The Inns & Outs Of Inns originally aired November 20, 2011. This episode was written by Daniel Palladino and was directed by Michael Katleman.
We open with our go-to opening of Friday night dinner. Richard is in Akron for business, and is miserable there, which Rory doesn’t like, This is the perfect opportunity for Emily to bring up Rory sitting for an oil portrait that will go in Richard’s study.
We go from Friday night dinner to Lorelei and Luke talking about owning a business. Lorelei has a potential location for the inn she wants to open with Sookie- the property Rachel, Luke’s ex, found back in season one. We learn that the inn is owned by Fran, the lady who owns Westin’s Bakery, so Sookie and Lorelei go to talk to Fran about buying the Dragonfly Inn. Fran is surprised, but doesn’t want to sell it, because she has no siblings and no children, and it’s really the closest thing to family Fran has, so Fran is going to own it forever. It was sort of amusing to see Sookie and Lorelei ask Fran about what will happen to the inn when Fran dies…without actually mentioning Fran dying. Fran doesn’t get what they’re getting at, so Fran goes back to work, and asks them if they want a cupcake because they look so sad.
Meanwhile, Lane and Rory come across a “crime scene” at Doosey’s Market. Taylor is convinced that a crime was committed because someone was murdered, when, in reality, it was just a chalk outline with some crime scene tape around the outline. It turns out to be a prank. We are talking about Stars Hollow here, so of course it’s a prank.
Back at the inn, Sookie is telling Lorelei and Rory about a dream she had about everyone and Fran. Michel comes in and tells everyone to pretend like they’re working because the big boss is there. Lorelei and Rory go out into the lobby to see Mia, who apparently is the owner of the Independence Inn. The three girls catch up at Luke’s, where we learn Luke was a Trekkie, and always helping people around town when he was younger. Mia misses small-town life after seeing Taylor and Luke argue about Jess being the prime suspect for the chalk outline. Mia talks about how the inn is really successful because of Lorelei and how she feels redundant because Lorelei is doing a great job and how she remembers when Lorelei first came to the inn almost 15 years earlier with Rory.
After that, Lorelei is telling Sookie about how it never occurred to her to tell Mia about wanting to open her own inn, especially after everything Mia has done for her. We also learn Mia has been there for Lorelei the most. Emily calls, interrupting the conversation Lorelei and Sookie are having. Rory isn’t sitting still, and Lorelei suggests having reading sitting and reading a book, which Emily eventually agrees to.
If Mia is such an important person in Lorelei’s life, why is this the first time we even HEARD of her? I want to give the writers the benefit of the doubt, and am hoping that the reason why we’ve never heard about Mia before because there was never a good way to work it in. When you factor in all of the recurring characters, I can get why we’ve never heard of Mia before.
Moving on, Mia, Rory and Lorelei go to the town meeting, and see Luke, who is also on his way to the meeting. It looks like Lorelei and Rory are going to be on time for once, but when we get there, we learn the meeting has started early because the business community wanted to talk about the “Jess” issue. Luke wasn’t invited, because if he had taken care of it, there wouldn’t be a problem. Luke’s not happy that the town thinks they were better before Jess got there. Lorelei defends Luke and says he’s doing the best he can. Luke leaves, as do Lorelei, Mia and Rory. Rory goes off to check on Dean, while Lorelei finally tells Mia about wanting to open her own inn. This is when we learn that Mia gets a lot of offers to sell the inn, but hadn’t considered it because she didn’t want to do that to Lorelei.
At the inn, Lorelei is distracted and has a huge fight with Sookie about opening their own inn. Lorelei thinks they should look at other locations, because there is no guarantee they’ll be able to get the Dragonfly, since they pretty much have to wait for Fran to die, and Lorelei goes on about how unreliable Sookie is. Sookie is really confused, because they were going forward with it and on the same page, and now they’re not on the same page. They do make up, though.
At Friday night dinner, we see the oil portrait of Rory, reading. Lorelei says the portrait is nice, but doesn’t have the reaction Emily was expecting, because Lorelei goes to apologize and then tells Emily about the fight with Sookie, and how the Independence Inn is going to be sold. Lorelei isn’t taking it well, because she doesn’t like the thought of not being at the Inn, and Mia not being around, because it was her home for so long. Emily accepts the apology but still seems upset about something.
We see Emily at the inn, meeting Mia for the first time. Mia’s wanted to meet Emily, and tells her about the day Lorelei arrived at the inn with Rory and how Mia took Lorelei in because she’d want someone to do that for her daughter, while Emily would want someone to send her daughter home.
One thing I’m not sure about is if Emily and Richard knew where Lorelei went when she left home. I feel like they’ve visited Lorelei and Rory when Rory was a baby, which would mean they knew where Lorelei was living. Was it a while before Lorelei contacted her parents, so they had no way of knowing where she was until she was legally an adult? Because I can see Lorelei not wanting to have a lot of contact with her parents, especially after leaving home. And while it was thoughtful of Mia to take in Lorelei and Rory…why didn’t she send her back home? Maybe Mia tried and decided not to push it after seeing Lorelei’s resistance?
The episode ends with Lorelei and Rory at Luke’s, eating.
Favorite Scenes:
Anytime Michel was on screen, especially the scene were Rory was (wrongly) translating what Michel said to Mia
Pop Culture:
Danger Will Robinson, Star Trek/Trekkies, Glitter, To Kill A Mockingbird, Holden Caufield
Final Thoughts:
Just…so many unanswered questions! It’s just…when you have 3 really stubborn and strong-willed people who have major communication issues- plus a whole host of other issues- you have moments where no one is willing to see the other person’s side…you wonder about things. At any rate, this one was okay. We sort of learn about Lorelei’s early days in Stars Hollow, which really isn’t mentioned on the show…there’s only one other time we learn about her arrival in Stars Hollow that I can remember, and I believe it’s in a future season. This episode gets 2 mugs of coffee.
Book: Love, Aubrey by Suzanne LaFleur
Reading Books With Coffee 