About:
Gilmore Girls S2.E14 “It Should’ve Been Lorelai”
Gilmore Girls S2.E15 “Lost and Found”
Drinks Taken: 25
Cups of Coffee: 4
It’s Week 12 of our Rewatch Project, and these three eps are super-duper juicy. Say what you will about Jess, but dude brings some enticing drama to Stars Hollow. Plus Sherry, Luke’s expansion project, an adorable engagement and more!
So let’s get to it, 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.
Emily gets a new maid.
On to the episodes!
2.13 “A-Tisket, A-Tasket”
One of Stars Hollow’s scores of quaint traditions includes the Annual Bid on a Basket Fundraiser, in which local ladies pack a picnic lunch, fellas bid on their baskets (dirty!) and then they get to eat lunch together. It’s a bit of a gross adherence to traditional gender roles, but it does make for some exciting romance. Everyone has a plan – Jackson’s supposed to bid on Sookie’s basket, Dean’s supposed to bid on Rory’s, Lane’s cousin is supposed to bid on hers – except Lorelai. Fortunately, Miss Patty has a plan for her – she’s been trying to fix Lorelai up, so she brings three candidates to bid on her. When Lorelai realizes what’s up, she begs Luke to bid on her instead, and they share an adorable lunch together (that fortunately consists of his burgers and brownies since all Lorelai packed are two stale Pop-Tarts and a Slim Jim.)
And in News Anyone Could Predict, Jess outbids Dean for Rory’s company, and Dean gets all vein-poppy caveman about it, but Rory goes off with Jess anyway. Ostensibly because “those are the rules!” but really because she is helpless to resists Jess’ crooked smile charms. I’d feel bad for Dean here, except that he tries really hard to command her to stay, and Rory is not a puppy dog. Rory and Jess share a lovely lunch on the bridge (Jess’ favorite spot in Stars Hollow because that’s where Luke pushed him into the lake) while Dean tattles to Lorelai, and then Lorelai and Rory get in a big fight over Jess because Lorelai thinks/knows he’s trouble. But after Emily tells Lorelai that she agrees with her 100% on the Jess issue, Lorelai gets the wiggins and realizes she’s turning into her mom. She promises to give Jess a chance if Rory will forgive Dean for being a tattletale, and the episode ends with a flirty Rory on the phone with Jess – not Dean.
Meanwhile, Lane has concocted the most elaborate plan ever to sneak a date with Henry while her cousin David pretends to eat her basket (…), but Henry’s tired of the subterfuge and dumps her. She tells Mrs. Kim everything, and when her mother hears a boy is involved, well.
(This gif misspells “disapproves” but I still love it.) She disapproves, that is, until she learns said boy is Korean, Christian and a nascent doctor, and then she’s all “Get him back right now! I’ll call his mother!” – but alas, it’s too late for Henry and Lane.
And finally, Jackson is mad at Sookie because she doesn’t pick up on his hints about moving in together, so he refuses to bid on her basket and they fight. Sookie admits she’s nervous she’ll annoy Jackson if they move in together, and they make up gorgeously over her incredible picnic lunch…at which point JACKSON PROPOSES and Sookie cries and I cry and THEY’RE GETTING MARRIED YOU GUYS!!
How many times do I have to drink?
6.
How many cups of coffee do the Gilmore girls drink?
1.
Flirtation quota
Flirts ahoy! Lorelai and Luke share some major eyes in the gazebo, while Rory and Jess are practically drooling on each other as they talk Rand and Hemingway like the couple of hot nerds they are.
Best/most dated pop culture reference
Dean drives me crazy this episode, but he does win a point or two for this: when Rory says, “Please don’t walk away like that!” Dean replies, “Sorry, I’d do a silly walk but I’m not feeling very John Cleese right now.”
Sookie’s best dish of the episode
Jackson is one lucky man. For his basket Sookie made four kinds of pesto and three different desserts, a pineapple-cranberry chutney, “Plus, the entire basket is an edible pretzel with a goat cheese filling.” Yeah, dude – lock that down.
