Some Notes on Episodes 7-13, 7-14
Michael Ikeda
7-13 I'd Rather Be in Philadelphia
Lorelai is helping Babette move plants when she gets multiple phone
calls. She answers the last one, it's Rory telling her about
Richard. Lorelai leaves. Lorelai finds Rory waiting at the
hospital. Rory tells her that "they're doing tests" but that it
was definitely a heart attack. Lorelai tries to call Christopher
but doesn't reach him, this happens repeatedly during this episode.
(Lorelai and Christopher had a big argument the previous episode
when Christopher found the letter Lorelai wrote for Luke. On the
brighter side, the letter seemed to have helped Luke gain partial
custody of April.)
Emily arrives, yells at the nurse, rants about incompetence, etc.
Logan arrives. The doctor tells them that Richard needs an
emergency bypass and they visit Richard before the surgery. Luke
arrives (Babette told him about Richard) and Emily assigns him a
list of chores. Rory and Logan volunteer to get some of Richard's
things and meet the fish deliveryman at the elder Gilmore's. Emily
is going through her own list of chores, a lot of which don't
actually need to be done then. Lorelai is in the gift shop when
Emily asks for her Social Security number and other information.
Lorelai gets upset but calms down when she realizes that Emily's
flurry of activity is just something she's doing to distract
herself from her fear and feeling of helplessness.
(Another possible "Buffy" reference. The person Emily is dealing
with at the lawyer's office is named Quentin.)
Meanwhile, Logan and Rory are at the elder Gilmore's, gathering
some odds and ends. Logan tells Rory about his latest venture
(buying another internet company).
Richard wakes up and Emily tells him what's been happening. Later,
Lorelai and Rory talk to Richard and Rory plays him one of the
records. After Richard goes to sleep, Rory asks Lorelai if she
knows where Christopher is (Lorelai doesn't). Luke drops off some
food for them and Lorelai tells him the surgery went well.
Christopher finally arrives, and is not pleased to see Luke there.
Rory, Logan, and Christopher go to visit Richard. And we close on
Lorelai and Emily watching them.
(Lorelai and Christopher's marriage continues to sink. Christopher
explains in 7-14 that he simply turned off his phone, which may be
true. Still doesn't excuse the fact that almost his first reaction
was expressing irritation about Luke. Even so, this situation is
just emphasizing problems that were there already.)
7-14 Farewell, My Pet
The Gilmore clan is walking around the hospital. Rory and Lorelai
are encouraging Richard, and pretending to be coaches and
announcers. Richard wants a report from Rory about the TA who's
filling in for him. Rory suggests taking a few more days off
(probably mainly because she's worried about Lorelai). Lorelai
tells her not to worry and convinces Rory to go back to Yale.
Lorelai returns to the Inn and learns that Chin Chin (one of
Michel's dogs) died. Lorelai suggests a memorial. Michel suggests
tomorrow and "volunteers" Lorelai and Sookie to plan it.
Michel wants to hear Lorelai and Sookie's ideas for the memorial.
After a while, Lorelai finds an excuse to leave, then sees
Christopher. Lorelai and Christopher argue. Lorelai tells him
that "I needed you" and he wasn't there (even though Christopher
finally did stop by the hospital, he didn't stay for long). Rory
calls and asks about Christopher. Lorelai tells Rory she doesn't
want her to take sides, and that it's a "complicated situation."
Rory says that she's not a kid, she gets to have an opinion, and
that "I'm on your side." Rory says Lorelai can call her if she
needs anything.
(Note that Lorelai actually defends Christopher to Rory, even
though she's still angry at him. As far as the "I'm on your side"
is concerned, while this may be the first time Rory says it this
directly, it's always been the case. But it's also been the case
that Lorelai has generally tried to avoid putting Rory in a
position where Rory feels she needs to take sides.)
Lorelai returns home and finds Christopher there. Christopher says
that "I pushed you" (into the relationship and into marriage).
Lorelai says that they can work things out. Later, Lorelai talks
to Sookie. Lorelai says that the only way is to cut Luke out of
her life completely. Sookie sort of agrees but asks: if there
were no Luke, would it be Christopher?
Lorelai and Michel run funeral-related errands. Michel goes to eat
a burger at Luke's in Chin Chin's memory.
