Tag Archives: recap

GG 2 x 3: Red Light On The Wedding Night

Posted in Season Two by

Red Light On The Wedding Night originally aired October 16, 2001.  It was written by Daniel Palladino and was directed by Gail Mancuso.

We open this episode with Rory and Lorelei taste-testing different cakes at a bakery in Stars Hollow.  Rory printed up some quotes for the invitations…which is super weird because THE WEDDING IS IN TWO WEEKS!  I get this is a low-key wedding planned that has been planned in 3 months, but who prints up invitations for said wedding TWO WEEKS BEFORE THE WEDDING IS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN?!?!  I’ve never planned a wedding, and I have never been involved in the planning of a wedding, but shouldn’t the invitations be one of the first things you take care of?  Rory wonders about the ethics of taste-testing when Sookie is going to be making the test.  And then Fran mentions something about a coffee-flavored cake.

Next, Max and Lorelei hire Kirk, of all people, to be their wedding photographer.  I know any scene Kirk is in is going to be funny in a very strange way, but again, why are they leaving stuff until 2 weeks before the wedding?  The chairs, catering and location are taken care of right away, but you wait a couple months to hire a photographer and to print invitations?  That seems a little backward to me.  Anyway, Lorelei asks Max to stay over, because his apartment is going to be painted, and that way, he doesn’t have to go back and forth.

Rory and Dean are talking about their plans for the evening, when Rory brings up going on a double-date with Lorelei and Max.  We find Max cooking dinner, and Rory thinks the food smells good, even though it’s weird that someone is actually cooking in the kitchen.  They seem surprised by the fact that the oven has a broiler, and I’m not sure if they’re just joking around, or if they’re being serious.  Maybe it’s both!

Later that night, Lorelei goes to talk to Rory, because it’s weird for her to have Max there.  Rory tells her that it’s just Max, but Lorelei starts talking about how their life will change once Lorelei gets married, because it won’t be a girls-only, no boys allowed club anymore.

At breakfast the next morning, Taylor is in a good mood because Stars Hollow is getting its first traffic light.  This doesn’t go over well with Luke, who uses it as a way to get out of talking about Lorelei’s wedding.  We go on the double date, which ends with Max learning that there’s no need for him to be a parent with Rory.  Basically, Max comments on how Rory and Dean are still on the porch, wonders what he should do if he comes home and they’re making out on the couch.  Lorelei says that since Rory’s all grown-up at the age of 16- I think she’s still 16- at this point, so let’s go with that- there’s no need for him to parent Rory because she’ll handle it.  Lorelei doesn’t see the problem, and Max wonders what his role is, other than answering the phone and making garlic bread.  He asks Lorelei if she’s even thought about how their future, because they’re taking two very different lives and melding them together.  Not surprisingly, Lorelei hasn’t thought about it, but says she’ll start thinking about it.  Seriously, two-ish weeks before you’re getting married, and you’re just now talking about stuff like Max’s role in Rory’s life?  They make up minutes later, and so we find Lorelei and Sookie talking about Lorelei’s bachelorette party at the installation of the traffic light.

Fast forward to the party- which takes place at a club, and somehow Rory manages to get in, despite the fact that she needs to be 18, and is currently 16.  I sort of have an issue with this- I mean, Lorelei and Rory are super-close, and you’d think it would occur to Lorelei that maybe her bachelorette party should be somewhere that Rory is, oh, I don’t know, actually allowed to get into?  Unsurprisingly, Rory actually gets in, and they find Emily sitting at a table.  Everyone (Michel, Sookie, Miss Patty, Lorelei and Rory) order drinks, and Emily talks about how excited she was the week leading up to her wedding.  Emily shares that she would try her dress on every single night.  Sookie calls Jackson, Rory talks to Dean and Lorelei calls…Chris.

She goes off into a corner, and just wanted to share her news with someone who knew her, but it turned out that Rory had told him Lorelei was seeing Max.

The next day, she’s at work, and Michel, Sookie and Lorelei are all hung over.  Max shows up, because he wanted to drop something off, but couldn’t, because he doesn’t have keys and there was no one to let him in.  Lorelei apparently keeps forgetting to give him keys, and he’s trying to not read too much into it, but he eventually tells her to think of someone besides herself.  He apologizes immediately.

Later, Rory asks Lorelei why she called Chris at her bachelorette party, and Lorelei blames it on the Long Island Ice Tea.  Which is totally weird, because she ordered her drink and talked to Chris, like, a few seconds later.  At this point, I think she’s having doubts, especially after what Emily said, and just needed to blame it on something.

