About:
Gilmore Girls S5.E04 “Tippecanoe and Taylor Too”
Drinks Taken: 27
Cups of Coffee: 9
I’ve been traveling for work stuff and then for family stuff, so it’s going to be a bit of an abbreviated entry this week. But fret not! Next week we return to our regularly scheduled way-too-many-words programming.
So 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.
Emily gets a new maid.
Onto the episodes!
5.3 “Written in the Stars”
Luke and Lorelai have their first date! And it’s wonderful! They go to Luke’s Luke’s, a place called Sniffy’s Tavern where he eats twice a week. The owners know and love him and immediately fall in love with Lorelai, too. They flirt, they drink champagne, they joke, and then Lorelai asks Luke if he remembers the first time they met, because she doesn’t. His answer is INCREDIBLE.
Let’s gif the best part of this exchange, shall we?
Later, as they’re all naked and glowy and post-coital (!), Lorelai tells Luke to admit it – he’s been pining after her. GIRL DUH. The next morning, Lorelai heads downstairs wearing only Luke’s shirt, wanting coffee and assuming the diner’s closed because Luke’s in bed with her. But the diner isn’t closed – it’s full of everyone in Stars Hollow! So naturally Taylor calls a town meeting to discuss their relationship, because he thinks it’s dangerous for the town if the inn owner and diner owner date, because Taylor is nuts. But Luke tells everyone that this is his and Lorelai’s relationship, no one else’s, and they can all butt out because this is happening. Yay!
Over at Yale, poor Paris is throwing a wake for Asher Fleming, because he died of a heart attack while they were at Oxford over the summer. She handles everything in her usual beautifully efficient, manically controlling way, and Rory does her best to help. She and Marty are getting coffee when they run into a group of rich dudes who know Marty because he sometimes bartends for their Gatsby-like parties. These guys are Logan, Colin and Finn, and Logan is friendly but a little condescending, while Colin is a complete jerk. Later, as Rory’s passing out flyers for Asher’s wake, she runs into Logan and gives him hell for his condescension to Marty. They share a fiery debate, and while Logan is definitely smug, arrogant and out of touch due to his privileged position as the son of publishing magnate Mitchum Huntzberger…I kind of like him. We can discuss this later as we get to know Logan better and I have more time, but essentially I feel like he makes room for Rory to be a good influence on him, he’s as smart as she is and he deeply values her intelligence and her opinion, and he always treats her like an equal, but also like a real, fallible human being – something neither Jess nor Dean ever did. This is Logan, by the way. He’s cute enough. But he has a LONG way to go before I start to actually like him – I’m just kicking off the conversation.
Later, at the wake, Marty asks Rory if she has a boyfriend, and she says she doesn’t know. Marty looks sad, poor guy, but Rory takes off to Dean’s to settle this issue. He opens his front door, letting her in, and I guess that settles that.
And finally, Richard’s living in the pool house (with his new valet, Robert), and Friday night dinner now starts with Rory and Lorelai having cocktails with him there before entering the main house for dinner with Emily. They’re still hiding their separation from their friends, and Emily is getting awfully lonely in that big house by herself. When she sees Richard taking off at 7:30 at night like a bootlegger (her words, obviously, not mine), she is furious…and curious.
How many times do I have to drink?
14.
How many cups of coffee do the Gilmore girls drink?
5.
Flirtation quota
This may be the flirtiest episode ever. First, Rory flirts with (or is flirted with by) THREE guys: she and Marty are very friendly, although she doesn’t appear to realize he’s interested in her when he asks if she has a boyfriend. Second, Logan’s eyes light up as he looks at Rory, and he clearly loves debating with her – and she doesn’t seem to mind it either, even though she’s still fighting very hard to be annoyed with him. And finally, she shows up on Dean’s doorstep for a relationship or whatever.
But Luke and Lorelai, good lord! She urges him to flirt with her at the diner, and he says he can’t because it’s his place of business…but later he says, “Those jeans are really working for you,” which of course she loves hearing. Their date is the most beautiful thing, and when he tells her he’s all in, I die every time. They’re in the sweetest, honeymooniest phase, but it still feels like Luke and Lorelai, complete with her intentionally driving him crazy and his custom crotchetiness, and I love it all so much.
Best/most dated pop culture reference
When Luke asks Lorelai on their first date, she spells out the entire plot of John Hughes’ Some Kind of Wonderful: “All right, but no taking me to an art museum after hours and then to an empty Hollywood bowl where you give me a pair of diamond earrings that you bought with your college money when all the time you’re really in love with your best friend, the drummer, who’s posing as our driver for the evening.”
Sookie’s best dish of the episode/Michel madness
Nope.
Lorelai’s craziest outfit
This isn’t actually crazy, and also her legs look amazing, but I list it here because when Lorelai tells Luke that everyone in the diner saw her in his shirt and now knows they’re having sex, they have the following exchange:
Luke: “Okay, so maybe nobody noticed.”
Lorelai: “Look at me!”
Luke: “Well, but you wear crazy outfits all the time.”
