Gilmore Girls: Dead Uncles and Vegetables
February 1, 2025 10:40 PM - Season 2, Episode 17 - Subscribe
Luke plans a funeral that nobody wants to attend. Emily tries to plan a wedding that shouldn't be. Taylor plans to shut down a new farmer's market.
Is this the most featherweight of all featherweight Gilmore Girls episodes? Let's find out!
In Luke's story, he reserves nine rooms at the Inn for family members he expects to have visiting Stars Hollow for the funeral of his uncle, Louie (whom we have never met or heard about before.) But none of his relatives can make it, and none of them have particularly good excuses for their absence, either. Since Louie was a Veteran, he asks the town re-enactors to do their thing at the service, but they all have bad blood with Louie and refuse.*
At the funeral parlor, Lorelai helps Luke attempt to close Louie's casket with him and everything he wished to be buried with all stuffed in there, but to no avail, and Luke finally snaps, recognizing that his uncle was just an asshole and that there's no reason for him to be taking all this on his own shoulders. But he has a change of heart, finds a bigger casket, and though he and Lorelai (and the Reverand, who never met Louie) are the only ones at the cemetery, the Re-enactors come through in the end, and everyone convenes at a wake at the diner to tell stories abut a cantankerous dick who was, for all his faults, a memorable character. Rory praises Jess for playing a minimal role in making the wake happen.
In Emily's story, while doing a tasting at the Inn ahead of her D.A.R. luncheon, she learns about Sookie's upcoming wedding, and excitedly involved herself in the plans. She upsells Sookie on everything, putting dreams in her head of moving the town gazebo to make room for a sixteen-piece band, and something involving little people dancing around a bunch of giant mushrooms.
An upset Jackson goes to Lorelai about putting a stop to this, so she talks Sookie back to reality. An angry Emily then confronts Lorelai, who accuses her of trying to pass off all of her plans for Lorelai's hypothetical wedding onto Sookie now that she's lost faith in Lorelai ever getting married. Emily says that her plans for Lorelai are different (all Romanoff-inspired) and that Lorelai is clearly going to end up with Luke.
In Taylor's story, he's enraged to see that the Second Troubadour (from "Love, Daisies and Troubadours") has set up a Farmer's Market in the town square, and it's very popular, stealing away business from Doose's Market. He holds a town meeting to try to shut it down, but it all turns into a "Who's On First" routine and besides, everyone likes the fresh veggies. The Farmer's Market sells out it's stock, since it's just whatever the Second Troubadour grew in his backyard this year, and Taylor gets mad all over again about the effort he went to (entirely on his own) to impede it.
An utterly modular episode, pretty fun for what it is, with nothing impacting any other episode in any way that I can tell.
*The scene with the re-enactors explaining their grudges, particularly Kirk's story about Louie kicking his dog overlapping with Cy's tales of Louie hitting on his wife, is probably the highlight of this episode. If Daniel Palladino's style is all about focusing on the townie weirdness, then honestly he could've gotten that rep from this episode alone.
A.V. Club Review - David Sims
Woman in Revolt Review - Lindsay Pugh
Soundtrack: None, though I enjoyed the Grant Lee Phillips Troubador cover of "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go"
Random Guest Star Watch: All Hail the return of David (Gruber) Allen as The Second Troubadour!
Is this the most featherweight of all featherweight Gilmore Girls episodes? Let's find out!
In Luke's story, he reserves nine rooms at the Inn for family members he expects to have visiting Stars Hollow for the funeral of his uncle, Louie (whom we have never met or heard about before.) But none of his relatives can make it, and none of them have particularly good excuses for their absence, either. Since Louie was a Veteran, he asks the town re-enactors to do their thing at the service, but they all have bad blood with Louie and refuse.*
At the funeral parlor, Lorelai helps Luke attempt to close Louie's casket with him and everything he wished to be buried with all stuffed in there, but to no avail, and Luke finally snaps, recognizing that his uncle was just an asshole and that there's no reason for him to be taking all this on his own shoulders. But he has a change of heart, finds a bigger casket, and though he and Lorelai (and the Reverand, who never met Louie) are the only ones at the cemetery, the Re-enactors come through in the end, and everyone convenes at a wake at the diner to tell stories abut a cantankerous dick who was, for all his faults, a memorable character. Rory praises Jess for playing a minimal role in making the wake happen.
