Directing and writing credits:
"Say Something" is written and directed by Daniel Palladino. I don't have any earth-shattering Palladino news, only that "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" has begun filming for S4. During December's Woodstock Film Festival, Daniel said that significantly more special effects will be needed to keep the look of the show consistent. He noted, "Last season, our premiere had 850 extras in an airplane hangar. We cannot do that." They haven't yet announced a premiere date, but maybe by the end of 2021 if there are no shooting delays.
Tangentially related, the "Gilmore Girls" IG has continued to post regularly, so another season of "AYitL" is imminent. Sigh.
Most batshit crazy outfit:
This is what Rory wears to "hang out" with Logan after being told by the Branford cereal girls to "act casual but look hot."
I distinctly remember buying a stack of lace camisoles circa 2004 and wearing them under or over every single top that I owned for some reason (Teen People probably told me it was cool), so I understand Rory's choice from the waist up. If she had chosen a skirt with better proportions, worn tights, and/or tucked in the cami to prevent it from showing below her sweater, this outfit would have been fine by early 2000s standards.
Here is a photo of me in 2005 (?) with two guys from my high school cross country team. I dated the spiky-haired one on the right and spent the better part of junior year trying to cheat off him in A.P. chemistry. IIRC, he broke up with me because I couldn't decide on my favorite Red Hot Chili Peppers song. I initially said "Velvet Glove" and then changed my answer to "Porcelain." He did not appreciate this pusillanimity. Anyway, check out those layers!
Most irritating Rory or Lorelai moment:
I want to harshly criticize Lorelai for failing to respect Luke's request for space, but I've been in her position before. It's hard to find closure in silence, and sometimes you really need it to move on from an argument. At least she recognizes her missteps by the end of the episode and apologizes.
I have many issues with Rory, which I'll go into later. A specific moment that majorly irked me is when she awkwardly bought Frank (Dale E. Turner), Logan's (Black 😲) limo driver, a ham and cheese sandwich from Doose's market and then made him carry a television up a flight of stairs, which is clearly not in his fucking job description. As Rory "returns" Frank back to Logan, she smugly notes, "I fed Frank a nice sandwich, so he's all good to go." I half-expected Logan to respond by asking if Rory remembered to clean Frank's litter box. They discuss him as if he's a cat instead of a person who was hired to do a job. The Emily influence is glaringly obvious.
Number of times Rory or Lorelai treat their bff like shit:
As always, Lane shows up to do Rory's bidding in exchange for lukewarm appreciation. Along with picking up everything on Rory's grocery list for Lorelai, Lane grabs some Toll House cookie dough, chocolate-covered matzo, and a new toothbrush ("Dentists say you're supposed to change your toothbrush every three months, and I'm assuming your mother's not doing that"). Rory says, "You are a good friend," but I'm not convinced she actually means it. Rory also rudely awakens Paris to harass her about phone messages.
Sad Lorelai leaves Sookie hanging the afternoon of the Dragonfly's child tea party/pancake breakfast, which is inexcusable. Bitch, you are running a business. Pick up the phone, call your partner, and at least give her the courtesy of advanced notice and some instructions if you can't make it in to work.
Best literary or pop culture references:
Michel is understandably perplexed by the concept of a doll pancake breakfast.
Michel: Dolls, as in they don't have stomachs, lungs or spleens? And we are serving them breakfast?
Lorelai: That's right.
Michel: Teeth? Throat? Colons? They don't have these things either? Unless they are Brides of Chucky.
I love the idea of Michel sitting down to watch "Bride of Chucky" (1998) but can think of no plausible scenario for how/why it might have happened. Maybe Lorelai screened it during a Halloween movie night at her house and told him that attendance was mandatory.
Stars Hollow weirdness:
This is a Daniel Palladino episode, so weirdness abounds. When Luke is away, Caesar blasts old music, eats out of the pie plate, and naps without clocking out on his time card (relatable). Kirk, who is apparently still working at the BWR, spends his break at the arcade, playing Dance Dance Revolution and saying shit like, "Sweat is the curse of the b-boy. Mos Def."
Taylor, who worried about Luke and Lorelai's breakup since they got together, starts forcing the town to choose a side using a creepy, gender normative ribbon system. Before it's even official, the townies already suspect that something is amiss. Babette, Morey, and Kirk all see Lorelai alone and are immediately like "uh-oh." Can you imagine having neighbors this deeply invested in your personal life? It is my literal nightmare.
Sharpest insult or one-liner:
After Colin's request to change the music at poker night is denied, he retorts, "Since when did you become Tipper Gore?" This would have gone completely over my head if not for two recent episodes of "You're Wrong About."
Books mentioned/books Rory is reading:
Despite her "reading is sexy" t-shirt, Rory fucks with zero books. I spy a copy of Donna Tartt's "The Secret History" on her shelf when she calls Logan to hang out, but that's all I've got.
Paris gives Sherlock Holmes a shoutout in a clever "deduce, Sherlock" snapback that I've used many times. This almost makes up for her dumb k.d. lang comment that Saul and I have already discussed extensively in a previous comments thread.
Best song of the episode:
When Lorelai first encounters Caesar at the diner, he's listening to "Tequlia" by The Champs. This song will forever make me think of ninth grade jazz band (like Tipper, I played the drums).
Thoughts:
I'm firmly team Luke in this scenario. If my significant other brought me to a fancy event where her ex-lover/estranged co-parent drunkenly confronted me and helped expose previous lies, I absolutely would have slipped off into the night with my phone on silent. Not to mention that the entire spectacle was orchestrated by her mother, a person who has exhibited a clear pattern of manipulation and sabotage. At some point, it makes sense to stop and contemplate how much bullshit drama is tolerable. A healthier person might have immediately expressed those feelings to Lorelai, along with the desire for space, but we all know that Luke isn't exactly in touch with his emotions. A single round of self-help tapes can only do so much. In this case, quietly disappearing seems like a pretty decent way to cope with the night's insanity.