Lorelai’s craziest outfit
None!
Kirk insanity
Kirk won Sookie’s basket and he forces Jackson to pay him $250 dollars to get it back because of a very long monologue that basically amounts to the fact that Kirk is a sad, lonely man.
Michel madness
Nope.
Best Gilmore Gal witticism
Lorelai, about Jess, “I have nothing to say. I never have anything to say.” Rory, teasing, “Yes, that is your reputation.”
Random observation
The best part of this episode is when Luke totally guesses that Lorelai packed two stale Pop-Tarts and a Slim Jim in her basket! That man knows her so well.
2.14 “It Should’ve Been Lorelai”
Rory and Paris are scheduled for a school debate about euthanasia, and of course Paris has them prepared to the gills. Poor terrified Brad has dropped out of Chilton and is feeling very comfy at his new school – until he’s forced to face Paris in the debate, and she reduces him to a snivelling pile of terror and tears. Sookie and Lorelai are there to cheer on Rory, and it turns out Christopher is in town, and he brings along his girlfriend Sherry (the beautiful Mädchen Amick, who played Shelly on Twin Peaks and will therefore always be in my heart even if her character suuhuuuucks here. Also I did a rewatch of Twin Peaks over at BMD if you’re interested).
Lorelai and Rory invite them back to their house, where Sherry proceeds to be the pushiest human alive, flat out demanding (in what appears to be a polite way, but leaves no room for refusal, and that is the very definition of demanding) that Rory join her for a bonding sesh tonight instead of going to Friday night dinner. She also tells Lorelai (again, in a very nice way, but the content is weird even if the delivery is sweet) that she shouldn’t feel like she has to get to know Sherry at all, because they don’t have to be friends. She just wants to get to know Rory. Rory and Lorelai handle it all pretty well, and Christopher decides to join Lorelai in Rory’s place at Friday night dinner. Lorelai brings up her talk with Sherry, and says rather shirtily that if Sherry is in Rory’s life, she’ll have to get to know Lorelai, too. Christopher concedes the point but makes a good one of his own: Lorelai never paid him that courtesy with Max. They handle the conversation like adults, with no one getting bent out of shape, and head to Friday night dinner.
At first Emily and Richard are thrilled to see Christopher, but once Emily hears that Christopher has a serious girlfriend for whom he’s settled down and bought a Volvo, she starts to look like this.
She is especially displeased that Rory’s spending the evening with “this woman,” because she thinks Sherry will get her claws into Rory. Lorelai tries to talk her down, and Emily reveals the real source of her anger: it should’ve been Lorelai. Christopher’s finally got his life together and become husband material, and he did it with someone else.
The next morning, Lorelai gets the scoop on Sherry from Rory. Rory seems nonplussed by the safe-driving, touchy-feely Sherry, and I don’t think Lorelai’s Coolest Mom Ever position is in any danger. When Sherry and Rory are saying goodbye outside of Luke’s, Lorelai tries to confide in Christopher the way she always does. She tells him, in a very sweet way, that she’s always kept him in the back of her mind as a possibility, and she thinks she unconsciously sabotaged every relationship she ever had (including Max) because of that. Now that she sees he’s happy, she can move on. Christopher does not take this well-meaning confession well, yelling at her in front of everyone at the diner (including a very concerned Luke) that she’s blaming him for every bad relationship she ever had. He storms out angrily, and the episode ends with a tearful Lorelai staring off as Rory, Christopher and Sherry hug in the background.
How many times do I have to drink?
10.
How many cups of coffee do the Gilmore girls drink?
2.
Flirtation quota
Until things get dramatic, every exchange Christopher and Lorelai have can be considered flirty, because those two have mad chemistry. And Luke sweetly offers to play bagel hockey with Lorelai when he sees how down in the dumps she is.
Best/most dated pop culture reference
This made me laugh so hard, thanks in large part to Edward Herrmann’s incredible delivery.
