About:
Gilmore Girls S1.E08 “Love and War and Snow”
Gilmore Girls S1.E09 “Rory’s Dance”
Drinks Taken: 26
Cups of Coffee: 11
We’re on Week 3, and Gilmore Girls has finally become wholly itself, the full-fledged show that we remember and adore. The first six episodes were sort of warming us up, but with “Kiss and Tell,” Gilmore Girls has evolved into what it will remain for the rest of the series. Kirk is Kirk, Taylor is Taylor, Stars Hollow is revealed as a magical place filled with more festivals per capita than any other city in the world and the source of Luke’s crotchetiness is revealed. (Spoiler alert: it’s Taylor Doose.)
Let’s dive in, but first! A reminder of our drinking game rules:
The Gilmore Girls Drinking Game Rules
Drink once every time:
Lorelai or Rory drinks coffee.
Emily gets flustered by Lorelai’s bizarre sense of humor.
Sookie is controlling about food.
Paris is controlling about anything.
Michel snubs a customer.
Luke is crotchety.
Taylor has an absurd scheme for Stars Hollow.
The girls acquire massive amounts of food and then fail to take even one bite.
Drink twice every time:
Kirk has a new job.
You see a town troubadour.
You see a moment from the credits.
Mrs. Kim says “We appreciate your business.”
On to the episodes!
1.7 “Kiss And Tell”
Somebody’s had her first kiss! If you guessed Rory, you’re smart, because lord knows Lorelai’s lips have been around the block a few times. Rory visits Dean at Doose’s Market, and he surprises her by laying one on her next to the ant spray. She thanks him and runs away straight to Lane’s while accidentally shoplifting a box of corn starch. She gives the juicy details to Lane, who insists the ant spray aisle is a good aisle (“An aisle where you get kissed by the new kid is a good aisle”).
Rory wants to tell Lorelai, but Lorelai’s grouchy because their fridge isn’t working, and Rory’s afraid she won’t like hearing that the kid who almost compelled Rory to drop out of Chilton is macking on her at the grocery store. When Lorelai finds out from everyone else in town, she does wig a bit, spying on Dean with Luke, but she tries to play it cool and invites him to watch Willy Wonka with her and Rory that night. Rory is not pleased that her first date with Dean will be with her mother in attendance, but it all goes really well and adorably, including a talk between Dean and Lorelai where she makes it clear that the entire town is watching him and he makes it clear that he’s not giving up on Rory. Lorelai’s impressed, and so am I.
In Stars Hollow news, Taylor exists! And he’s got a crazy Taylor scheme in his role as Town Selectman (drink!), organizing a city-wide Autumn Fest and haranguing Luke to put up some autumnal decorations at the diner. Luke deals with this request about as cheerfully as you can imagine (drink!). Also, this:
How many times do I have to drink?
7.
How many cups of coffee do the Gilmore girls drink?
5.
Flirtation quota
There’s obviously a ton of Dean flirting this week, and I can’t get over how cute it is that Rory thanked him for his kiss.
“That was very polite,” Lorelai teases when she hears the details from Rory.
Most dated pop culture reference
This actually isn’t that dated, but it’s worth mentioning. When Dean says he’d like to watch Boogie Nights for their next movie night, Rory says, “You’ll never get it past Lorelai. She had a bad reaction to Magnolia. She sat there for three hours screaming ‘I want my life back!’”
Sookie’s best dish of the episode
She brings over some unnamed dessert for movie night, but since we can’t tell what it is, I will instead use this space to list only some of the snacks Rory and Lorelai procure for Willy Wonka: jumbo marshmallows, supreme pizza, Lick ‘o’ Stick, jelly beans, Caramello bars, Cheetos, popcorn, cookie dough, Hershey’s kisses, Red Vines… Dean gapes at Rory, “Wow, you can eat!” which reminds me that my friend Jon’s uncle apparently asks after me and says “That girl can eat!” every time he sees Jon because once I ate them out of house and home when they had me over for brunch.
