therewatcher-blog

[therewatcher-blog]

Best Underrated Scene: Gilmore Girls - 1x08 Love & War & Snow

gOh hello there, I kinda left off doing these, but I want to keep going. Even if it’s just for me. It’s a fun exercise. So here we go, Love & War & Snow. I don’t exactly know why, but this is one of my favorite episodes, especially in season one. It’s one that I’ll consistently rewatch out of context. I think the fact that there is really almost no conflict is just so comforting to me. I also love the introduction of Lorelai’s obsession with snow. It’s one of the things that makes this show so cozy. This mystical connection she has with snow, is like a bit of magical realism sprinkled over this somewhat quietly realistic (if not idealized) show. That mixed with the absurdities of the townies of Stars Hollow just makes for the perfect rewatchable episode. 

I honestly think this episode has a lot of quietly great scenes. Luke and Lorelai’s small interaction and Rory’s dinner with the grandparents are contenders. However, I think the scene with Luke and Lorelai doesn’t have enough in it to make it underrated and Rory’s dinner with Richard and Emily is perhaps maybe too obvious in what it accomplishes. I also think their abrupt end to the reminiscing as soon as they see a picture of Lorelai in her coming out party is maybe a bit over-the-top in it’s awkwardness. We know they have a discomfort in talking about Lorelai’s pregnancy, but you’d think they would better control this clear discomfort when in the presence of their granddaughter who resulted from the pregnancy. It’s just a little bit more than heartbreaking and unfair.   

So moving on to my pick:

The First Stars Hollow Town Meeting:

I don’t imagine too many town meetings will make the list, but I think this introduction to the town’s weekly ritual is seamlessly done in the opening sequence of the episode. It’s also sets up the small D?-plot that follows Luke through the episode. I always like when the cold open has a bit of bearing on the episode rather than being completely without context. 

We open with the town meeting already out of order as Miss Patty attempts to reclaim some control and Taylor complains that no one is listening to him. We know immediately what is happening, but as we will come to learn in the future episodes this course of events is incredibly common which makes rewatching it that much more enjoyable. It’s as if we already have a little inside joke with the characters. 

I think something that struck me even more on watching it this time through is that I still chuckled at a couple places. Taylor is perhaps a frustrating and divisive character, but I think he’s a character who is hilarious because of the hyper-realism of what he’s playing. He’s obsessed with rules and order to the degree of insanity. He enjoys the small power he holds in the town and he uses it to his advantage wherever possible, but ultimately has something resembling good intentions. So when he claims Andrew is “peddling drug paraphernalia to kids” when all he did was sell a lava lamp, I can’t help but laugh. He does make a good point that there is no use for a lava lamp unless you’re on drugs.

Of course, Lorelai enters the scene late, carrying food and drinks for her and Rory (something that we find out in a future episode is not allowed during these meetings - again an inside joke we now share on rewatching) and Rory quickly catches her up to speed on the small town politics surrounding the removal of a no-parking zone sign. Lorelai astutely observes that Taylor only wants the sign removed outside his store so he can park there all day. 

Mayor Harry (a character who only shows up one or two more times, unfortunately) begins a speech about the townspeople being like his children which, from the cutting to stifled giggles and knowing looks between Lorelai and Rory, we can deduce is a speech the town has heard more than once. This flowery language is only used to launch into a small chiding of his “children,” reminding them that "we have leash laws, people!” We can see the GIlmore girls having a blast listening to the small town’s petty grievances and we are put right there with them. 

The mayor shifts gears to the “legendary Battle of Stars Hollow.” As he begins to give the recap of the battle, we hear the girls commenting on Luke who is “shifting in his seat” and “adjusting his hat” in annoyance before he finally jumps up and interrupts the mayor’s recounting of the battle - “Oh for god’s sake! Do we have to go through this every damn year?” Mayor Harry asks who is speaking and Luke answers, “It’s me, Harry, Luke. You’ve known me since I was five years old.” I think this is the first mention of Luke having lived in Stars Hollow his whole life (I could be wrong), which is a fascinating facet of his character. Luke detests change and is stubborn beyond reason, but in this storyline and many of his storylines that boil down to Luke vs. The Town (and/or Taylor specifically), he is often anti-tradition. Or at least he thinks the traditions of his town are silly. That is certainly the case here as Luke argues that the battle reenactment for a battle that never occurred is really just beyond ridiculous and embarrassing. 

“Have any of you ever considered the fact that you’re glorifying a war we fought so we could keep land that we stole?” Luke argues in vain. Oh, woke hippie Luke. How I love you. I said it in a previous post, but they really leave this quality of Luke’s behind as the show continues. I love whenever it pops up and I will try to always note it here. I like to believe it’s always there in some small way even as he starts to become more of a somewhat stereotypical manly man in later seasons. “If you don’t like it here in America, why don’t you go stand in line for toilet paper in the USSR!” Mayor Harry retorts to no avail. “There is no USSR, Harry,” Luke responds. The girls make a quip about the sense of community being so important as Harry and Luke continue to argue and we fade out to the opening credits. 

This is one of the early scenes that really starts to shape the wonderful townie relationships that add color to the show. Luke is more of a townie than a leading man at this point, so it is important to see his relationship to the town fleshed out in this moment. His deep roots as well as his antagonistic feelings regarding the town’s obsessions with tradition are set up in this scene and explored even more in the episode. It’s a light and fun exchange with a few chuckles, but more than anything these meetings become an important and unique backbone to the Gilmore Girls viewing experience. Some of them are zanier than others, this one is certainly more grounded and realistic than some others. But in this first town meeting the seeds for all the different characters and their strong opinions regarding the town, it’s rules, traditions, and festivals is established efficiently through action and dialogue that doesn’t feel overly expository or stilted while offering more of a glance into the backstory of a character who will become increasingly important as the show goes on. All in 3 minutes. Not bad. 

[therewatcher-blog]

Best Underrated Scene: Gilmore Girls - 1x07 Kiss and Tell

Rory’s first kiss! How fun. This episode is overall pretty tight, I’d say. We have a fun, monumental moment and the hurt feelings from Lorelai when she learns Rory didn’t tell her about it, followed by Lorelai actually being an Embarrassing Parent and inviting Dean over to watch a movie. I do think that is a bit out of character, but I don’t know...like Lorelai should realize how stupid it is to invite Dean over when Rory hasn’t even gone on a proper date with him herself? But I guess Lorelai is trying SO hard to not be a “Mom,” that she overdoes it and is super Mom-y. While I enjoy the episode overall, I did find it difficult to find a scene that popped out as underrated and special. There’s something to be said for the Lorelai/Dean serious talk, but it is to be expected. Also, it will always disturb me how much more chemistry they have together than Rory and Dean. It must be impossible to be in a room with Lauren Graham and not be turned on.

