3x19 Keg! Max!

[7.6/10] There’s some episodes of television (most recently, several installment of Twin Peaks) that I just don’t know how I feel about, even after the credits roll. “Keg! Max!” is definitely one of them. It’s the culmination, or at least a firework-filled interlude, for so many stories that have been bubbling up this season. Many of them are done in a satisfying fashion, or if nothing else, with some very satisfying scenes. Others are done with melodrama and cornpone. And then there’s some standalone bits that are funny or awkward, but feel oddly appended to the episode rather than fitting in organically.

The result is an episode that is intermittently hilarious, cringeworthy, tense, sad, corny, ridiculous, and great, and never quite settles on one or even a few of those things. I think it’s good? Parts of it certainly are good. But I’m not necessarily sure when or why.

Let’s take it story by story in ascending order of importance. First, Lane’s unexpected love triangle with Dave and Yung Chu comes to a head. Lane’s band doing their first gig is a nice setting for it to happen, and Dave’s jealousy and frustration, Yung Chu’s affections, and Lane feeling like she’s in an unwinnable scenario are all understandable. The way that the situation puts a damper on Dave’s enjoyment of the party is a natural choice that heightens the narrative.

But then Lane, as a release valve, gets drunk, in something that feels cliché. And then confesses everything to her mother, declaring herself “liberated”, which, while a long time in the making, feels even more cliché. The fallout will be the real determinate here, but it’s still a bit rote as a direction to take this story. (Though I’ll admit, as sitcom lite as it is, I appreciated the gag of Dave and Yung Chu setting out to have a “friendly” man-to-man about the situation, and then getting shoved into one another by the Jess/Dean rumble.

This seems as good a place as any to mention the good comic bits in the episode. The guy throwing the party worrying about his mom’s hummel figurines and people setting coasters on glasses was a great running gag. The band freaking out and not being able to decide on a name or on whether to do slashing windmills double jumps off amps was a good source of humor. Michel falling over himself with his new puppies is adorable and amusing. The elder Gilmores throwing a party on a Friday night with their offspring’s absence makes for a nice drop-in. And man, Paris strolling in, delivering a quick, exhaustively researched, and pointed presentation about why having prom on a yacht is the worst idea since appeasement, may be her comic peak.

What’s odd is that the episode seemed to be going for comedy at times with the “Lorelai’s unsure about love” situation that plays out in the episode. I think the episode intends the awkwardness of Lorelai providing turndown service to Luke and Nicole while in the room that they clearly were recently (or soon-to-be) romantic in. And it’s not a bad beat to play, Lorelai meaning well, and finding the whole situation a little uncomfortable in a way that exposes some of her feelings for Luke. But it seemed so odd that she just kept going with it rather than simply dropping off some towels and mints and going on her way, in a fashion that felt like the writers trying to draw something out rather than capturing human emotion.

The same mixed-bag is at play in the Max-focused part of her storyline. I like that his return has caused a rush of feelings to come back to Lorelai that she doesn’t know how to deal with. Her dissecting his behavior at the booster club meeting and realizing that she doesn’t know what she wants is both a totally relatable and expected reaction, but also a little over-expositional.

And then there’s her actual confrontation with Max, which is, to be frank, kind of bizarre. It totally makes sense that she would want to hash things out, but she practically antagonizes a man whom she nigh-left at the altar just because she has feelings she doesn’t know how to deal with, which feels pretty unfair. Max’s request to keep their distance seems pretty reasonable given what’s happened between them, but the whole “10 feet” thing and ensuing dance around the room is a little too I Love Lucy. It’s another situation in which I like what they’re going for, but things just spin off into weird territory in places, and it’s a strange button to put on the Lorelai/Max situation which seemed like it had a perfectly nice coda in Max’s last appearance.

Then, there’s the momentous Rory/Jess part of the episode. The reveal that Max is flunking out of high school is not shocking, given how it’s set up, but I still like the show exploring Jess’s hubris and denial about the whole situation, and then his internal, unspoken frustration spilling out to other places. We’ve gotten to see (or at least understand) a little more about Jess’s inner life this season than last, when he was basically just a generic bad boy love interest, and it’s nice to see him lashing out in ways subtle and not so subtle when he feels the world has dealt him a bad hand.

As it did for Lane and Dave, the party is also a bit of a cliché but still effective place in which for all this high drama to play out. The episode does capture that sense of motion and chaos at a teenage party, where people bounce off one another in unexpected ways and things come out as the night wears on. Some of it’s cheesy (the randos yelling “21!” or “Let’s rock and roll!” had me more laughing at the show than with it), but for the most part it works.

It also leads to Jess trying to sleep with Rory, which does feel like the sort of thing he would do, particularly if he’s not in a great place and looking for comfort, but again, feels like a page out of the typical teen show/teen party playbook. The episode is pretty clumsy about setting it up with Lorelai’s whole “key on the belt” thing, but as strange as some of the execution is, I do appreciate how it captures that confusion of youth, the swirl of emotions and blame you don’t quite know what to do with. Jess feels raw and out of place at this sort of party, and Rory feels understandably hurt and confused with her boyfriend taking it out on her.

And then there’s the fight that’s been nearly two years in the making,and holy hell, does it live up to the billing. I don’t know if I ever expected Dean to be the one to throw the first punch, or for it to happen when and why it did, but man does it work. Kudos to the two actors involved, the fight choreographer, and the whole production team for, once again, really capturing the feeling of an all out brought and the chaotic sense of such pugilism taking place in an exposed space. The way they’re torn apart and rush back together to land their blows, or scrap and scrum until they’re forced out onto the lawn is kinetic and real that sells this as the culmination of two years of resentment from Dean and a release valve for Jess after his bad news.

But then he gives that sad puppydog look and walks off into the distance a la the name-dropped James Dean, and it’s just one notch too much. Maybe that’s how I feel about this episode. Everything it’s trying to do makes sense, and much of it works, but it continually seems like it goes about one increment too far, or one moment too long, to be perfect. It’s certainly an interesting and, again, momentous episode, to set up the run into the season finale.