I can’t NOT use the letter E
November 09, 2004
Okay, yes, I’m a bit behind. So I’ve decided to just mention the reason that last week was so difficult is because it seemed to be a meandering collection of ideas that didn’t quite gel into a full story. Sure there was a lot of interesting STUFF going on, Lane and Zach’s creepingly slow relationship blooming, Rory’s job at the school paper (which reintroduced Jonath– I mean Danny Strong) and of course Luke and Lorelai. But it all felt kinda sorta empty. Take Lorelai going to the aid of her ex husband and his baby. Did that story serve anything? It didn’t pull Lorelai emotionally away from Luke, it didn’t reveal that he still has feelings for her, only that Rory doesn’t take kindly to it. And the whole Norman Mailer guest spot. Whoopdi friggin do! They could’ve had him do something much more interesting than just sit around and spout old fart writing philosophy. . .Please! Oh, and the whole “His Girl Friday” thing with Rory is cute and all, but secret societies are so, I dunno, cliché. Three out of five cookies, the ideas were there, there just wasn’t any cohesion.
So this week is a decidedly better episode revolving around only three stories instead of a bazillion. The big booming story this week is about our beloved Luke and Lorelai. Through a bizarre series of events on the telephone with the Dragonfly Inn, Emily Gilmore found out about Lorelai having a new boyfriend in Luke and then insists on having him over for dinner. At the beginning, he thinks she’s being sweet and polite, using words like rustic and offering him beer; as the evening wears on it’s clear she’s just patronizing him, using words like rustic and offering him beer. Lorelai’s description of the numbness and hitting bottom on the way home from her mother’s is delightfully funny.
Part two of the same story is Richard Gilmore’s chance to meet his daughter’s new beau. He invites the distinct non-golfer Luke out for a nice game of golf. By the end of the day, Richard has convinced Luke to franchise Luke’s, set up an investment banker to bankroll the whole thing and introduced him to a rare coin expert and art expert. Luke’s bewildered and drunken acceptance of all of this is equally as funny. This reaffirms why I’m watching this show. There are two relationships on it that REALLY matter to me, that between Lorelai and Rory (ie The Gilmore Girls) and that between Luke and Lorelai. We’ve had far too little of the former as of late, what with Rory being away at school for so much of the time. They’ve filled the gap admirably with the latter. Luke and Lorelai are so interesting together and will hopefully continue to be that interesting. I know that it’ll probably hit some bumps, probably some big ones soon enough and it’ll hurt cuz we love them. Well, I speak for myself. Some great stuff in the storyline too. “Where’d your martini go?” “To a happy place.” But the best line to come out of the story was Lorelai talking about friends of her mother’s and referencing Hortance van Uppity, a Fictional Friend.
Story B involves Rory and the most appallingly ridiculous secret society ever. There’s this thing in young adult fiction these days (specifically the kind of fiction that unfolds on The WB and/or in young adult movies) where people are doing all these cool things. Preposterously cool things. Or they’re talking about geek stuff. Stuff these people wouldn’t talk about, but maybe the geek writer would talk about/dream about/fantasize about. This secret society has writer’s wet dream written all over it. So Rory gets led blindfolded to the middle of the woods where the secret society group has turn of the century tents complete with hurricane lamps and bowls of water, where everybody is dressed in turn of the century garb and speaks as though they’ve been spending too much time at Disney Florida Pleasure Island’s Adventurer’s Club (all this, not a bad thing, just an “I call foul” sort of thing). So this club does these things, like having conversations without using the word E and having miscellaneous gatherings in the woods in Victorian garb and then, the coup de grace is the enormous construct with makeshift bungee jumping holding parasols over their heads. So the thrust of this story, I think, is that Rory needs to let go and cut loose a bit more, rather than sleep with married men. Oh, wait. The story is interesting, and it’s nice to see Rory bonding with someone other than Dean, even if he is nothing more than a writer’s construct.
The third, and least consequential story is between Lane and Zach. They decide to go on a date, but wind up staying home and doing the same thing they do every night. So. It’s cute. And sweet. And I still think there are interesting things to come from them, but you never know.
A good episode after a string of silliness. Three and a half out of five cookies. And a special thanks to the people who’ve written to get me writing reviews again!