So with that it came to a toss up between Lorelai and Luke at the grocery store and the very brief scene I ultimately chose. I am a diehard Lorelai/Luke shipper, so it’s easy to always go to these moments as stand outs. As such, I’m going to try and restrain unless it is really called for. I liked this scene a lot because it show cases their back and forth wit and joking with each other, while also showing how Lorelai is starting to share personal aspects of her life with him in small, intimate ways and how receptive Luke is to these moments. He is also a good listener with decent advice (albeit rather short and to-the-point, as we should expect from him). But I went instead with:

Lorelai Finds Out About The Kiss From Mrs. Kim:

Mrs. Kim is a tricky character. She teeters between a racist caricature and a sincere portrayal of a strict Christian Korean mom. It’s not a culture I am super familiar with, so I won’t pretend to be. I do know that Mrs. Kim and Lane are based on real people and the lived experience of Helen Pai -- friend of ASP and a producer on the show. So with that in mind, we can assume there might be slight elements of exaggeration, but the basic core of the character is based in reality (which is true for a lot of Gilmore Girls’ characters and townies). Emily Kuroda does a great job of toeing this line, especially as the seasons progress and we get more depth and understanding of her character. Something I realized on this rewatch, is that this scene ends up being a subtle hint at the complexity of this character.

It starts innocuously enough with Mrs. Kim jumping up from behind one of her many pieces of furniture and frightening Lorelai. It’s kinda a funny gag, but maybe by now in my rewatching of the show, the “Kim’s Antiques” set has lost it’s comedic sensibility. I get really bored with all the “Marco Polo” games played in the house to locate each other. BUT, moving on. Lorelai bought a rocker a “couple weeks ago,” and is there to pick it up. “Six weeks ago,” Mrs. Kim corrects her, scolding her simultaneously. Mrs. Kim often acts as a foil to Lorelai in a similar way as Emily does. She is a strict mother, with very traditional views on the roles the parents and children play in the family. She is often icy and a little scary. We can tell that Lorelai herself is scared of her. Lorelai is obviously very responsible in a lot of ways, but she doesn’t see the harm in leaving her stuff around to be picked up later and she certainly isn’t particularly worried about the difference between two and six weeks when it comes to a chair she bought seemingly on a whim (as she remarks later, she remembers it being smaller). Mrs. Kim, on the other hand, runs a tight ship. And while her house may look a bit haphazard, this is simply due to the nature of her business and it would be best if one didn’t forget that. I imagine she has a flawless mental record of everything that comes in and goes out of her store.

She finds the chair easily in the mess as she remarks that her store isn’t a holding facility, it is a furniture store --“Except when Lorelai Gilmore buys, then furniture stays here for six weeks.” Lorelai offers to pay extra to keep the items there, but Mrs. Kim will not stand for this. That’s not what she wants. She may be stubborn, but damn if we can’t admire her for this quality sometimes. It is always a bit admirable to see people who don’t bend to the entitled Lorelai Gilmores of the world. Lorelai makes her comment that she remembers the chair was smaller and we get a bit of the dry humor that Mrs. Kim occasionally displays, “It’s been six weeks, maybe it grew.” Everyone in an ASP show has to be a little funny at times.

Lorelai apologizes again about the chair and adds that she’s been really busy. “Maybe you should be less busy,” Mrs. Kim says, “then you can remember to pick up chairs...And then you could keep your daughter from running around kissing boys.” The significance for Mrs. Kim’s character in this moment is not that she tells Lorelai that Rory kissed a boy (of course she would say this and use it as a indication that Lorelai lacks the type of parenting skills that Mrs. Kim feels are required), it’s that in a scene earlier she obviously overheard Rory and Lane talking about the kiss and rather than say anything or banish Rory from the house or anything that we might expect, she pretended to buy Lane’s quick lie that Rory had been kissed by “the Lord.” I think this showcases a little bit of the softness that we eventually get with Mrs. Kim character as she eventually learns to accept her daughter’s rebellious nature and love her despite their differences. It’s a very small moment, but we can see that while she is annoyed at the influence she perceives Rory’s life having over Lane, she also allows for them to lie to her at times. Certainly she wants to control many aspects of Lane’s life, but in the end she knows she can’t control it all and that Lane (and Rory) are both decent kids.

Lorelai takes a little long to accept what Mrs. Kim tells her. She can’t believe that Rory wouldn’t tell her about the kiss. Eventually she accepts the truth since Mrs. Kim mentions the “boy in the grocery store” and Lorelai remembers from the incident in the pilot that this is the same boy who unwittingly almost convinced Rory to give up on Chilton. We see a host of emotions go through her face as she accepts this truth. Certainly she is worried about what it means for her daughter to be kissing boys, but ultimately she is more hurt than anything about the secrecy of it all. This is the reason for the events as they unfold in the rest of the episode. Lorelai turns to leave and process the information and Mrs. Kim yells after her again that she left her chair.

Again, the reason for my choosing this is the small hint at what Mrs. Kim as a character is and what she will become. She’s not a monster or a caricature of a uber-Christian, Korean mom. She is just a mom, doing what she thinks is best, and constantly battling with what is okay and what is not okay according to her own beliefs and upbringing. Not every mother-daughter relationship can be Lorelai and Rory, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t moments of softness in the other relationships we see with more strict parenting styles.

Also -

Shout out to this prescient line in the year 2000, pre-An Inconvenient Truth (2006):

Rory: Well what did you want to talk about?

Lorelai: I dunno...anything. [coyly trying to get Rory to tell her about the kiss]

Rory: Ok, did you read that article in the newspaper about the polar ice caps melting?

Lorelai: Yeah, yeah. Oo, big deal.

Yes, Lorelai. It IS a big deal. Ah, sweet innocent 2000.

[therewatcher-blog]

Best Underrated Scene: Gilmore Girls - 1x06 Rory’s Birthday Parties

This is the sweet spot. This is where season one starts to pick up...in as much as Gilmore Girls “picks up.” I think in general the characters are fleshing out and as such we can enjoy their scenes even more as we progress through the story. Particularly, and always, the scenes between Lorelai and Emily. They have a good chunk of my favorite scenes throughout the series, but in general their scenes together are much revered and lauded(I think)...so I don’t think their scenes are really “underrated” a lot of the time. But I think an argument could be made that the scene I chose could rate as such.