Luke built a hoopah for Lorelei, and they talk about weddings and relationships.

The episode ends with Lorelei cancelling the wedding because she didn’t try on her wedding dress everyday, and Lorelei and Rory going on a road trip.

So, here’s what I’ve been not saying the last couple weeks.  I’ve seen each season several times, so I knew that things wouldn’t work out between Lorelei and Max.  At least Lorelei didn’t actually get married, but watching it this time around, it really seemed like Lorelei wasn’t sure about getting married from the moment Max proposed- maybe even saying yes, because that’s what people expected her to do…which is really unlike Lorelei.

Favorite lines:

Rory, in reference to ethics: Highly subjective and completely over-rated.

Lorelei: I hate funny bottoms.

Pop Culture:

Billy Jack, Mussolini, Brady Bunch, Yogi Berra, AI (the Haley Joel Osment movie)

Final Thoughts:

This really was a frustrating episode- much more than what I remembered.  Honestly, it seemed like Max was much more willing to be in a serious relationship than Lorelei.  I found myself agreeing with Max several times throughout the episode.  Just because Rory’s 16 doesn’t mean Max shouldn’t have a role in raising her.  Just…this was a really frustrating episode.  It gets 2 mugs of coffee.

GG 2 x 2: Hammers And Veils

Posted in Season Two, The Gilmore Girls Project by

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.

GG 2 x 1: Sadie, Sadie

Posted in Season Two, The Gilmore Girls Project by

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.

Gilmore Girls: Season One Wrap-Up

Posted in Season One, Season Wrap-Up, The Gilmore Girls Project by

I can’t believe I’m finished with Season One of Gilmore Girls already!  Season Two will begin next week, but for today, I thought I’d share some of my general thoughts on Season One.

It’s definitely been a learning experience, and I’m definitely trying to include more of my thoughts on the show.  I’ve also learned that writing the posts on each episode are a lot easier when I take notes and then write the episode, instead of writing the post as I watch the episode.  The one thing I still struggle with is not including spoilers for future seasons.  Clearly, I have spoilers for each episode, but the hard part is when I see something that’s important in later seasons.  Believe me when I say that I’ve noticed quite a few things in season one that I never realized were mentioned so early on!  If I do include spoilers for future seasons, I’ll definitely put up spoiler alerts.  It will definitely be kept to a minimum.

So…season one had 21 episodes.  The lowest rated episodes were Episodes 8 (Love & Snow & War) and 18 (The Third Lorelei), which got 2 mugs of coffee.  And Episode 15 (Christopher Returns) got 5 mugs of coffee.  I think those were my least favorite and favorite episodes.

In general, I liked Season One.  I just love the town events and the very strange people that live in Stars Hollow.  I’m so glad we get to see town events!  And I love that the show is about mother-daughter relationships, and how there are so many different relationships.  A lot of times, Friday night dinners are funny, but I think they also show how different Lorelei is from her parents.

Re-watching this season, I realized that Rory is a bit too perfect.  I’m not completely sure if she falls into Mary Sue territory, but she does have a few Mary Sue tendencies.  As much as I like Rory, and as much as I love that she’s smart and loves to read, I kinda thought she’s a bit too unbelievable at times.  Seriously, how many 16 years-old read classics willingly?  I suppose it’s possible, and it is a t.v. show after all.  You really have to love the magic and logic of t.v. sometimes.

But I also think it’s partly in contrast to Lorelei.  Lorelei getting pregnant at 16, not wanting to get married, and leaving home to work as a maid and live in a tool shed is pretty well-known, and we definitely know that Lorelei’s a disappointment and made some mistakes. So, you have to wonder if Rory being this amazingly smart, nice person that almost everyone loves and who doesn’t do anything wrong is a way of showing how different she is from her mother, and to show how different their relationship is from the one Lorelei and Emily have.  We only get bits and pieces of what happened when Lorelei was pregnant, and we continue to get bits and pieces of her relationship with her throughout the series.  I can’t remember how much we get from Emily and Richard’s perspective, but in comparison to Lorelei’s side of what happened, it’s definitely not a lot.  I may have to pay more attention to that.

I certainly can’t pass up talking about their love interests.  Lorelei first…her and Max!  Thinking about it now, I’m not completely sold on her and Max.  They just seem too different to completely work.  And that goes for Rory and Dean too.  I’m not the biggest fan of Dean, and there are times when I think he’s a jerk.  But there are a few times when I feel a little bad for Dean too.