Lorelai’s craziest outfit
Let’s see, a tie-dyed shirt, hot pink clogs and a crocheted headscarf. Easy winner!
Kirk insanity
No Kirk this episode – but that time is waning, I promise you.
Best Gilmore Gal witticism
After hearing the total for all the junk food they just purchased, Lorelai marvels, “Wow, it’s expensive to slowly rot your insides, huh?”
Random observation
I love the scene between Rory and Lorelai before Dean comes over. Rory frets that she’ll never be able to slay the fellas the way Lorelai does, with her witty one-liners and sexy hair twirls. Lorelai gives her some great advice on charming boys, and the truth is, both of these girls do plenty of fella-slaying before the end of the series.
1.8 “Love and War and Snow”
Snow is in the air, and we learn that this is Lorelai’s favorite time of year. She goes all-out giddy over the first snow, and this year’s snowfall brings an extra present: Max is in town for the evening, while Rory just happens to be staying the night at her grandparents due to the snow storm. Rory has a great time at Richard and Emily’s, and even teaches them to enjoy a frozen pizza when their chef cancels because of the weather.
Max and Lorelai have one hell of a first date – notably, Luke seems crestfallen when he sees them walking around all moony together – and she invites Max inside for “coffee” when she runs into a moping Lane, who totally box-blocks poor Lorelai.
Why is Lane there? She’s been crushing hard on her band partner Rich Blumenfeld, and Rory’s been MIA lately due to Chilton and Dean, so Lane sort of loses all sense of reason and runs her fingers through Rich’s hair without Rich’s permission. She is mortified.
Lorelai tells Max to sleep in the living room and lets Lane sleep in Rory’s room, and Rory is chagrined to come home and find her English teacher on the couch the next morning. Rory apologizes sincerely to Lane for being such an absentee friend, and the besties make up in true bestie fashion.
In Taylor/Luke news, Luke’s super annoyed with the local reenactment of the revolutionary Battle of Stars Hollow, in which literally nothing happened but eight guys stood around waiting for an enemy that never showed. Luke thinks it’s stupid, because it is, but he ends up bringing coffee to the poor schmoes standing in the snow because under that gruff exterior, he’s a mensch.
How many times do I have to drink?
8.
How many cups of coffee do the Gilmore girls drink?
4.
Flirtation quota
Rory and Dean flirt over literature – my favorite kind of flirting! – when she convinces him to read Jane Austen and he promises he will if she’ll read Hunter S. Thompson. Dean starts out a lot smarter than he seems later in the series.
Lorelai does a little light flirting with Luke before she runs into Max and flirts with him like crazy, but it’s not her fault. It’s the snow. “You know how I get – it’s like catnip!”
Most dated pop culture reference
This isn’t quite pop culture, but it sure is dated: Rory has a beeper!!
Sookie’s best dish of the episode
She makes maple sugar snowflakes for the guests’ pillows at the Independence Inn.
Lorelai’s craziest outfit
This sock monkey shirt paired with a fleece-lined denim jacket really takes the cake.
Kirk insanity
He’s officially Our Kirk! During the reenactment, as Luke offers coffee to the guys, Kirk asks for an herbal tea with a squeeze of lemon, which is just the kind of quaint fastidiousness we grow to love from Kirk.
Best Gilmore Gal witticism
Rory, on Lorelai waking her up by listening to a voicemail from Max over and over: “It’s all fodder for the tell-all.”
Random observation:
This episode initiates one of my favorite Stars Hollow traditions: we see our first town meeting!
Tayor: blah blah blah
Luke: crotchety
Rory and Lorelai: gleeful
Kirk: Kirk
(Here, I made you this handy graphic. Feels just like you’re there, doesn’t it?)