Meanwhile, Rory gets flustered by the new TA, first in the
classroom, then in the bookstore. Rory returns to the apartment
and sees Logan. She hesitantly and apologetically tells him about
her reaction to the TA. Logan says that it's only a crush, don't
worry about it. They leave to go watch Paris try to belly dance.
Lorelai returns home after the memorial. She tells Christopher
that "It's not just Luke" and that "You've always been this
wonderful possibility" but that "it's just not right." Christopher
and Lorelai both realize that it's over. And we close on them
sitting together on the couch.
--
Michael Ikeda mmi...@erols.com
"Telling a statistician not to use sampling is like telling an
astronomer they can't say there is a moon and stars"
Lynne Billard, past president American Statistical Association
Cory
mmi...@erols.com says...
<big snip...>
> Lorelai returns home after the memorial. She tells Christopher
> that "It's not just Luke" and that "You've always been this
> wonderful possibility" but that "it's just not right." Christopher
> and Lorelai both realize that it's over. And we close on them
> sitting together on the couch.
And that, folks, ends what is probably THE most pointless and THE
dumbest story arc to have ever, ever, ever been written and filmed in
the GG universe.
--- Cory
--
"Life without liberty is like a body without spirit." --- Kahlil Gibran
David E. Milligan
"Cory" <my_whe...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.22ecdfe4e...@news.motzarella.org...
I have to mostly agree. During the entire series there is someone or other I have disliked
or gotten angry with. In this ep it is Michel, who I usually find entertaining and amusing. This
time he was neither, just a whiney, overbearing pain in the ass.
About the only redeeming part is when L&C realize they weren't right for each other
(although Chris' sudden calm, serene demeanor seemed a bit phony.)
--
David
http://geocities.com/daviderl31/GilmoreGirls.htm
Michael Ikeda
news:0NFgk.4208$w93....@bignews4.bellsouth.net:
>
> "Cory" <my_whe...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:MPG.22ecdfe4e...@news.motzarella.org...
>> In article <Xns9AE0BE3E13C7F...@216.196.97.136>,
>> mmi...@erols.com says...
>> <big snip...>
>>
>>> Lorelai returns home after the memorial. She tells
>>> Christopher that "It's not just Luke" and that "You've always
>>> been this wonderful possibility" but that "it's just not
>>> right." Christopher and Lorelai both realize that it's over.
>>> And we close on them sitting together on the couch.
>>
>> And that, folks, ends what is probably THE most pointless and
>> THE dumbest story arc to have ever, ever, ever been written and
>> filmed in the GG universe.
>>
>> --- Cory
>>
>> --
>> "Life without liberty is like a body without spirit." ---
>> Kahlil Gibran
>
> I have to mostly agree.
I'd say that this story arc is entirely pointy.
As Lorelai says in this episode, Christopher has always been a
"wonderful possibility" to her. As long as that remained true it
made it harder for her to really move on to anyone else. Lorelai
needed to understand emotionally that she and Christopher simply
weren't right as anything more than friends. And part of the
process of reaching this understanding was living through the
failure of their attempt at a romantic relationship.
(I've mentioned several times the similarity between how Lorelai
interacts with Christopher when she's with Luke and how she
interacts with Luke when she's with Christopher. In the second
case one reason for the nature of the interactions is unresolved
feelings for Luke. I think that, similarly, one reason for the
nature of the interactions in the first case is unresolved feelings
for Christopher.
During the entire series there
> is someone or other I have disliked
> or gotten angry with. In this ep it is Michel, who I usually
> find entertaining and amusing. This time he was neither, just a
> whiney, overbearing pain in the ass.
He's always somewhat of a pain in the ass. This episode he happens
to have an unusually good excuse. He's grieving and one of his
reactions to his grief is to become an amplified version of
himself.
There's a parallelism in this episode between Michel coming to
terms with his loss and Lorelai coming to terms with hers.
> About the only redeeming part is when L&C realize they
> weren't right for each other
> (although Chris' sudden calm, serene demeanor seemed a bit
> phony.)
>
It isn't precisely serenity. It's resigned acceptance of the
inevitable--of something he subconsciously realized a while ago but
didn't want to admit.