[7.5/10] Most of this episode feels like either a prelude to the major dinner scene, or a setup for things to come. Let’s consider each before we get to the fireworks.
I got a kick out of Rory rolling around with Mitchum Huntzberger at her new internship and feeling completely lost. Again, Rory can be a bit of a Mary Sue at times, so like with her Yale setback last season, it’s nice to see her out of her element and having to hustle a little; it humanizes here. Her exuberance for being at a real newspaper, combined with her anxiousness that causes her to overly research her new boss/prospective father-in-law and pump Logan for information, is an endearing look for her. Getting Mitchum decaf coffee when he likes it and being invited into a meeting is small potatoes, but still an encouraging little setup and payoff.
I’m less happy with the setup where Lorelai is taking meetings with some boutique inn magnate who would give her a job that would have her traveling often. Maybe it’s just that I can see the T.V. writing seams too easily. After an episode where Dean warns that Lorelai will want something beyond Stars Hollow, despite the fact that we’ve never gotten the slightest indication of that from Lorelai, we now suddenly get an opportunity that would potentially take her away, replete with Sookie commenting that Lorelai has nothing to tie her down, at the same time Luke is buying a house. It’s all too neat and too contrived to set up an obvious conflict down the line that doesn’t really feel true, or at least not previously established, for either character.
That said, pretty much everything involving the actual dinner is great. It’s both adorable and frightening how excited Richard and Emily are to have Logan potential in the fold as a prospective son-in-law, going so far as to discuss buying a house at Cape Cod to have grandchildren. This is, in many ways, what they always wanted, and while it’s simultaneously cute and freaky how they’re discussing how the babies would look and how Rory and Logan could be a “power couple”, it’s a look we don’t always get to see from the two elder Gilmores which makes it compelling.
At the same time, it’s interesting how Lorelai is totally freezed out. She never really felt like she belonged in this world, and between the preexisting ugliness within the family and the way that Richard and Emily are fawning over Logan’s every word, she feels left out from every conversation and like a fifth wheel to this whole thing. (In fairness, she only attended the dinner to get the jump on Richard and Emily meeting Logan before her, so it didn’t have to be this way.) Emily gaslighting her daughter and doing other things to subtly undermine her daughter only make it worse.
That adds to the difference in perspective that takes place when Logan and Rory leave. All Lorelai sees is a rich kid from a world she doesn’t like, one whose family was mean to her daughter and who nicked a knickknack and would have let the maid take the blame for it. Richard and Emily see a Gilmore Girl finally bringing someone they might like through their threshold and are giddy at Rory potentially being attached to someone who’s apart of their world rather than Lorelai’s. It’s a meaningful difference in how they view this pairing, with both sides having legitimate points that are colored by how they’re looking at things, and it creates a meaningful conflict.
Plus there’s such great writing and acting at the dinner. The look on Lorelai’s face when she stares at Logan while the maid is being interrogated, the change in Emily’s expression when she’s feteing her granddaughter’s new beau vs. quietly rebuking her daughter, even Logan’s bemused slyness at Richard and Emily’s fawning is all great. It’s a well done set of scenes with some real subtle and complex emotional stuff under the hood.
Overall, the main event here is superb, though parts of the undercard feel either given a bit of the short shrift or meant to setup the next card. Still, what we get right now, particularly as the different parental units assess the Logan situation differently, is great, as most Lorelai/Emily confrontations are.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2017-12-28T01:34:45Z
[7.5/10] Most of this episode feels like either a prelude to the major dinner scene, or a setup for things to come. Let’s consider each before we get to the fireworks.
I got a kick out of Rory rolling around with Mitchum Huntzberger at her new internship and feeling completely lost. Again, Rory can be a bit of a Mary Sue at times, so like with her Yale setback last season, it’s nice to see her out of her element and having to hustle a little; it humanizes here. Her exuberance for being at a real newspaper, combined with her anxiousness that causes her to overly research her new boss/prospective father-in-law and pump Logan for information, is an endearing look for her. Getting Mitchum decaf coffee when he likes it and being invited into a meeting is small potatoes, but still an encouraging little setup and payoff.
I’m less happy with the setup where Lorelai is taking meetings with some boutique inn magnate who would give her a job that would have her traveling often. Maybe it’s just that I can see the T.V. writing seams too easily. After an episode where Dean warns that Lorelai will want something beyond Stars Hollow, despite the fact that we’ve never gotten the slightest indication of that from Lorelai, we now suddenly get an opportunity that would potentially take her away, replete with Sookie commenting that Lorelai has nothing to tie her down, at the same time Luke is buying a house. It’s all too neat and too contrived to set up an obvious conflict down the line that doesn’t really feel true, or at least not previously established, for either character.
That said, pretty much everything involving the actual dinner is great. It’s both adorable and frightening how excited Richard and Emily are to have Logan potential in the fold as a prospective son-in-law, going so far as to discuss buying a house at Cape Cod to have grandchildren. This is, in many ways, what they always wanted, and while it’s simultaneously cute and freaky how they’re discussing how the babies would look and how Rory and Logan could be a “power couple”, it’s a look we don’t always get to see from the two elder Gilmores which makes it compelling.
At the same time, it’s interesting how Lorelai is totally freezed out. She never really felt like she belonged in this world, and between the preexisting ugliness within the family and the way that Richard and Emily are fawning over Logan’s every word, she feels left out from every conversation and like a fifth wheel to this whole thing. (In fairness, she only attended the dinner to get the jump on Richard and Emily meeting Logan before her, so it didn’t have to be this way.) Emily gaslighting her daughter and doing other things to subtly undermine her daughter only make it worse.
That adds to the difference in perspective that takes place when Logan and Rory leave. All Lorelai sees is a rich kid from a world she doesn’t like, one whose family was mean to her daughter and who nicked a knickknack and would have let the maid take the blame for it. Richard and Emily see a Gilmore Girl finally bringing someone they might like through their threshold and are giddy at Rory potentially being attached to someone who’s apart of their world rather than Lorelai’s. It’s a meaningful difference in how they view this pairing, with both sides having legitimate points that are colored by how they’re looking at things, and it creates a meaningful conflict.
Plus there’s such great writing and acting at the dinner. The look on Lorelai’s face when she stares at Logan while the maid is being interrogated, the change in Emily’s expression when she’s feteing her granddaughter’s new beau vs. quietly rebuking her daughter, even Logan’s bemused slyness at Richard and Emily’s fawning is all great. It’s a well done set of scenes with some real subtle and complex emotional stuff under the hood.
Overall, the main event here is superb, though parts of the undercard feel either given a bit of the short shrift or meant to setup the next card. Still, what we get right now, particularly as the different parental units assess the Logan situation differently, is great, as most Lorelai/Emily confrontations are.