Lorelai and Emily talk in Lorelai’s Bedroom

I think this may be the only time Emily is shown in Lorelai’s room? It makes sense that we don’t see Emily in this room very often (if ever again). As evidenced by this episode and Lorelai’s comment that her parents have “never been to [her] house,” Lorelai likes to keep her world separated from her parents in very stark and literal ways. After this first trip over, Emily and Richard make a few more visits to Lorelai’s house, but it is always a rather odd jolt to see them in this small (by their standards), cozy house and Lauren Graham always plays up her discomfort whenever the two enter Lorelai’s turf.

In this scene, however, I’d say that Lorelai’s general anxiety regarding her parents’ visit is somewhat assuaged even though Emily is in her room. Earlier in the episode we saw Lorelai and Rory in Lorelai’s old bedroom at her parents’ house. It was frilly, light pinks and creams, a large number of porcelain dolls, and impressionistic paintings. There are elements of Lorelai, but for the most part it is cold and removed - more of a room in a bed and breakfast than anything reflecting the Lorelai we have come to know. Lorelai’s room that she’s cultivated as an adult is obviously a closer approximation to who she is. There are still floral patterns (Lorelai loves a certain type of “girly”), bathrobes with silly prints hanging on the closet, clothes flung over her bed and armchair, haphazard sewing materials, a stack of magazines. It is lived in, warm, and maybe slightly adolescent, but purposefully so.

Lorelai sees her mother leaving the festivities and follows her up to her bedroom. Emily is looking at Lorelai’s blanket contemplatively when Lorelai interrupts her thoughts. “I made that,” she says, “from Rory’s old baby clothes.” Lorelai is always proud of her ability to make something from the scraps of something else. This is her life. Emily responds, “Hope you washed them first.” This is also the heart of Emily. It is partially a jab, partially an element of her controlling behavior, but it’s also meant to be constructive and helpful. Her controlling is always meant to be helpful. Lorelai makes a quick joke and lets this one slide off her back. She doesn’t always, but this isn’t a particularly pointed remark and Lorelai can, at times, pick her battles with her mom.

“Quite an assortment of characters you’ve assembled down there,” Emily continues. This seems to only be a means to segue into asking about Luke (”this man with the ice”). Something that is always fun is Emily’s immediate perceptiveness of Lorelai and Luke’s feelings for each other. She ain’t no dummy. “How long have you been seeing him?” she asks Lorelai, who immediately giggles like a school girl and denies that Luke is anything other than a friend. Emily continues, “He seems to like you.” Lorelai asks how she’s judging this and Emily says that Luke looked at Lorelai, “Like you were about to give him a lap dance.” Ah HA! Emily is funny. Lorelai seems to think her humor sprang from nothing, but this is exactly where she gets it. Lorelai continues to giggle sheepishly and insist that Luke did not look at her like that (I mean, c’mon girl, yes he did). Graham of course nails the discomfort with being confronted with feelings that she’s not ready for, along with maybe some excitement or flush at thinking that maybe Luke did look at her that way. Lorelai stays in deep denial of her feelings for Luke for SO long. Which is something people do, especially with someone they are friends with or who they see as possibly complicating things. At a certain point this becomes pretty unbelievable for these two, but for now it works.

Emily remains unconvinced (as she should) and again reads her daughter perfectly, “You’re pleased...you’re pleased that the Ice Man looked at you like a porterhouse steak.” Emily is definitely judging her daughter’s taste in men (as she will continue to do), but she doesn’t let that really seep into this conversation. She’s mostly just finding out the information that she can and saving her judgements for herself (a rare occurrence for Emily). Lorelai diffuses the conversation with a joke again and Emily smiles knowingly and moves on to a picture on Lorelai’s night stand.

The conceit that Lorelai would keep a photo of herself in a leg cast on her night stand is...odd, but we roll with it. Her room is cluttered enough that it doesn’t really feel out of place. I can almost hear some discussion between Rory and Lorelai wherein to prove some point about the day some random thing happened she pulls out this picture and just never put it back. So we move on to why it’s here for the scene. “What’s this...you’re wearing a cast,” Emily says with surprise. “Yeah, that’s when I broke my leg,” Lorelai says casually. It happened three years ago during a yoga class in which Lorelai tried to out-yoga a blond “pretzel chick” and took some kind of a fall. Emily continues past this rather silly story, “I never knew you broke your leg.” She is clearly hurt. You can almost feel her motherly desire to nurse her child back to health. But of course she doesn’t have to, because Lorelai never told her about it.

“If I had been really sick you would have known,” Lorelai assures Emily. But it’s not much assurance. What does “really sick” mean if a full leg cast doesn’t prompt a phone call to your mother? The women take a beat and in this moment and the glances to the floor so much is said. Perhaps Lorelai feels a bit guilty for having kept this information to herself. She can certainly sense the hurt and disbelief radiating from Emily. This episode saw the two getting along better than ever before. Emily shopping for Rory’s present with Lorelai and listening to her advice, as well as serving pudding at Friday Night Dinner, instilled a hope in Lorelai for the future of their relationship. Maybe she feels a bit wrong for denying this possibility of reconciliation for so long. But she won’t admit to it - not now and probably not ever. She’s too stubborn to admit that she kept her parents at bay longer than necessary and Emily’s too stubborn to say that she is hurt in this moment. They are, again, more similar than either of them admits.

“Well,” Emily changes the subject yet again as she puts the picture down, “you know you could get a maid in here once a week to at least tidy the place up.” Her defenses are back up as she goes into her helpful nag mode and Lorelai responds, “I like it cluttered.” Of course she does. Emily drops it with a smile again. She is probably annoyed, but it also reads as amused by Lorelai’s antics. She doesn’t understand it, but she’s not going to fight it now. Emily excuses herself to check on Richard and Lorelai calls her back briefly to let her know (with a sincerity that is rare for Lorelai) that it was nice that she came to the party. “It meant a lot to...Rory, really,” Lorelai says. You can see that she wants to say “to me,” but she’s not quite ready to own up to the fact that she wants her parents to be in her life in some capacity. So she uses Rory as the excuse, as she does for many of her interactions with her parents. “Well she is my granddaughter after all, I should be here,” Emily says. “I totally agree,” Lorelai responds. The same could be said of a mother and daughter and is being said subtexually. Rory is a stand in for Lorelai. The whole deal that was struck at the beginning of the season was not only for Rory, but for Lorelai. Emily wants Lorelai in her life and you can see that clearly here. She will never have the daughter she envisioned, but she never fully gives up on Lorelai either. Lorelai is often more willing to give up on her parents, but in this scene you see her reach out with a rare sincerity and vulnerability and let Emily know that she is welcome and wanted (of course not always, but in this moment at least).

