5x11 Women Of Questionable Morals

[7.4/10] There’s basically four separate plots in this one, so let’s take them one at a time.

And let’s start with the comic relief. As often is the case when you have stories featuring Taylor and Kirk, the bit with the eponymous women of loose morals being injected into Stars’ Hollow’s usual reenactment fun was pretty broad. Taylor dressing down the applicants was super creepy, though Kirk running into Luke’s to declare “my girlfriend’s the whore” was goofy but amusing. There’s not much to it, and the humor is hit or miss, but has its moments.

The other storyline I really liked was Richard and Emily re-bonding over the stray dog that they find. I have to admit, as much as I enjoyed this bit, I was worried that the show would use this to just gloss over the serious issues between Richard and Emily back together. Instead, it’s just a nice incremental bit to move them closer, to show that they’re a great team, that they have a natural rapport, and that in a way, they’re both kind of yearning to get back to their joint life. I still want to see them actually address their major points of disagreement, but it’s nice to have something silly to bring them together and show how natural they are as a pair again.

I also enjoyed the bit about snow “betraying” Lorelai. it’s a nice subversion from her love of it in the first season. I love when this show doesn’t just remember its characters’ continuity, but uses it to build them up or explore them in some way. Lorelai trying to be excited for snow, but instead finding that its hurting her business, trapping her car, and leaking through her roof is a nice reversal. And even better is Luke being kind of annoyed and grumpy about the whole thing, but in the end going to some trouble to make a skating rink for Lorelai to try to restore the magic. It’s a testament to how good they are together, and how great Luke is in particular, to go the extra mile to help reestablish something she loves even if it’s not his thing.

And it’s an interesting contrast with the Rory/Lorelai/Christopher story. I’ll admit, I’m leery about the fact that, for the second time, Lorelai didn’t bother to warn Luke before she met up with Christopher, and now she’s gone a step further by lying to him about it. It’s also noteworthy that Rory basically jumps in to lie to Luke on behalf of her mom, whereas before she was super protective of Luke and against Christopher.

But the episode gives a good reason for that. Rory feels guilty for the position she put her dad in, where his dad was sick and died, and he felt like he couldn’t really reach out to Lorelai, and had hurt his relationship with Rory, after she’d previously scared him off and, most recently, rebuffed his attempts to rebuild his and Rory’s relationship. There’s some complex stuff there, and I find Christopher much more interesting as a father figure than I do as a love interest. It’s an interesting Rory story too, as she has a change of heart after feeling some guilt over the position Christopher was in, at least, partially, on her account.

I still don’t like the Gilmore Girls keeping things or, worse yet, lying to Luke. (Luke’s an adult, I imagine he’d be a little perturbed but understanding about the situation.) But it’s good writing, both to have a setup and payoff for Rory’s change of heart with respect to her dad, and to tie it into a nice contrast between Christopher and Luke in relation to Lorelai.

Overall, it’s a very nice episode that juggles some interesting stuff all around.