[6.5/10] So, this was a weird episode, chock full of a wide assortment of storylines, none of which fully worked.
Let’s start with the cold open. It’s odd but appropriate that Luke is getting divorced with little fanfare. I don’t really have a problem with the scene as constituted, but it makes me wonder what the hell the point of the whole Nicole thing this season was. Was it just an excuse to keep him and Lorelai separated? Why have a major love interest who’s barely there? It’s a strange way to go, but I guess at least it’s over.
The bit with Rory and Asher Flemming is also an odd, barely there plot. Rory’s possible insecurity about getting special treatment because she’s friends with Paris isn’t the worst idea for a story, but it’s basically introduced and disposed of in a grand total of three scenes. Her scene confronting Asher about the possibility is awkward, and I’m not sure what the point of it was.
The Lane story is okay, but also goes to some weird places. For one thing, it’s (intentionally) strange that Mrs. Kim has basically replaced Lane with a foreign exchange student. That said, I like the idea that Lane gets this bit of (semi) professional success and is buzzing on it, but looks around the room and realizes she wants to share that joy with her mom but can’t. The other side is that dramatizing that by having her sneak into her old house, creep into her mom’s room, and give her a kiss is meant to be sweet but just comes off creepy.
Then there’s the major storyline of the episode, which is a big jumble of Lorelai and Digger and Richard and Emily, and none of it quite fits together. For one thing, Emily leaving Richard both feels setup from prior episodes, but also kind of out of nowhere. It’s clear that the show wants to put the audience in Lorelai and Rory’s veil of ignorance, to where we’re wondering about the weirdness and awkwardness of dinner as much as they are. But that just sort of makes you go “huh?” after the mini-fight that Emily and Richard have, which doesn’t feel like the impetus for such a big thing.
There’s also some odd character choices. In the end, I like the idea that as much as they’re different, this is supposed to be another way in which Emily and Lorelai are alike -- they both won’t stay with men who’d put business over family. But it comes off, again, oddly.
I’ve already talked about the issues with Emily’s side of things (and as an aside, Richard is super cold to Lorelai when she sticks up for Digger), but that just makes Lorelai’s response to wanting to sue Richard all the weirder. Not three scenes prior, she basically goes to Rory to say that she won’t be going to Friday night dinners anymore, and implicitly that she won’t be seeing her parents much anymore. And what’s more, she’s aghast at what Richard has done and is doing to Richard and seems to understand the dire straits it would put Digger in.
And yet when Digger explains why he needs to sue Richard, a man who Lorelai was just railing against, Lorelai’s pretty damn unsympathetic about it. Richard is basically destroying Digger’s career, and Digger’s just trying to defend himself, and Lorelai is both unrealistic and unfair about it. I understand that the show wants to set up a business vs. family motif thing here, but this is the wrong fulcrum to try to do it with, because it just makes Lorelai come off as completely unfair to Digger.
Overall, there’s a lot of strange choices in this episode, and both on a plotting and scene-to-scene basis, it kind of left me scratching my head and not really liking much of it.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2017-11-17T02:35:31Z
[6.5/10] So, this was a weird episode, chock full of a wide assortment of storylines, none of which fully worked.
Let’s start with the cold open. It’s odd but appropriate that Luke is getting divorced with little fanfare. I don’t really have a problem with the scene as constituted, but it makes me wonder what the hell the point of the whole Nicole thing this season was. Was it just an excuse to keep him and Lorelai separated? Why have a major love interest who’s barely there? It’s a strange way to go, but I guess at least it’s over.
The bit with Rory and Asher Flemming is also an odd, barely there plot. Rory’s possible insecurity about getting special treatment because she’s friends with Paris isn’t the worst idea for a story, but it’s basically introduced and disposed of in a grand total of three scenes. Her scene confronting Asher about the possibility is awkward, and I’m not sure what the point of it was.
The Lane story is okay, but also goes to some weird places. For one thing, it’s (intentionally) strange that Mrs. Kim has basically replaced Lane with a foreign exchange student. That said, I like the idea that Lane gets this bit of (semi) professional success and is buzzing on it, but looks around the room and realizes she wants to share that joy with her mom but can’t. The other side is that dramatizing that by having her sneak into her old house, creep into her mom’s room, and give her a kiss is meant to be sweet but just comes off creepy.
Then there’s the major storyline of the episode, which is a big jumble of Lorelai and Digger and Richard and Emily, and none of it quite fits together. For one thing, Emily leaving Richard both feels setup from prior episodes, but also kind of out of nowhere. It’s clear that the show wants to put the audience in Lorelai and Rory’s veil of ignorance, to where we’re wondering about the weirdness and awkwardness of dinner as much as they are. But that just sort of makes you go “huh?” after the mini-fight that Emily and Richard have, which doesn’t feel like the impetus for such a big thing.
There’s also some odd character choices. In the end, I like the idea that as much as they’re different, this is supposed to be another way in which Emily and Lorelai are alike -- they both won’t stay with men who’d put business over family. But it comes off, again, oddly.
I’ve already talked about the issues with Emily’s side of things (and as an aside, Richard is super cold to Lorelai when she sticks up for Digger), but that just makes Lorelai’s response to wanting to sue Richard all the weirder. Not three scenes prior, she basically goes to Rory to say that she won’t be going to Friday night dinners anymore, and implicitly that she won’t be seeing her parents much anymore. And what’s more, she’s aghast at what Richard has done and is doing to Richard and seems to understand the dire straits it would put Digger in.
And yet when Digger explains why he needs to sue Richard, a man who Lorelai was just railing against, Lorelai’s pretty damn unsympathetic about it. Richard is basically destroying Digger’s career, and Digger’s just trying to defend himself, and Lorelai is both unrealistic and unfair about it. I understand that the show wants to set up a business vs. family motif thing here, but this is the wrong fulcrum to try to do it with, because it just makes Lorelai come off as completely unfair to Digger.
Overall, there’s a lot of strange choices in this episode, and both on a plotting and scene-to-scene basis, it kind of left me scratching my head and not really liking much of it.