On her way out Emily begins to straighten the bed, but she leaves it when Lorelai asks her to. She’ll always have the impulse to straighten up and change Lorelai’s decisions, but at least in this moment she respects her daughter’s wishes and attempts to let go of her urges.

Emily takes away from this conversation that she doesn’t “know her daughter at all,” as she tells Richard later. She says this because of all Lorelai has kept from her over the last several years, but as Emily’s keen observations regarding Luke indicate, in some ways she will always know Lorelai better than Lorelai knows herself. Of course it is painful to feel excluded from your daughters life and history, her house and her heart, but all is not lost.

I feel this scene is slightly underrated because it’s not one of Lorelai and Emily’s big fights, nor is it particularly funny, nor is it a moment of complete bonding between the two (like the shopping earlier in the episode). It is a quieter scene the pulls and prods and slightly pushes the two back into each other’s orbits while also bringing up a new type of pain for Emily (the particularlities of what she has missed in her daughter’s life probably sting even more than the vagueness of loss she felt before). There is so much time to recover between the two and so much for them to learn about each other. It’s a bittersweetness as they mend the fight that occurred earlier without directly addressing it by simply agreeing that Emily deserves to be in Rory’s (and subsequently Lorelai’s) life. These two have so much to go through together.

[therewatcher-blog]

Best Underrated Scene: Gilmore Girls - 1x05 Cinnamon’s Wake

At last an easy choice. This scene is the reason I decided to do this in the first place. In my opinion, Cinnamon’s Wake is an early indicator of all that Gilmore Girls will become. It’s great and evenly wonderful throughout in a subtle way that you almost don’t realize until the end. Gilmore Girls plots along at it’s own speed without the normal beats of a sitcom or a tv drama. But there always seems to be intention in this and mostly I think that intention is subtle character building and an attempt to mimic life where possible.

So my pick:

Lorelai and Babette Do the Dishes

This scene is just so goddam sweet and perfect and special.

Lorelai enters the kitchen looking for Rory and when Babette says she’s in the bathroom, Lorelai asks Babette if she can help with anything. Babette is putting away Cinnamon’s (her cat’s) medication and Lorelai of course makes a reference to some pop culture thing that has to do with medicine. Babette lists off a bunch of medication and begins to slowly tear up. “I miss that old broad,” she says, “I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself now. You live to take care of your kids.” The amazing thing about this scene is that Lorelai sets aside her schtick. She doesn’t for a moment look as if she’s laughing at or making fun of Babette’s grief over a cat or her relating the cat to her child. This is, of course, the joke behind every Cat Lady trope, but it is ignored here. Amy Sherman Palladino isn’t laughing either. You can tell that the writing is delicate and there is nothing funny about Babette in this moment.

Babette has only shown up briefly before this and throughout the series I don’t recall her having many other (if any) touching moments. She is a joke machine and she is one of the best on the show. But it is important that we see this side of her early on in the show, I think, because her ridiculous and broad character is grounded in this moment. We see her humanity and it sparkles. I carry this scene with me whenever Babette shows up to know the true depth of who she is.

Lorelai relates to Babette with her experience regarding Rory. They talk about how quickly “kids” grow up. “I guess eventually you have to move on,” Babette says, “and figure out what your life is gonna be when you’re not busy taking care of someone else.”  This lands for Lorelai and we see it in her face and her almost inaudible “Yeah” as a response. She is on the brink of dating Rory’s teacher, maybe exploring a more rich romantic life than she’s had. She’s denied herself any romantic connections for a host of reasons, but mostly to protect Rory (at least this is her claim). And now that Rory is two years away from college, she’s having to start thinking about this. What is her life without Rory there?

After the beat to let this point sink in, Babette remarks on the limited clean dishware and Lorelai offers to help. Apparently Babette had special counter tops put in to be lower and accommodate her small stature so she offers Lorelai a stool to kneel on while she helps. “Maury sits on it when he helps me,” she says.

“Wow,” Lorelai says, “How does Maury get around here?”

He’s fine, he had a few concussions his first year, but he’s used to it now, Babette responds. From this its established that Maury and Babette met later in life which is a lovely touch. The two seem so linked the viewer might assume they’ve been married 40 years or something, but it adds a certain flavor to their love to know that they met later and fell into a rhythm together so easily. 

“He’s just the best thing. Don’t know what I’d do without him...” Babette trails off as she begins to break down a bit. No doubt death is on her mind and she is spiraling thinking of what else she could lose some day. She also says that she saw on Oprah special about couples who lost a child and most of them split up eventually because of their pain.

Again, Lorelai is completely without irony in comforting Babette. “That’s not going to happen to you,” she reassures her.

“I never thought a man would even want me,” Babette admits. Completely open and vulnerable in this moment. It’s so sweet. Lorelai says she “knows the feeling,” but Babbette has none of that. Lorelai is gorgeous, I mean...c’mon. But Lorelai wants someone who wants her for her--”the whole package.”

Well maybe it’ll be that stud who just left, Babbette says (getting into the gossip, a characteristic we will come to know and love about her). She’s referring to Max who came earlier to pick up Lorelai for a date she forgot was supposed to occur. Lorelai and Babette talk about Max’s great jaw line and Babette cuts to the chase--”How is he in the sack?” she asks. She’s a direct lady who is never embarrassed by herself or others and she feels a closeness to Lorelai and her community. Babette is a beautiful gift. Lorelai lets Babette know that she hasn’t slept with Max yet, but she’ll “call [Babette] during the cigarette” when she does. The two women hug, Lorelai knocks her head on the low lamp gently, and then Babette is lured away by Maury playing “Cinnamon’s Song” on the piano.

This scene is such a warm delight for many reasons that I’ve already mentioned, but ultimately it is underappreciated. Nothing monumental happens, but there is something quite monumental in the writing. We discover so much about this little character, but our lead doesn’t get to slack off either. We learn a bit about Lorelai’s insecurities regarding dating and her life beyond Rory, but mostly we learn that the always “on” Lorelai, can indeed turn it “off” and just BE with the people around her. She is a supportive and loving person, even though she likes to joke around, and Rory isn’t the only person she cares about. Rory and Lorelai joke around about Babette throughout the series, but ultimately they would drop anything and help her organize a REALLY beautiful cat wake in the midst of anything the have going on. This scene is unassuming, but it does a lot of work in terms of developing these two characters as well as the town itself as the two women reflect the dynamic we will see throughout the series in all the townies. They’re weird misfits, but they care deeply. It’s why we all love Stars Hollow.

