Episode Report Card Pamie: B | 125 USERS: C+ YOU GRADE IT One Down, Two to Go
By Pamie | Season 4 | Episode 16 | Aired on 2004.03.02
The minister Gran requested has retired, but Emily is on the phone, insistent that he perform the services. She answers the door to find Lorelai with a container of soup. Emily tells Lorelai to take the soup into the study and see if she can get Richard to eat. The scene cuts off in the middle of Emily's line, which is very strange indeed.
Richard is a mess, camped out on his couch, listening to old-timey records. Lorelai tells him she brought mock turtle soup. This sends Richard into tears, so Lorelai immediately hides the soup. She sits next to him and asks about the music. Richard says that Gran wasn't much of a music lover, as she found it frivolous, but she liked this musician, Kay Keyser. Lorelai calls Kay a "she," until Richard corrects her. Lorelai says Kay's parents were mean. Richard dissolves into tears again as he calls his mother a saint. Lorelai hands him a tissue. Richard says he learned everything from Gran: "Life is a battle. And you either enter it armed or you surrender it immediately." That's what she told him on his tenth birthday; he never forgot it. Richard sits up, weeping. He says he has to deal with this regret he has. The last words they exchanged were in anger. He says he lost his temper and he was disrespectful. He cries as Lorelai says it was only a little fight. Richard says Gran raised him, taking care of him after his father died, and that he spoke to her as if he had owed her nothing: "You only have one set of parents, Lorelai. Remember that. I forgot, and now I have to live with that the rest of my life." Richard cries, not realizing that what he just told Lorelai, for her, are filled with hope. He asks if there's soup. Lorelai gives him the Tupperware, but realizes she forgot a spoon. She leaves to fetch him one.