Episode Report Card Pamie: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Yale. Harvard. Jess. Dean. Get it? Got it? Good.
By Pamie | Season 3 | Episode 8 | Aired on 11.18.2002
Emily announces that Lilliana will be out shortly with the "sand dabs." I have no idea what that is. Emily says she's afraid they'll have to let Lilliana go. Richard: "Well, if that's how you feel, Emily." Lorelai can't believe Emily's firing someone over walnuts in a salad. Lor, it was, like, four times she made the salad over and over again. What made her hand continually toss nuts into the leaves? Why did she even have walnuts near the salad over and over? Lorelai warns that if Emily isn't a little nicer to her help, she might find herself in a "Frank Lloyd Wright" situation: "Mrs. Wright apparently had this major problem with her help. She was very rough on them and they totally hated her. So this guy, who had worked for her forever, he had finally had enough." She asks Rory to concur that "the incident" was over walnuts. Rory says she believes the exact cause has not been determined. Lorelai continues. She says that Mrs. Wright had a dinner party full of people and her disgruntled servant went outside, locked all the doors and windows, doused the house in gasoline and set it on fire. The guests couldn't get out because the doors were locked, so they went out the windows, but "Mr. Angry Puss" was standing outside with an axe, and he hacked them all into little pieces. Emily asks why Lorelai would tell her a story like that. Lorelai concludes that sometimes eating walnuts is preferable to getting burned or getting hacked to death. I call my Frank Lloyd Wright-buff friend, who not only confirms this story, but adds to it. Apparently the woman wasn't Wright's wife, but his mistress. Her child was also killed. Wright later rebuilt the house, and thirty years later it burned down again. From the Donner party to this, it's a gory episode, huh? Emily threatens to make Lorelai eat dinner in her room. Rory leaves to get another soda. Lorelai requests a large bag of walnuts. Richard stands to get some more ice, and asks Emily if she needs anything. Emily says she's fine. Richard leaves. Lorelai begins sniffing the air. Emily barks at her to stop.
In the kitchen -- the one that, I guess, doesn't contain a cook feverishly remaking salads -- Rory grabs a Coke from the industrial-sized fridge. Richard enters and asks if she found the Coke okay. Rory says she did. He grabs himself ice and sneaks a couple of chocolates out of the freezer. He hands one to Rory. She's very grateful for the chocolate. As they eat sweets, they make small talk. Richard asks how school is going. Rory says it's good, although it's crazy. Richard says that preparing for college can be a daunting task. When he was preparing for Yale he didn't sleep for an entire year. He says he didn't even cut his hair for two months. "Grampa!" Rory scoffs. Richard agrees that it was quite the scandal. He says that, in the end, it was all worth it. He found his years at Yale were the most gratifying of his life: "Just the sheer freedom of knowing that anything I wanted to learn, I could learn right there." He loved the history and the heritage, the fact that his father went there. He loved the friends that he made, friends he still has today. Rory smiles, and says that it must be nice. Richard informs Rory that he's going to Yale next week for a Whiffenpoof reunion. Oh, Djb, I miss you very much. Look how they gave your brother a shout-out! I went to college in Texas. If there was something called a Whiffenpoof on campus, it would have been shot and stuffed. But apparently up there where the Yankees do their book learnin', they take their a cappella singing groups very seriously. Richard describes the Whiffenpoofs as "the Beatles with better table manners." Rory says she's never heard Richard sing. Richard says he's no Perry Como, but that his shower hasn't kicked him out yet. Poor Lilliana enters, tears in her eyes, tray full of remade salad. She runs out to the dining room. Rory and Richard note that they saw walnuts on those new salads. "Poor Grandma," Rory says. "Poor us," Richard adds. He grabs them more chocolate as he invites Rory to come with him to Yale next week to see the school. He says it might be a fun little adventure, the four of them driving down to the campus, a picnic, a tour. She and Lorelai could go and have fun while he and Emily have a somber dinner. He says he'd love to show his school to her. Rory agrees to go: "That would be nice." Richard is very pleased. He asks if he should tell Lorelai, or if Rory wants to. Rory says she'll handle it. Lillana races back through the room, tray still loaded with salads. Richard says they're going to need a few more chocolates. I thought they were getting their main courses. Rory stands around, staring at things.