[7.3/10] Perfectly solid episode, with one sort of odd dramatic point to it.
But let’s go from lightest to heaviest. The lightest, but most heartwarming story, is Doyle coming back to Paris’s dorm, having waited for her all weekend, and wanting her to take care of him while he’s sick. In an episode focused on approval of interlopers, Doyle is the only person who fully passes muster, gaining the approbation of Nanny(!) who nurses him back to health on Paris’s behalf. It’s a neat way to show Paris and Doyle connecting in their own particular way. And I love Paris, who’s not exactly shy, being inspired by Rory and finding the confidence to address the “commitment” issue with Doyle directly, to “focus,” and getting a positive result out of it.
I’m less on board with the most purely comedic storyline, which sees Luke filling in for Sookie at the Dragonfly as an emergency replacement after she’s ordered to stick with bedrest by her doctor. There’s a few good gags from Sookie being unable to let go and micromanaging Luke from afar, but it gets pretty broad and cartoony pretty quickly. I like the idea, which is a recurring one for Sookie, that she so believes in her method and in her kitchen that she has a hard time letting anyone else in, let alone tamper with things, even if it’s a talented cook and trusted friend like Luke. There’s some laughs now and then, but it’s one of those wacky sitcom plots that the show does every so often that just don’t land with me.
But the major storyline of the episode is two-fold, and centers on Rory and Logan. The first part is Rory confronting Logan about the fact that she can’t do the “casual dating” thing. As much as the end of the last episode felt kind of off to me, I appreciate the fact that Rory is, once again, being a mature adult about this. She’s not mad; she’s not blaming Logan; she’s just walking in and saying, “I thought I could do this, but it’s just not me.”
And I like Logan’s’ response to it, that being a boyfriend is unfamiliar territory for him, but that he really likes her and can do it if it means keeping her in his life. I’ll go out on a limb and say that despite a rocky start, I like Logan the best of any of Rory’s love interests. He’s neither as blandly good as Dean nor as one-dimensional a bad boy as Jess. He has his faults, but they’re interesting faults, and he’s straightforward and effortful with Rory in a way that is as endearing as their dynamic. I’m not ready for her to end up with him, necessarily, but I at least like watching the two of them together and find those scenes compelling, which was something hit or miss at best with the prior beaus.
It’s a good thing I’m not 100% on board with a happily ever after for them, because the Hunstbergers aim to prevent that. I like the dynamic of Rory walking into Logan’s family home, being wowed at the opulence and trying to make nice, only to discover, to her dismay, that it’s her, not Logan’s sister’s fiancee, who’s considered not good enough for the family. The whole family is introduced rather quick, and it’s slightly eyebrow-raising that the Hunstbergers would be that anti-Rory, but it creates some interesting places to go.
For one thing, I like the fact that Rory, who’s used to having the Gilmore name, the Chilton education, and the Yale acceptance mean something, suddenly finds that she doesn’t measure up to someone else’s standards. It’s not something she’s used to, and creates a certain type of insecurity in her the show hasn’t explored very often, which dovetails with her preexisting insecurity over whether Logan really likes her or not.
The class dynamics, which have always been an undercurrent to the show, are also brought to the fore. The show plays it a little close to the vest, but it’s interesting to think that even (relatively) silver spoon Rory is not considered suitable to the Huntsbergers through some combination of (a.) the fact that she grew up in Stars Hollow rather than in upper crusty society, (b.) the scandal/less-dignified existence of Lorelai; and (c.) the fact that she wants to be a working woman rather than a socialite. It’s fruitful territory and I hope the show explores it in more than the drive-by fashion we got here.
But it also teases out an interesting fault line between Lorelai and Rory. From Lorelai’s perspective, all she sees is a boy from a segment of society that Lorelai doesn’t like, who makes her daughter cry from neglect and insecurity, and whose family embarassingly declared her not good enough for their heir apparent. It’s natural that Lorelai would have reservations, and watching her bottle them up, and then, when the time is right, unleash her concerns to Rory, is a believable source of difference of opinion from them, which again, opens up good opportunities for character-interactions and inflection points.
And it’s easy to see why Rory is smitten with Logan. He’s trying. He storms off, but he comes back and apologizes, and like Jess before him, the thing that makes this young man endearing despite his rough edges is how even when it doesn’t come naturally, he strives to behave in a way that makes him good enough for Rory, not the other way around. Let’s hope he fares better than his romantic predecessor.
But Rory has to deal with his familial predecessor. There’s something noble about how she tries to turn down Hunstberger Sr.’s internship offer, because she doesn’t like the reasons why she (at least suspects) it’s being offered to her. But Papa Huntsberger (who feels like Howard Hamlin from Better Call Saul), offers her an interesting counterpoint -- that regardless of why you get an opportunity, the point of life is to take advantage of the opportunities you get, and it seems enough to convince her to acquiesce. More and more, Rory is getting sucked into the world occupied by the elder GIlmores and Huntsbergers of the world, while Lorelai looks on with apprehension. It’ll be interesting to see where all of that goes.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2017-12-27T05:45:14Z
[7.3/10] Perfectly solid episode, with one sort of odd dramatic point to it.