I’m generally not one for nit-picking but there are some things I thought were strange.  I already mentioned Rory being kind of perfect, but it also seems like her only friends are Lane, Lorelei and Sookie.  It’s possible she has other friends we never hear about, but still weird.  The more likely possibility is that the cast is already a pretty big cast, and so the powers that be didn’t want to add more people to the cast.  But you’d think they’d at least mention other friends, even if they don’t make an appearance.  And Stars Hollow High and Chilton are certainly interesting schools, if they have majors and open up classrooms for students on weekends to work on a group project.

Overall, I did like season one, which had overall rating of 3.29.  I’m really looking forward to watching season 2.

GG 1 x 21: Love, Daisies And Troubadours

Posted in Season One, The Gilmore Girls Project by

Love, Daisies & Troubadours originally aired May 10, 2001.  It was written by Daniel Palladino and was directed by Amy Sherman-Palladino.

We open with Lorelei waking up early because Luke is fixing her porch rail at 6:30 in the morning.  She wakes up Rory and proceeds to ask Luke why he’s fixing things so early.

At the inn, Michel and Sookie are suffering from onry- and we learn that Sookie seems to be a hypochondriac.  Later on, Lorelei is telling Rory about a dream and is trying to describe one of the townspeople to Rory, but can’t remember his name, so she asks Luke.  We see Rory find the Dean box in the closet, and Lorelei explains that she couldn’t throw it away.  Lorelei apparently regrets getting rid of some of her boyfriend boxes, and wants Rory to look back at the box someday and think about how she had an interesting life.  We see Rory looking at some of the stuff in the box.

We next see Rory and Lane talking, with Lane mentioning that someone from Stars Hollow High said she was good cheerleading material.  Rory looks at Doosey’s and says she’s going in, even though it’s not Wednesday.  Lane gets excited, because she thinks Rory and Dean are getting back together.  Rory goes inside, to learn that Dean isn’t there.

At Chilton, Tristan asks Rory to go see P.J. Harvey with him, but she turns him down.  Rory lends her biology notes to Madeleine.  And minutes later, Tristan tells Paris, Madeleine, and Louise that he and Rory are going to see P.J. Harvey- and Paris (naturally) doesn’t take it well.  Meanwhile, Lorelei runs into Rachel, who is looking for Luke, because they were meeting for lunch, and he was a n0-show. He, of course, is at Lorelei’s fixing things, and Lorelei wonders why he’s not spending his free time with Rachel.  Luke is definitely used to being alone, and having Rachel there is a big adjustment for him.

Rory goes to Dean’s house and meets his sister, but eventually runs off when he comes downstairs.  Next, we see the town meeting, where the main topic of discussion is how there can only be one town troubadour.  Rory gives this speech about how he should be able to sing around town, but really, it was about how she wanted to fix things with Dean but couldn’t.  After the meeting, Rachel leaves town, because she thinks Luke is interested in Lorelei.  As she leaves the diner, she tells him not to wait too long to tell her.

At Chilton, Rory tries to give Madeleine the notes she asked for, but refuses to take them.  Paris tells Rory that she never should have let her guard down, and how Rory is going to get some less-than-stellar writing assignments for the school newspaper the following school year.

Luke comes over to pick up his toolbox, and then Max comes by for his date with Lorelei.  I definitely sensed a competitive vibe between the two of them.  Max thought Luke and Lorelei dated while they were apart, and Max admits that he saw people during their separation.  He ends up proposing, but Lorelei doesn’t agree to it- she doesn’t want it to be a way to stop their bickering, and thinks it should be planned, with music and 1000 yellow daisies and a horse.

We see Tristan waiting for Rory, and wants her to go to the concert with him, but she still refuses to go with him.  He takes her books, and we see that Dean came by to talk to her, but changed his mind after seeing her with Tristan.  She tells him she loves him (finally!) and they stand in the courtyard kissing.  Random thought time: Shouldn’t Dean be in school?

Moving on, Lorelei arrives at the inn to find 1000 yellow daisies, which was Max’s way of proposing to her the proper way.  He wants her to take some time to think about it.

The episode ends with Lorelei and Rory sharing their good news in the middle of the street.

Favorite lines/scenes: Nothing really jumped out at me in this episode, but I did like the town meeting.

Pop culture: Dick Tracy, Henry David Thoreau, Lee Harvey Oswald, Unibomber, Blue, Courtney Love

Final Thoughts:

I liked this episode, and it was a pretty decent season finale.  I like that things were wrapped up really well.  It really is how a finale should be, as far as things being wrapped up.  There are also quite a few things we’ll see throughout Season Two.  Overall, this episode wasn’t too memorable, but still a fun episode to watch.  It gets 3 mugs of coffee.