[therewatcher-blog]

Best Underrated Scene: Gilmore Girls - 1x04 The Deer Hunters

Boy, oh boy, this episode gives me ANXIETY. I get anxious just knowing what’s coming. Even my first time watching it, the build up to how what a deal the test was and how long they were studying I KNEW it was coming. I hate tv episodes that have people sleep through/miss tests. I can’t handle it. All that being said, this episode is mostly fine without much standing out besides Lorelai’s smack-down of Headmaster Charleston at the end, but I would categorize that as “appreciated enough.” It is punchy and she delivers it well, but beyond that not much to analyze or say. I also like the study session, but meh. It ended up being a toss up between Lorelai and Max’s first meeting and the scene I ultimately chose. A brief note on Lorelai and Max’s first meeting - I think it’s well-executed and sweet. They obviously show the attraction between the two (I personally think Lauren Graham can create heat and chemistry with a brick wall so no surprise there) and we get Lorelai’s awkwardness when put in the company of rich people versus her ease at talking with (and flirting with) men, which is an interesting character trait to see so close together. HOWEVER, I decided to ultimately go with a very small scene:

Sookie Discovers Why the Reviewer Didn’t Like Her Risotto

I remember when I first watched Gilmore Girls. It was after the series had ended but before Melissa McCarthy was a household name. She might have been on Mike & Molly by this time, but it was at least a couple years before Bridesmaids, SNL, and her rise to super stardom. I remember even from the pilot being enthralled by how damn funny this lady was. Gilmore Girls is funny, but there are a lot of duds in the jokes. Amy Sherman Palladino and her crew seem to be able to land maybe 70% or the jokes on this show (ASP is a VERY good writer and I think a lot of her stuff is very funny, but I actually like a lot of the more nuanced and emotional beats of the show), but Melissa McCarthy finds ways to turn things that are only slightly funny into very funny and very funny things into damn HILARIOUS.

Case in point, this whole story line for Sookie is rather silly and not altogether that great, but as an early series arc for a secondary (and, at times tertiary) character it does do a bit to flesh out her character a bit. Sookie gets a mostly steller review for the restaurant at the beginning of the episode, save for the fact that the reviewer found the risotto to be “mostly fine.” We find out that there’s a whole back story to the risotto (henceforward known as the “magic risotto” since it prolonged Sookie’s mother’s life) that makes this seemingly innocuous comment sting to a degree that causes Sookie to go through extreme lengths to find out what might have caused the reviewer to have this reaction and to prove him wrong. Going forward from this story line, we know that Sookie has immense pride in her work and has a pretty big ego regarding it (I think we can rightfully assume that she would have had the same reaction to any of her dishes being called out as “mostly fine” regardless of their backstories). She is also highly sensitive, tenacious, and willing to cross boundaries to prove her point.

The scene in question starts when Sookie’s squeal of joy lures Lorelai into the dining room. “I found it!” she proclaims to Lorelai, “I found his bill!”

“It wasn’t the risotto, it was the wine. He ordered the wrong wine.”

“Well, great,” Lorelai says. Lauren Graham gives her reactions the perfect amount of delighted exhaustion to have this journey regarding the risotto be over, happiness for her friend, and a hint of “damn, I don’t care about this at all, but if she does then I guess I will a bit” (something I think we have all experienced with our friends).

Sookie precedes to explain how she used her detective skills to find the right bill, going off on two delightful tangents in the process--one about Jackson getting in a fist fight with his tomato grower (which Lorelai says to “save for Christmas time”) and one about the waiter breaking up with his girlfriend. The two delve into this second tangent a bit together, as two friends would:

L: “Cecilia kicked him out?”

S: “Well he didn’t want kids.”

L: “Well she knew that when they moved in.”

S: “Women always think they can change men.”

Sookie cuts off this gossip as she continues on her detective streak to the bill which reveals that the reviewer ordered a Riesling! “Why not just drink battery acid,” Lorelai says, emphasizing each word just enough so that we know she doesn’t know the difference, but she is reading the situation and intuiting what to say from Sookie’s reactions. The mystery is solved, the girls hug and the scene is capped with Sookie sending Jackson on his way with his too-small zucchini.

There is nothing earth-shattering or monumental in this scene, but I think it is a small hint at what Melissa McCarthy can do comedically. Seeing the dialogue, it’s not that hilarious, but I chuckle almost every time I watch it. Her pureness, joy, and energy that she brings to every scene is truly a force and luckily I think Lauren Graham always does a great job in matching it. Both of these ladies are complete experts in their crafts and only four episodes in to the show they are completely melded to their characters. I also enjoy how lived-in and real their friendship feels. Lorelai usually demands more attention, but we all have friendships that are like that at times. But the two do care for each other and Lorelai does step aside when necessary and she always supports Sookie, even when Sookie is being Too Much.

[therewatcher-blog]

Best Underrated Scene: Gilmore Girls - 1x03 Kill Me Now

I don’t know exactly why, but I’ve always enjoyed this episode. It feels like a small but important turning point in the show. We begin to see Rory’s relationship develop with her grandparents and significantly she has a positive outlook on them and aspects of their lifestyle. Having seen the whole show, this feels like some aptly placed foreshadowing. For that reason, I would be remiss if I didn’t choose a scene between Rory and her grandfather as the best underrated scene in the episode. SO.

Rory and Richard Walk and Talk at Golf Course:

The scene is simple in how it shows the two warming up to each other, but it is also beautiful in its simplicity. Earlier in the episode, Richard wasn’t too keen on Emily manipulating Rory into a golf lesson with her grandfather. So far in the series Richard has remained aloof and almost a bit goofy in his ability to tune out the three generations of Gilmore Ladies. He develops more nuance in this episode and thank god for that. Richard is a wonderful character. After grumbling about Rory being late to meet at the house and working through a bit of forced chitchat before their golf lesson (shout out to a non-sexual version of a man teaching a woman how to swing a golf club! yay!) where we see maybe the beginnings of Richard starting to appreciate his intelligent, polite granddaughter, we come upon Rory and Richard walking towards the steam rooms after their game.

“I can’t believe I hit the ball!” Rory exclaims with true enthusiasm. Richard agrees that it is impressive despite the fact the ball went in the water. Rory kindly continues in some idle chatter about how beautiful the grounds are. She is way more polite than her mother -- willing to at least pretend to enjoy the things her grandparents do. She will go through the formalities if nothing else. But the thing is, we realize in this little chat that her enthusiasm is not a formality! She would come to the golf course to walk and think, she says. She asks her grandfather questions and show genuine interest in his life. Does he go to the club every week? What does he *do* for a living?