But let’s go from lightest to heaviest. The lightest, but most heartwarming story, is Doyle coming back to Paris’s dorm, having waited for her all weekend, and wanting her to take care of him while he’s sick. In an episode focused on approval of interlopers, Doyle is the only person who fully passes muster, gaining the approbation of Nanny(!) who nurses him back to health on Paris’s behalf. It’s a neat way to show Paris and Doyle connecting in their own particular way. And I love Paris, who’s not exactly shy, being inspired by Rory and finding the confidence to address the “commitment” issue with Doyle directly, to “focus,” and getting a positive result out of it.
I’m less on board with the most purely comedic storyline, which sees Luke filling in for Sookie at the Dragonfly as an emergency replacement after she’s ordered to stick with bedrest by her doctor. There’s a few good gags from Sookie being unable to let go and micromanaging Luke from afar, but it gets pretty broad and cartoony pretty quickly. I like the idea, which is a recurring one for Sookie, that she so believes in her method and in her kitchen that she has a hard time letting anyone else in, let alone tamper with things, even if it’s a talented cook and trusted friend like Luke. There’s some laughs now and then, but it’s one of those wacky sitcom plots that the show does every so often that just don’t land with me.
But the major storyline of the episode is two-fold, and centers on Rory and Logan. The first part is Rory confronting Logan about the fact that she can’t do the “casual dating” thing. As much as the end of the last episode felt kind of off to me, I appreciate the fact that Rory is, once again, being a mature adult about this. She’s not mad; she’s not blaming Logan; she’s just walking in and saying, “I thought I could do this, but it’s just not me.”
And I like Logan’s’ response to it, that being a boyfriend is unfamiliar territory for him, but that he really likes her and can do it if it means keeping her in his life. I’ll go out on a limb and say that despite a rocky start, I like Logan the best of any of Rory’s love interests. He’s neither as blandly good as Dean nor as one-dimensional a bad boy as Jess. He has his faults, but they’re interesting faults, and he’s straightforward and effortful with Rory in a way that is as endearing as their dynamic. I’m not ready for her to end up with him, necessarily, but I at least like watching the two of them together and find those scenes compelling, which was something hit or miss at best with the prior beaus.
It’s a good thing I’m not 100% on board with a happily ever after for them, because the Hunstbergers aim to prevent that. I like the dynamic of Rory walking into Logan’s family home, being wowed at the opulence and trying to make nice, only to discover, to her dismay, that it’s her, not Logan’s sister’s fiancee, who’s considered not good enough for the family. The whole family is introduced rather quick, and it’s slightly eyebrow-raising that the Hunstbergers would be that anti-Rory, but it creates some interesting places to go.
For one thing, I like the fact that Rory, who’s used to having the Gilmore name, the Chilton education, and the Yale acceptance mean something, suddenly finds that she doesn’t measure up to someone else’s standards. It’s not something she’s used to, and creates a certain type of insecurity in her the show hasn’t explored very often, which dovetails with her preexisting insecurity over whether Logan really likes her or not.
The class dynamics, which have always been an undercurrent to the show, are also brought to the fore. The show plays it a little close to the vest, but it’s interesting to think that even (relatively) silver spoon Rory is not considered suitable to the Huntsbergers through some combination of (a.) the fact that she grew up in Stars Hollow rather than in upper crusty society, (b.) the scandal/less-dignified existence of Lorelai; and (c.) the fact that she wants to be a working woman rather than a socialite. It’s fruitful territory and I hope the show explores it in more than the drive-by fashion we got here.
But it also teases out an interesting fault line between Lorelai and Rory. From Lorelai’s perspective, all she sees is a boy from a segment of society that Lorelai doesn’t like, who makes her daughter cry from neglect and insecurity, and whose family embarassingly declared her not good enough for their heir apparent. It’s natural that Lorelai would have reservations, and watching her bottle them up, and then, when the time is right, unleash her concerns to Rory, is a believable source of difference of opinion from them, which again, opens up good opportunities for character-interactions and inflection points.
And it’s easy to see why Rory is smitten with Logan. He’s trying. He storms off, but he comes back and apologizes, and like Jess before him, the thing that makes this young man endearing despite his rough edges is how even when it doesn’t come naturally, he strives to behave in a way that makes him good enough for Rory, not the other way around. Let’s hope he fares better than his romantic predecessor.
But Rory has to deal with his familial predecessor. There’s something noble about how she tries to turn down Hunstberger Sr.’s internship offer, because she doesn’t like the reasons why she (at least suspects) it’s being offered to her. But Papa Huntsberger (who feels like Howard Hamlin from Better Call Saul), offers her an interesting counterpoint -- that regardless of why you get an opportunity, the point of life is to take advantage of the opportunities you get, and it seems enough to convince her to acquiesce. More and more, Rory is getting sucked into the world occupied by the elder GIlmores and Huntsbergers of the world, while Lorelai looks on with apprehension. It’ll be interesting to see where all of that goes.