GG 1 x 20: P.S. I Lo…

Posted in Season One, The Gilmore Girls Project by

P.S. I Lo… originally aired May 3, 2001.  It was written by Elaine Arata and Joan Binder Weiss and was directed by Lev L. Spiro.

Brief Summary: Rory goes to Richard and Emily’s house after having a fight with Lorelei.

We open with Rory and Lorelei playing 1,2,3 at the diner.  Luke, of course, wants to know what they’re playing, and watches as Kirk is Lorelei’s choice.  Rory’s first guy is Dean, and they stop playing.

Max calls Lorelei, and Lane and Rory are talking as they walk through town.  Lane tells Rory that Dean doesn’t work at Doosey’s on Wednesdays, while Lorelei later runs into Luke at the Cat Club.  He went shopping to get Rachel a birthday present, but hates going to the mall.  Lorelei volunteers to go shopping for him and will pick out a few potential presents.

Dean is Lane’s partner for a science project, which is awfully convenient.  Mrs. Kim has very specific rules for them working together, and they talk about Rory.  Lane mentions how Rory can’t go into Doosey’s, because Dean works there.  As much as I like Rory, not going into the market because Dean might be in there is a little weird.  It’s a small town, you can’t avoid places just because your ex-boyfriend might there.  Rory walks in and finds them working on the project, and leaves immediately.

The next morning, Lorelei wakes up Rory, and wants her to skip school so they can go shopping together.  Rory goes to school instead, and Lorelei gets a great present for Rachel and a bunch of clothes for Luke, who is insistent that he doesn’t want it.

At Chilton, Rory isn’t paying attention in Mr. Medina’s class, and he wants to talk to her after class.  He’s worried about her, and mentions her break-up with Dean.  Rory is confused as to why he knows about her and Dean, and she learns that Lorelei and Max have been talking for a while, and are now back together.

Back at Luke’s, he’s trying on the clothes Lorelei got, and says he’s going to return them later on.  Meanwhile, Lane is waiting for Rory at the bus stop with coffee, and apologizes for not telling her that she was studying with Dean.  Lane didn’t want to make Rory sad, because Rory gets sad every time someone brings up Dean.  Rory doesn’t want anyone to protect her, and that she’d get over Dean faster if people stopped protecting her.  I totally get Lane’s point, and Rory in this scene was kind of annoying.

Rory and Lorelei talk about how Lorelei didn’t tell Rory about Max- Lorelei didn’t want to share her happy news when Rory was so sad about Dean and because she wanted to give Rory some space.  Rory mentions Lorelei breaking up with guys a lot, so she’s not expecting the thing with Max to last long.  Lorelei stops at the market while Rory goes home…only she goes to Richard and Emily’s instead.  Lorelei arrives at home to find that Rory isn’t there.

When Rory arrives at Richard and Emily’s, they’re getting ready to go to a fundraiser.  Richard pays the cab driver and Rory goes inside.  Random thought- why did Rory take a cab instead of taking the bus?

Anyway, Rory tells them she had a fight with Lorelei, and didn’t know where to go.  She apologizes for ruining their night, and goes to bed early.  Lorelei is all worried about Rory, because she has no idea where Rory is.  Emily calls Lorelei, who wants to go get Rory, but Emily says to wait until morning so everyone can have some time to think and calm down.  The next morning, Rory goes off to school, and Emily mentions that she talked to Lorelei, who wasn’t mad at Rory for leaving, but was really worried.

Lorelei is walking home from Luke’s, after a night of not sleeping well, and sees Dean in the market, so she goes to talk to him.  I really hated how Lorelei went off on Dean, who did tell her about why they broke up.  I’m not the biggest fan of Dean, but I do think he has a point when he says that he’s tired of everyone blaming him for the break-up and how he’s tired of everyone treating him like he’s the bad guy.  I mean, everyone’s so willing to blame Dean, and it’s like the thought that Rory might have had something to do with it never crossed their mind.

Lorelei goes to talk to Rory, and tells Rory that she doesn’t want Rory to make the same mistakes she does, in terms of relationships.  Rory finally talks about the break-up, they make up, and they go home.  The episode ends with Lorelei calling people to tell them she’s dating Max.

Favorite line/scene: Mrs. Kim: “I see all.”

Rory: “Don’t take this personally, but get out.”

Richard: “Rory, I’m sorry you’re upset, but I applaud your timing.”