Exactly! This is why we have the category, people.
(Also hellooo shirtless Luke. And pantsless Lorelai.)
Outfit MVP
I am enamored of this sweater. She looks so grown-up here.
Kirk insanity
It’s brief, but it makes me laugh. As Taylor’s presenting all of the repercussions the town will suffer if Luke and Lorelai break up, he says: “We’ll have to choose. Suddenly you’ll either be a ‘Luke’ or a ‘Lorelai’, or, if you’re Kirk and you can’t make a decision to save your life, you’ll be neither.” Kirk chimes in sadly with: “He’s probably right.”
Best Gilmore Gal witticism
Sorry, I have to give this to Paris. When she tells Rory that Asher died of a heart attack, Rory asks indelicately if he died in bed.
Paris: “No, Rory. This great man was not brought down by my vagina, okay?”
Random observation
I love Stars Hollow, but good lordy are those fools nosy. Don’t they want happiness for their invariably luckless in love friends? Try being happy for them, you jerks!
5.4 “Tippecanoe and Taylor Too”
This episode’s a bit of fluff, so I’ll skim it. First, the most important part! Luke spent the night at Lorelai’s and the next morning she wakes to find him making her breakfast (just like the dream!!), but then tells him she’d rather go to Luke’s…even though he is Luke. Although Lorelai can sometimes be pretty demanding and selfish, I don’t think that’s what’s going on here. She says, “The point is that while some things have changed – and that’s great – I don’t want everything to change completely.” Although part of me is yelling EAT THE EGGS THAT HOT MAN MADE YOU, I see her point, and it makes sense – and Luke sees it too. She’s just being cautious because she wants this to last, and I like that.
Taylor’s continuing his reign as Il Duce, so Jackson decides to run against him for Town Selectman, even though Taylor’s always run unopposed. Taylor doesn’t sweat it at first – but the entire town votes for Jackson, because everyone hates what a pain in the ass Taylor is. He’s heartbroken at first, and Lorelai arranges a few votes for him so it won’t be a total landslide, but then he promises the town that they’ll come crawling back. Jackson also decides, too late, that he doesn’t want to be Town Selectman, but oh well, he is.
Rory and Dean spend the entire episode trying to find a place to do it. It’s difficult because Rory lives with Paris, who is Paris, and Dean now lives with his parents, who hate Rory for being a homewrecker. During a super unsuccessful car makeout sesh, Rory invites Dean to the Town Selectman election party, and Dean snaps that he doesn’t want to rub Rory in Lindsay’s face, treating Rory pretty crummily in the process. He apologizes later, but who cares. Dean sucks.
Finally, Lane’s feelings for Zack are causing her to grow increasingly snotty every time he brings a girl (sorry, two girls. always two girls.) around – so she finally tells him that she likes him, then walks out of the room, not waiting for an answer. Zack wigs.
How many times do I have to drink?
13.
How many cups of coffee do the Gilmore girls drink?
4.
Flirtation quota
LUKE. I love you. Come make me breakfast. I won’t kick you out of the kitchen.
Best/most dated pop culture reference
Lorelai, trying to explain why she thinks it’s better to go to Luke’s than to have Luke make her breakfast in her own kitchen.
Lorelai: “Look, it’s like Tommy Lee having a Starbucks at his house. On the surface, it sounds great. But half the reason you go to a Starbucks is to go to a Starbucks, you know, to go out and see the people.”
Luke: “Tommy Lee has a Starbucks in his house?”
Lorelai: “Cribs, baby. Watch it.”
Sookie’s best dish of the episode
She plans to make loser stew for Jackson after the election, but it turns out to be unnecessary.
Lorelai’s craziest outfit
This shirt.
Outfit MVP
I love all of Lane’s gig ensembs.
Kirk insanity
I find it insane that Kirk’s rooting for Jackson. He votes for Jackson, he polls the town for Jackson…isn’t he Taylor’s right-hand man? I mean, Taylor treats him like crap and all, but I still thought he’d be a devoted little puppy dog until the end of time.
Michel madness
Michel has NO kinda patience for Taylor anymore.
Best Gilmore Gal witticism
As Jackson runs into Luke’s, grabbing Davey from Sookie to show him off to constituents, he says: “Quick, give me the baby” and runs out.
Lorelai: “Is he gonna sell it?”
Random observation
Lane’s band plays at Jackson’s victory party, and as Sookie announces them, she says the name of the band for what I think is the very first time: Hep Alien! This is an anagram of Helen Pai, producer of Gilmore Girls, ASP’s best friend and the inspiration for Lane Kim. The name of Lane’s first boyfriend, Dave Rygalski (…sigh.), is after Helen Pai’s husband.
And there you have it! Next Wednesday morning meet us back here as we cover “We Got Us a Pippi Virgin” and “Norman Mailer, I’m Pregnant.”
And I leave you with a question, dear FYA readers: am I the only one who’s not entirely anti-Logan? Who might even be sort of…pro-Logan? *ducks*
I’m kinda Team Logan too….