relationships.  You get a pretty good sense of the kind of relationship between the three of them…but I’m a big fan of the series, so that might be coloring my perspective a little.

I love the humor and pop culture references.  It’ll be fun to try to figure them out.  In this episode, references include West Side Story, Rosemary’s Baby, Moby Dick, Flo Jo and RuPaul.  One interesting thing to keep in mind for this show is the fact that their scripts were double the length of your standard hour-long drama.  Most are around 4o to 45, I think, but Gilmore Girls was usually somewhere in the 80-page range.

Funny lines and scenes: “RuPaul doesn’t need this much make-up.”

Lorelei persuading Luke to give her more coffee at the beginning of the episode…complete with her very own mug.

There’s a scene were Lorelei goes to her parents house, and they’re trying to figure out what holiday it is.  It kind of implies that she only sees them during the holidays.

Final thoughts: For a pilot episode, it’s pretty good.  I have the feeling that if it were to air today, it probably would be cancelled way too early.  There aren’t as many good one-liners as I remembered, but it was fun to watch.

Let’s see…rating time!  Given how much Lorelei and Rory love coffee (as do I), I think I’m going to rate things on a scale of 1 to 5 coffee mugs.  And this episode gets 3.5 mugs.