Previously: Rory gained and lost a trust fund.
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Grace: At Friday night dinner, Rory asks Emily for baby pictures of her and Richard for a school project. She needs some for Lorelai too, but apparently Emily has none because when Lorelai was 7 she burned all of her baby pictures because she had an unusually large head. (M: No one is surprised to learn that Emily mentioned her large head often.) To change the subject, Rory comments on Emily’s new dining chairs. These are very rare antique chairs that Emily has been hunting for for years, but she could only find ten. She blames Peg Mossley, who is a friend that Emily shared all her favorite antiquing spots with. That bitch Peg cleaned them all out. Rory says that if Emily wants new sources, why doesn’t she try Kim’s Antiques? Emily has never heard of it, so Rory ignores her mother’s glare and invites her to Stars Hollow for a Saturday antiquing trip. Emily happily accepts.
Where you lead, I will follow!
Luke is serving the girls breakfast at the diner, but Lorelai protests that her eggs on top of the pancakes looks like a face ogling her, and Luke needs to fix it. The long-suffering Luke takes the plate away. Rory asks again if Lorelai won’t have lunch with her and Emily, but Lorelai says lunch won’t work because she has things to do… like not having lunch with her mother.
Rachel (not gonna lie, I forgot her name for a bit) comes over with the pictures she developed from the Firelight Festival and shows Lorelai a cute one of her and Luke. Luke returns with the plate and is awkward about the picture, saying that Lorelai’s eyes are very “symmetrical” before shuffling away to get coffee.
Rory picks out another picture of an abandoned building, which Rachel says is the Dragonfly Inn (!!!!!). Rory has to leave to help Lane with trig. As she leaves, Rachel compliments Lorelai on her not-annoying kid. It’s nicer than it sounds. Lorelai is still admiring the picture of the Dragonfly and asks where it is. It’s behind the old mill, over the footbridge with the mean duck family living under it. Gotta love small town landmarks. Rachel invites Lorelai along on a photography trip later, and Luke comes up as they’re finalizing their plans. When Rachel leaves, Luke says he didn’t realize Lorelai and Rachel were friends because they’re both great, but their different types of greatness are very… different. As in, one of them you clearly love and the other one you’re actually dating? (M: Sounds about right.) He’s generally weird about them hanging out and Lorelai teases him about it, but he insists he’s fine.
Independence Inn. Lorelai welcomes a group of Asian businessmen, then heads for the kitchen, avoiding Rune who is hanging out in the lobby for some reason. Lorelai also wants to know what Rune is doing in the lobby. Sookie tries to bribe her with muffins and coffee (would’ve worked on me, tbh) and finally admits that Rune is still staying with Jackson and won’t leave. Jackson won’t kick him out because “it’s family.” Okay, fine, Lorelai gets that, but why is he in the lobby? Jackson bursts in then with gifts of fruit and jam to thank Lorelai for “helping out Rune.” Sookie signals frantically with a spoon to say that she hasn’t actually asked Lorelai yet, so Jackson bows out awkwardly. See, Sookie was hoping that if Lorelai gave Rune a job, he could save up some money and get his own place and Sookie “won’t end up stabbing him in the neck with a grapefruit spoon.” Lorelai asks what Rune can do, and says she can’t pay him very much. That’s okay because Sookie thought maybe he could work for room and board and stay in the old potting shed. Lorelai protests that the old potting shed is where she and Rory lived when Rory was a baby and she ran away from Hartford. “I don’t want Boo Radley touching my rosebud wallpaper!” But she ends up begrudgingly agreeing.
Rory welcomes Emily to the Gilmore girls’ house, where Emily is less than impressed at the empty refrigerator and Charlie’s Angels plates. Discussing their plans for the day, Rory wants to give her grandma the grand tour of Stars Hollow, which means walking everywhere. Emily isn’t sure she wore the right shoes, but Rory says she can just borrow some of Lorelai’s! Emily looks dubious.
Mari: Her insistence that the shoes not light up in any manner is perfect because I’m 100% sure Lorelai has some kind of illuminated footwear.
Grace: Dragonfly Inn. Rachel asks why Lorelai is so fascinated by the old place, and Lorelai explains her and Sookie’s plan to open their own inn. They discuss career aspirations and how Rachel picked photography because she wanted to keep moving constantly. Now that she’s back with Luke, she’s not so sure. Lorelai says things seem to be going well for them, but Rachel says she wants more than how things have been lately. She wants to settle down for good. Lorelai tries and fails to look happy about this.
