3x21 Here Comes the Son

[7.1/10] Large portions of this are a backdoor pilot for “The Jess Show”, and they don’t work especially well. They’ve done a lot to develop Jess over the course of this season, but he’s not nearly compelling enough to justify his own series at this point, and so his misadventures reconnecting with his father does little to compel me.

Sure, having Sherilyn Fenn (the second bit of Twin Peaks casting the show indulges in, in an episode with a prominent traffic light no less!) as Jess’s dad’s paramour is fun and she does a nice job in colorful if brief role, but just having Jess and his dad have overwrought exchanges about which one of them is a bigger screw-up is a misfire. And the quirky little sister doesn’t do much either.

But most of the scenes back in Stars Hollow are pretty interesting and good! Sure, there’s something odd about Alex Borstein returning once again, this time playing a hammy, name-dropping clothier for the elder Gilmores. Otherwise, there’s a lot of interesting stuff here, even if it comes in dribs and drabs.

Luke saying “I failed him” about Jess is a big moment, one that’s a sad check-in with the character. In the same way, Lorelai’s moment with Paris, with the two of them finding common ground is really great. It makes sense that both of them would feel resistant to doing things just because of a boy and encouraged by the idea of doing something just to annoy their mothers, and that’s why it’s a strong beat when Lorelai tells Paris to follow what she wants regardless of how it looks. And their hug is just adorable. It’s the best scene in the whole episode.

There’s also some major Gilmore fireworks. For one thing, the detail that Yale isn’t giving any financial aid to Rory seems to be setting up a reboot for the essential premise of the show, with Lorelai potentially having to go to her parents in order to fund Rory’s schooling.

But before we can get there, we need one more blow-up between Lorelai and Emily. The way that Emily is clearly tense at the presence of her daughter, and the easily-sniffed out lie about dinner not being ready so that Lorelai can’t stay, reveal the depths of the issues between the two. Lorelai’s hurt and anger at it is palpable, and Rory telling Emily that she’s being “stupid” feels like a wake-up call too. It’s nice to get a little more development of this story thread on the show that’s been mostly dormant since the big blow out.

Then there’s the reveal that Rory is the valedictorian. It ends things on a heartwarming note, and while it’s a bit too much wish-fulfillment, it’s a nice way to pay off Rory’s hectic bent over the entire episode, and works as a solid counterpoint to her clear disappointed but resigned reaction to Jess being “gone for good.”

Overall, it’s a little odd as a penultimate episode of the season, if only because it turns so much of the proceedings over to launching Jess on some new adventure, but the little bits we get of life back in Stars Hollow (apart from the terrible Miss Celine scenes) are good little preludes to the finale.