To the latter question, Richard at first blows past it with his long title and then tells her that a description of his “myriad of duties would bore [her] greatly.” He is possibly operating under the assumption that Rory is like other children of her generation that he has met, or, more likely, that she is like her mother. Rory is like Lorelai in some ways, but her differences are key. One of her differences is that she has no built up animosity towards her grandparents and no reason to already think they are boring or terrible. Lorelai, it seems, has done a decent job of refraining from poisoning the well completely. Rory is mildly hurt by her grandfather’s dismissal of her earnestness and Richard notices. “I oversee our international division,” he offers her. She follows up with a question about traveling and then lets him know something about herself - she wants to travel! to so many places! including weird places! like Fez!

Something else that’s great when Rory interacts with her grandparents without Lorelai, is that she often gives up information about her mom that Richard and Emily would love to know, but are often not told. Lorelai never got to travel much, Richard remarks. “I know,” Rory says, “she talks about it all the time.” She tells Richard that she and her mom have a deal to go backpacking through Europe when she finishes school. Richard is visibly pleased by learning something about both his daughter and granddaughter, and perhaps to learn that Lorelai has some regrets about the path she’s chosen. After all, she probably would’ve gotten to travel more if she had stayed with her parents, married Christopher, or not gotten pregnant to begin with (or *gasp* chosen not to have the child). “I just hope it actually happens,” Rory remarks about her backpacking trip. “Well, we’ll just have to make sure that it does,” Richard replies. He is charmed. (then follows a “meh” joke about a rich lady being “the most odious woman alive”)

The (elongated) scene ends outside of the steam room, where Richard takes a pause after telling Rory to meet him in 40 minutes. He seems to be considering all he’s learned about his granddaughter and how much he’s enjoyed her company. It’s like he’s getting prepared to ask out a really cute girl, but in a non-pervy, innocent, adorable way. Emily had told him to take Rory to lunch, but before leaving the house he had fought her on this. He was annoyed by the interruption to his schedule, his golf game, his life. He was prepared for the worst. Instead, he found a companion in his granddaughter. So he pauses, considers, and asks if she would like to get lunch. “That’d be great,” Rory says. Richard: Fine. Rory: Cool. Richard: Yes. Both are grinning. Again, it is an innocent version of a man asking a woman out. They are a little awkward, but you can tell from their smiles that they are both excited to have found a friend in each other. And it is just so pure. While in general I enjoy Lorelai’s story lines more, I always appreciate Rory and Richard. They are fast friends for a reason and his devotion to her as the series continues is lovely and warming. While later on in the episode the development that Rory actually likes her grandparents and feels somewhat comfortable in their world is hit over the head a bit by Lorelai and Emily, in this scene it is subtle and well executed through two characters who make sense together.

Special section: Best Underrated Quote:

Luke: Did you know that golf courses are an environmental blight because of the chemicals they use to keep the grass green.

Ah, I love Hippie Luke. They veered off course from this a bit in later seasons, but season 1 Luke is a perfect blend of lumberjack hotness and lefty politics.

[therewatcher-blog]

Best Underrated Scene: Gilmore Girls - 1x02 The Lorelais’ First Day at Chilton

This is a bit of an underwhelming episode. It’s almost a second pilot for the world of Chilton. We are introduced to several new characters and set up some more story arcs for Rory in her new school. There’s some Lorelai vs. Emily stuff, but I really had a hard time picking out a scene that stood out as particularly good, let alone underrated. I considered Headmaster Charleston’s talk with Rory since I rather enjoy him and think it’s a good character introduction as well as an intro to the uphill battle Rory will face academically despite her and her mother’s belief that she is the most brilliant mind to ever grace the planet. But it just didn’t have enough to merit that. Rory doesn’t do much to give us insight into her character that we don’t already know (she’s a bit shy and awkward, but witty like her mom, and she’s more intimidated than she expected by private school, etc). Most of the decent scenes are fairly iconic/appreciated the right amount, i.e. Lorelai showing up to Chilton dressed in tie-dye and short shorts and the interaction with HM Charleston and her mother. So, scraping the bottom of the barrel I decided on the last scene.

Rory, Lorelai, and Lane walk and talk

This is one of those scenes that has nothing really big happen, but is probably one of the reasons I always want to rewatch this show when it starts to get a little chilly out. It’s what makes this show feel like a cup of hot cocoa or a pair of warm slippers. Just three gals, walking down a quiet twilight-lit street, eating and chatting about their days. The dialogue remains snappy, but you almost don’t feel it because they walk slow and the camera follows them smoothly down the sidewalk of Stars Hollow. It’s just damn cuddly.

Besides just the feel of it, there are a few nice things about this scene and a couple moments that stood out in terms of building Rory’s character. Firstly, I am a big fan of Lane so I am always on board when she’s around. It takes the writers a while to really figure out what she is and what she does, but for now she is Rory’s friend with a mom who is more like Emily than Lorelai and that’s all we need to know. The girls make plans to have Lane come to Hartford on Tuesdays and Thursdays to meet up with Rory after school, which will probably never happen. Not only would Mrs. Kim never allow it, but these are the types of plan we make with friends who we move away from and honestly, how often do people keep these plans? Maybe it ends up happening occasionally, maybe it doesn’t, but the sentiment is still nice. (On a complete sidenote, I love that Lane’s borrowed Foxy sweatshirt and scrunchie are somewhat hideous/innocuous, but her clothes that she reveals underneath that are acceptable to her mom would be super trendy now, imo)

Now here’s one moment that caught my ears. Lane talks about missing Rory and how pathetic her fellow schoolmates are and Rory says, “Well add a couple of plaid skirts and you got the Chilton freaks.” Not particularly anything except Lorelai uses the exact same framing to her line to Rory in the scene previous when she picks up Rory at Chilton (”Add some hairspray and you’ve got my day.”). It could very well be lazy writing, but I think even lazy writing at times can prove indicative of something (and in this case I don’t think it’s on purpose). Here we are seeing that mirroring of Lorelai in Rory. We already know that she looks up to her mom and that she shares many similarities, but in this it feels like she’s almost forcing it. She wants to be as witty and easygoing as her mom. We see Lorelai resolve issues at the inn in this episode with a wink and a smile, we see her turn down a date with grace, and despite her utter embarrassment at Chilton, still manage to walk away with her head held high. Rory, meanwhile, is awkward at school and can’t find a way to smooth talk her way out of Paris’ wrath or shut down Tristan with a biting comeback. She is young and less brazen than her mother, but maybe part of her feels if she copies enough witticisms and mannerisms she can magically gain that knack Lorelai has for putting people at ease and talking her way out of anything.

