Pod People of Their Former Selves

We Watch Episode 122: "Friday Night's All Right for Fighting" Together! In Person!

Welcome to Gilmore Women: Two journalists discuss everything that’s wrong with every episode of Gilmore Girls & why we still love it

The fights in this episode? Good! Everything else? Bad!

What’s Wrong With Episode 122: “Friday Night’s All Right for Fighting”? We Would Like to See More Fighting and Fewer Character Assassinations

by Maggie and Megan

We are watching together in person for the first time (hooray!) and things open on Lorelai and Luke NOT communicating (boo!).

Megan: This is off to a really bad start.

Maggie: You're right, they are acting like pod people. They're not interacting.

Megan: It feels like a parody. Or it just feels like there's something wrong. Like they've been abducted by aliens. And replaced with robot versions of themselves.

Opening credits! IF YOU’RE OUT ON THE ROAD— And then Lorelai and Sookie are in a flower market we have never seen before. They say some jokey stuff about bluebells.

Maggie: This is supposed to be like December, right?

Megan: Also it does not look like Stars Hollow.

Maggie: And in December, where all these flowers coming from at the flower market? And they're not gonna be same flowers that are gonna be there in June.

Megan: Also, why is Sookie wearing a fedora? I have concerns.

Maggie: And a striped scarf with a floral jacket?

Megan: Her jacket does not look warm.

LORELAI: The wedding has been postponed.

SOOKIE: What did you do?

LORELAI: What did I do?

SOOKIE: Did you get cold feet? You can't get cold feet. We need to put some nice wool socks on those feet, because Luke is perfect for you.

Maggie: "What did you DO?"

Megan: Actually, she can get cold feet and probably should at this point.

SOOKIE: Why do you do this? Why do you want to make yourself miserable?

LORELAI: He has a kid.

SOOKIE: Who has a kid?

LORELAI: Luke has a kid.

SOOKIE: Luke has a kid?

LORELAI: Luke has a kid.

SOOKIE: A kid, like a goat?

Megan: OK, that was a funny line.

SOOKIE: So for 12 years Luke's had a daughter out there just walking around

LORELAI: Yeah.

SOOKIE: That is crazy! Oh, my god.

LORELAI: What?

SOOKIE: I wonder if Jackson has a love child.

Maggie: Yeah, Jackson definitely could.

Megan: I would believe it. He's a men's rights activist. I bet he listens to Joe Rogan. Also, those sunflowers are only $2. Inflation!

Maggie: Where are all of these spring flowers coming from?

Lorelai insists that the secret daughter news doesn’t suck.

Maggie: Yes, it does suck, Lorelai. You need to admit that it sucks.

Megan: This stresses me out so much. They just need to not get married. She backs out of all of her other weddings. Why is she clinging to this one? It's so bad.

Lorelai says: “You know maybe I shouldn't cancel everything right away. I mean I still have some time before I lose my deposit on the hall. Maybe I should just chill out and and see what happens. Is that crazy?”

Megan: Or you could have a conversation with your fiancé.

Maggie: Yes, maybe actually tell Luke how you're feeling!

Cut to Yale, where Logan is stalking Rory.

Megan: That snow on the tree looks so fake.

Maggie: So fake!

Megan: It looks like baby powder.

LOGAN: Stop. Look.

RORY: I don't remember that being there yesterday.

LOGAN: Yesterday you came from the other way, so you missed the trash can but you almost took out the bike rack.

RORY: Thank god I have a guardian angel hanging out by the coffee kiosk.

Maggie: Ew!

Megan: He's stalking you!

He offers her a cup of coffee.

Megan: It's empty. Don't take it.

RORY: You've been hanging out at this coffee cart every day.

LOGAN: Yes, it's sad. I'm officially a wuss. If I saw me doing this, I'd beat the crap out of myself.

Maggie: Aughhhhh! Toxic masculinity.

Megan: I don't like this.

LOGAN: Excuse me but this is not slick. This is a Nora Ephron movie. Louis Armstrong should be warbling as we talk. So come on please, put me out of my misery. You promised you'd let me take you to dinner.

Megan and Maggie: Nora Ephron!

Megan: It supports our ongoing theory that she has a major influence to Amy Sherman-Palladino.

Logan says if Rory won’t go out with him he “will cry and eat a pint of rocky road while watching An Affair to Remember with Rita Wilson.”

Megan: I think he deserves to have to do that. Also this feels sexist to me.

Maggie: Oh, so sexist. He's just 100% misogynist at this point, and we're supposed to just be fine with her being wooed.

