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
"Yale." Lorelai watches a student rushing past and comments that he looks really smart: "The glasses, the furrowed brow, the ticky walk." Rory says that there are smart people at Yale. Behind Lorelai and Rory, Emily and Richard walk, their proud smiles frozen on their faces. Lorelai guesses that if she took her checkbook out right now, twelve guys could help balance it for her. Richard says it'd be thirteen if she were standing in front of the right building. Rory thanks Richard for taking her to the amazing art gallery. Richard brags that Yale has one of the best British art collections in the world. He says he spent a lot of time in that gallery when he was young. "I'll say you did," Emily snarks. Apparently the art gallery was where Richard took young women in order to woo. Emily says that Richard was quite gifted in the following move: "Frown, step back, wrinkle, and sigh." Emily then demonstrates all four moves. She says that by the end of the date, you thought he was a genius, the way he went on about art and Paris. Richard thinks that Emily's stories are going to make the girls think he was some kind of Lothario. Emily says that he was. Richard says he was just a young, single man who wanted to experience life. As he walks on, Lorelai warns Rory: "Don't ever fall for that line." Rory promises she won't.
As they walk on, Richard reminds Emily that she wasn't such a "doe lost in the woods" herself. Lorelai says to Rory, "They're turning on each other. I love it!" Richard takes Emily by the hand and leads her in front of a pillar that reads "YALE" in huge letters as he reminds her that he was in a serious relationship when he met Emily. Then Emily decided she had to have him. See? It's okay for Rory to do this with Jess because it's the same story as how her grandparents met. How serious? Well, she was pinned, she'd met his parents, and the invitations were already sent. Emily says that Richard's old flame was so stupid, people had to give directions to help her to a point. Lorelai makes a cat noise. As Lorelai calls Emily the "Helena Bonham Carter of the society set," Emily says she didn't steal Richard away, she simply gave him a choice. Richard says that when Emily showed up at his fraternity party wearing that blue dress, she left him very little choice at all. "You stole my father with fashion," Lorelai says in awe. Emily is flattered that he remembered. "I can't believe you were the other woman," Lorelai says. Richard stops walking and asks Emily if she notices where they are. After a second, Emily realizes, and notes that there was a bench there before. It's where they were standing when Richard proposed. "By the trash can?" "That's right!" Emily says. They had gotten into a big fight because Richard wouldn't make holiday plans with her. Emily thought he was being non-committal but the truth was that he wanted her to meet his parents so he could propose. Just as she called him a "spineless jellyfish," he handed her the small box. She opened it up, looked at the ring, closed the box emotionlessly, and said, "Fine." Emily and Richard get all gushy retelling the story, and kiss over the trash can. "That's so sweet!" Rory says. Just then, the button on the back of Emily's skirt breaks, so Lorelai offers to take her to the bathroom to help fix it. There's some bumbling and bickering, but eventually Lorelai bribes Emily with the hope of meeting George Michael in the bathroom, and they go.