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Fight for Your Right To Party
Gilmore Girls: Friday Night's Alright For Fighting
by Joel Keller, posted Jan 31st 2006 10:13PM
Boy, oh boy, a lot happened on Gilmore Girls this week. Before I dive in to this funny, juicy episode, let me go right into the three major plot points:1. It's the day after Luke's postponed the wedding, and Lorelai is coming to grips with why. She understands that he needs to give Luke space with April, so she agrees to not visit the diner while she's around. But she's curious, so she goes into the sweet shop and looks at her through the window between the stores (I knew there was a reason they put that window up three years ago!). The whole town, conveniently gathered in the sweet shop to sample some hot chocolate, joins her, curious to know what Luke's daughter is like ("She's reading!" they say in amazement). Lorelai ducks out before Luke can see what's going on. She wants to get to know April and get things right with Luke, but wants to be the Good Fiancé, so she's stamping down her burgeoning doubt about the relationship. More roadblocks to come, I guess.
2. Paris' reign of terror at the Yale Daily News has caused most of the staff to quit, threatening the next issue (it printed on D-Day and when JFK was killed, but it seemingly can't withstand the seige of Paris). Paris melts down, thinking she can put the thing out herself. Rory, plucky duck that she is, takes over and whips everyone into action. Logan, whom she finally agreed to join for dinner, comes by looking for her and pitches in, using his inbred newspapering skills and Huntzberger name to help get the paper out on time. Oh, and he also brought dinner. Rory's so taken with the gesture that she falls into his arms. Finally, Paris comes out of her sealed cube and congratulates everyone for their hard work (no thanks to her, of course). By the way, when did Logan become such a mensch? Is he ever going to go back to being a grinning jerk-off?
3. The biggie: Yale sends back Richard's tuition check, and he calls Lorelai to see what's up. She tries to convince Rory to tell her grandparents about Christopher's money, but she doesn't want to talk to them. So Lorelai breaks down and tells Richard and Emily about it herself. In the process, she convinces them to have her and Rory over for Friday Night Dinner. When they arrive, the reception is cold, to say the least. For once, Lorelai plays the mature one and forces the other three to get drop their passive-agressiveness and get everything out in the open. The rest of the night plays out in ping-pong fashion, where all four fight around the dinner table about the entire Rory mess, then take a break to enjoy sorbet. After a brief interlude where Richard and Emily fight about that airplane she was shopping for, the four laugh at Emily's retelling of her verbal gutting of Shira Huntzberger. Then we see Rory and Emily fighting over the DAR while Richard and Lorelai listen exhaustedly, right before we hear Emily and Lorelai fighting over Lorelai's dropping out of school when she was 16 and pregnant with Rory.
Whew! A lot of family business came out that night. By the end of the episode, we see the girls walking out of the Gilmore house dazed and disheveled, as if they've just gotten out of a Dynasty-style catfight. "I think we've officially reinstated Friday Night Dinner," says Loreali as we fade to the credits. Hmm. Wonder why? Because they need to hash out more stuff? Because Emily and RIchard have insisted on paying for Yale? If anyone can interpret this better than I can, let me know in the comments.
Overall, a cleverly-written, funny, and creatively-shot episode. The frantic nature of the Friday Night Dinner was captured in a great combination of shaky hand-held camera shots and jump cuts, something that I had not seen on GG to this point. While I might not want to see it all the time, it was used to great effect here, showing both how nutty and exhausting the night was. Lauren Graham was especially on her game tonight, doing comedic turns like faking a haughty British accent saying silly British words, then telling an off-the-cuff story about the big haunted house in "Hartfordshireville" to Rory as they contepmplate what awaits them on the other side of Richard and Emily's door. To my mind, this was among the best episodes of the year and has set up the remaining run for the year quite well. Looking forward to see what's next (Rory and Logan have a SHOCKING surprise! Maybe they have a kid no one knows about, too!).
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