Gilmore Girls: Haunted Leg
February 5, 2025 7:29 AM - Season 3, Episode 2 - Subscribe
Emily tries her hand at matchmaking. Rory sees how the student government sausage is made. Kirk asks Lorelai on a date.
In an attempt to liven up an awkward Friday Night Dinner, Lorelai mentions how someone they used to know apparently shot her husband. Emily is shocked reading the story, but reasons that "at least she had a husband to kill." This scene has nothing to do with anything, but I couldn't let the most ice-cold thing Emily has ever said go without passing.
Lorelai has a cold, and is ignoring Luke's advice on how to combat it. Jess's new girlfriend Shane is hanging out at the diner, which isn't helping Rory's mood. At the inn, they're trying to deal with a mouse running around this place as they await the exterminator. And then Kirk asks Lorelai out to dinner. It's strangely sweet, and though his straight-forwardness is certainly played as a sort of spectrum-y weirdness, it's honestly just impressive and refreshing on this show, more than anything. Lorelai has a while to make up her mind, though.
It's Rory's last first day of high school, which means a big Student Council induction ceremony, apparently. Afterwards, Emily asks Lorelai to meet her for lunch at Luke's sometime soon (which is weird and sets Lorelai's paranoia off) and Paris holds an "informal meet & greet" with the rest of the student governmentm which involves an hour of Paris running through her agenda and zero meeting and/or greeting. Francie (remember her, leader of the Poofs?) is Senior Class President, and wants the school regulations on hemline lengths shortened, which Paris sees as frivolous.
At the inn, Sookie tries to get Lorelai's permission to feed meat to some vegetarian guests, which Lorelai thankfully says no to. Back at Chilton, Francie and her crew yank Rory into the girls' room and give her the rundown - either Paris plays ball with what Francie wants this year, starting with the hemlines, or else Evil Orphan Annie will obstruct everything Paris has planned and make her life "a living hell" this year.*
At the diner, Luke rags on Lorelai about her upcoming date with Kirk before Eimly arrives, considers the Caesar Salad, decides against it because the eggs might not be coddled, and orders the Cobb Salad instead (which if anything contains more egg than the Caesar, but whatever.) She feigns at having no agenda for a good thirty seconds or so before announcing that she had a long conversation with Christopher and that he and Lorelai are meant for each other. Lorelai is mortified at Emily butting in like this.
At Chilton, Paris blows off the hemline issue again, and Rory has to grab her after the meeting to tell her that she might want to get behind this one. Francie worries that it'll be her "gays in the military,"** but Rory tells her that it's what could make her loved instead of just feared.
At Friday Night Dinner, Emily is putting up with an untrained maid far more than she normally would put up with an experienced and qualified one, due to a crack that Richard had made about how quickly she goes through them. Christopher shows up unannounced, pretty quickly getting into a shouting match with Lorelai and accusing her of keeping Rory away from him.
Rory jumps in to say that it's her own choice to be avoiding him and goes upstairs. The shouting continues as Lorelai won't let him follow Rory up there. TL;DR: Christopher doesn't want things the way they are. He won't take any personal responsibility for being the driving cause of the way things are, nor does he have any solutions for it, but he really doesn't like this and wants it to be different. Lorelai has a near breakdown trying to get through to him about how selfish and immature he's being, until Emily comes in and kicks him out with a strong look and a few words.
Back in Stars Hollow, Lorelai runs into Kirk, and lets him down gently, unmistakably, and honestly, and he takes it well, saying "at least I asked," which he doesn't seem to realize is a huge burn on Luke. Inside Doose's market, Rory and Jess have their first conversation since she got back from D.C., where she's pissed at him about Shane and he rightfully points out that she never called him or anything after taking off, and is still with Dean, so where the hell does she get the right?
Rory storms out of the market to meet up with Lorelai, not at all pleased.
* This plotline is dumb as hell and truly adds nothing to the show, but I'll admit there's something kind of silly-fun about filling up space in a 22-episode order with a character/plot seemingly pulled from a different series altogether. Specifically, in this scene, Francie appears to be channeling Glory from season 5 of Buffy. It's reak goofy, y'all.