1.9 “Rory’s Dance”
Rory has her first dance at Chilton, and she asks Dean to accompany her despite some labored attempts on ChaMM’s behalf to get her to go with him. Paris is not pleased. When Rory shows up with that tall drink of water on her arm, everyone’s duly impressed or jealous – especially Paris, who brought her cousin as a date, and ChaMM, who very nearly gets into a fight with Dean despite Dean’s six or seven inch height advantage.
Meanwhile, Lorelai has injured her back making Rory’s beautiful dress (I love Lorelai’s seamstress skills!), so Emily stays over to take care of her while Rory’s at the dance. It all goes very well, with some lovely bonding moments between Emily and Lorelai, until Rory and Dean accidentally fall asleep at Miss Patty’s while reading The Portable Dorothy Parker (impossible!), and Rory doesn’t make it home until the next morning. This is now the THIRD plot in nine episodes that centers around one or both of the Gilmore girls oversleeping. You’d think with all the caffeine they drink, they could manage to wake up on time once in a while. Emily accuses Lorelai of letting Rory turn out like her, and the fight turns ugly, and Lorelai and Rory have an equally ugly fight once Emily leaves. Rory claims that Lorelai’s only angry because she was embarrassed in front of Emily, and while she’s not wrong, my mother would skin me alive if I didn’t come home until the morning after my first date, so you’ll excuse me if I’m Team Lorelai here.
We start to see more of Rory’s spunk in this ep as she stands up for herself to Paris, disses ChaMM and asks Dean out. It’s nice to see her growing a backbone, and Future Rory certainly shows more of her mom’s moxie than we’ve seen in the first few episodes.
How many times do I have to drink?
11.
How many cups of coffee do the Gilmore girls drink?
Only two, tsk tsk.
Flirtation quota
No flirting for Lorelai this episode, but Rory makes up for it in spades. That’s my girl! She and Dean DTR and confirm that they are, in fact, bf-gf – after he rightly tells her how amazing she looks and deliberately flirts with her in front of Madeline and Louise when Louise hits on him. Dean’s so swoon-worthy at this point in the show!
ChaMM does his best to win over Rory, but his best ain’t so great, and to add insult to poor Paris’ injury, her cousin/date hits on Rory at the dance.
Most dated pop culture reference
Rory, on Dean: “He’s my gentleman caller.” Lane: “Okay, Blanche.”
Sookie’s best dish of the episode
She brings over tacos and a burrito for the ailing Lorelai, but I’m not sure she made them. This honor will have to go to Emily’s mashed banana on toast despite the fact that Lorelai says about the mushy concoction, “It looks like somebody already ate that, Mom.”
Lorelai’s craziest outfit
She’s suffering back pain, she’s frantic that her kid is missing and her mom is yelling at her, so we’ll have to forgive her for these khaki jeans and the dip-dyed shirt adorned with Chinese characters.
Kirk insanity
No Kirk, more’s the pity. I’d have liked to see him play one of the aghast villagers who stumble on Dean and Rory in Miss Patty’s studio.
Best Gilmore Gal witticism
When Emily’s angling for an invitation to watch Rory get ready for her first dance: “I figured if I got enough pictures I could at least line them up in chronological order and pretend I was there. Maybe bind them together, make a flipbook out of them.”
Random observation
This is more about the show in general – I showed it to my mom for the first time over Mother’s Day weekend, and she fell absolutely in love. She’s obsessed! We watched several episodes together and it was a pretty heartwarming experience. This is just to say: share this show with your moms, people. They’ll thank you for it!
I’m a big fan of the next three episodes – “Forgiveness and Stuff,” “Paris Is Burning” and “Double Date” – so be sure to meet me back here next Wednesday morning as we continue our rewatch project!
And a question for you, FYA readers: I know some people out there are Team ChaMM. If you are, please speak up, because I’d love to know why. I loathe the dude (as I suspect you’ve noticed by now), but I respect differing opinions!
I’m kinda team ChaMM but really I’m Team Anyone But Dean 🙂