Episode Report Card Pamie: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Rory's A Material Girl
By Pamie | Season 5 | Episode 8 | Aired on 11.08.2004
While Luke might be planning an elaborate meal to woo Lorelai, CuteDean is making do with what he has. In this case, it's a bunch of stockroom items that have been declared unsellable. In the back room at Doose's, CuteDean brings out a tray of sandwiches, broken chips, and expired juices. Rory can barely contain her excitement in her four-hundred-dollar outfit. Aw, CuteDean even lit a little candle. Rory says it's a nice spread. Dirty! CuteDean says that you have to pull out all the stops when you date an Ivy League girl. He tells Rory he's glad they got to do this today, since they haven't seen much of each other lately. Rory asks if he ever read her story. CuteDean's a terrible liar, all, "Oh, yeah. Great. Loved it. Loved how it began and then how there was that ending. Yeah. Fantastic." Rory goes fishing for compliments, asking him if she seemed objective enough, even though it's a really important "feature" piece. CuteDean plays the dumb card and says he can't critique these things. He just knows the pages tasted good when he licked his drool off of them. Yee-haw! Rory is disappointed that CuteDean didn't use more words to praise her, and changes the subject to their plans for that night. She says she'll go to the party for a couple of hours, and then he can meet her outside the house at 8:30. Why outside the house, Rory? Too embarrassed to have Yalies meet your townie boyfriend? CuteDean says he doesn't want her ducking out of the party early if it'll be a big thing. Rory promises that it won't, and asks him to wait in the car, wearing a limo driver's hat, you know...just for fun. She gives him a mini, unnecessary, guilt trip for trying to suggest they don't hang out tonight, and then tells him to come get her at 8:30. She babbles on to say that she'll have to bring a big purse so that she can change clothes and wear something more Dean-like after the fancy party.
Lorelai shows up to Luke's wearing a French maid uniform. Unfortunately, she's wearing normal clothes underneath it. She says that the outfit is as close as he'll get to her cleaning up tonight. They kiss. Lorelai stumbles in like she's drunk and says it smells "crazy good" in there. Luke is making enough food for two Lorelais. He recites the menu, and by the time he gets to "ricotta cheesecake," I want to date Luke, too. Lorelai calls Luke the perfect man: "I used to think it was Kelsey Grammar." I am really glad she doesn't elaborate on that, even though I cannot understand how she could have come to that conclusion. Lorelai brought candles and Rosemary Clooney. Lorelai says she's so happy to have this Friday away from her parents. She tells Luke she's so happy about it that she might not even notice if the meal sucks. Luke hands her a glass of wine as the music starts. They toast. "Perfect," Lorelai says. The timer goes off for the artichokes, prompting Lorelai to offer a really bad artichoke joke from The Little Rascals. Luke says he knew it was from The Little Rascals. Lorelai is shocked, and says he really is the perfect man. This same exchange happened to Stee and me years ago, when some rap anthology commercial was on. When we spontaneously broke into the call and response of "I gotta man!"/"What's your man got to do with me?," he looked at me with this smile and asked, "Do you want to marry me? You're perfect." Last month at a friend's wedding, Stee was headed away to find the restroom. The DJ changed the record to "I Gotta Man" and I turned, excited to hear the song, sad to see that Sstee was gone. Stee immediately turned back and headed over to me, rapping, and pulled me into his arms. I was standing next to a friend from college at the time and her new husband, and when they saw this, my friend gave her husband a smile. Later, she said to me, "He is nothing like what I expected you to bring tonight, and he is absolutely perfect for you. I love him."