Lorelai, about the Volvo: “It’s also excellent for cranking Metallica.”
Richard: “Cranking Metallica?”
Lorelai: “Mhh-hmm.”
Richard, with such grave disapproval: “If that’s some sort of drug reference, it isn’t funny.”
Sookie’s best dish of the episode
She doesn’t cook anything, but she’s so vintage Sookie when Christopher meets her and says “I hear you’re the greatest chef after Alain Ducasse.” and she’s all WHO SAID AFTER?! YOU TELL ME WHO!!
Lorelai’s craziest outfit
It’s not enough that she has to suffer the indignity of being yelled at by Chris in the middle of Luke’s, but she has to do it wearing this godawful shih tzu turtleneck sweater.
Kirk insanity, Michel madness
These two team up! Lane’s still grounded after her picnic antics, and she enlists Rory to smuggle her the new Belle and Sebastian single. Rory brings Michel and Kirk onboard for the drop-off: Lane and Mrs. Kim are walking through the town square when Kirk distracts Mrs. Kim by asking a series of very thorough questions about the hours of her antique store. Then Michel jogs by with his hood up and drops the CD in Lane’s waiting bag. Success! Of course, Michel’s been jogging for an hour because Lorelai forgot to tell him the time changed, so he’s in the midst of cardiac arrest, but success for everyone else. Rory: “Well, if it makes you feel any better, you had really good form.” Michel, full of loathing: “You are your mother’s daughter.”
Best Gilmore Gal witticism
As Rory details Sherry’s careful driving, Lorelai: “Commendable, but not the person I want driving our getaway car.” Rory: “What are we robbing?” Lorelai, in a no-duh tone: “Sephora!”
Random observation
Christopher’s reaction to Lorelai’s confession is interesting. On the one hand, I can see how it hurts him. He proposed to Lorelai and she turned him down, and now she’s telling him that the fiancé she dumped soon after that is his fault, too. But on the other hand, Lorelai and Christopher have always been completely honest with each other. That’s their dynamic, and it’s one of the things I love best about them. Lorelai was just being honest, and Christopher didn’t want to hear it. I think on some level, he does feel guilty that he never got his act together for her.
2.15 “Lost and Found”
Luke’s been going crazy in those close quarters with Jess and Jess’ mess, so Lorelai convinces him to start looking for a bigger apartment. He’s typically crotchety (drink!) about every place he finds, except one quite cute apartment that he concedes “isn’t bad.” Lorelai goes with him and convinces him to fill out an application so he can open himself up to the possibility of a “non-Unabomber existence.” But after Taylor approaches Luke and tells him he owns the building Luke’s trying to rent, Luke loses it. He learns that Taylor’s become quite the Stars Hollow real estate magnate, and he has his eyes on the flower shop next door to Luke’s to turn into a commemorative plate store (drink!). Luke buys the building instead (for a cool $100,000, and how does Luke always seem to have so much money?), then sledge-hammers a hole in the wall of his apartment, points to the hole and tells Jess, “That’s your room.”
Meanwhile, Luke and Rory have convinced Lorelai to hire Jess to clean out her rain gutters. Rory tells Lorelai it’s important that she try to get along with Jess, and although it clearly bugs Lorelai that Rory cares so much, she does make an effort. Jess responds with zero effort of his own, until Rory in turn tells him it’s important that he be nice to her mom, and Jess is pleased that she cares, so he also gives it a shot. Lorelai and Jess eat Chinese leftovers and make moderately pleasant small talk, and things seem to be going well for a brief, shining moment. But when Rory panics because she lost the bracelet Dean made her (she accidentally left it on the bridge in “A-Tisket, A-Tasket,” and Jess picked it up), and then Lorelai sees Jess leaving Rory’s room before Rory finds the bracelet under her bed, she puts two and two together and accuses Jess of stealing (and returning) the bracelet. Jess snarks back and it’s clear the truce is over, but when Lorelai tells him that Rory’s madly in love with Dean and treasures that bracelet above all of her belongings, Jess replies, “If it’s the most precious thing she owns, why did it take her two weeks to figure out it was gone? You might want to reevaluate how madly in love she is.” And it’s hard to argue with him – every minute Rory spends with Dean seems to be a struggle. They can’t decide on movies, he no longer thinks it’s cute that she browses books for two hours, every kiss feels like an obligation. Jess definitely appears to be winning the battle for Rory’s heart.