Megan: Yeah, I don't like this whole thing where we're supposed to be fine with men doing horrible things just because they have one redeeming quality.

Maggie: Yep.

Meanwhile, at Lorelai's house, Babette is being dramatic.

Megan: That entryway painting keeps moving.

Richard leaves a message because SOMEONE ELSE IS PAYING FOR YALE AND NO ONE TOLD HIM.

Megan: More communication problems that could be resolved just by being honest with people.

Maggie: Also their problems are just like too many people want to pay Rory's tuition at Yale.

Megan: Oh no, whatever will we do? We have too many wealthy relatives and loved ones! It's terrible!

Maggie: Poor single mother!

On the phone, Lorelai cajoles Rory into communicating with her grandparents. At Yale, Rory sees the unthinkable: a printed page of the Yale Daily News with a placeholder for a photo but NO PHOTO.

Megan and Maggie: Oh no!

Megan: That reminds me of a CQ that got left in once when I was at the Mercury. It said in parentheses "JOE TO CONFIRM" in all capital letters.

At the Yale Daily News, Paris is having a meltdown.

Maggie: Is this when the Paris reign of terror ends? Also, does Paris not have classes?

Megan: Unclear.

Maggie: I can't imagine her letting her grades slip.

Megan: No, I can't either. Also, isn't she premed?

Maggie: She has five majors. It doesn't make any sense!

Megan: And you can't have this kind of militaristic control in the newsroom and continue to have that sort of an academic schedule. This is false, I don't believe it. Also I feel like it's kind of a character assassination of her.

Maggie: No, it's not feasible or reasonable at all.

Megan: No, because she's always been kind of unhinged and mean, but this is silly. Can you imagine if we had done this at the Sophian? I wouldn't have had time! I had too much studying to do.

Maggie: We had too much to do. We could barely get there like one night a week.

Megan: Yeah, and we stayed until like midnight, because we started late. I wrote my column when I got there.

Maggie: Yay for Rory being confrontational with at least one person. No one else is confronting anyone in this episode!

Megan: Maybe the therapy's working.

Maggie: Maybe! Though she won't talk to her grandparents.

Megan: Yeah, it's like she can only be confrontational with one person at a time, and I feel like it's usually Paris.

Maggie Mertens: Oh yeah.

Megan Burbank: Maybe that's her most equal relationship.

Maggie Mertens: It is! Hence the Paris-Rory love story fanfiction. Oh, yeah, she has her bunker now. How have they not risen up against Paris yet?

Megan: I know, they're so passive. This is this is very unbelievable.

Maggie: Yeah. 100%.

Meanwhile, in Stars Hollow, Lorelai is having a disgusting-looking snack and a passive-aggressive chat with Richard and Emily.

Megan: Oh, just marshmallows with a bunch of chocolate on them. That's what I eat for dinner, too.

Maggie: That's the woman who was pooh-poohing a maple syrup tasting. I do not understand!

Megan: I mean, the characterizations have gotten so inconsistent.

LORELAI: Whoa, guys, wait.

RICHARD: Is there more?

LORELAI: More than the nothing there just was? Yes, there's more.

EMILY: Hurry up, please. I'm meeting Bill Chandler at the club, and I'm late.

Maggie: Who's Bill Chandler?

Megan: A WASP. One of their many WASP friends with WASP names.

Maggie: But why is she meeting a man? She’s never meeting a man.

Megan: It's her secret lover. The fights in this episode are just chef's kiss, perfect. Incredible.

Lorelai says she’s grateful the Elder Gilmores helped Rory get into Yale, because “if it weren't for you and she would never have gone to Chilton. She would have graduated Stars Hollow high and then gone to community college and then beauty school.”

Maggie: Yuck! Because no one can ever graduate from public high school and go to college.

Megan: Yeah, it's not like that's ever happened in the history of the world. It hasn't happened to me or to you or to anyone that we know.

Cut to Yale, where Lorelai says she is dressed crazy (she is not) and Rory should be too.

Maggie: That's Lorelai supposedly dressing crazy? That is a normal Lorelai outfit.

Megan: So typical! It's just a colorful hat and scarf and the rest are like neutral tasteful pieces. Again, completely inconsistent characterization. Also the empty coffee cup! The way Rory is holding the coffee cup!

Maggie: And then getting more.

RORY: So, guess what.

LORELAI: What?

RORY: I'm having dinner with Logan tonight.

LORELAI: So, he finally wormed his way back in, huh?

RORY: He did, at that.

Megan: Don't do it!

Maggie: And Lorelai's happy about it!

