Episode Report Card Kim: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Happy Birthday, Baby!
By Kim | Season 3 | Episode 18 | Aired on 04.21.2003
Before Lorelai can sit down, Tobin puts a napkin down in her chair "in case of soot" and then wipes off the back with his sleeve. Lorelai is charmed by all this, but I think it would be annoying. Tobin goes to sit down and Michel barks, "My chair!" Tobin moves. Lorelai starts the meeting, but Tobin interrupts her to ask Michel if he got a bagel. Michel explains that he doesn't eat bagels because they are "like glue in your intestines and ensure that everything that enters your body will remain there until you die." I love Michel's food obsession. Sookie pauses in her bagel eating and tells Michel to shut up.
Lorelai brings it back around to the meeting and says that the fire wiped out the dining room and five upstairs rooms. Tobin sighs and Lorelai asks if he's okay. Tobin apologizes and says he loves the place so much, and that he's been the night manager for five years. And yet we've never heard of him until today. Tobin babbles on for a while until Michel yells at him to "make a point, bagel boy." Just assume that, for the rest of the scene, Michel is throwing Tobin dirty looks. Tobin says it hurts him to see the Inn wounded. Lorelai promises that the Inn will be rebuilt, and better than ever, but that they need to "keep it going until then," so she needs some ideas on what to do. Tobin suggests that they get a celebrity in there for publicity. Lorelai wonders how they would get a celebrity and Tobin says he knows "Tony Randall and Renée Estevez" and would be happy to put in a call. Lorelai smiles warmly as Michel interrupts to say that he hates to bring this up, "especially since, I mean, how do you top Renée Estevez," but they do have some rooms, and the lobby is fine, and Sookie can make some things at home. Can she? Isn't that a violation of the health code? Lorelai asks where Michel is headed with this. Michel says that they have beds and they have breakfast and they could add free wine and cheese in the afternoon. Lorelai refuses to turn the Inn into a bed and breakfast. Michel says she's being stubborn. Lorelai says that bed and breakfasts are "cutesy and annoying." Like Stars Hollow? I love the town as much as anyone, but seriously. Sookie adds that bed and breakfasts force people to mingle. Michel says that it would be incentive for people to keep their reservations. Tobin agrees with him, and Michel orders Tobin to get off his side. Lorelai agrees to consider it, and Michel accuses her of only doing it because Tobin agreed.