Lane heads out to her house full of tofu and Lorelai and Rory continue their walk talking about Paris. Lorelai doesn’t have too much advice to give. She had a Paris in school, she says, but she dealt with the problem by getting pregnant and getting out. Besides the obvious hint that Lorelai won’t always fit in to Rory’s life at Chilton (and eventually Yale) set up with her embarrassing first encounter with HM Charleston at the beginning of the episode, this may be another subtle hint at the same. Or at least we can read it that way. A lot of the troubles that Rory will face now Lorelai never had, due to her pregnancy. Of course she faced a whole lot of other problems, but sometimes advice isn’t transferable. Of course this isn’t a huge deal yet, “I’ll just figure it out for myself,” Rory says and then chuckles to herself. And here’s the other hint to Rory’s character that I found noteworthy. “I was just thinking about the way Paris’ face looked when I beat her to that Martin Luther question...Fourteen shades of purple...Tomorrow I’m shooting for fifteen.” Maybe Rory isn’t so soft and innocent as she would have people believe. She’s a bit vindictive and definitely competitive. Not to say Paris doesn’t deserve this at this point, but up until now we haven’t seen Rory show much of her less-than-perfect qualities (except her stupidity when it comes to boys). It’s something that will keep Paris in her life and makes her character at least a little less boring for now.

This nice scene ends with the girls glancing in on Luke in the diner. “What do you think of Luke?” Lorelai asks, “I mean, do you think he’s cute?” It’s probably a little inappropriate for Lorelai to ask this of her daughter given how close they are with Luke, but these gals will cross those boundaries a lot over the course of the series. We get a couple scenes in the pilot that hint at the Luke/Lorelai connection, but there’s even more in this episode - especially the scene in which they stare forever at each other while Lorelai explains that she won’t be going on a date with Chilton Dad and Luke says, “Good.” Their build up is one of the longest that I’ve ever seen in TV. Most will-they-won’t-they couples take one or two seasons before at least their first kiss, but the writers keep these two apart for a long time. Some of the reasons for it are more believable than others. I believe Lorelai denying her feelings up to a certain point, and I believe Luke’s hesitancy - not only because he is standing in front of a goddess, but also because he knows Lorelai and Rory so well and he wouldn’t want to hurt either of them. But at points their back and forth is ridiculous, even if it is fun. Here though, we see Lorelai first flirt with the idea of Luke and we clearly understand that Luke has a crush on her as he follows the girls out onto the street and watches them walk away for bit at the end. But Rory tells her mom quite frankly, “No way, you cannot date Luke...If you date him you’ll break up and we’ll never be able to eat there again.” It may be something of a joke, but it is also serious in how Luke and Lorelai’s lives are intertwined and their dating comes with certain ramifications should they break up. It may be a small part of what plays in the back of Lorelai’s mind whenever she entertains the idea of dating Luke and why she is so resistant to accepting her feelings for so long.

These are small moments and don’t necessarily mean everything I write out here, but it’s how I read them and I think it elevates this pleasant ending to the episode to something with a bit more eumph and significance and makes it a bit underrated.

[therewatcher-blog]

Introduction to The Re-Watcher: First Up, Gilmore Girls

Recently, I’ve accepted something about myself. I love re-watching television. I don’t think this is unique. In fact a good chunk of the streaming business model is predicated on the fact that most of us like what we already know. I started my third? fourth? rewatch of Gilmore Girls at the beginning of the month, and decided that rather than just mindlessly blazing through these rewatches of shows with the random tweet reinforcing the viewpoints I’ve always had, I thought I’d try to be a more active viewer. It will never be the first time again. I will always know what is going to happen to the characters in my beloved shows that merit this amount of hours devoted. So instead, I decided that each time I rewatch a show, I will choose a topic and focus on it in a mini-write up for each episode. Not only will this stop me from watching too quickly, I hope it will help me in forming skills writing about TV and maybe I’ll learn something new about the shows I love as I watch with a specific goal in mind.

 We’ll start with Gilmore Girls. The topic I’ve chosen is, The Best Underrated Scene. I want to focus on the scenes that don’t get necessarily quoted as much or that catch me off guard in my rewatch with their depth, brilliance, and significance. Amy Sherman-Palladino has finally gotten some awards and recognition with her newest show, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, but her talent was evident from the beginning and her cast in Gilmore Girls certainly did everything they could to take it to the next level. I want to look beyond the big fights and big cries and find those nuggets that offer depth to even the more cartoonish of Stars Hollow characters or reveal an important character trait and dynamic in a subtle way. Let’s see how this goes!

 1x01 – Pilot

 Pilots are difficult. I know this from watching many and from hearing screenwriters talk about it. Comedy is particularly difficult, it seems. With the exception of Veep, Cheers, and maybe Arrested Development, I have a hard time thinking of comedy pilots that operate at the same level of the show in its prime. Gilmore Girls was marketed as a typical WB teen drama, but also, it’s really a smart show about family and class. It’s a comedy, a family drama, a small town fantasy. It’s so many things and the pilot has a LOT of exposition to get through in as smooth a way as possible for a show whose premise is deceptively simple. As such, finding a truly great and understated scene that isn’t bogged down by introducing our big dynamics and long arcs for the season and series (Lorelai and Rory, Lorelai and her parents, Lorelai and Luke, Rory and Dean, the Inn, Stars Hollow, etc, etc, etc.) is difficult.

 With all of this in mind, my first pick for Best Underrated Scene is maybe a bit of cheat since all the scenes in this that are really worth talking about are all a bit iconic.

Lorelai Asks Her Parents for Money

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njZo0lvgCsY

This is almost halfway through the episode. It’s the turning point and the whole premise for the show. While Lorelai and Rory are interesting and fun and I enjoy their dynamic, Lorelai and her parents (Emily and Richard) will always steal the episode away with their interplay. The strain between these two generations is painted so beautifully and delicately from the beginning. The transition to this sequence comes from a picture that Lorelai keeps on her mantelpiece of herself as a young child in front of her parent’s mansion that seems dark and cold compared to the warm, tchotchke–riddled home that Lorelai has built for herself. Lorelai is looking at this picture as she realizes her only option to pay for Rory’s new fancy school is to borrow money from her parents. We cross-fade from this small token of Lorelai’s childhood to the present-day real deal. But even the fact that Lorelai has this picture is telling. For every bad thing she has to say about her upbringing and her parents, a part of her still holds ties. As the series continues we will see in which ways Lorelai is really a lot like her parents, but for now this maybe is just a slight hint that nothing has ever been as black and white as Lorelai likes to act like it was.