Megan: It doesn't make sense.

Lorelai says it’s time for Rory to stop freezing out her grandparents.

Maggie: She's right, and Rory not talking to them is so silly!

Megan: Yeah, it doesn't make sense at all.

Maggie: They never they never wronged her. They were being overbearing which is what they have always been. And she was living with them! For free! OK, Lorelai is acting like that is the craziest thing she's ever worn.

Megan: I'm just having a little internal visual moment of all of her insane outfits.

Meanwhile, at the Yale Daily News, everyone has quit. Someone named Bill breaks the news to Rory.

Maggie: They have no recourse except for quitting? There's no democracy at the Yale Daily News.

Megan: It doesn't really make sense at all.

Maggie: Is he supposed to be like the associate editor?

Megan: I do find the hierarchy of their staff really confusing.

Maggie: It doesn't make any sense.

Bill says he quit but is in the newsroom because “I'm going to have a ringside seat for the event of the century. Tonight will be the first time ever in the history of the Yale daily news that the paper does not come out.”

Megan: This guy sucks. He is not going to make it as a journalist because the point is that you always get the paper out no matter what.

Maggie: Paris really need to be medicated.

Megan: Yeah, she needs help. This is really unreasonable behavior.

Maggie: It's really sad. She's having a breakdown.

Megan: Yeah, this is like a case study of a person who can't delegate.

Rory says Paris will need to be bitten by a radioactive spider to get the paper to bed.

Maggie: That's not a great reference. Spiderman would not be good at getting the paper out. Superman was at least a journalist.

Megan: That would have been a more appropriate reference if you're gonna go with a superhero.

RORY: Okay, everyone, listen up. We have work to do. You, t-shirt, you're doing layout. And, you, saggy pants, get all the heelers' numbers, call them and tell them to get in here, they've just been promoted. And Tally I need Sheila and Joni's numbers A.S.A.P. Come on, people! Move! We've got a paper to get out!

Megan: Wouldn't she know their names?

Maggie: Yes.

Megan: Yeah, that's what I did when I was an editor at the college paper. I just yelled at people by their physical descriptions.

Maggie: Yeah, we didn't even know who we were working with.

Megan: I didn't know who they were. They were just our underlings.

Meanwhile, in Stars Hollow, Sookie is getting ready to pet-sit.

Megan: They continue to not know how to dress Sookie.

SOOKIE: Thanks Come on, Paul Anka. Come on we're gonna have fun tonight. Yes we are.

LUKE: I hope you had a good day with Rory. I would have called you earlier, but I didn't want to interrupt the fun, so I thought I'd try you at home, but you're not at home. Anyhow, April is coming to the diner tonight from 5:00 to 8:00, so I'll see you here after 8:00. Okay, bye.

Maggie: She's still just not allowed to see April.

Megan: I think they changed the painting again.

SOOKIE: I guess you two decided that you're not gonna see the kid.

LORELAI: Yeah, I guess we did.

SOOKIE: Hey, if we get a dog, we're gonna name it Chef. Get it? 'Cause I'm a cook.

LORELAI: Oh, cool.

SOOKIE: You want me to leave Paul Anka?

LORELAI: No, take him. I'm great.

SOOKIE: You are?

LORELAI: Yeah, I think that's what we decided.

Maggie: She leaves anyway? That's such a bad friend move.

Megan: Yeah, also Lorelai having such a flat affect is really disturbing.

Maggie: Yes, she is a very confrontational person. That's her whole personality.

Megan: It's totally out of character.

Maggie: It makes no sense.

Meanwhile, at the Soda Shoppe:

KIRK: One sample per person, people, one sample only. Don't make me use the candy thermometer on you.

Megan: That's a weird thing to say.

Maggie: Very weird.

Megan: God, this show.

Kirk says European hot chocolate is “like mud but chocolaty.”

Maggie: Well, that's true. It's delicious.

Megan: An accurate description.

Maggie: This is so absurd. Luke has completely withdrawn from her.

Megan: Yeah, this doesn't make sense.

Maggie: The entire town already knows, but Lorelai didn't know until yesterday.

Megan: And now she's staring at him through the glass dejectedly. I hate this!

Maggie: Instead of just saying something like, “Hey, if we're gonna get married I'd like to meet your daughter.”

Meanwhile, in the newsroom, Rory is discussing an opinion piece a writer is struggling with, because the subject is “hand blowers in the bathrooms.”

Maggie: Air dryers are actually very bad germ-wise, they found this out much later. They spread all the germs in the bathroom around. I do love it when Rory actually becomes capable again.