Pop culture: Anna Nicole Smith, Mary Kay LaTournaeu, Out Of Africa, Meryl Streep, Fabio, GQ, Hanson

Final thoughts: I really liked this episode, which is the last one BEFORE the season finale.  Things are getting wrapped up for the finale, which I’ll talk about next week.  I really can’t think of anything I want to add, so this episode gets 4 mugs of coffee.  I didn’t love this episode, but it’s still pretty good.

GG 1 x 19: Emily In Wonderland

Posted in Season One, The Gilmore Girls Project by

Emily In Wonderland originally aired April 26, 2001.  Emily In Wonderland was written by John Stephens and Linda Loiselle Guzik and was directed by Perry Lang.

Brief Summary: Emily visits Stars Hollow and spends the afternoon with Rory.

We open with Friday night dinner, where Rory is asking for pictures for a visual family history project for school.  We learn that Lorelei burned all of the pictures of her as a kid.  Rory notices that the chairs are new but Lorelei thinks they look the same.  Emily talks about how she’s been looking for them all over the East Coast and how she looked for them for three years in different antique shops.  Rory tells her about Kim’s Antiques and invites her to Stars Hollow for an afternoon.

The next morning, Rachel shows Lorelei a picture of her and Luke at the Firelight Festival and then shows her a picture of an old abandoned inn, and invites Lorelei to go see it with her.  Lorelei mentions that she and Sookie have talked about opening their own inn someday.

At the inn, Lorelei sees Roon in the lobby, and we learn that most of his family doesn’t want to talk to him and that he lost his job and got kicked out of the place he was living in.  Lorelei agrees to let him work at the inn and live in the tool shed, where Lorelei and Rory lived when Rory was a baby.

Meanwhile, Emily arrives in Stars Hollow, and Rory wants to give her a walking tour of Stars Hollow.  Emily, of course, disagrees at first, but Rory says she can borrow a pair of shoes from Lorelei.  They finally arrive at Kim’s Antiques, and Emily initially complains about how cluttered it is…until she spots something she likes.  She browses while Lane and Rory talk.  They eventually leave and Emily mentions how she likes the antique store and the shoes she borrowed from Lorelei.

Meanwhile, Roon asks Michel where his room is and Michel is very amused with this- and doesn’t believe Roon when he says Lorelei hired him.  Lorelei vouches for Roon, and takes him to the tool shed.  Rory and Emily stop by, and Emily and Michel meet.  They really like each other, and then they run into Lorelei before Rory gives Emily the grand tour.

On the one hand, it’s not that hard to believe that Emily rarely makes the trip to Stars Hollow, and that it was probably her first time at the inn.  Especially with the relationship that Lorelei and Emily have.  But you’d think Emily would have an idea of where Lorelei was after leaving home at 16, and gone to bring her back home.  We finally see the shed that Lorelei and Rory lived in, and Emily doesn’t take it well.  I don’t blame her, because Lorelei went from living this really nice life, in a mansion to working as a maid and living in a shed.  It had to have been hard to see.

Back at Luke’s, Lorelei sees his apartment for the first time.  Rachel is showing her pictures, and they talk about Luke.  Lorelei talks to Luke about how he should give Rachel a chance, and that she’d probably end up leaving because she thought he didn’t want her to stay.  Apparently, it’s not the first time he’s heard this speech from her, so I don’t blame him for not believing her.

Rory gets a phone call from Emily, and Emily is asking her a bunch of questions, like her favorite color and her favorite flower.  It turns out that Emily has a big surprise for Rory- a room at the mansion for Rory, since Rory is spending a lot of time there.  Rory goes downstairs, and Emily mentions the shed that Rory and Lorelei lived in.  Lorelei just really needed to live away from Richard and Emily.  It does seem like it was completely horrible for Lorelei, but seriously, why didn’t Emily and Richard make her come home?  It seems like they just let her leave, and had no clue where she was living, but if they did know where she was, why didn’t they go after her?  And if they did, it was certainly never mentioned on the show.  I think they would have mentioned Lorelei leaving twice, but maybe the writers never thought of including that.

The episode ends with Lorelei, Rory and Sookie at the Dragonfly.

Favorite scenes: the opening Friday night dinner

Pop culture: boy bands- notably, N*SYNC, Backstreet Boys and 98 degrees, Charlie’s Angels, Prince, To Kill A Mockingbird, infomercials

Final thoughts: I really liked this episode.  It was nice to see Emily visiting Stars Hollow, which she really doesn’t do very often.  Well, not that we see.  It does bring up an interesting aspect to Emily and Lorelei’s relationship, and you have to wonder why Emily didn’t have a special room for Rory before.  It gets 4 mugs of coffee.

