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Gilmore Girls 1.02 "The Lorelais’ First Day at Chilton"
Original Air Date: October 12, 2000 (Recap date: November 8, 2007)
Discussion
Image: TheWB.com
Gilmore Girls Episode Recap:
Lorelai is painting Rory’s toes a ‘bad girl’ red for Chilton. Foot #2 is abandoned to listen to the new CD Lane ran over.
Rory is ready for school, but Lorelai overslept. And now cannot pick up her clothes from the cleaners – so has nothing to wear. Tie-dye and cutoffs it is! Rory gives a nostalgic look to Stars Hollow High as they pass by.
Rory insists that Lorelai come in with her to meet the headmaster. Lorelai puts on a long coat – does not tie it up right away – and gets distracted flirting with another parent. Then gets all flustered by the secretary, who startled her with her ugly complexion.
Headmaster Charleston’s office – Emily already there (already with a revised look from the Pilot). Lorelai is bullied into removing her jacket. Awkward. Emily chides her when they leave. Drops hints to ‘horse’ and ‘spurs’ to tick off Lorelai.
The Headmaster notes Rory’s lack of social activities – for a girl with aspirations to study journalism and political science at Harvard (to be Christiane Amanpour), she’ll need more. He warns her that it’s a very hard school, and she may not be the smartest girl any longer. He warns her that she may fail - starting a month late in that atmosphere is a disadvantage. She must do an extra month of work.
A student in the office smuggles Rory’s school file to Paris Geller and her set. Need to assess their competition.
Lorelai goes to beg for coffee. Luke tries to joke that they are out of coffee, but caves in:
"You’re sick, you’re a sadist, you’re a fiend… you’re pretty"
Luke criticizes Lorelai’s choice of clothes, but she ‘tries’ to explain:
"My clothes were at the cleaners, and I had the fuzzy clock, and it didn’t purr on time."
Emily calls to try to buy Rory some things. Lorelai is not happy about it.
Rory is in literature class, where Paris is dominating. Rory has an overwhelmed look on her face. Tristan walks into class late and he, too, eyes Rory. Tristan calls Rory a "Mary" – reference to the Virgin Mary. The teacher hands Rory a huge binder of only last week’s overview only notes for a test on Monday. Rory needs to find a student to get detailed notes from. Paris confronts her in the hall to tell her that she’ll never beat her:
"This school is my domain, and the Franklin is my domain. And don’t you ever forget that."
Sookie is complaining that Jackson’s peaches are too small. Lorelai gushes over Rory. Michel comes in to ‘fetch’ Lorelai and ask for a ‘cookie and a raise.’ Emily calls to gush that she bought Rory a parking spot at Chilton and hints about her future birthday gift.
Tristan approaches Rory in the hall but calls her Mary. He offers to help her study , i.e. flirts with her.
The single dad from Chilton pays Lorelai a visit. Lorelai says she does not want to date any Chilton dads until Rory is settled in.
Rory struggles with her locker and, in her efforts, backs into Paris’ diorama and breaks it. And discovers her next class is also with Paris. Rory admits to their teacher that she broke Paris’ project – the teacher assigns Paris & Rory to rebuild it for the next day, together. Paris refuses her help.
Lorelai goes for coffee and tells Luke about her day. Hearing about the dad asking her on a date, he pretends to be disinterested. And confuses Lorelai with his happiness at rejecting him. There a moment where they connect eyes and Lorelai gives a little smile.
Babette and Maury called Lorelai home because a DSL Installer guy (Sean Gunn as ‘Mick’) was snooping around. Emily had ordered it. Lorelai tells them to leave.
Lorelai confronts Emily in the salon and tells her there will be no gifts of any sort to Rory. Lorelai wants to take care of her own family and to decide how they live.
Rory and Lorelai have a big hug to erase their mutually sucky days. Lorelai explains that Mary is about Virgin Mary – that it means a goody-goody. Lane joins them for a walk – she missed Rory at school. Rory is concerned about how to get Paris off her back.
Lorelai asks her:
"Hey, what do you think of Luke?"
"What do you mean"
"I mean, do you think he’s cute?"
"Oh no, no way."
"No way what?"
"You cannot date Luke."
She explains: "If you date him, you’ll break up, we’ll never be able to eat there again."
Luke sees them pass by and stops to watch…
Discussion Questions:
- So, are all of Lorelai’s clothes dry clean only? It’s always seemed rather too improbable to me that she couldn’t slip on a sweater and jeans instead.
- Does Emily think that buying things for Rory is the only way to win her love?
- At this point, would you choose Tristan or Dean?
- Why does Lorelai seem more interested in Luke than in the Chilton dad?
Stay tuned tomorrow for another episode!
Tags: gilmore girls, gilmore girls season 1, the lorelais first day at chilton, the gilmore girls recap, discussion, screencaps
At this point, Dean would be better than Tristan. However, I do believe that they switch roles later. ie Dean becomes a jerk and Tristan becomes much nicer, especially just before he leaves for Military School in North Carolina.