Megan: I know, me too. As much as I hate everything about this season, I do love her little trajectory back to the top of her game.

Maggie: Yeah, but she just totally pulled a Lorelai, like, only to like get ahead in her work, started speaking inappropriately to a man.

Megan: I really don't enjoy that.

Maggie: The only thing that Amy Sherman-Palladino thinks that women in business do!

Megan: It's true. When you're a woman in business, that's how you have to get people to take you seriously.

Logan shows up at the paper and wants to know why Rory didn’t call him for help.

Maggie: Yeah, because you're a jerk! Nobody wants to hang out with you, Logan.

Megan: He's also the laziest staffer.

Maggie: Yeah, why would you help anything? And you know this stuff forwards and backwards? How? You've never been here. The only thing you've ever done at the Yale Daily News is flirt with Rory.

Megan: And put your feet on the desk.

Maggie: And wear a fedora. "I got a couple of stories banked"? When did you do that?

Megan: When has he had time to write stories?

Maggie: Ew, I don't like Logan pretending to be helpful.

Megan: I feel like it deflates her triumph that suddenly it's like she needs this man to come help her. Very sad.

Maggie: She was 100% on it.

Meanwhile, in Stars Hollow, Luke is complaining that the Soda Shoppe crowd looked at him while he was with April.

Maggie: Oh, now Luke wants to talk about April to Lorelai.

Megan: Now he just wants to spill all of his emotions. This is why I think he needs to go to therapy. He needs to talk it out with a professional. You cannot just use her for emotional processing.

Maggie: Or talk to her, not just release at her.

Megan: Yeah, he's just trauma-dumping.

Maggie: He hasn't thought about her once.

LUKE: Nothing she didn't notice anything. She was too busy studying. I just couldn't believe those people. I mean can't they get that this is a private thing, I'm trying to get to know my kid? I mean you understand, you're not all over me about this. You get that we need some alone time.

Maggie: Why are you doing it at the diner, Luke?

Megan: And like literally there is a window there.

Maggie: If you want alone time that you don't want Lorelai there, don't do it while you're at work at the diner.

Meanwhile, at the Yale Daily News: They’re gonna make it!

Megan Burbank: See, I hate this. It's like he takes over. He's sitting in front of her.

Maggie: He 100% takes over.

Megan: I don't like this at all. At the same time. It is thrilling to put out a paper. And I can understand how it would bring them closer together. But I hate the optics of it. Oh my god, do you remember calling Turley? [Turley was the printer we used in college —Eds.]

Maggie: Mmm-hmmm.

And now for the grossest line of dialogue in this episode:

RORY: Why are you smiling?

LOGAN: I'm thinking about the hundreds of different ways you owe me for this.

Maggie: Owe me?

Megan: Oh my god.

Maggie: Also, you couldn't have printed out something? You could've put out a half-issue or something. Also, it's absurd that Yale puts out a daily newspaper every day.

Megan: Is that a real thing?

Maggie: Yeah, it's real.

Megan: I'm glad we didn't have to do that at Smith.

Maggie: So Logan's fixing it by lying like a big stupid white man!

Megan: Using deception to get ahead! I really don't enjoy the message that this episode is giving us about a succeed in media although perhaps it may be true.

Maggie: Be a rich white man wise, or be a woman who spreads her sexual wiles!

Megan: Or puts in all the work but gets no credit for it and some dude at the end is like "I figured it out."

Maggie: Yeah, well, that's the real truth. Come on, Rory, also what were you doing?

Megan: It doesn't take that long.

Logan uses nepotism to get the paper to the printer, like all good journalists:

LOGAN: Okay. I found a pen. Here we go. What's your name? "Russell Smith." Okay I didn't really need a pen for that one, now, did I? Okay, Russell Smith, if you go to your computer, I am definitely, absolutely sure that you will turn it on and you will see that we, The Yale Daily News, have successfully completed our mission and sent to you our e-mail containing the latest issue of the it's all there, man… You got it? All right, great. It's been great speaking with you, too. I'll tell my father, bye. And that's how we do it at the day news.

Maggie: "I'll tell my father"?

Megan: "That's how we do it at the Daily News. We use our privilege and connections to make people in low-wage jobs feel like they owe us shit.”

Maggie: Also, you don't know how anything is done at the Daily News, Logan Huntzberger! You've literally never done a thing here!

Megan: Maybe he's just learned about newspapers through osmosis. That's the only explanation!

Maggie: His father bundled him in them as a baby.

