Episode Report Card Pamie: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Back In The Saddle Again
By Pamie | Season 2 | Episode 18 | Aired on 04.22.2002
Paris asks Rory if she saw the Hose Hook idea at another table. A hook on your belt for your garden hose. "There's a Buster Keaton routine waiting to happen," she says. Richard walks back up and asks how they're doing. Where's the rest of the group? Rory says that Paris is practicing spiking the football and doing a backflip. Handlin calls the floor to order to announce the winner of the project. Oh, I just saw Fraulein in the background. Handlin congratulates all of the students on their projects. The winner is table ten, the Locker Alarm. They all grab each other and celebrate. Richard says this is impossible. Paris is outraged. She says the alarm doesn't even work. Rory says it doesn't really matter. Richard says that it does. They all put in an extraordinary amount of work and they had the best project and so they should win. Paris agrees. Rory says they didn't win. Richard says he's going to talk to Headmaster Handlin about this because they were "robbed."
Richard asks Handlin for a word. He tells him that this contest is a disgrace. He's been in this business for thirty-five years and he's learned a thing or two about things in that time. He says out in the real world the locker alarm that doesn't even work properly wouldn't be a sound business investment. Handlin reminds Richard that they aren't in the real world. Richard says they're supposed to be preparing the kids for the real world. Handlin asks him to calm down. Richard shouts that he demands a recount. Handlin tells him to hold on, counts to three in his head, and says, "I just recounted. The alarm still wins." He says that Richard's project was good and was in the running. Richard says it's not his project; it's the children's project. Handlin asks why is Richard the only one making a scene, then. Richard exhales and walks away as the strummy music kicks in. Paris and Rory share a look.
Rory pouts out of the Jeep and tells Lorelai that Richard was miserable. They're walking up for Friday dinner, so you figure it all out. Lorelai says when Richard gets mad he gets taller. The night she told him she was pregnant he got twenty-four feet tall. Rory feels guilty, but Lorelai tells her she did nothing. Rory asks Lorelai not to talk about work, retirement, school, or Chilton. They ring the doorbell. Lorelai says she'll only discuss politics and religion. Emily answers the door solemnly. She invites them in. She says that dinner is almost ready and calls to Richard. She says he came home silently, slammed the door to his study, and has been holed up in there ever since. Lorelai asks if Richard's still up there. Emily says she would have seen it if he left the room: "Not everybody leaves this house by climbing out the window and jumping into a waiting hot rod." Heh. She asks Rory what happened today. Rory says the project went badly. Emily says she's at her wit's end and can't believe he's falling apart over a high-school project. Lorelai says it's a weird time for Richard right now. She says maybe he should talk to a psychiatrist. Emily says that they don't go to psychiatrists. They aren't disturbed deviants with multiple personalities that hear dogs talking, who roam the streets licking parking meters. "Next thing you know you'll be suggesting I go to a psychiatrist," Emily says. Lorelai takes a second and then says quietly to Rory, "Too many comebacks. I cannot pick."