GG 1 x 18: The Third Lorelei

Posted in Season One, The Gilmore Girls Project by

The Third Lorelei originally aired March 22, 2001.  It was written by Amy Sherman-Palladino and was directed by Michael Katleman.

Episode 18 Overview: We meet the original Lorelei, who is visiting the Stars Hollow Gilmores.  She offers to set up a trust fund to pay for Rory’s education- which Emily wants to keep to herself.

We open with Friday night dinner, where everyone is quiet.  Emily brings up the discussions the Kennedy family would have at dinner. Richard comes in and tells everyone that his mother is coming to visit, which prompts Emily to freak out.

Emily is in the basement, trying to find everything that Lorelei 1 ever gave to her, so she could put it around the house.  Rory asks about her on the way home, and wants to like her great-grandmother.

At Chilton, Rory is working on a group assignment with Paris, Louise, Madeleine, Tristan and a few other people.  Paris is annoyed that only Rory is taking the assignment seriously, and wants everyone to meet in the classroom on Saturday and Sunday.  Seriously, what kind of school is that that students can come in on the weekend to do their homework?  Shouldn’t they be learning to meet at people’s houses or something?  This is a very strange fictional school.

At the inn, Lorelei gets a call from her mother, who wants her hat rack back.  Meanwhile, Rory and Tristan talk about the kiss.  He says he’ swearing off girls, which makes Rory laugh.  She tells him he’s going out with the wrong girls, and that he should ask out Paris.

Rory and Lorelei go to Friday night dinner, which Lorelei is excited about because she wants to see her grandmother making her mother uncomfortable.  Rory tells her to be nice, but Lorelei just laughs.  Richard calls his mother Trix, and she meets Rory for the first time.  They talk about different things throughout the night, including Rory’s education and how Richard and Emily are paying for it.

Rory brings coffee and donuts to the study group in the morning, and Tristan asks Paris out in the hallway.  Paris comes to Rory for fashion advice, because she doesn’t want to go to Madeleine and Louise.  She is certainly calmer than Madeleine and Louise, but they would probably be better at it than Rory.  Rory loans Paris an outfit from her mom’s closet because Paris doesn’t have a great wardrobe.

There’s another dinner with Lorelei the First, who doesn’t like the idea of Lorelei borrowing money from Richard and Emily so Rory can go to a good school.  She offers to have a trust fund made available to right immediately, so it can be used for school.  Lorelei’s excited, but Emily isn’t, because it means Lorelei will pay back the money, and they’ll never see Rory or Lorelei again because Emily doesn’t have something to hold over Lorelei’s head.  Emily is convinced that Lorelei will lose Rory the way Emily lost Lorelei.  Seriously, Emily and Lorelei have a very different relationship than the one Rory and Lorelei have.  From what we know of Lorelei and Emily’s relationship so far, there’s a good chance Emily was going to lose Lorelei no matter what happened.  Rory is always going to need Lorelei, because they’re best friends.

Lorelei is letting Emily’s comments get to her, so she doesn’t tell Rory away.  She uses Rory being asleep as an excuse, but plans to tell her after a reassuring talk with Sookie.

Emily talks to Richard about how she wants him to ask Trix to take the money back.  She knows Lorelei the First will never like her, but she worries Lorelei won’t come back if she takes the money.

At Chilton, Tristan tells Paris that he sees them as friends and that Rory set them up.  Paris isn’t happy that Rory set them up, because she doesn’t want to be with a guy Rory rejected first.  Then Rory is annoyed with Tristan for telling Paris and thinks it’s because he’s not over summer…when it’s really because he likes her.

At tea, Emily and Lorelei fight about Lorelei not telling Rory right away.  Lorelei the First trusts Rory with the money, but doesn’t trust Emily and Lorelei with it.

The episode ends Rory telling Lorelei that she probably won’t be getting that outfit back, and Lorelei telling Rory about losing out on a lot of money.

Favorite scenes: Friday night dinner, Emily freaking out about Lorelei the 1st coming, Lorelei talking to the dog statues

Pop culture: Kennedy’s and Camelot, Henry VIII, Barbie, Marx Brothers

Final thoughts: I thought this episode was just okay.  We do see the lengths Emily will go to in order to keep Lorelei coming back for Friday night dinner, and we also see a little bit of the tension between Emily and her mother-in-law.  Lorelei and Emily still don’t have the best relationship but you’d think Rory has gotten close enough to her grandparents to still go visit them every once in a while.  Marion Ross is great at Lorelei the First, and I’m glad that she makes a few more appearances over the next few seasons.  It gets 2 mugs of coffee.