Lorelai waits with her coffee, next to her Jeep (which obviously stands out against the backdrop of her parents house…”HELLO! I’m different from you!” Lorelai loves to scream with all of her purchases). She is gulping down her pride, finding the courage to go in and do what she never in her lifetime wanted to do. Cut to Emily opening the door, clearly surprised to see her daughter who only lives forty minutes away. “Is it Easter already?” she jokes. While we constantly have instances throughout the show of Emily and Richard not understanding Lorelai’s jokes, we can see from this first interaction that she probably got much of her wit from them. Emily is hilarious. She is maybe a bit harsher in her sarcasm, a bit drier than Lorelai’s hyper-joking mannerisms, but it is there and we see it right away. I love even more so that Richard makes the same joke when he first discovers Lorelai there unexpectedly (“What is it, Christmas already?”). Emily and Richard’s marriage has it’s ups and downs in the show, but they are solidly made for each other in many ways. They have a partnership that has lasted for decades and it shows in the way they at times seem to have one mind.

 As Lorelai and Emily make their way to the living room, making awkward chitchat we are greeted with maybe the longest pause in the episode yet. Pauses are a big deal in the famously wordy Palladino scripts.  It speaks volumes how little these women seem to be able to say to each other. “I’m sure I told you,” Lorelai tells her mother answering in a bit more detail about her business class. “Well if you’re sure, than you must have,” Emily bites back sarcastically. We get no answer to whether Lorelai did or not (my guess is that she didn’t), but either way we see so clearly the miscommunications that bubble up between these two who have so little faith in the other’s ability to understand the other. They don’t make this one a big fight, but it is part of the fight we will see later in the episode. Emily resents that Lorelai shuts her out of her life. Lorelai resents her mother’s controlling nature which causes her to avoid telling Emily anything rather than risk criticism or involvement in her choices. It’s a vicious cycle. Every bit of Emily’s dialogue is dripping with sardonic disbelief as she explains to Richard that Lorelai decided to just “drop in to see us” after her “business class” that “she told us about it, dear, remember?” “No.” Richard demures. He doesn’t play the same games that Emily and Lorelai do with each other. No, he doesn’t remember. This could be because he doesn’t listen, but it could also be a point in the column for the theory that Lorelai never told them.

 Just this small part is enough to make this scene practically perfect. We got the back story before this for the most part in a scene between Lorelai and Sookie, but so far this has given us so much of the relationship between Lorelai and her parents (and a bit into the relationship between Richard and Emily). It soars in it’s ability to shed exposition and get to the root of what this dynamic has been for the last 16 years. It’s even better than the first Friday Night Dinner that happens towards the end of this episode, in my opinion. But now we have the discussion of money and the loan. Gilmore Girls at times handles the class dynamics between Lorelai and her parents so well it approaches Mad Men in what it is saying about whiteness and power and inherited wealth and those that reject it. Other times it is a magical place where money and finances make no sense. But that’s down the line. Here we have the simple act of a child asking their parents for money. Something many people have done with various degrees of injured pride. For some it’s easy, for Lorelai it is immensely difficult. Her saving grace is that it is for Rory, not for her, that she asks. It is interesting to note, that while Lorelai is adverse to the moneyed class her parents are in and the trappings of the white, wealthy elite she still wants her kid to have those advantages that she turned down by having Rory and leaving her parents. She still wants Harvard. She still wants Chilton. She is asking her parents for the money to buy her and Rory’s way back into the world she left behind. Of course she believes that it won’t have to affect their quaint little life in Stars Hollow, but it is interesting nonetheless that this is what she wants for her child and what she believes Rory deserves and needs in order to be what Rory wants to be.

 Before Lorelai can even ask, Richard repeats two times “You need money.” Again, Richard doesn’t mess around and he doesn’t play games (at least not when it comes to calling his daughter out). He doesn’t need to hear her explanation, but Lorelai won’t leave until she gives it and says what she came to say in the way she wants to say it. It’s for Rory, for Chilton, she explains. Emily’s eyes brighten and she notes how close the school is to her house. “So…you need money,” Richard again chimes in, cutting through the bullshit. “Yes,” Lorelai has to admit. But it’s Rory, she repeats, and she will pay them back. “I don’t ask for favors, you know that.” (Lorelai’s anthem) “Oh yes, we know,” Emily admits.  Emily’s voice is rife with bitterness and sadness. She wants to help her daughter, but she’s not allowed to. “I’ll get the check book,” Richard says. It is a sweet moment that is cut short by Emily’s proposal, but sweet regardless. Despite their past and hurt feelings, there is love between these people. Richard does not hesitate and he knows that Emily agrees. Rory binds them all together and certainly they are willing to do this for her, but they are obviously just as willing to do this for Lorelai. 

 And here we have Emily’s proposal that sets up the backbone for this generational family drama. Emily wants to be actively involved in Lorelai and Rory’s lives. She wants dinner once a week and a weekly phone call in exchange for the loan. Kelly Bishop is honestly so pitch perfect in everything in this show. She has that pose and demeanor here that seems almost villainous. It’s why on first watch you might want to always side with Lorelai. Emily is controlling and privileged and she has many faults, but honestly she just loves her daughter and granddaughter and sees an opportunity to force a connection that Lorelai would have denied her for eternity if she had not jumped on it. There is a softness in this. She doesn’t comment on Lorelai’s inability to provide this schooling for Rory herself, or honestly do anything to make her feel bad (in this moment) about her life’s choices. She just wants to be a part of that life now.  Of course it gets messier the more we go into this episode and the series, but for now that’s all there is. We see again Lorelai’s pride, “I don’t want her [Rory] to know that I borrowed money from you.” But that’s not the only fault of Lorelai’s we see in this scene. We see also her stubbornness when it comes to her parents and her oftentimes inability and unwillingness to see the ways they demonstrate their love and their longing for her. She brushes past her mom’s request and agrees to the weekly dinners, but she is annoyed by it. She seems to see it only as her mother controlling her (of course it is this too, but as is often the case with the best scenes in this show people’s motives are both-and. Emily is controlling and vulnerable in this one). She doesn’t see that longing to connect as the simple love of a mother for her daughter that it is.

 And that’s that. So much is revealed besides the plot in this elegantly written and brilliantly acted scene. It is simple and yet I could probably go on about how much this one scene says about this show as a whole. So much is revealed and set up for the series. Of all the iconic scenes in this episode, this one stands above the others and for that reason I think it is underrated.