Boy, oh boy, a lot happened on Gilmore Girls this week. Before I dive in to this funny, juicy episode, let me go right into the three major plot points:1. It's the day after Luke's postponed the wedding, and Lorelai is coming to grips with why. She understands that he needs to give Luke space with April, so she agrees to not visit the diner while she's around. But she's curious, so she goes into the sweet shop and looks at her through the window between the stores (I knew there was a reason they put that window up three years ago!). The whole town, conveniently gathered in the sweet shop to sample some hot chocolate, joins her, curious to know what Luke's daughter is like ("She's reading!" they say in amazement). Lorelai ducks out before Luke can see what's going on. She wants to get to know April and get things right with Luke, but wants to be the Good Fiancé, so she's stamping down her burgeoning doubt about the relationship. More roadblocks to come, I guess.
2. Paris' reign of terror at the Yale Daily News has caused most of the staff to quit, threatening the next issue (it printed on D-Day and when JFK was killed, but it seemingly can't withstand the seige of Paris). Paris melts down, thinking she can put the thing out herself. Rory, plucky duck that she is, takes over and whips everyone into action. Logan, whom she finally agreed to join for dinner, comes by looking for her and pitches in, using his inbred newspapering skills and Huntzberger name to help get the paper out on time. Oh, and he also brought dinner. Rory's so taken with the gesture that she falls into his arms. Finally, Paris comes out of her sealed cube and congratulates everyone for their hard work (no thanks to her, of course). By the way, when did Logan become such a mensch? Is he ever going to go back to being a grinning jerk-off?
3. The biggie: Yale sends back Richard's tuition check, and he calls Lorelai to see what's up. She tries to convince Rory to tell her grandparents about Christopher's money, but she doesn't want to talk to them. So Lorelai breaks down and tells Richard and Emily about it herself. In the process, she convinces them to have her and Rory over for Friday Night Dinner. When they arrive, the reception is cold, to say the least. For once, Lorelai plays the mature one and forces the other three to get drop their passive-agressiveness and get everything out in the open. The rest of the night plays out in ping-pong fashion, where all four fight around the dinner table about the entire Rory mess, then take a break to enjoy sorbet. After a brief interlude where Richard and Emily fight about that airplane she was shopping for, the four laugh at Emily's retelling of her verbal gutting of Shira Huntzberger. Then we see Rory and Emily fighting over the DAR while Richard and Lorelai listen exhaustedly, right before we hear Emily and Lorelai fighting over Lorelai's dropping out of school when she was 16 and pregnant with Rory.
Whew! A lot of family business came out that night. By the end of the episode, we see the girls walking out of the Gilmore house dazed and disheveled, as if they've just gotten out of a Dynasty-style catfight. "I think we've officially reinstated Friday Night Dinner," says Loreali as we fade to the credits. Hmm. Wonder why? Because they need to hash out more stuff? Because Emily and RIchard have insisted on paying for Yale? If anyone can interpret this better than I can, let me know in the comments.
Overall, a cleverly-written, funny, and creatively-shot episode. The frantic nature of the Friday Night Dinner was captured in a great combination of shaky hand-held camera shots and jump cuts, something that I had not seen on GG to this point. While I might not want to see it all the time, it was used to great effect here, showing both how nutty and exhausting the night was. Lauren Graham was especially on her game tonight, doing comedic turns like faking a haughty British accent saying silly British words, then telling an off-the-cuff story about the big haunted house in "Hartfordshireville" to Rory as they contepmplate what awaits them on the other side of Richard and Emily's door. To my mind, this was among the best episodes of the year and has set up the remaining run for the year quite well. Looking forward to see what's next (Rory and Logan have a SHOCKING surprise! Maybe they have a kid no one knows about, too!).
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-31-2006 @ 10:38PM
nicole said...
i thought that the last 10 minutes of this episode was riviting. The Gilmores not only adressed thing that happend this season but things that happend in the past. I felt that the first 50 min. was a litle boring.Expect for Lauren Graham's brillant acting in the soda shop and her reactions when the Luke has a kid thing came up. Also her impersantions of her parents and her brtish accent when she was at yale was great comdmedic timing.
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1-31-2006 @ 11:12PM
Mark said...