GG 1 x 17: The Breakup, Part II

Posted in Season One, The Gilmore Girls Project by

The Breakup, Part II originally aired on March 15, 2001.  It was written by Amy Sherman-Palladino and was directed by Nick Marck.

Episode 17 Overview: Rory is dealing with her break-up by tackling a long list of things to do, while Lorelei gives into her feelings for Max.

We open right where we left off in the previous episode- with Lorelei and Rory hugging in the hall.  Rory tells her about her night, but doesn’t want to talk about why they broke up.  Lorelei wants more details, because she knows there’s more to it than what Rory is saying.  Rory gets rid of the stuff Dean gave her, and puts it in a box for Lorelei to take far away.  Lorelei puts it in the hall closet, behind a bunch of other boxes.

Then, Rory wakes Lorelei up really early the next morning because she has a list of stuff they say they’re going to do, and then never do.  Lorelei wants to sleep but instead gets up to find that Rory rearranged the furniture in the front room.  Lorelei wants Rory to wallow by eating ice cream, watching sad movies and eating a lot of junk food.

Rory doesn’t want to be that kind of girl.  Not only that, but she doesn’t think it will help.  They take this weird trip to Luke’s because Rory wants to avoid every possible place that Dean could be.  It was nice of Lorelei to indulge Rory, but also a little ridiculous, because it’s a small town and they’re going to run into each other eventually.  I do understand not wanting to run into, but still.  It’s going to happen.

They get to the diner, which is busy, and they have breakfast and coffee.  Everyone’s heard by now, and Rory is all worried that everyone knows, which is why she feels like they’re all staring at her.  Lorelei and Patty talk about it, and Lorelei tells Patty to spread the word about not talking to Rory about it.  Kirk apologizes to Lorelei for not voicing his concerns about Dean earlier.  It’s nice that everyone’s so protective of Rory, because they all love her.

Even Luke is protective, because he gets into a fight with Dean outside the diner.  Lorelei breaks it up, and Rory checks on Dean but he just stalks off and ignores her.  Sometimes, I wonder what Rory ever saw in Dean.  Lorelei and Rory work on the list Rory made, and finally make it home.  Babette comes over to talk to Rory, but Lorelei sends Babette back home.  Rory is looking through her backpack, and finds a flier Madeleine gave her for a party she’s having.  Rory wants to go, which surprises Lorelei, but Rory is insistent on going.

She ends up taking Lane so there’s a friendly face, so we see them getting ready.  She doesn’t want to dwell on the break-up, but realizes she forgot to put the cornstarch in the box.  Lorelei offers to take care of it.  While they go off to the party, Lorelei puts the cornstarch in the Dean box, and finds the Max box she put together.  She goes to Sookie’s house, where she finds Sookie waiting outside, because Jackson is cooking her dinner.  He kicked her out because she kept trying to help him.  She asks to borrow Sookie’s car, because she needs to go somewhere.

At the party, Lane is impressed with the house and Madeleine is excited Rory came.  Louise asks if she and Dean broke up, but Rory lies and says he couldn’t make it.  A few minutes later, Rory tells Paris they broke up.  Paris keeps checking her watch, and tells Rory that her mom doesn’t think she’s enough of a people person, so she has to stay until a specific time.  We learn Paris wants to get into cancer research.  The only Korean guy at the party finds Lane, and Rory promises to come down with something horrible in a couple dances.  Rory wanders around while Lane is dancing.

Meanwhile, Lorelei ends up at Max’s house, where they have make-up sex.  They are still trying to figure out how to be together, but still can’t come up with a good solution.

At the party, Tristan breaks up with his girlfriend Summer, while Paris runs out of the house because she can finally leave.  Lane is freaking out because she likes Henry, and she can’t believe she likes a guy her mom would approve of.  Rory finds Tristan alone, and they talk about school.  He kisses her, but she starts to cry, and leaves with Lane.

The episode ends with Lorelei coming home to find Rory on the couch, ready to wallow.

Favorite Scene: Jackson kicking Sookie out of her own kitchen

Pop Culture: Outkast is playing during the party

Final thoughts: We see the direct aftermath of Rory and Dean breaking up.  I get not wanting to think about it, and wanting to be distracted, but putting it off isn’t going to help either.  Dean ignoring Rory was pretty rude, but it seemed like he was still upset that Rory didn’t say she loved him.  It’s not my favorite episode, but things do get moved along in this episode.  It does what it needs to.  It gets 3 mugs of coffee.