Emily and Rory walk through Stars Hollow to Kim’s Antiques.
Emily doesn’t like the chaos inside until she spots a piece she likes. There’s a nice moment when Rory asks if a flowery desk is “something special.” Emily asks, “Do you like it? Then it’s something special.” Lane appears and pulls Rory away for girl talk because Henry still hasn’t called. Rory reassures her that Henry clearly liked her, and he will call. Why else would he dance with her six times? Mrs. Kim and Emily haggle over the pair of cabinets Emily found. Lane and Rory watch and wish they had popcorn. After making a good deal on the cabinets against a worthy opponent, the Gilmores leave. “I like that woman!” Emily says. And she likes the sneakers she borrowed!
Mari: I was expecting it to go badly with Emily and Mrs. Kim. I was pleasantly surprised by how it all worked out.
Grace: Independence Inn. Rune demands that Michel show him to his room and Michel says, “Go away, teeny-tiny man.” They out-rude each other until Lorelai shows up, reluctantly confirms Rune’s story, and leads him away. Rory and Emily visit the inn, which Emily has apparently never seen. She admires the lobby while Rory asks Michel where Lorelai is. When she introduces her grandma, Michel is suddenly all charm. He and Emily chat in French until Rory insists they go find her mom. They quickly run into Lorelai, who is surprised to see them and more surprised to hear that Emily decided to try a place called Teriyaki Joe’s for lunch. After teasing Emily about the jogging shoes, she sends them off to see the grounds.
Walking around the grounds, Rory points out the horses, the tennis courts, and her favorite place: the shed. Emily laughs, but Rory explains this is where they used to live. She shows Emily around the interior, gushing about how cute it was and completely missing the fact that Emily looks stricken. Emily puts on her sunglasses and rushes away. (M: Use your words, Emily!)
Luke’s apartment. Lorelai meets up with Rachel to see some of the pictures of the Dragonfly. She comments that she’s never been in Luke’s apartment before, so Rachel gives her the tour. It used to be Luke’s dad’s office when the diner was a hardware store, so it’s very tight quarters. Lorelai asks if they might move to a bigger place, but Rachel probably won’t be in town much longer. She can’t seem to convince Luke that she really wants to stay this time. (M: So she’s going to leave?) She asks Lorelai to put in a good word for her with Luke if it comes up.
Mari: I can’t get a read on Rachel, but this seems like a weird thing to ask of someone you just met. And I’m not convinced she hasn’t picked up on the mega VIBES between Luke and Lorelai.
Grace: It definitely struck me as weird. You could ask that of your own best friend if they were also best friends with your boyfriend, but they’re not really friends?
While Rachel is looking for the Dragonfly pictures in the bathroom, Luke comes in. He’s startled to see Lorelai on his couch. Rachel comes out, and she and Lorelai tease Luke a little until he leaves. I feel like the point of that was just to highlight his discomfort with the two of them hanging out.
Gilmore Girls House. Rory and Lane are doing homework when Lane tells Rory that Henry finally called and left a message, which she listened to 8 ½ times before her mom came home and she accidentally broke the answering machine in her desperation to erase the message. It was a good message the first few times, but then she started parsing it for subtext. Oh, Lane, honey, that’s a surefire way to ruin it. She recounts the message and her conclusions for Rory. Henry wants her to call him back, but if she does that and they start dating, she’ll have to introduce him to her parents, who will love him, and then she won’t like him anymore because her parents love him.
Emily calls to talk to Rory. She asks about Rory’s favorite color, flowers, music tastes, and writes everything down but won’t say what it’s for. After they hang up, Lane has to go. Rory tells her to call Henry. Lane already left him a message and he’s probably parsing it right now. Atta girl.
Luke’s. Lorelai comes downstairs and comments how the whole diner looks different from behind the counter. Luke pours her coffee as she apologizes for kicking him out of his own apartment. He insists it just seemed like girl talk. Lorelai follows him into the storeroom and asks if he doesn’t like her hanging out with Rachel. Luke dodges the question, but offers some advice: don’t get too attached, because Rachel tends to skip town on you. Seeing her opportunity to put in a good word for Rachel, Lorelai starts to say how she thinks it’s real this time, but Luke says if she’s going to talk, she might as well help him unload. They open boxes and put things on shelves in what is clearly a random way because two boxes of pickles go in two completely separate locations and I’m sorry I got distracted by how much I want to reorganize this storeroom.