Wait, sorry, THIS is the grossest line:

RORY: You saved my ass.

LOGAN: Infinitely worth saving.

Maggie: Ewwwww!

Megan: Noooooo!

Maggie: Rory!

Megan: Stop it!

Maggie: That was not heroic!

Megan: He just stole your thunder. He did not do something swoonworthy.

Maggie: This is so terrible. I hate it so much.

Megan: I hate it.

Maggie: Also what? Why does he have this? Why does he have this? Why does he have this? He has a candle and a bottle of red wine and real glasses.

Megan: I dunno, Maggie, I carry that stuff around with me all the time just in case I need to have a quick date.

LORELAI: Once upon a time, there was a big house with thick glass windows and heavy stone walls and a slightly pornographic fountain in the driveway. And all the animals in the forest were scared of the house 'cause they thought that the house was haunted, and so did all the villagers in the small hamlet of Hartfordshireville. "Maids go in, but they never come out," they would whisper on the street. How are we doing?

RORY: Keep going.

LORELAI: One day, a beautiful, young Cowherderess walked by the house.

Maggie: Why is that a slightly pornographic fountain? Isn't it the person with a water jug?

Megan: I don't know. I thought she had clothes on. She means "shepherdess."

Maggie: Aren't they just curious as to how this is going to go? Just go in. They're suddenly avoidant of confrontation when their whole character has been—

Megan: Yeah, it's been like take an angry swig of coffee and go into the house.

Maggie: Yell at someone!

Megan: Make a joke that's gonna upset Emily and make things tense and weird.

Maggie: And be fine with that. That's your whole life.

Megan: That's what she does. Yeah, this is weird. It's like she's an entirely passive person.

Maggie: I also still don't understand why Rory is so angry with them.

Megan: No, I don't get it either. Those skirts are so 2005. Extremely Anthropologie.

Maggie: I had so many of them! Oh, also, that is totally an Anthropologie cardigan with the little rhinestones.

Megan: The little appliqué? That was my signature look when I was in college.

Maggie: Yeah, it was like the dress-up look.

Megan: All my little Anthropologie cardigans.

Maggie: Rory's 21 now. She gets to drink at the cocktail hour!

Megan: You're allowed to start when you're 16 in WASP Land. You can have a little gin & tonic as a treat.

Maggie: Yeah, but she always had Coke.

Megan: It's true. They don't show her drinking until she's 21.

Maggie: Rory's hair is dyed so dark.

Megan: I'm confused by the color of it, yeah. It's also very straight?

LORELAI: Is mom still mad?

RICHARD: Mad at whom?

RORY: Mad at me?

RICHARD: Anger is a useless emotion Rory, It's a waste of time. Your mother has a sh*t at a medal. That's all that's going on around here.

Maggie: All they ever are are angry. Are they ever not angry? Emily’s painting looks great.

Megan: It's true, but when has she ever painted? We've never seen evidence of this hobby before. I do like her like her artist shawl.

Maggie: I love it. She has painting clothes.

Megan: She's like “I'll wear my drapey outfit to paint, my Eileen Fisher.” This is where this episode actually gets good.

RICHARD: Perhaps your father can reimburse me for the five cases of scotch I had to send the men in the bursar's office.

RORY: I sure he would be happy to.

EMILY: You know what else I find amusing?

LORELAI: "Reno 911!"?

EMILY: I find it very amusing that Christopher is suddenly such a wonderful person.

Megan: Yes. We agree, Emily! It's true.

Maggie: Yes!

Megan: She's not going to be gaslit. Emily is making sense. No one else is.

Maggie: Yes, you never should have met with Christopher in the freaking first place. You definitely shouldn't have expected his money.

RORY: I didn't want you to pay for it anymore.

EMILY: There, there it is.

RICHARD: So you went to Christopher.

RORY: He came to me.

EMILY: Oh, please. You just wanted to hurt us.

Maggie: That's right.

Megan: That's also right.

Maggie: That is 100% True.

Megan: I'm really on Team Emily.

LORELAI: Hey!… This is not gonna happen. You're not going back out to your moonscape, you're not going back to work, and you're not going home. Now, we all agreed to have Friday night dinner, and we're here, and I smell dinner, and, yes, apparently there are some issues to be worked out, but no one, and I mean no one, is leaving here until we do!

Maggie: This is like a children's book. This is exactly how a children's book is written: "You aren't doing that, and you aren't doing that, and you aren't doing that. We are going to sit together!" Oh my god and now they're doing a fight scene with a moving camera!

Megan: It's very much like a play.

Maggie: Yes.

