Gilmore Girls: Double Date
January 24, 2025 12:08 PM - Season 1, Episode 12 - Subscribe
Sookie wants a date with Jackson, but needs Lorelai to wingman her. Lane wants a date with Dean's friend Todd, but needs Rory to be her cover. Rune just wants to go bowling.
So this is a fun one. After a pretty great and wordless cold open (which is beautifully blocked, if slightly slow-feeling, but it was 2001 so I'll give that a pass), we get right into the meat of things. Lane (over at the Gilmore house to enjoy her illicit new CD purchases*) asks Rory to set her up with Dean's friend Todd, whom Rory has never, in fact, met. At the inn, Sookie is ruining an already perfectly-whipped merengue while fretting that Jackson hasn't actually set a date with her since she asked him out in the previous episode.
Dean agrees, Dean-ishly, to the set-up, but it turns out that Lane needs Rory as cover for the evening because Mrs. Kim won't let Lane go out with any boy she doesn't approve of (which we are led to understand means both "Korean" and "Future Doctor," neither of which apply to Todd.) Jackson, it turns out, has his utterly-charming cousin Rune in town unexpectedly, and so Sookie needs Lorelai to come out with them to make it a double-date. (Hey! That's the name of the episode!)
I may have overstated how charming Rune is, of course, but after some awkward stumbling, Sookie and Jackson end up having an enjoyable evening together. Todd, it turns out, is a total dud, possibly to make Dean seem interesting by comparison (and if so, it failed, because even Todd's comical lack-of-personality is more compelling than Dean.) But the drama comes from Mrs. Kim discovering the ruse, accosting Lorelai, and the two of them finding the teens and bringing them both back to their respective homes for a good talking to. And then, a few days later, when Lorelai goes to Mrs. Kim and tries to warm her up a little and maybe talk her down from her more Mother-Gothel-like tendencies.
*I had to look it up, but Claudine Longet did, in fact, shoot skier Spider Sabich. She was also close friends with Bobby and Ethel Kennedy. Also, during this scene, my wife and I had to pause because we were both distracted by the sound mixing having the Longet cover of "God Only Knows" just loud enough that we couldn't pay attention to what Lorelai was saying, and then LOLed when we unpaused and Lorelai was asking them to turn the volume down.
A.V. Club Review - David Sims
Women in Revolt Review - Lindsay Pugh
Soundtrack:
"Earn Enough for Us" - XTC (this show loves it some XTC and I'm not complaining)
"God Only Knows" - Claudine Longet
"Holding On To the Earth" - Sam Phillips
Random Guest Star Watch: Max Perlich as Rune. I previously knew Perlich as Whistler on Buffy and Sammy Tonin on Justified (hey, my second mention of Justified in these threads!) but I'm not sure either of those shows gave him as much as he has to work with here as Lorelai's ridiculously rude and unpleasant "date" for the evening. He's hilariously awful, and probably the best thing about this (pretty good!) episode. But Lukas Behnken's performance as Todd, the other bad date of the episode, is also delightful. And hey, at least Todd acknowledges Lorelai as a hottie. He might be wearing his sister's unlicensed Fugazi shirt without knowing who they are, but he still earns points over Rune.
So this is a fun one. After a pretty great and wordless cold open (which is beautifully blocked, if slightly slow-feeling, but it was 2001 so I'll give that a pass), we get right into the meat of things. Lane (over at the Gilmore house to enjoy her illicit new CD purchases*) asks Rory to set her up with Dean's friend Todd, whom Rory has never, in fact, met. At the inn, Sookie is ruining an already perfectly-whipped merengue while fretting that Jackson hasn't actually set a date with her since she asked him out in the previous episode.
Dean agrees, Dean-ishly, to the set-up, but it turns out that Lane needs Rory as cover for the evening because Mrs. Kim won't let Lane go out with any boy she doesn't approve of (which we are led to understand means both "Korean" and "Future Doctor," neither of which apply to Todd.) Jackson, it turns out, has his utterly-charming cousin Rune in town unexpectedly, and so Sookie needs Lorelai to come out with them to make it a double-date. (Hey! That's the name of the episode!)
I may have overstated how charming Rune is, of course, but after some awkward stumbling, Sookie and Jackson end up having an enjoyable evening together. Todd, it turns out, is a total dud, possibly to make Dean seem interesting by comparison (and if so, it failed, because even Todd's comical lack-of-personality is more compelling than Dean.) But the drama comes from Mrs. Kim discovering the ruse, accosting Lorelai, and the two of them finding the teens and bringing them both back to their respective homes for a good talking to. And then, a few days later, when Lorelai goes to Mrs. Kim and tries to warm her up a little and maybe talk her down from her more Mother-Gothel-like tendencies.
*I had to look it up, but Claudine Longet did, in fact, shoot skier Spider Sabich. She was also close friends with Bobby and Ethel Kennedy. Also, during this scene, my wife and I had to pause because we were both distracted by the sound mixing having the Longet cover of "God Only Knows" just loud enough that we couldn't pay attention to what Lorelai was saying, and then LOLed when we unpaused and Lorelai was asking them to turn the volume down.
A.V. Club Review - David Sims
Women in Revolt Review - Lindsay Pugh
Soundtrack:
"Earn Enough for Us" - XTC (this show loves it some XTC and I'm not complaining)
"God Only Knows" - Claudine Longet
"Holding On To the Earth" - Sam Phillips
Random Guest Star Watch: Max Perlich as Rune. I previously knew Perlich as Whistler on Buffy and Sammy Tonin on Justified (hey, my second mention of Justified in these threads!) but I'm not sure either of those shows gave him as much as he has to work with here as Lorelai's ridiculously rude and unpleasant "date" for the evening. He's hilariously awful, and probably the best thing about this (pretty good!) episode. But Lukas Behnken's performance as Todd, the other bad date of the episode, is also delightful. And hey, at least Todd acknowledges Lorelai as a hottie. He might be wearing his sister's unlicensed Fugazi shirt without knowing who they are, but he still earns points over Rune.
Lorelai is very good at stating her values and then going ahead and doing what she wants to anyway. I wonder where she learned that from...
posted by rikschell at 2:45 PM on January 24 [3 favorites]
posted by rikschell at 2:45 PM on January 24 [3 favorites]
Fugazi never sold T-shirts or any merch. I know bootlegs exist but Lane would be someone who knew that! (But then the "music fan" stuff in this show never really rang true.)
Both Lauren Graham and Melissa McCarthy look so good in this episode.
posted by edencosmic at 7:56 PM on January 25 [1 favorite]
Both Lauren Graham and Melissa McCarthy look so good in this episode.
posted by edencosmic at 7:56 PM on January 25 [1 favorite]
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posted by Navelgazer at 2:24 PM on January 24