** I remember DADT being a big deal when it happened, but I'm really not sure what we're supposed to think Paris means by this comparison? Generously, she could be saying that the hemline thing could stall out the rest of her agenda, or be the one thing she's remembered for, or set the tone for her Presidency as the first thing she does. It seems more likely that she's saying that it'll make her look unserious and silly, though, in which case Fuck You Paris. Anyway.
A.V. Club Review - David Sims
Woman in Revolt Review - Lindsay Pugh
Soundtrack: None
Random Guest Star Watch: None
In an attempt to liven up an awkward Friday Night Dinner, Lorelai mentions how someone they used to know apparently shot her husband. Emily is shocked reading the story, but reasons that "at least she had a husband to kill." This scene has nothing to do with anything, but I couldn't let the most ice-cold thing Emily has ever said go without passing.
Lorelai has a cold, and is ignoring Luke's advice on how to combat it. Jess's new girlfriend Shane is hanging out at the diner, which isn't helping Rory's mood. At the inn, they're trying to deal with a mouse running around this place as they await the exterminator. And then Kirk asks Lorelai out to dinner. It's strangely sweet, and though his straight-forwardness is certainly played as a sort of spectrum-y weirdness, it's honestly just impressive and refreshing on this show, more than anything. Lorelai has a while to make up her mind, though.
It's Rory's last first day of high school, which means a big Student Council induction ceremony, apparently. Afterwards, Emily asks Lorelai to meet her for lunch at Luke's sometime soon (which is weird and sets Lorelai's paranoia off) and Paris holds an "informal meet & greet" with the rest of the student governmentm which involves an hour of Paris running through her agenda and zero meeting and/or greeting. Francie (remember her, leader of the Poofs?) is Senior Class President, and wants the school regulations on hemline lengths shortened, which Paris sees as frivolous.
At the inn, Sookie tries to get Lorelai's permission to feed meat to some vegetarian guests, which Lorelai thankfully says no to. Back at Chilton, Francie and her crew yank Rory into the girls' room and give her the rundown - either Paris plays ball with what Francie wants this year, starting with the hemlines, or else Evil Orphan Annie will obstruct everything Paris has planned and make her life "a living hell" this year.*
At the diner, Luke rags on Lorelai about her upcoming date with Kirk before Eimly arrives, considers the Caesar Salad, decides against it because the eggs might not be coddled, and orders the Cobb Salad instead (which if anything contains more egg than the Caesar, but whatever.) She feigns at having no agenda for a good thirty seconds or so before announcing that she had a long conversation with Christopher and that he and Lorelai are meant for each other. Lorelai is mortified at Emily butting in like this.
At Chilton, Paris blows off the hemline issue again, and Rory has to grab her after the meeting to tell her that she might want to get behind this one. Francie worries that it'll be her "gays in the military,"** but Rory tells her that it's what could make her loved instead of just feared.
At Friday Night Dinner, Emily is putting up with an untrained maid far more than she normally would put up with an experienced and qualified one, due to a crack that Richard had made about how quickly she goes through them. Christopher shows up unannounced, pretty quickly getting into a shouting match with Lorelai and accusing her of keeping Rory away from him.
Rory jumps in to say that it's her own choice to be avoiding him and goes upstairs. The shouting continues as Lorelai won't let him follow Rory up there. TL;DR: Christopher doesn't want things the way they are. He won't take any personal responsibility for being the driving cause of the way things are, nor does he have any solutions for it, but he really doesn't like this and wants it to be different. Lorelai has a near breakdown trying to get through to him about how selfish and immature he's being, until Emily comes in and kicks him out with a strong look and a few words.
Back in Stars Hollow, Lorelai runs into Kirk, and lets him down gently, unmistakably, and honestly, and he takes it well, saying "at least I asked," which he doesn't seem to realize is a huge burn on Luke. Inside Doose's market, Rory and Jess have their first conversation since she got back from D.C., where she's pissed at him about Shane and he rightfully points out that she never called him or anything after taking off, and is still with Dean, so where the hell does she get the right?