GG 1 x 16: Star-Crossed Lovers And Other Strangers

Posted in Season One, The Gilmore Girls Project by

Star-Crossed Lovers And Other Strangers originally aired March 8, 2001.  The teleplay was by John Stephens and Linda Loiselle Guzik while the story was by Joan Binder Weiss.  This episode was directed by Lesli Linka Glatter.

Brief Overview: We see the preparations for the upcoming Founder’s Firelight Festival, and almost everyone in town is in love.  Lorelei deals with her mother’s matchmaking while Dean and Rory call it quits.

We start with the prep for the festival, and Miss Patty is telling some kids the story of how the Firelight Festival came to be.

From there, we see Dean waiting at the bus stop for Rory.  He asks Rory if she can get out of Friday night dinner, because he wants to celebrate their 3-month anniversary.  Later on, Lorelei talks to Emily about letting Rory get out of dinner for one night, which Emily agrees to.  She doesn’t let Lorelei out of dinner.

Then we’re at Chilton. where Paris and Rory can’t get to their lockers because Tristan is making out with someone in front of their lockers.  I’m wondering, is this a movie and t.v. thing?  Because this never happened to me, and I honestly don’t remember ever seeing this happening.

Meanwhile, Lorelei is annoyed with everyone being in love and acting all couple-y at the inn.  She ends up going to Luke’s for some coffee, and almost gets taken out by a huge star.

Patty and Taylor argue about the Firelight Festival, and Lorelei loudly wonders if people can talk about something other than the festival.  So, Lorelei is definitely not happy that love is in the air.  She suggests that to Luke that the next day, they should hate people who say, “hey, how’s it going?”  Naturally, Luke’s ex-girlfriend Rachel walks in and says “hey, how’s it going?”

We go on to Lorelei helping Rory get ready for her date, and is all worked up because she made an idiot out of herself in front of Rachel.

Lorelei goes to Friday night dinner, sits awkwardly on the couch while Richard read the newspaper.  The doorbell rings, and we learn it’s the son of a friend of Emily’s.  Conveniently, he just happened to be in the area.  But it’s really Emily trying to set Lorelei up with someone suitable, because Emily doesn’t think Lorelei can get a guy on her own.

We see a little bit of Dean and Rory’s date and the beginning of the Firelight festival.  What I find interesting is that we only see the mayor a handful of times, and I believe all of those times are in the first season.  I don’t know if showing the mayor got to be too much, because the cast of Gilmore Girls is pretty big.  And Taylor goes on to fill that role pretty well, so it’s not like we need to see the mayor anyway.  The matches to light the bonfire can’t be found, which happens every year I think the Firelight Festival is the only town event- other than town meetings- that we see more than once.

Lorelei ends up leaving Friday night dinner through the balcony, because Chase is really boring, and Richard finds her trying to leave.  He covers for her, and tells Emily that he couldn’t find her.

Rory and Dean leave the festival (because it’ll take a while for the bonfire to be lit) and they go to this junkyard.  Dean is building Rory a car, and tells her he loves her.  Rory doesn’t say anything for a minute, and then says she loves the car.  She needs to process it, and Dean, naturally, is not happy that he said it, and she’s not saying it back.  She keeps repeating that she needs to think about it, but Dean tells her that it’s not something you think about or make a pro-con list about.

Here’s the thing.  I get why Dean is upset- you tell someone that you love them and they don’t say it back, and then you’re feeling all stupid for putting it out there.  But saying it can be hard…and is it really a surprise that Rory needs some time?  I mean, saying it isn’t easy, so you’d think he’d be more understanding of that.  She’s confused, and it’s a big deal for her, and she wants him to understand where she’s coming from.  He breaks up with her and takes her home.  This just really makes me not like Dean.  I get it’s hard, but to break up with someone because they don’t say I love you right away…Rory’s better off without a guy who will dump her just because she doesn’t say it right back.

Lorelei goes to the festival and runs into Luke.  She goes home and learns that Rory and Dean broke up.

Pop culture: Tolstoy

Favorite line/scene: The story of the firelight festival

Miss Patty, to kids: “Who wants to about the time I danced in a cage for Tito Puente?”

Kids: “Me!”

Final thoughts: This was an interesting episode.  I did not like Dean in this episode, which should be obvious by now.  It sets up a few things that will carry us to the season finale.  It was a really good episode, and it gets 4 mugs of coffee.