Episode Report Card Pamie: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Papa Don't Preach
By Pamie | Season 2 | Episode 12 | Aired on 01.28.2002
Lorelai begs Luke to get her a grapefruit. Luke doesn't have a grapefruit. Lorelai pouts and begs for a grapefruit ("Preferably one that tastes like a doughnut") so that there is continual harmony between her and Richard. Luke says he'll go next door to Cardigan Man's and buy her a grapefruit. Lorelai flirts back to her seat.
Lorelai announces to Richard that a grapefruit is on its way. Lorelai suggests Richard walks around Stars Hollow a bit and sees the sights. Richard moves the mustard back to its "place" on the table. Lorelai says that Richard could walk around Stars Hollow until Rory gets home around four, and then the two of them could spend time together until Lorelai gets home from work, and then the three of them can have dinner. Richard says that sounds "sensible." Lorelai says she had to make up for her shoes. Some strange waiter of Luke's pours more coffee into Lorelai's mug. Richard asks if that's her second cup of coffee. Lorelai confesses that it's her third. She asks why. "No reason," Richard says, looking up and silently counting to five. "Lot of coffee first thing in the morning," he notes. Lorelai keeps the painful smile plastered to her face.
Rory shuts her locker and finds Paris standing there. "Okay, you have got to stop doing that," she says. Paris has come up with the article they need to make The Franklin win the Oppenheimer. She says that most award-winning newspapers have a human-interest story on page one. The Franklin has everything else, but they don't have a hard-hitting human-interest story. Paris has decided to do a piece about small-town life. She says that people are moving in droves from the big city to the small town. They move their trophy wives and asthmatic kids so they can milk a cow, pet a pig, and have their own farms. It seems perfect. But according to Paris, nothing is perfect. She will prove that even small towns have their dark, seedy underbellies. She's starting with Stars Hollow. Rory tells Paris that there isn't a seedy underbelly in Stars Hollow. Rory says they don't even have a meter maid. Paris says that Rory may not see it because she lives there, but Paris knows there's a seedy underbelly lurking inside Stars Hollow somewhere, and she's going to find it. She tells Rory to meet her after school today to investigate. Rory says she can't today. "Why not?" Paris asks. "Are you hiding something?" Rory says she has to help her mother with something. Paris tells Rory to move it to the next day, because today they're going to investigate Stars Hollow. I don't see why Rory can't just take Richard along with them. I think Paris and Richard would hit it off swimmingly, and Richard could be Paris's spy. Paris says she was going to share a byline on this piece with Rory, but if she wants to bail, Paris can just do it by herself. Rory wants a byline on the cover, so she's in, but she promises that Paris is not going to find anything. Paris notes that the worst that could happen is if she suddenly gets an urge to enter a pie in the county fair. I think that's a shout-out to next week's episode. She leaves to meet Rory outside.