After leaving the vow renewal and looking for Luke all around town, Lorelai finally finds him watching "My Man Godfrey" (1936) at the BWR. This film sort of parallels the Luke and Lorelai situation. Godfrey (William Powell) is a "poor" man who falls in love with Irene (Carole Lombard), the daughter of a wealthy businessman. In the scene Luke watches, Godfrey has been dragged to a party and publicly humiliated because of his social class.
As Lorelai begs Luke to listen to her explanations, all he says is that he needs time and will call her when he's ready to talk. Lorelai is not thrilled with this vague non-response, but seems to be doing okay until Sookie hits her with an awful Katie Couric story about a couple who broke up and then eventually got back together after forty years apart. Is part of Sookie's brain missing? I blame this lack of social awareness on too much time spent with Jackson and maybe some kitchen gas leaks.
As Lorelai walks through Stars Hollow and notices all of the pink and blue ribbons adorning different businesses, her panic rises. She sees Luke go into Doose's Market and immediately rushes in to confront him. Her whole spiel proves how poorly she understands the situation. Lorelai places too much blame on her parents and Christopher when really, the entire situation could have been easily prevented if she was honest with Luke from the beginning and treated him like a real partner instead of a random date. As Luke desperately tries to escape while Lorelai showers him with promises she can't keep, he tells her, "Fine. You want to know what I'm thinking right now? That I can't be in this relationship. It's too much."
The issues that arise during this breakup will come back later in S6 with a slight role reversal. Luke fails to share a life event (April) because of fear that it will fuck up his relationship with Lorelai. Eventually, she finds out what is going on and confronts him. She shows legitimate growth by exhibiting patience, but things ultimately fall apart because she bottles up her feelings for too long and reaches a breaking point. Learning how to fight well is a key part of any relationship and these two never quite master it.
After wallowing in bed and having a sad fever dream about Luke, Lorelai eventually caves and leaves a sad message on his answering machine. She rambles about "The Way We Were" (1973) and through tears, begs Luke to come over. Halfway through the plea, she realizes her mistake and runs over to his apartment to grab the machine tape before he can listen to it. Luke, who heard the message and immediately came running, bumps into Lorelai upon her return home. Instead of using this as an opportunity to finally talk and figure shit out, they passively solidify the breakup. I may have rooted for these two while watching in high school, but adult me knows better. Unless Luke and Lorelai figure out how to handle conflict and stop keeping secrets, the relationship will never work.
As Lorelai mourns the end of her relationship, Rory tries to figure out how to get things started with Logan. Since she's used to dudes throwing themselves at her, she expects a message from him as soon as she arrives back at her dorm room. When nothing materializes, she takes matters into her own hands using advice from Janet and Althea (Dana Davis). After setting up a "hang out" session at Logan's place, Rory is dismayed to find that a full poker game is in progress. It's not the one-on-one fuckfest that she imagined, I guess.
Despite the awkwardness (and the way Logan's friends treat women), Rory somehow ends up staying the entire night. The next morning, we see her waking up on the couch to a phone call from Sookie. How exactly did this happen? Rory isn't a big drinker, so it's not like she passed out drunk. Maybe she was trying to wait out the game so that she and Logan could finally talk alone (or have sex)? Either way, it's very uncharacteristic and I kind of enjoy it. Rory should learn what it's like to be the romantic pursuer for once.
In good daughter fashion, Rory "borrows" Frank, rushes home, and takes care of Lorelai. I hate that Rory continues to defend Lorelai's initial decision (which she precipitated) to hide the tequila night from Luke. When Lorelai admits that she should have told Luke about it, Rory insists, "That was innocent." It doesn't matter if it was innocent! Hiding it makes it seem like the opposite of innocent! How is this not painfully obvious? Clearly, no lessons are learned here because Rory gets herself into a S7 scrape with Lucy (Krysten Ritter) that is very similar. Imagine how much different "GG" would be if it acknowledged this dysfunction.
Random observations:
- I'm sorry that I've been slacking on these recaps. Please keep reading! I'm going to try hard to actually post with more regularity going forward.
- The BWR is running a concession stand special: buy two Junior Mints, get a free hunk of onion beef jerky. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted.
- The amount of store-bought orange juice in the Dragonfly fridge is surprising. Wouldn't Sookie make that shit by hand?
- I agree with everything Paris has to say about cereal. At Yale, she's eating "Cap'n Crunch over a foundation of Rice Krispies, with a perimeter of Shredded Wheat." Later, Rory makes Lorelai a bowl using her "recipe" of five cereals, "three sweetened, with a mix of non-fat milk and half and half."
- Logan's dorm room is fucking weird. What's up with the massive wall collage dedicated to Buckingham Palace Road?
- Robert has weird energy, so I definitely would have dated him in college. He wears a gold pinkie ring during poker night.
- My husband on Morey: "Is he out having a jazz cigarette for his glaucoma?"
- These are Lorelai's bed snacks: cereal, potato chips, Cheetos, Doritos, maybe Sun Chips, various Pop-Tarts, chocolate chip cookies (and chocolate chocolate chip cookies), red and blue Sour Punch Straws, M&M's, Red Vines, mini marshmallows, and a box of assorted chocolates. The only thing missing is one of those enormous tubs of Ben & Jerry's that Lorelai whipped out after Rory's first breakup with Dean.
- There are TWO Black speaking roles in this episode, which must be a record for a white ass show like "GG." Frank and Althea both have a few lines each.