Mari: Lorelai is just shoving her jars of whatever IN BETWEEN THE PICKLES. WHO EVEN.
Grace: The upshot is that Luke has heard Rachel’s speeches before and doesn’t believe them now, and he’s suspicious of why Lorelai is so adamant that he stay with Rachel. Lorelai insists she just wants him to be happy and encourages him to take the plunge unless there’s some other reason he doesn’t want to. Like what, Luke asks? But of course there’s no other reason.
At the Black & White & Read Bookstore movie night, Rory tells Lorelai about the weird phone call from Emily. Lorelai thinks it’s because Emily wants to be Rory’s BFF now. Kirk, sitting behind them, gets annoyed at the girls for talking, even though the movie hasn’t started yet. Luke and Rachel walk in together. Lorelai takes their apparent happiness as evidence that she did the right thing by butting in. The movie starts and Kirk gets annoyed at them again, but then his phone starts ringing and he has to leave.
Mari: WTF is the point of Kirk?
Grace: Friday night dinner. Emily opens the door with a scary smile and drags Rory inside. She shows Rory to a bedroom decorated like a cross between a 90s Parisian hotel and a Limited Too store. There is brocade and feather boas. And posters of pop bands that Rory most definitely does not like. Emily says that since Rory is spending so much time there, she should have a space of her own. Rory thanks her politely and goes back downstairs. Lorelai is still in the room, obviously weirded out, but she says the room is beautiful and it’s a nice thing to do. Emily says, “Maybe you don’t like the fact that now she has a place away from you.” Damn. She continues on about how maybe it’s not bohemian and fun, and maybe it’s too large and solid, and Lorelai has no idea what she’s talking about. “I saw what you chose over your own family,” Emily says, and Lorelai realizes this is about the potting shed. She says she was young and unhappy and needed to be somewhere else, but Emily is still upset and leaves.
Walking through Stars Hollow later, Rory asks why Lorelai barely said anything all evening. Lorelai says she just wishes she could make her mother hear her sometimes. Rory says it’s all her fault for showing Emily the shed, but she thought maybe if she showed her grandma how pretty it was, she would feel included in that part of their lives. Sweet, but so wrong. Lorelai says that her running away will always be a big deal. Rory wants to know if Lorelai and Emily will ever talk about everything they’ve been through, but Lorelai says they just speak a different language and it’s too hard. They walk into Luke’s and ask for coffee and pie. Rachel, who is helping clean up, thanks Lorelai for whatever she said to Luke. Apparently he gave Rachel a drawer and keys. She’s happy about it. Rory returns with coffee, which she says tastes different. Lorelai agrees and looks sadly and significantly at Rachel. How dare she change the coffee!
Dragonfly Inn. Rory and Lorelai are sitting on a picnic blanket out front while Sookie lists off all her kitchen dreams. She takes off around the side of the inn to look at something, and Rory asks if the inn will still be here by the time Lorelai and Sookie save up enough money. The screen door falls off and Lorelai says she thinks they have a shot.
It’s nice that we end an episode about the messy past with a hopeful dream for the future. Emily honestly breaks my heart here, as does Rory’s endless optimism that she can bring her grandma more fully into their lives.
Mari: I flip-flop a lot between Emily and Lorelai. I get why this breaks Emily’s heart, to think that Lor hated them so much she preferred a shed, but also we start this episode with a reminder that Emily is callous. Who makes fun of their own child for a big head, to the point where the child feels the need to burn their own pictures? It’s played as a joke, I know, but I just get why Lorelai left, and I’m with her when she says it would be nice if Emily figured out how to listen.
Random thoughts from a Snow lol.
Next time on Gilmore Girls: More mother daughter fights in S01 E20 – P.S. I Lo…
20-something Creative Writing student who spends more time telling others how to write than working on my own writing. I've wanted to be an author since I was 5 and do not plan to change that goal anytime soon. I am an avowed bookworm and Disney nerd. Will take over the world as soon as I drink enough coffee to give me superpowers.
I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.