1050 days ago
[...] a Comment // In the second episode of Gilmore Girls, ‘The Lorelais’ First Day at Chilton‘, you may have wondered, Why, oh why, did Lorelai choose THAT outfit? I know I did. Granted, [...]
1228 days ago
[...] last night on 24 was John Billingsley, who was a guest star on Gilmore Girls as Mr. Remmy in ‘Lorelais’ First Day at Chilton‘, but was probably best known from his work on Enterprise as Dr. Phlox or his many other [...]
this is a good episode. i love all the school scenes. and alexis looks so young, she has cute little chubby cheeks! as for the dean vs tristan, tristan all the way. something different. dean was too annoying. but jess is still the winner in my books! *drools* :P
i love gilmore girls!!
I love his episodes. Rory looks so cute in her Chilton outfit and I loved that Lorelai went in this outfit to Chilton. That was so funny. Sookie and Jackson were funny too. I miss them, all of them.
Thanks em! While I too love the Luke/Lorelai relationship in GG, I fiendishly enjoy the constant head-butting between Lorelai and Emily. Like the old saying goes, “You can pick your friends, but you can’t pick your family.” To this I add, you can only hope there is plenty of vodka.
Cheers!
You have an amazing mind Janet. I never thought of that scene in that perspective! You are completely right. I think the Emily/Lorelai relationship is one of my favorites in the show (after Luke/Lorelai of course!). It is really complex and it has so many layers to it.
And thanks lots and lots Syd!
Janet, those are great observations about Emily.
8 o clock – I think you hit on something important regarding Rory’s friends. When she went to Yale, everything in Rory’s life (herself included) became more superficial. She wore designer clothes, had everything she wanted, had rich powerful friends with very little substance… it was less like real life than the Gilmore Girls we started with.
I remember thinking that I would’ve dug something out of the hamper rather than haul my daughter off to boarding school in that get up.
Sookie – just a great character – and I am loving Melissa’s transition as BFF on Samantha Who.
I also enjoy these Chilton “friends” more so than those yahoos at Yale. I remember hoping that the Paris and Rory relationship would continue after Chilton grad.
At this point I wasn’t rooting for any boyfriend for Rory. Did not like Tristan or Dean. JESS WAS THE MAN!!! Logan reminded me of an old boyfriend, so I was always leery of him.
Miss Patty (large and in charge) smoking …. a walking don’t poster for the American Heart Association. Always great lines
Drella – don’t miss her.
Derek the valet – he had potential. I thought he was cuter than Dean, but no chance with Rory and her higher standards.
Kirk – even at this point he was a hoot.
I think at this point I kept watching the show because of the quaintness of the town and the eccentric characters. The writing (zingy one liners and fast talking) was great and unique even at the beginning.
I think Emily is desperate to connect with Rory and does this in the only way she knows how, buying her things. The great divide between Emily and Lorelei is further revealed by how differently they assess what Rory needs to succeed at Chilton. When Lorelei confronts Emily about who decides what Rory needs, the place this happens is an interesting choice. The salon is neutral ground because it’s not Stars Hollow and it’s not he Gilmore house. Neutral ground and a public place gives Lorelei more power while reducing power for Emily, thus allowing them to have a fair confrontation. For such a short scene, it says so much about the characters.
And another great episode!
I just love how rotten Paris is in this episode.
When, Rory’s locker gets stuck and she backs up
into Paris and breaks her project. Oh My!!!
Every time I see it. It is soooo Real. In high school, my locker door got stuck, and I pulled on it, and I popped back and the door hit the boy next to me and broke his nose. So, every time I see this part, it just makes me laugh…
I noticed that Emily’s looks dramatically changed from the Pilot Season on thru – a less tired, more vibrant look. And, it is interesting to see that while Rory is the “light of their lives”, Richard is still feeling his way around his granddaughter and has not, as yet, established his very personal relationship with her.
Also, I agree that early, early, early on Lorelei established her connection w/Luke very subtley.
I prefer Rory’s Chilton colleagues (Tristan, Paris, Madeline,Louise & Brad) over those at Yales (Logan & his stoogees, Marty, Lulu & Olivia). There’s soo much happening during her Chilton years…
@ Obsessed GG Fan!
A big DUH!? Ok I’ll simplify it for you. Just go to fanfiction.net and check it out if for yourself on whose Rory’s leading man in GG Season 1 had more stories w/ her…
Are U Kidding? Tristan Or Dean? I Shouldnt Even Have To Answer That. Tristan Is A Butt Hole With A Capital “B”! Dean Has More Heart Than Tristan Will Ever Have. He Was Good To Rory And Loved Her. I Honestly Loved Dean Because Of The Way He Protected Rory. He Really Did Love Her. I Wish I Could Have A “Dean”! LOL
I’m agree with Adrienne about Lorelai’s outfit make me laugh this episode too.
i LOVE how it’s only the second episode ever, and already they establish the luke/lorelai relationship.
“hey, what do you think of luke?”
they belong together! its been that way from the start! :)
i love this epi!!!
but you’ll find me saying that to just about all of them!
Lorelai’s outfit cracked me up!
Soo in luv w/ Tristan D., wish that he really end up w/ Rory even just for the whole season 1…