Great episode - witty writing, good delivery by all actors, interesting/different camerawork/editing/directing.
In terms of why Lorelei said the dinners had been reinstated:
She simply means that they're acting like their typical selves again - arguing, laughing, fighting, talking to each other. Things are back to normal. That's all - no secrets that we missed! ;-)
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1-31-2006 @ 11:22PM
RFRY said...
As to Lorelai's comment that they've reinstated Friday night dinner, I read it as that Lorelai and Rory felt that the best way to smooth over her parents' ruffled feathers would be to commit (at least, informally, despite her use of the word 'officially') to coming to dinner (i.e. to contact between the four of them on a regular basis) which is what Richard and Emily were trying to achieve with Friday night dinner in the first place (oh so many years ago).
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2-01-2006 @ 12:39AM
Chrisfa1 said...
Coffee Cup Craziness: I know this in minor & crazy but, it's destracting me. Has anyone else noticed the craziness with paper coffee cups on Gilmore Girls & the O?. It's so obvious there's no ACTUAL liquid in their cups. Alexis Bledel was really our of control with hers on last night's episode... she was flinging them all over the place... people could've gotten hurt... is it so hard to put some actuall coffee in these things?
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2-01-2006 @ 2:26AM
ria said...
I LOVED THIS EPISODE! It flowed smoothly from start to finish. The scenes with Rory were necessary-first to reaffirm her decision to return to Yale & secondly it proved Mitchum Huntzberger wrong! She definitely has what it takes!! I think her performance underfire may be important in the future in her relationship with the Huntzberger clan. Whoever made the comment regarding Lorelai being the mature one for a change was dead on. It was interesting to watch Luke be the "spaz" & Lorelai trying to give him his space. And then - my oh my - the scene at Chez Gilmore was truly inspired. Again, a mature Lorelai is the one now insisting on clearing the air. Everything about it was freakin' brilliant!! The handheld camera put you inside the scene. The change in tones was telling. The initial hurt eventually gave way to the healing power of laughter. The wild, disheveled look on L/R remind us that their relationship with the elder Gilmores will never be easy. But I, for one, am glad Friday night dinners will be resumed BUT NOT FORCED. Perhaps they'll finally come together as a family. In my very humble opinion, it was one of the best scenes in TV history. Lauren Graham is definitely the most underappreciated actress there is. She was absolutely fabulous in this episode -riding an emotional wave and realistically portraying every subtle nuance. The whole thing was a joy to watch. In fact, I've already watched it again!!
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2-01-2006 @ 2:32AM
han said...
I thought it was a great episode. I particularly liked the end when all the Gilmores were fighting. It wasn't as long as I thought it would be, but it was a lot of fun to watch.
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2-01-2006 @ 3:07AM
Diana said...
My favorite episode ever! I like Logan and was glad to see them get back together. The battle at the end was classic! Loved the camera angles.
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2-01-2006 @ 7:18AM
C.M. said...
Loved it. Correct when they said so much happend. Lorelia, was in a change of behavior. Happens when those you lean on suddenly seem to need to do some leaning on thier own. I am glad that she was not over wrought and did not cancel things for the wedding. From the next episode suprise I wonder if Rory and Logan are planning on geting married? They seemsed to hint, ( not that all hinting is true, to the suggestion) that they are expecting. That would deffinatly put a really weird glitch in the series. I mean even Suki's children are hardly ever seen. Maybe they will have the wedding, maybe a joint wedding? Who knows, but I know that it was a brilliantly written episode, and it is refreshing to watch people having complex relationships and wow, intelligent and well read too. Love all the literature refrences. It is good to be well read.
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2-01-2006 @ 7:47AM
jb said...
Coffee Cup Craziness: I am with you! I thought I was the only one who actually thought about those coffee cups. I love the show, but everytime I see those coffee cups, I always have to wonder why, oh why, can't they just fill them with water or something? It's so blatently obvious they are empty.
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2-01-2006 @ 8:07AM
LPecht said...
I agree with all the above comments. My vote for what comes next: Rory and Logan announce they've married, something happens to April's Mom and she must come to live with Lorelai and Luke, Richard and Emily have a problem with that situation as well as still having adjustment problems with the mutual Friday night dinners vs the forced ones. Logan will be forced to leave Yale and take over a newspaper just far enough away from Yale campus to cause a comuting situation since Rory will remain in school. And the beat goes on!
