Episode Report Card 1 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT All's Well That Ends Well
By Ragdoll | Season 1 | Episode 4 | Aired on 10.25.2000
Café. Rory's having trouble with her pencil. The eraser sucks. The lead breaks. The pencil gets tossed across the room. We've all been there. The bearded café man brings her pie. She needs it; he's right about that. Lorelai comes into the diner and flirts with the Pie Guy. Lorelai has that down to an art. And that doesn't even gross me out. I'm in some other recapping dimension. The dialogue on this show is so freaking natural. Rory wonders where her mother was all this time. Lorelai lets it out that she was in Hartford at the parent/teacher meeting. There is finger-biting. There are quips about winning the crowd over and being made queen. There is a timid question about Mr. Medina: "Why did you let me whine about ice cream and shoe sales when you had something major going on?" Rory should have told her mother about her bad grade but she couldn't: "It was too humiliating." Yet another quip: "Oh, honey. You once told me you loved Saved By the Bell. What could be more humiliating then that?" Oh, I don't know -- actually being one of the kids that starred on Saved by the Bell, perhaps. Especially the one that made Showgirls. Rory rambles on about having never gotten a "D." And she thinks she sucks, and that she can't adjust to Chilton. Lorelai gives her a pep talk, of sorts: she'll catch up, it's just one grade, and she's stubborn, which is a good quality. "I'm not stubborn," Rory argues. Yes you are, Lorelai counters. "No, I'm not," Rory insists. "Fine, you're not," Lorelai relents, and offers to help with the studying. Rory wonders if she can really do this. Lorelai bets her a dollar that she can.
Chilton. A strange talking head which looks remarkably like Paris the Evil Wench appears upon Rory's left shoulder reciting what I'm assuming is Shakespeare. Only it's really awkward and mean-sounding. There are violins, and when she finishes, she says: "You're going down." Don't worry Rory: good always triumphs over evil!
Independence Inn. Sookie has closed her kitchen and has dedicated her life to making risotto. Lorelai comes into the kitchen wondering about menus and is greeted with a spoonful of piping hot rice. Sookie keeps using the same spoon to test each dish and then shove it into Lorelai's mouth. Finally, something that honestly grosses me out. Sookie's having a risotto breakdown. She's made forty different recipes of forty different risottos and discovered that the magic risotto reigns supreme. The chef interrogates the waiter who might have served the restaurant critic. She keeps pointing and flashing around food combinations. He wants to know what Mills might have looked like: "Like he was unhappy with the risotto!" Sookie continues to grill the poor guy until he requests to be fired. In fact, she chases him out of the kitchen screaming about wigs and air conditioners -- anything that might have tipped the weight out of her favour. I understand obsession; I feel for you, Sookie.