How many times do I have to drink?
9.
How many cups of coffee do the Gilmore girls drink?
1.
Flirtation quota
Lorelai pretends to be Luke’s wife when they’re apartment searching, and she calls him Snuffy and does this to him:
Jess and Rory flirt A LOT this episode. He asks her if she changed her hair, an ages-old flirting technique, and Rory responds with some pretty cute stammering and blushing. Later, when she’s asking him to be nice to her mom, she says, without thinking, “If you care about me at all, you will take that into consideration and you will be mildly polite to her.” Jess teases, “What makes you think I care about you?” and Rory just about trips over herself to make it clear that she doesn’t mean care care, or like like, and then she flees and Jess smiles to himself fairly adorably.
Best/most dated pop culture reference:
During Lorelai and Jess’ fleeting truce, he impresses her with a very Lorelai-type joke. (Obscure references and mocking Luke.)
Lorelai: “So are you a healthy eater like Luke?”
Jess: “No one’s a healthy eater like Luke. Euell Gibbons wasn’t a healthy eater like Luke.”
Lorelai: “Wow, it’s been ages since I’ve heard a good Euell Gibbons reference.”
Jess: “Many parts of a pine tree are edible.”
Lorelai: “That’s right. God, I wonder what the research process was like to get that information.”
Jess: “I’d say fairly painful.”
Look how civil they’re being! Don’t get used to it.
Sookie’s best dish of the episode
No Sookie, so Lorelai and Rory make do by ordering the entire chicken column from the Chinese take-out menu.
Lorelai’s craziest outfit
She whips out this heinous kitty shirt in the very first scene. First, with her ever-present powder blue puffy jacket, and then a closer look at the offending tee:
Yes, that kitty is wearing a sparkly tiara. Oh, Lorelai.
Kirk insanity
During the Stars Hollow Library book sale, he haggles with Gypsy over a 70 cent paperback romance novel.
Michel madness
He is very offended when Lorelai asks him to search under the desk, on his hands and knees in his Donna Karan suit, for Rory’s bracelet, and then when she looks herself afterward as if she doesn’t trust him. He expects her to pay for his dry cleaning, obviously.
Best Gilmore Gal witticism
Upon seeing Luke’s tiny place demolished by all of Jess’ belongings, Lorelai: “This is what I always pictured the inside of my head to look like. I’ve never seen so much stuff! It looks like a white trash Hearst Castle in here.”
Random observation
I don’t really know how I feel about Jess and Lorelai’s fight at the end. On the one hand, she’s right – he did steal Rory’s bracelet. He hung on to it for two weeks without saying a word, and that’s pretty crummy. (There he is with that criminal flirting again.) On the other hand, it does Lorelai no good to keep fighting to believe that Rory and Dean are supposed to be together forever. Of course she wants Rory with Dean: he’s boring and safe and sweet. But Rory’s clearly drawn to Jess, and it doesn’t really feel like Lorelai’s trying all that hard to maintain a relationship with him if she accuses him of stealing the very first time they ever get along. But back to that first hand: It’s not wrong to accuse someone of stealing if they stole.
Next week I’ll be out of pocket, so my good pal Mandy J. (you remember her!) is going to cover “There’s The Rub,” “Dead Uncles and Vegetables” and “Back in the Saddle Again.” Meet her here next Wednesday morning!
And I leave you with two questions, dear FYA readers: tell me how to feel! Was Christopher right to be mad at Lorelai? Was Lorelai right to accuse Jess? I’m torn!
