Episode Report Card Al Lowe: B- | 80 USERS: C+ YOU GRADE IT Punch it Out
By Al Lowe | Season 7 | Episode 10 | Aired on 2006.12.05
Freed from Doose's, Lorelai steps onto the sidewalk just as Luke comes by with the baby in the stroller. I guess he just keeps a stroller around for whatever reason? They have a totally weird, not-awkward, chemistry-free conversation like two people who used to know each other from the office, or something. Lorelai asks if she can hold the baby, and picks up the child, who is wearing a snowsuit fit for a three-month-old, and holds her like a toddler. Luke and Lorelai both smile at the baby, and Lorelai coos and makes jokes about her long fingers: "You might be a pickpocketing pianist." Though Luke is also smiling, he isn't really smiling at Lorelai, or anything. I see absolutely nothing between them. No poignant, unspoken tension about "what could have been" or anything like that -- though when Chris steps out moments later with the groceries, he acts like he caught them making out. Lorelai practically slings Doula back in the pram, and she and Christopher head for home without even so much as a backward glace from Luke. So, basically, that was meaningless, and though I enjoy looking at Lorelai and Luke on screen at the same time, if they are not even going to have any unresolved feelings or whatever...why do they even bother having Luke on the show anymore at all? To torture me with his stubble and flannel? It's working.
Logan is at Yale to visit Rory, who insists that they eat in the cafeteria, where he never had a meal in his long tenure at the school. He says that he occasionally stopped in for cereal, but she assures him that that wasn't good enough: "You need to get something hot, and mushy and meaty." Also, she has an extra family guest pass from Parents' Weekend, and she wants to use it to get Logan's meal comped: "I'm going to tell them that you're my brother." He tells her that he doesn't mind paying for his mushy meat (ew), but she says that's not the issue, all sneaky as she explains, "I know how to work the system. You know me, I can be crafty." Yeah, says Logan, she can be crafty, in the sense of being able to make a macaroni necklace, but this family pass business is high-stakes deception. "Yeah, well, what's my middle name?" she jokes. "Rory 'High Stakes Deception' Gilmore." I thought your middle name was "Steals Yachts" or "Sleeps with Married Dudes." No? In any case, Rory's sneakiness does not pay off -- they almost sneak by on the family pass until Logan is greeted loudly by someone he used to know and who refers to Rory as Logan's girlfriend. "I'm a terrible liar," Rory tells the cashier, and they are forced to pay ten dollars for the mushy meat. Wow, people. Do cafeteria meals really cost ten dollars now? Seriously? Because in my day, they cost $3.25. Of course, I did not go to Yale. "Way to work the system," Logan chides Rory, and as she vengefully orders him a serving of meatloaf, they are interrupted by none other than Lucy. She bounces over and loudly meets Logan. "I'd give you a proper hug," she says, "but my pockets are full of Apple Jacks. I have Art History in a few minutes, and my professor sounds like Garrison Keillor on Quaaludes, so I need a constant intake of sugar just to stay awake." She congratulates Logan on "buying the internet or something," and they make plans to have dinner the next night.