Rory storms out of the market to meet up with Lorelai, not at all pleased.
* This plotline is dumb as hell and truly adds nothing to the show, but I'll admit there's something kind of silly-fun about filling up space in a 22-episode order with a character/plot seemingly pulled from a different series altogether. Specifically, in this scene, Francie appears to be channeling Glory from season 5 of Buffy. It's reak goofy, y'all.
** I remember DADT being a big deal when it happened, but I'm really not sure what we're supposed to think Paris means by this comparison? Generously, she could be saying that the hemline thing could stall out the rest of her agenda, or be the one thing she's remembered for, or set the tone for her Presidency as the first thing she does. It seems more likely that she's saying that it'll make her look unserious and silly, though, in which case Fuck You Paris. Anyway.
A.V. Club Review - David Sims
Woman in Revolt Review - Lindsay Pugh
Soundtrack: None
Random Guest Star Watch: None
Completely agree on all counts. I don't know that anything could have made the Francie story "work" per se, but if I had to try, I'd ditch the conflict between Rory and Paris to instead show them taking her to fool school by Paris being better at this than Francie is (maybe with some of the stuff she must have learned over that summer in DC, just a thought?), and Rory having to do more of a double-agent thing, and maybe I'd add a scene where Charleston reminds them of how this is a prep school student council and not actually the halls of power.
Christopher is just so fucking Christopher and it's enraging. As for Emily, well, I think of Miss Havisham in Great Expectations, where something went wrong a long time ago and her life has been frozen in place since then and she has a deep and irrational belief that if that one thing could "go right" then it would fix everything. In Emily's case, that thing is that Lorelai and Christopher never got married. And in later seasons, even when she realizes what a schmuck he is, she still holds onto this, and I think she truly believes on an emotional level that fixing this would solve all issues in her relationship with her daughter.
And yeah, Jess calling Rory out on her bullshit is very necessary (and distinguishes him nicely from Dean in yet another way.) That it doesn't even a little bit change how Rory is feeling about things is even better. Folks on this show love to have a significant other and someone else "on the hook" and it's fun to watch their frustration when the other people involved don't play along with that.
posted by Navelgazer at 9:25 AM on February 5
Christopher is just so fucking Christopher and it's enraging. As for Emily, well, I think of Miss Havisham in Great Expectations, where something went wrong a long time ago and her life has been frozen in place since then and she has a deep and irrational belief that if that one thing could "go right" then it would fix everything. In Emily's case, that thing is that Lorelai and Christopher never got married. And in later seasons, even when she realizes what a schmuck he is, she still holds onto this, and I think she truly believes on an emotional level that fixing this would solve all issues in her relationship with her daughter.
And yeah, Jess calling Rory out on her bullshit is very necessary (and distinguishes him nicely from Dean in yet another way.) That it doesn't even a little bit change how Rory is feeling about things is even better. Folks on this show love to have a significant other and someone else "on the hook" and it's fun to watch their frustration when the other people involved don't play along with that.
posted by Navelgazer at 9:25 AM on February 5
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Kirk asking Lorelai out seems so random but at the same time, it doesn't seem like there are a ton of dating options in Stars Hollow. It's done very sweetly, though, like you said, and it's great there are no hard feelings or anything else on his part.
Christopher showing up to Friday night dinner (on his motorcycle all the way from Boston) is such a Christopher thing to do. And I'm glad that Emily, despite wanting Lorelai to be with Chris, stood up for her daughter (and granddaughter). Emily comes through when it counts (usually, although her ongoing obsession that Lorelai and Chris are meant to be together is a bit strange).
I also like Jess calling Rory out for thinking he was just going to pine all summer for her when she still had a boyfriend and made no attempt to get in touch with them. I like when the girls are taken to task for their own self-involvement.
posted by edencosmic at 8:55 AM on February 5 [1 favorite]