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2-01-2006 @ 8:34AM
Meesh said...
Thank GOD someone else is as ocd as me with regards to the coffee cups. It drives me CRAZY! At least fill them with water or a lump of playdoh or SOMETHING to weight it down. That is the second show this week with the phoney coffee (Love Monkey had a fake coffee moment, although they did try to interact with said fake coffee in an attempt at believability)
Gah! ok... rant over.
Great episode. The dinner-fight was the perfect mix of funny/uncomfortable.
I really hope the foreshadowing of next weeks episode is not intimating that Rory is preggers. That would be so obvious a story arch. I'm thinking they elope or something, which would be equally as horrifying to the Gilmore Clan.
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2-01-2006 @ 9:06AM
Tammy said...
I think the thing with April is helping Lorelai realize what it must have been like for her parents not getting to see Rory grow up. Plus having Rory act the way Lor did years ago shows her how stubborn she was too. Lorelai was there for her Mom when the riff started with Rory because having Rory freeze her out made her realize what her Mom felt when Lor left at 16. Just so many things have happened in the last year that has made Lorelai appreciate family, so she stood up to everyone and made them hash it out in true Gilmore fashion. I loved it.
As for the surprise, my guess is they are moving in together. Nothing too dramatic but you know this will shock Emily and Richard. Still it's big news and it's more about Rory growing up. (My mother had a cow when I wanted to have a male roommate in college, I would have been disowned if I had moved in with my boyfriend!)
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2-01-2006 @ 9:57AM
Ruan Caiman said...
My guess as to the surprise -
They're moving in together - makes sense because they're probably not just going to elope but everybody wants Rory to move out of the dumpy place. Seems like the kind of decision they would make.
I think that if just one evening with Jesse can inspire/shame Rory back to school and drive her to right her relationship with her mother after months of Logan only inspired sloth, then Logan's not a good influence.
And where is Doyle?
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2-01-2006 @ 10:07AM
Jordan Running said...
I thought that the first half of this episode dragged a bit, but I was very impressed at how in the end they were able to take one of the show's oldest and most played-out themes--Gilmore family intergenerational strife--and make it seem fresh.
I think, however, that Rory's ultimate takeover of the Yale Daily News is just too obvious and inevitable and they should have gotten it over with two episodes ago when we all realized it was coming.
Unless there's a significant time-shift between this episode and the next it's not even possible for Rory get--and figure out that she is--pregnant (assuming there wasn't any secret off-screen hanky-panky, that is), so I've got my fingers crossed that the show isn't going to go down that obvious path.
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2-02-2006 @ 11:34PM
Erin said...
Yeah, I agree that Logan and Rory will probably move in together. Since the promo people are notorious for making the promos deceptive, I'm not going to believe that Rory is either pregnant or engaged.
I loved this episode. I definitely think it was one of the best of the season. I've read lots of complaints on message boards about the camera work in the last sequences, but I happened to think, like pretty much everyone here, that it was effective and fun.
Can't wait for next week!
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2-03-2006 @ 10:42PM
dave said...
If you started watching GG in Oct 2000 you know how good this episode was and it sounds like all of you do, in fact I feel all of you are very glued into this thing called GG.
Now I would like to hear what all of you think the last episode of what we all agree is one of the great
TV shows in history will be?
Just because I love AS-P and DP I say the last show will be The Wedding of Luke and Lorelai and Rory and Logan.
Dave Murrieta, CA
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2-04-2006 @ 3:12PM
Kerstin said...
I liked this episode alot, but Paris is an annoying brat! She needs to be kicked in the behind - hard!
Lauren Graham never ceased to amaze me. She is the best actress I know. She plays so wonderful. I just love her on the show.
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2-06-2006 @ 6:27PM
Loren Mazariegos said...
well, i live in Guatemala so i haven`t see the episode yet. I really haven`t see a lot that you already saw but i just want to say that this is the best page about television shows that i have visit. so congratulations! i really like the way you write.
loren
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2-13-2006 @ 8:02AM
Laura Tew said...
This show sucks now!!!!! All people talk about is who will I sleep with tonight!! UGH!!! What happened to the original story line?
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