In Emily's story, while doing a tasting at the Inn ahead of her D.A.R. luncheon, she learns about Sookie's upcoming wedding, and excitedly involved herself in the plans. She upsells Sookie on everything, putting dreams in her head of moving the town gazebo to make room for a sixteen-piece band, and something involving little people dancing around a bunch of giant mushrooms.
An upset Jackson goes to Lorelai about putting a stop to this, so she talks Sookie back to reality. An angry Emily then confronts Lorelai, who accuses her of trying to pass off all of her plans for Lorelai's hypothetical wedding onto Sookie now that she's lost faith in Lorelai ever getting married. Emily says that her plans for Lorelai are different (all Romanoff-inspired) and that Lorelai is clearly going to end up with Luke.
In Taylor's story, he's enraged to see that the Second Troubadour (from "Love, Daisies and Troubadours") has set up a Farmer's Market in the town square, and it's very popular, stealing away business from Doose's Market. He holds a town meeting to try to shut it down, but it all turns into a "Who's On First" routine and besides, everyone likes the fresh veggies. The Farmer's Market sells out it's stock, since it's just whatever the Second Troubadour grew in his backyard this year, and Taylor gets mad all over again about the effort he went to (entirely on his own) to impede it.
An utterly modular episode, pretty fun for what it is, with nothing impacting any other episode in any way that I can tell.
*The scene with the re-enactors explaining their grudges, particularly Kirk's story about Louie kicking his dog overlapping with Cy's tales of Louie hitting on his wife, is probably the highlight of this episode. If Daniel Palladino's style is all about focusing on the townie weirdness, then honestly he could've gotten that rep from this episode alone.
A.V. Club Review - David Sims
Woman in Revolt Review - Lindsay Pugh
Soundtrack: None, though I enjoyed the Grant Lee Phillips Troubador cover of "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go"
Random Guest Star Watch: All Hail the return of David (Gruber) Allen as The Second Troubadour!
I like Lorelai stepping up for Luke, but also ... does she not have a job? I do like that she's there for her friend/love interest.
I was wrong in that Emily having the DAR meetings at the inn do come up again but ... also, you'd think this would've happened earlier. But whatever.
I kind of love Emily trying to plan Sookie's wedding. It's fun weirdness and it's also what Emily is good at. I mean, none of it is Sookie's taste but Emily is a great planner and she actually has good taste (well, when it's her own taste).
I love the farmer's market subplot because Taylor is his own worst enemy and it's fun seeing him getting a comeuppance through someone just being nice and doing the right things.
(Plus, the cart/kiosk cart-kiosk or however it divides up is good town meeting ridiculousness and I like it. I typically find a lot of the town shenanigans tiresome, as I do Taylor, but there are good moments every now and then. Taylor is a perfect petty despot but also he's someone people mostly just shrug and disregard. It's fun.)
posted by edencosmic at 4:10 PM on February 2 [1 favorite]
I was wrong in that Emily having the DAR meetings at the inn do come up again but ... also, you'd think this would've happened earlier. But whatever.
I kind of love Emily trying to plan Sookie's wedding. It's fun weirdness and it's also what Emily is good at. I mean, none of it is Sookie's taste but Emily is a great planner and she actually has good taste (well, when it's her own taste).
I love the farmer's market subplot because Taylor is his own worst enemy and it's fun seeing him getting a comeuppance through someone just being nice and doing the right things.
(Plus, the cart/kiosk cart-kiosk or however it divides up is good town meeting ridiculousness and I like it. I typically find a lot of the town shenanigans tiresome, as I do Taylor, but there are good moments every now and then. Taylor is a perfect petty despot but also he's someone people mostly just shrug and disregard. It's fun.)
posted by edencosmic at 4:10 PM on February 2 [1 favorite]
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posted by Navelgazer at 10:58 PM on February 1