EMILY: We take you in we pay to redecorate the pool house so you can have a place all your own.

RORY: I did not ask you to do that.

EMILY: You accepted it you did not turn it down. I didn't hear you saying, "grandma, stop." I didn't see you throw yourself at the decorators while they were putting up your very expensive wallpaper! And then when you don't like how things are going, you leave!

Megan: She has a point! This is true!

RICHARD: With no notice, by the way, and you leave two strange boys in our house unsupervised.

EMILY: We're missing two picture frames, by the way.

Megan: Yes, that was so awful of her. Colin and Finn are terrible people.

Maggie: Colin and Finn probably stole a lot more than picture frames.

Megan: I'm sure they stole a lot of things. I mean, Logan liked to steal things from rich people's houses just as a fun personality trait.

Maggie: He stole things FROM Emily and Richard's house!

LORELAI: Rory was going through something terrible.

Maggie: Oh, come ON.

EMILY: Life is full of terrible things, Lorelai.

LORELAI: She was emotional when you're emotional, you don't think clearly. I remember a woman who tried to buy a plane when her granddaughter moved out.

Megan: And she didn't even do it, I don't think.

Maggie: And they probably should timeshare plane.

Megan: And they can probably afford it. It's not crazy.

Maggie: "The extent of the issue."

Lorelai is acting out being betrayed by her parents when she tried to help get Rory back to school last season. It is awkward.

Maggie: Oh, come on. I hate this. I don't like it.

Cut to dessert.

LORELAI: This is really good sorbet.

EMILY: I know isn't it? Theresa made it herself.

Megan: I love that transition.

Maggie: But see at least they had it out. Luke and Lorelai like just are stewing.

Megan: This episode is weirdly cathartic because it's the only time they have this kind of a conversation.

Maggie: Yes, yes. And Lorelai is supposedly engaged. Shouldn't Luke be coming to Friday night dinner?

Megan: Yeah, you would think so.

Emily recounts her humiliation of Shira Huntzberger as if it is a war story.

EMILY: So I lead her over to the good table, smiling like we are the best friends in the world, and I tell her, "Shira, you don't think Rory "is good enough to be in your family? "She is. We are just as good as you are. "After all, you are nothing but a two-bit gold digger, and how you managed to bag Mitchum I will never know."

LORELAI: You did not.

RICHARD: Oh, yes, she did.

EMILY: I told her Mitchum still plays around.

LORELAI gasps in awe, a beautiful prickly moment.

RICHARD: Oh, no no no. Tell her exactly what you said.

Maggie: Oh, this is kind of sweet.

EMILY: What did I say?

RICHARD: About her weight going...[jesters up and down]

EMILY: Oh, yes, yes. I got it. I told her, "Mitchum still plays around, you know." Well, of course you know. "That's why your weight goes up and down 30 pounds every 3 months."

Megan: It is until that point. But I do like the dynamic between them.

Maggie: Yeah. And it feels very real, like we drank a little too much, and now we're over it.

Megan: And we're still having these micro-conflicts.

Maggie: Why does Rory want to be in the DAR?

Megan: I don't know. I have no fucking clue.

Maggie: She doesn't even have time to be in the DAR.

Megan: I love how morose they look in the foreground. That is so fun.

Maggie: Yeah, they're about to pass out. They've had too much to drink. This is so true to life though, right?

Megan: Yeah. I love it! It's so good.

Maggie: Like what time do you think it is?

Megan and Maggie: Like 2 o' clock in the morning.

Maggie: And they've never had a real conversation before.

Megan: I know. It's funny because that part of the episode is so good.

Maggie: It's so weird.

Megan: It's weird. It's experimental. It's actually naturalistic in a way the show never is.

Maggie: Never!

Megan: And they actually talk about their conflict in this way that's really cathartic. But it's the only time we see it.

Maggie: And the people that really need to have the confrontation aren't having the confrontation, and Lorelai is still just literally not saying anything to Luke. And Luke is just assuming everything is fine somehow. How is he not reading that?

Megan: No, it doesn't make sense. And it's so funny watching that episode, because it's one of my favorites of this season, actually. And it almost feels like two different episodes, because the first part is so flattened and I find it super not compelling and unappealing. And then there's this fighty section that's so good, and it's like I almost want the whole show to be like that, and it's not.

Maggie: Yeah.

Megan: But that's the only time where we get to see that kind of confrontation.

