[6.9/10] Another kind of scattered episode, though like the fire episode, that raggedy structure fits given the nature of the rush when Rory realizes she misjudged the start of college by a week. It’s a lot of checking in with various people around the town, which makes some sense for a season premiere, but gets a few major things for the season off on an odd note.
Let’s start with the few things that resemble stories. The first and most pestersome is Taylor guilting Rory for being too busy to be the “Ice Cream Queen” for his new candy shop. It’s a weird storyline for several reason. For one, it turns Taylor’s dickishness up to eleven. He’s always kind of a pest, but this feels above and beyond. For another, it’s a strange way to dramatize the theme of Rory worrying that people will view her as looking down on them now that she’s an Ivy Leaguer. The whole guilt trip thing plays pretty broad, and while Rory’s frustration is palpable, it’s all too on-the-nose.
The other strange bit is the reveal about what happened with Luke on his cruise. Luke proposing, him and Nicole getting married, and then just as quickly getting divorced doesn’t sound like Luke. It’s the sort of thing you could maybe build to if you watched it happen, but just having it described via exposition from one character to another doesn’t do a good enough job of selling it as something that could happen to our beloved curmudgeon. It seems more like easy network T.V. drama, and just rings false to the character.
Most of the rest of the episode is just drop-ins with other random members of the town. Babbette yelling everything she’s doing to her husband is a weak running gag. Kirk selling skin cream and pouting over not getting a gift from the Gilmore Girls is worth a chuckle. Jackson being stuck in 1954 and not wanting to know the sex of his baby is kind of cute. And Lorelai and Sookie reuniting, unveiling that Sookie’s pregnant with a boy, and just hanging out the way they do is a pleasant moment in the episode.
The main story, such as it is, is the way that Rory and Lorelai’s time together starts dwindling precipitously given the unexpected time crunch, which is only exacerbated by the elder Gilmores’ Friday Night Dinner. The stalling tactics from Emily and the fight that comes when Lorelai comes to rescue Rory comes off like a reheated version of the same argument they’ve had loads of times. But still, it’s an interesting tug-of-war with both Lorelai and Emily wanting to enjoy their last night with Rory before she goes off to college.
And Rory and Lorelai sitting on the couch, snarking at the ballroom dancing videos even after Emily’s passed out, is a nice tribute to the fact that even when they’re not running down Lorelai’s list of traditional Gilmore Girls activities, they’re still eternally a team, still eternally them, doing what they do best no matter what the circumstances. It’s a nice last gasp of that before things change when Rory starts college.
Overall, it’s not a bad episode, it’s just a shaggy one where more than few things feel miscalibrated. Still, there’s some good stuff at its core, particularly (as usual) the complicated relationship between Emily, Lorelai, and Rory that plays out in endless but still compelling permutations.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2017-10-19T02:03:59Z
[6.9/10] Another kind of scattered episode, though like the fire episode, that raggedy structure fits given the nature of the rush when Rory realizes she misjudged the start of college by a week. It’s a lot of checking in with various people around the town, which makes some sense for a season premiere, but gets a few major things for the season off on an odd note.
Let’s start with the few things that resemble stories. The first and most pestersome is Taylor guilting Rory for being too busy to be the “Ice Cream Queen” for his new candy shop. It’s a weird storyline for several reason. For one, it turns Taylor’s dickishness up to eleven. He’s always kind of a pest, but this feels above and beyond. For another, it’s a strange way to dramatize the theme of Rory worrying that people will view her as looking down on them now that she’s an Ivy Leaguer. The whole guilt trip thing plays pretty broad, and while Rory’s frustration is palpable, it’s all too on-the-nose.
The other strange bit is the reveal about what happened with Luke on his cruise. Luke proposing, him and Nicole getting married, and then just as quickly getting divorced doesn’t sound like Luke. It’s the sort of thing you could maybe build to if you watched it happen, but just having it described via exposition from one character to another doesn’t do a good enough job of selling it as something that could happen to our beloved curmudgeon. It seems more like easy network T.V. drama, and just rings false to the character.
Most of the rest of the episode is just drop-ins with other random members of the town. Babbette yelling everything she’s doing to her husband is a weak running gag. Kirk selling skin cream and pouting over not getting a gift from the Gilmore Girls is worth a chuckle. Jackson being stuck in 1954 and not wanting to know the sex of his baby is kind of cute. And Lorelai and Sookie reuniting, unveiling that Sookie’s pregnant with a boy, and just hanging out the way they do is a pleasant moment in the episode.
The main story, such as it is, is the way that Rory and Lorelai’s time together starts dwindling precipitously given the unexpected time crunch, which is only exacerbated by the elder Gilmores’ Friday Night Dinner. The stalling tactics from Emily and the fight that comes when Lorelai comes to rescue Rory comes off like a reheated version of the same argument they’ve had loads of times. But still, it’s an interesting tug-of-war with both Lorelai and Emily wanting to enjoy their last night with Rory before she goes off to college.
And Rory and Lorelai sitting on the couch, snarking at the ballroom dancing videos even after Emily’s passed out, is a nice tribute to the fact that even when they’re not running down Lorelai’s list of traditional Gilmore Girls activities, they’re still eternally a team, still eternally them, doing what they do best no matter what the circumstances. It’s a nice last gasp of that before things change when Rory starts college.
Overall, it’s not a bad episode, it’s just a shaggy one where more than few things feel miscalibrated. Still, there’s some good stuff at its core, particularly (as usual) the complicated relationship between Emily, Lorelai, and Rory that plays out in endless but still compelling permutations.