The triumphant return after a week off:
Let Me Hear Your Balalaikas Ringing Out. Rory (Alexis Bledel) is pleasantly surprised when her old flame Jess (guest star Milo Ventimiglia) appears at her grandparents’ house and reveals an amazing development in his life. Rory agrees to go to dinner with Jess, and when Logan (Matt Czuchry) unexpectedly joins them, an ugly confrontation develops, leaving both Rory and Logan to face the choices they have made. Emily (Kelly Bishop) is concerned about Rory’s sudden evasiveness and tries to exert some parental discipline. Meanwhile, Luke (Scott Patterson) agrees to sponsor a local girls’ soccer team and Lorelai (Lauren Graham) channels all her concerns about Rory into caring for her dog, Paul Anka. Keiko Agena also stars. Kenny Ortega directed the episode written by Dan Palladino.
Slightly worrisome that it’s written by the Lorelai Character Assassin, but this looks like a Rory heavy episode anyway. See you later.
(p.s. Hit with a couple of deadlines, so that’s it for me today.)
What I want to know is, was the staged photo of hip young people on a Philadelphia roof that Rory described an actual NYT photo? NYT readers?
Best moment” Rory making a knowledgable Battlestar Galactica reference.
I always pretty much despised Jess back in the day. It’s amazing what writing a “short novel” for a small press will do for a guy’s image though, y’know?
Great ep in my book, as Rory finally acts like Rory. There was lots of good, funny things here. I have a terrible head cold developing, so more when I’m not quite so bleary.
Emily’s slip at the end using the term “father” could only have been pulled off in an exchange by two very fine actors.
And yay Jess becomes a small press guy!
Great episode in terms of plot development (yay Rory!). And yes, the Cylons reference was my favorite moment too.
I have to say that the Character Assassin struck again, not drastically but consistently; everyone was just a little off the whole time. In Dan Palladino’s hands Lorelai always sounds like a neurotic nag instead of the wonderful, slightly-unhinged woman she really is, and I’ve noticed that he always writes her as overly emotional and not very capable of actually *doing* anything. Also I hated the whole Luke subplot (the hell? he’s turned into every sitcom dad who ever watched kids play sports and was shocked by the oh-so-humorously competitive parents?).
Logan was off too. We’ve seen him all sullen and devoid of charm at least once before (in “We’ve Got Magic To Do”, also written by Palladino), but I don’t buy it. Logan may be a fratboy jerk, but he loves to be witty and graceful, and I think it’s a bit of a stretch to make him this thoroughly crass. And since when can’t he hold his liquor? Suddenly he’s a cartoon lush.
And while I did like the Emily stuff very much, no way would she, pointlessly, have that loud fight smack dab in the middle of a DAR dinner with everyone watching a few feet away.
But I was so, so happy to see Rory awakened by the memory of who she’s been that I’m willing to come up with plausible explanations for all this behavior. I loved the interaction with her and Jess outside the bar, and her quiet honesty in acknowledging that she doesn’t know what she’s doing. This is the character growth I hoped would happen when she dropped out.
When she wasn’t in her bed the next morning and Lorelai wasn’t in hers, I wanted so much for Luke to wake up and look through the window and see the two of them sitting on the porch steps talking. But of course, having them make up offscreen would have deprived us of what looks to be a big soppy hugs-and-bunnies reunion episode next week…
Yes there was a NYT article and photo of people (they looked rather normal) who had moved to Philly because of the lower real estate costs and yet relatively easy access to NYC.
Excerpt from the article that appeared Aug 14/05:
“The publisher of Arthur, a free arts and culture magazine, Mr. Kreslins, 30, lived in a tiny apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, before leaving New York two years ago and ending up in Philadelphia, where he and his girlfriend, Kendra Gaeta, 30, another Brooklynite, bought a four-bedroom house close to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in March and promptly started a Web site, movetophilly.com.”
Back to the GG… I think the argument that Rory and Logan had after Jess left revealed just how awful Logan feels about his life (yes, yes, poor little rich boy but when you feel/think that your life sucks, it sucks). Palladino seemed to be going overboard to make a Logan point (not being able to hold his liquor) which makes me wonder just how much longer Logan will be in the cast.
I tend to find things that happen in the GG world unfold in a somewhat unrealistic way. Like Lorelai spending big bucks to remodel the inn. Where oh where did she get all that money? TV money goes a long way. Emily and Rory arguing in the middle of the DAR event makes sense only because it saved them having to do another scene at home and have yet another argument and it was an opportunity to show just how crazy Emily can get and her deep, deep Lorelai stuff that is still unresolved.
And what’s this thing with the dog? Could Lorelai really have transferred her sadness over Rory to the dog so completely that the dog who has never met Rory is suffering heartbreak too? Oh what a sensitive pup that dog must be.