Maggie: Yeah, well, it feels like this thing that Amy Sherman-Palladino likes to over-emphasize these parallel stories to show that she gets it, she gets the irony. But then it's like, you're not actually saying anything by just showing these things. You need to actually have something happen and they do have some things happen finally here. But it doesn't take away the fact that actually the Luke and Lorelai fight still doesn't make sense. Because it's artistically interesting to juxtapose that with the end fight with the parents does not mean that it makes sense.

Megan: Well, I think it actually makes it worse, because the part of this episode that is good does not elevate the part of this episode that's bad. It just makes you see the juxtaposition in this way where the second part of this episode feels realistic to me, in a way that the first part, I'm just like, I don't even know what I'm watching. This feels like it was written by an AI who saw one episode of this show, and then you get this incredibly confrontational, interesting, weirdly cut, weirdly edited section. And it just encapsulates the potential that the show has, but never actually fulfills.

Maggie: Yeah, well, especially because it shows change, right? Finally. Which is what we've been waiting for. And yes, the relationship between Rory and her grandparents has changed hugely at this point. But they never explain the rift, and now they have, so that is really appealing.

Megan: Yeah, and I want more of that. I want more of the weird, sticky, complicated, fighty stuff and I want less of the sort of pat town drama about Luke's child.

Maggie: And Lorelai suddenly just being sad?

Megan: Right, being sad and flattened and deflated, but with no explanation for what's going on, which has never been her response to stress in the past. It doesn't make sense.

Maggie: No, if it was really Lorelai, she would have gotten mad when he said that about delaying the wedding and the kid and hiding the fact that April existed, and she would have moved into Sookie's house for a few days because she was pissed until like Luke came and explained. You know, she just kind of pretends like it's OK and she gets it?! That doesn't make any sense.

Megan: No, it's Rory behavior. It's not Lorelai behavior.

Maggie: Yes!

Megan: Rory's stress response is always to internalize and not bring things up and just kind of sense things and take care of other people in this quiet way. But that's not Lorelai. Lorelai is feelings first all the time.

Maggie: Yes.

Megan: Which is to her detriment, but it's also part of what makes her compelling as a character. So to see her flattened in that way, it just feels wrong.

Maggie: Yeah, I don't know. I'm just getting so stressed and there are still like nine episodes left.

Megan: I know, and unfortunately, I feel like this is the high point of the season.

Maggie: Oh no!

Megan: I feel like it is! Because it's like we're just plodding along, dealing with these character choices that don't make sense and then finally the show acknowledges them in this really blatant and interesting way. And then we have how many episodes left?

Maggie: I think there's like eight. Are there 21 episodes this season?

Megan: Yeah.

Maggie: This is 13.

Megan: We have nine episodes left.

Maggie: Oh my god. How is that possible? I don't even remember what happens.

Megan: OK, well, they go to Martha's Vineyard.

Maggie: Oh, that's the worst.

Megan: Which we have to watch together because I refuse to watch that episode by myself.

Maggie: It's the worst. It's so bad. It's so painful.

Megan: Yeah, it's also just another episode where none of the character choices makes sense.

Maggie: No. OK, I am still mad, too, about Logan taking credit for the frickin' getting the Yale Daily News out. No, Rory saved that. This was Rory's moment to shine. This was not like time for us to rekindle our romance because you are a privileged white boy who knows how to use your privilege. No.

Megan: She could have done it herself, and she should have. It would have been more interesting. Yeah, it's so funny because when she first starts taking things over at the paper and actually delegating things and being organized, I'm like, "Oh, it's old Rory, she's not dead after all."

Maggie: She's back. That was so amazing.

Megan: But then it's like Logan swoops in to help her and it's like, oh, no, she still kind of needs to be rescued in this way that I really don't like. I'm so uncomfortable with that. And it also makes me think about what it's like to be a woman in media and how much time you spend doing such difficult, drudgery-adjacent work and how little recognition you get for it, and how there's so many scenarios where men take credit for the things that you do, and it's romanticizing that in a way! I find that so upsetting!

Maggie: And we still don't know why she's willing to even give Logan another chance.

Megan: No, what was in that letter?

Maggie: We don't know. And we don't know why Lorelai is suddenly fine with the fact that Rory’s gonna get back together with Logan after Logan treated her like shit and got her into a lot of trouble.

Megan: Yeah, trouble that was not real for him but is real for her. Yeah, it's really bad. It makes me really sad. Because when I think about the way that Rory is in the early seasons, she's not polished, and the acting is actually, I think, it's messier from Alexis Bledel, but she's a much more compelling character. She's more self-contained. She has boyfriends, but you don't see them in her school life at all. That's very separate. And so you get to see her pursue her academic goals on her own terms. And then when she goes to Yale, that goes away. It's so sad.

