Gilmore Girls: A Vineyard Valentine

Juuuuust when you think everything's going well in the world of Gilmore, things always get thrown in the mix that sends the ship a bit off course. Not completely turned around, mind you, just a little off. But you know what happens when a ship just veers even slightly from its designated course; eventually it runs up against a sandbar no one ever saw coming.

That's what I thought of when I saw this episode, which mainly takes place at the Huntzberger residence on Martha's Vineyard. Unlike some of the recent past episodes, there isn't multiple plots swirling around all over the place. For once, we're just concentrating on Lorelai and Luke, Rory and Logan, and very little else. Heck, the teaser at the beginning of the episode was more complicated than the episode itself, setting things up by summarizing everything that's happened in the last year in two quick minutes.

Sure, there's some setup. Lorelai's realizing that June 3 isn't going to happen, especially when a pretty good zydeco band sets up to audition for her at the inn, an appointment she forgot about in all the hullabaloo. On top of this, Lorelai's bummed that Luke doesn't think Valentine's Day isn't all that big a deal (well, neither do I, but it's not really a holiday for us guys, is it?).

Meanwhile, Logan convinces Rory to chuck her crammed schedule, which included a trip to Star's Hollow, and spend Valentine's weekend with him at the Vineyard. Heck, invite Lorelai and Luke along too. We then see Rory doing her editor schtick a the Daily News, telling the Malcom Gladwell lookalike at the copy desk to take the weekend off and enjoy himself. The odd thing about this scene? Rory telling her photo editor to practice girl power with the photo lab: "Betty Friedan's dead and we all have to fill the vacuum." Why is this odd? Because Betty Friedan only died ten days ago. So either they reshot this scene at the last second, or the Palladinos can turn around an episode faster than the guys from South Park.

Anyway, Luke and Lorelai make their way to the Vineyard, even though Luke's completely uncomfortable with things. Oh, and he tells Lorelai that he's leaving April's bike in her garage if that's OK, since he's fixing it. Just the mention of April sends waves of sadness over Lorelai's face; she wants to be involved and hates that she can't share that part of Luke's life. We'll see that look again, but in a more painful context.

The weekend at the Vineyard starts off tense but starts to go OK. The young couple is very quiet and domestic; Rory even cooks! Luke is still grumpy and uncomfortable: it's too cold, he can't sleep, the waves are too noisy, the Vineyard is too expensive. A trip to the gym -- the gym! -- makes things worse. Logan kicks Luke's ass at hoops while the Gilmore girls avoid all forms of exercise (they must have the metabolisms of caffienated hummingbirds, given their crappy diets and aversion to working out).

Luke's tension is starting to get to Lorelai, but it eases as dinner is being prepared, as Logan bails Luke out by giving him one of the gifts he bought Rory so they both would have Valentine's presents for their honeys. Lorelai stupidly never catches on, even though her necklace goes so well with Rory's tennis bracelet. Later, Lorelai, sporting a look of disappointment mixed with indignation, finally tells Luke that she never feels the wedding is going to happen. Luke reassures her of this, tells her he loves her, and tries to get her back on his side.

The next morning is bliss for the two L's; Rory and Logan leave breakfast in bed for them, and Luke starts talking about eloping. Suddenly, the ship gets pushed off course: Mitchum Huntzberger shows up on the warpath, demanding that Logan meet the commitment that he blew off and fly immediately to London. Then he lets a bombshell drop: Logan is supposed to go to London for an entire year immediately after he graduates Yale. Rory is shocked; they were talking about going to Asia after the school year was over. Lorelai, on the other hand, completely identifies with Logan, telling him that disappointing family is something she's completely familiar with.

So the weekend ends early, and we see a somewhat more blissful Luke and Lorelai arrive at Luke's diner. Then Ceasar mentions that April called. There's that look on Lorelai's face again. She knows that she can't be around when April is, those pangs of doubt come back again, and she decides to walk home. And another small wave pushes the ship toward that sand bar.

At this point, we think that maybe Luke comes to his senses and tells Lorelai that he's going to bring April around, but something else happens: Lorelai finds out that her mother has told everyone she knows, including the local paper, that the wedding is on June 3. And it all comes back to Lorelai, as she fields messages from her entire family: what do I tell all these people? Why the hell did Emily do this to her? What happens when she disappoints her parents again? And we fade to black.

Hmm. Interesting. A quiet episode that nonetheless contained a lot of developments. It shows that the Palladinos don't have to go the frantic or chatty route in order to get their story across. The emotion in this episode was all in the subtleties: Rory's look of disappointment with Logan, Lorelai's look of impatience with Luke, Logan's visible discomfort with the family commitments that he is fighting tooth and nail to avoid, and Luke's inability to get out of his own head are all shown effectively with very little in the way of embellishments.

Overall, it was one of the better episodes of the season. Two couples, seemingly going in the right direction, suddenly back in limbo. Let's hope they steer in the right direction soon.