Episode Report Card Al Lowe: A- | 0 USERS: N/A YOU GRADE IT Madeleine Albright. In Bed.
By Al Lowe | Season 6 | Episode 7 | Aired on October 24, 2005
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.So we pick up where we last left off, with Richard on Lorelai's doorstep coming up with all these cockamamie plans to trick Rory into going back to Yale, from buying her a town house to changing the terms on her trust fund. Lorelai tells him to go blow, finally stating for the record that she's ready to help Rory as soon as she asks, but not before. We also learn that Rory's about to turn twenty-one, and that the girls had this whole plan about this birthday involving blackjack in Atlantic City and twenty-one guys, but they both realize that plan isn't going to come to fruition, and are both sad about it. Logan offers to take Rory to A.C. instead, because he doesn't get her -- and she may kind of know it because she didn't even tell him she had a birthday coming up; he had to find out from Emily, who wants to throw her a tasteful, fun party with youthful sushi and DAR ladies. Rory gets Emily to put Lorelai on the guest list, but Lorelai assumes that the invitation is another manipulation of her parents' and ignores it until Rory calls to browbeat her into RSVPing. Before the party, Richard and Emily figure that Rory is about to have relations with Logan (er...), so they call their minister over for dinner to explain to Rory that her "virtue" is her most precious gift. She tells him that she's already given that one away, and he tells Emily and Richard, so...awkward. And it's even more awkward when Emily contrives a reason to move Rory out of the pool house. So then it's the party and Lorelai and Luke show up, and Emily's all flinty at them. Richard spends the party hiding in his study because he's moping over having "failed" with Rory, and Emily storms in and tells him she has a million plans to keep Rory out of the pool house and that they won't have failed until she comes home pregnant (ouch), so Lorelai storms out of the room and runs into Rory, and they have very un-strained reunion small talk until it's time to blow out the candles, whereupon Lorelai looks at her daughter like she's a stranger again, and slips out with Luke. There was slightly more to the episode than that, which Al will give you the Lowe-down (HA!) on in the recap. Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Lorelai opens the door to find her dad standing there, wanting to talk about Rory. "I don't like what I see in that girl," he says, giving the perfect set-up for Lorelai to crack, "My eyes?" Ignoring this, Richard says that he doesn't like it that Rory has lost focus and is running around planning tea parties for the DAR: "She's heading in the wrong direction, and I don't like it." He's thought long and hard about it, and they "need a plan." Lorelai flips. They HAD a plan. He's the one who abandoned it! He tells her he doesn't like her tone, and Lorelai says that apparently "the proper tone went out with the plan." I get where Lorelai is coming from on all this. Sure, I know she's supposed to be all mature and the mother and rise above all these indignities shoved on her by her child and her parents, but...well, I'm in somewhat of a vengeful mood myself these days. There's only so much bullshit you can take, and I kind of feel like Lorelai has taken enough. Richard, however, feels like it would be a good idea to shovel on some more. His new, brilliant plan involves all sorts of bribes and tricks to get Rory to go back to school. He suggests changing the terms of her trust fund, or buying her a car, or a townhome! "Don't you see," he says, "if there's something in it for her, maybe we can get her to change her mind." Ugh. Lorelai tries to end it there, thanking Richard for the dollhouse, and making to leave. He can't believe it and asks if she's even listening to him. "Uh, no," she says. Richard is flabbergasted, but Lorelai puts the kibosh on his dumb plans: "I want Rory to want to go back to school. She used to love to learn, and read, and study, and it was freakish, but it was her." She says that Rory will have to find her way back there, and the minute she wants and asks for help, Lorelai will be there: "I will fly in faster than the Gulfstream I'm sure you're going to offer to buy her next, but until then, I'm sorry, you're on your own." Calling Lorelai impossible, Richard leaves in a huff.
Back from commercial, Luke has joined Lorelai on the porch to help her move the dollhouse inside while she rants and raves about her father. "Pretending like it's an accident that Rory's floundering," she says, incredulous. "Nothing's an accident. He caused this; he made this happen." Luke is supportive, I guess, but mostly he is trying to figure out how to lift the dollhouse, which apparently weighs a metric ton. Lorelai says that her father was being especially low by bringing up Rory's birthday like she didn't even remember it. "'She's turning twenty-one, Lorelai, did you know that?'" she mocks. "Of course I know that. I was there when she was turning nothing!" She says it's just like her parents to double-cross her, and then get mad when she won't help them undo the double-cross. Nostalgia overtakes her and she reveals that, actually, she and Rory had long-standing plans for her big birthday. They were going to go to Atlantic City and be sitting at a blackjack table ready to play 21 the moment Rory turned twenty-one. Then they'd take their winnings and buy twenty-one things. "And then," Lorelai says, looking at Luke, "there was a thing about twenty-one guys that wouldn't really be appropriate anymore since the engagement." All sad, Lorelai says that Rory probably doesn't even remember the plan. Luke assures her that Rory remembers, and Lorelai sighs, going in to order pizza and finally mentioning that the top comes off the dollhouse, making it possible to move the thing.