Maggie: Yeah, totally. Totally. And it does affect the acting, because this episode, especially, you can see Rory is rolling her eyes about Richard and Emily constantly, and it's just like this is so fake, (a) we don't even know what this is about, and (b) clearly Alexis Bledel doesn't buy it, so we definitely don't buy it.

Megan: It's so funny because she gets so much criticism for her acting. But I think that her acting is only bad when she doesn't know what she's doing.

Maggie: Yes. And because there's so many plot holes written into these later seasons, especially this one. It makes no sense!

Megan: Yes. It's like what is her motivation? I don't really know.

Maggie: No, we have no idea, and then we're like, Oh, yes, there she is when she's taking over at the paper and then suddenly she's totally fine that Logan is just taking all of the credit and being the hero? Like, "Oh, fantastic, we get to have our little gross date inside the Yale Daily News office," because Logan just has date material.

Megan: Just with him. He just carries that candle and those wine glasses around.

Maggie: Just like he has no classes to go to, so he just hangs out by the coffee cart waiting for her.

Megan: Yeah, it doesn't make sense. It also makes me think of when we are at the Sophian, I thought of the Sophian is almost this like this safe and special space that had nothing to do with the boys that I dated. I would never want them in that space. It was mine. It was a place where people who were not men were the editors and we had control over our paper and... I don't know, maybe it's an argument to go to a women's college to not have to deal with that kind of bullshit.

Maggie: It is! I mean, there is something to be said for learning the ropes where you're not learning from asshole men who have some privileged position of "I deserve to be here because of what my dad does" or whatever.

Megan: Yeah.

Maggie: But even at Chilton, the paper is great because it's run by Paris and she doesn't control everything. Paris is having serious mental breakdown in this episode and it's just played for laughs.

Megan: I think that's the other thing: Paris was always a caustic person who said mean things to people and was not personable. But now it's like she's a dictator. It feels so overblown.

Maggie: Yes. And Doyle graduated, right? He's supposedly working, but they're together and now Rory is living with them again, but Paris is alone. Paris is having a bad time. Paris needs some help.

Megan: Paris is not OK.

Maggie: Something is wrong and Rory's reaction—

Megan: Is to distance herself from her.

Maggie: And to get back together with Logan!

Megan: "Well I have to run the paper, I guess, and get back together with my shitty ex-boyfriend." I can't be supportive of my friend who's having a mental breakdown, because it's like inconvenient to me.

Maggie: Yeah, no, this is really bad. And there's nine more episodes.

Megan: And the next one, Lorelai brings Luke to dinner with her parents.

Maggie: Great.

Megan: And then it's the Martha's Vineyard episode!

Maggie: There's just too much that doesn't make sense. They've created too many plot holes. This is why I feel like they're just sabotaging this season on purpose. They're just making these things difficult and making these huge problems happen without explaining anything.

Megan: No, I think it's totally plausible. For a while I was I was like, I don't think that theory is true. I think they were just tired. But now I don't even know. It's so messy. What was happening with them? Did they want to win awards? What was motivating this?

Maggie: And they were in contract disputes with the network, so perhaps that was part of it.

Megan: They just torpedoed their own show.

Maggie: Yeah, they knew that they weren't gonna get the two seasons they wanted.

Megan: Yeah. And it's funny because I think that season 7 gets so much criticism, and I actually think it's better than season 6.

Maggie: Oh, 100% better than season 6.

Megan: It's so much better. Because I think at a certain point, it realigns—

Maggie: Yeah, the characters go back to who they were.

Megan: Yeah.

Maggie: Because they probably had a real writers room.

Megan: Yeah. Or they just cared.

Maggie: Or there wasn't the dictatorship.

Megan: Even though it's what? Like, David Rosenthal. Who is actually a real creep.

Maggie: Maybe Paris' dictatorship is like Amy Sherman Palladino's inner self reflected on the page.

Megan: Oh my god. That's so dark. Maggie, that's so dark! But I would believe it. I do get the sense that she is very dictatorial, and that she is really controlling, and I think she actually does better when she doesn't have complete control. It's like the thing we talk about: There's a reason you have editors.

Maggie Mertens: Yep.

Megan: So that you're not just sitting around getting high on your own supply thinking that you're brilliant, when actually you're making a big mess.

Maggie: When actually you're just creating huge plot holes and changing characters.

Megan: Yeah, well, at least we get to suffer through it together.

Maggie: With Girl Scout cookies.

Megan: And wine.

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