Episode Report Card Pamie: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT CuteDean's Not A Virgin Anymore
By Pamie | Season 4 | Episode 4 | Aired on 10.13.2003
I don't know where Michel's new swank cool hotel is, but it's certainly not in Stars Hollow, Harvard, or Connecticut. Everybody's dressed in black, and the people wear tiny headsets. "It's supposed to be the Mercer," I giggle. This is a huge shout-out, because at this very moment a plane has touched down in Los Angeles, carrying in it one of my very best friends, who happens to be a concierge at The Mercer, a swank New York hotel. Lorelai jokes that she can tell where all the Calvin Klein ads went to die. "They look like they all had the same mother," Sookie says, referring to the models draped all over the lobby. Lorelai comments that their mother is one tired supermodel. She tries to stop a woman who never loses a step as she passes them. "I wouldn't talk to us either," Lorelai says. Sookie tells Lorelai to talk to a boy, because boys like Lorelai.
Sookie and Lorelai go up to the front desk. Lorelai says that they're looking for Michel Gerard. "The corner of Mercer and Broome," the clerk says into his headset phone. (See?!) Lorelai tells Sookie that Janet Jackson is on the phone. "Uh huh. No worries," the guy says, wrapping up his call. The girls are startled to find that he's now talking to them when he says, "Yes?" Sookie asks for Michel. The man is back on the phone before Sookie can finish Michel's name. "Uh huh. No worries," the guy says. "He comes like the wind," he says to the girls before sashaying off. I'll bet he does.
Michel makes his way over toward the girls. Y'all, Michel is looking fine. He gets to have hair this season, and he's wearing a tight charcoal outfit instead of that stuffy suit. As he barks some orders to someone who's got Broadway plans for the night, the country-looking girls wave and smile at him. "Well, look who the cat dragged in," he says to them. Lorelai says she's missed him. Michel says he's missed them, too. Sookie says he looks so important, walking around talking to himself. Michel has some of the best reaction shots on this show, like his patient smile as he's obviously digging his fingernails into the palm of his hand. I'm lovin' it like Justin Timberlake loving his checks from McDonald's. Lorelai tells Michel that they're starting their renovations on the Dragonfly on Monday. "Oh, yes. Is that still happening?" Michel Frenches. Lorelai says it is, and Michel declares it "lovely." He quickly gives an aside on his phone, telling someone that there's a small charge for the use of the internet, and that the caller should check the instructions in the mini-bar. Lorelai says she knows he's a little upset with her. Michel pretends he doesn't know what she's talking about, even after Sookie rehashes -- in detail -- the conversation she had with him the night before, in the course of which Michel cried. Sookie says he kept her on the phone for so long she missed so much of Queer Eye For the Straight Guy that by the time she got back "they were all gay." ["Hee. I loved that line." -- Wing Chun] Lorelai apologizes for making him think they didn't want him coming to the Dragonfly. Michel thanks them for telling him that, and goes back to work. Lorelai asks if he doesn't want to leave, since his hotel is very impressive. Michel checks his email while he gives a monologue that I love, and it's not just because I'm an actor who grew up in hotels and worked at a few: "Yes, this place is impressive, isn't it? I mean, the uniform alone, like working in your jammies. And these headsets? Are they not fabulous? Especially when, for example, you're in the bathroom -- a place one would normally choose to be alone -- and then suddenly, BANG! Someone is yakking in your ear. How delightful. You can never get lonely! And the people who work here? A joy. So young, so talented. Some of them are actors in ambitious off-Broadway revues. They play cockroaches and derelicts. Do Shakespeare dressed like punk rockers. It gives me chills, just thinking about it! [into his phone] Yes! Extra towels are complimentary, Matthew. And stop asking me who the hottie I'm talking to is!" Michel says he'll think about it and get back to them. "Nice to have you on board, Michel," Lorelai says. Michel shoos them away. "Thank God," he moans, and then goes back to bitching at Matthew. I wish that wasn't the last time we'd see Michel's weird hotel.