Gilmore Girls: One's Got Class and the Other One Dyes
February 5, 2025 4:32 PM - Season 3, Episode 4 - Subscribe
Lane tries on rebellion to see how it fits. Lorelai speaks to a classroom about business. Rory takes out her anger on the service industry.
In a world... where Lane gets the A-Story for once...
The gals are sitting around the diner talking about Lorelai's comical death premonitions when Lane rushes in, psyched about her band's upcoming practice that evening. She's got big dreams and stars in her eyes and all Rory can see is Jess making out with Shane on the other side of the diner.
The as-yet-unnamed band practices in Sophie's, playing "London Calling" at a minimal volume until Zach gets too frustrated to continue. Lane explains that they can't possibly play any louder without alerting Mrs. Kim, so this is the best they can do. Lane thinks she's getting kicked out of the band, but Dave assueres her they would never Pete Best her - they just need to figure out how to practice in Hartford a few nights a week. Lane sees no way that will be possible.
So Lane calls up Rory to mope about it / try to find a solution, but all Rory's got is honesty and trying to convince Mrs. Kim to be cool with it, which she won't be. Rory gets another call and passes it over to Lorelai - It's Debbie Fincher! You remember. Debbie. Kathy's mom? From Stars Hollow High? Oh well, Lorelai doesn't remember her either, but she pretends to* on the phone as Debbie asks her to come speak to a classroom of high school students about business and stuff. Lorelai is flattered by the invitation and agrees, and ropes Luke into doing it too.
At home, Lane screws her courage to the sticking-place and goes to talk to her mom about band practice, but Mrs. Kim rolls right over her, sitting her down to fill out applications for Mrs. Kim-approved Seventh Day Adventist colleges (plus an Amish college in Nicaragua) before Lane can get a word out.
So (after finishing the applications, of course) Lane storms off to find Rory and the two hustle to the cosmetics store to find some hair dye and "take a stand." They choose a purple for her, Rory is disconcerted to see that Shane is the cashier, and they head back to Lane's house, where the bleach makes her head feel like it's on fire and they can't even use a purported 7-Up trick to help matters because the closest thing to soda in the Kim household is Salad Water.*
Lorelai goes to pick up Luke and takes him upstairs to dress properly, where they find Jess acting a little too nonchalant. As they leave, Lorelai informs Luke that Jess had a girl stashed in the closet. After the bleaching stage is done, Lane is in considerably less pain, and starts gushing about Dave Rygalski, and how she lurves him, and how this must be what Rory and Dean's relationship feels like, and it only takes Rory like ten or fifteen minutes to agree with that.
Lorelai's speech to the kids starts off okay (she's relying on her notecards a bit much, but it's fine), until the students start to interrupt with questions about her teen pregnancy. She says that she wouldn't recommend it, but that it can happen, and that if it does, school is still important, and that she's happy with where her life ended up, but that it's still not a good idea. She tries to get back on topic, but the students won't let her, and Debbie Fincher isn't helping her out even a little.
Lane's hair is a bright pinkish-purple and looks pretty awesome for what it is. They take a polaroid of it, and hear Mrs. Kim coming home, and Lane realizes that she can't go through with this. So Rory sneaks out the window to run back to the cosmetics store for black hair dye. Dealing with Shane on her own, Rory gets about as nasty and catty as Rory is capable of with her, and heads back to Lane.
After school, Lorelai runs into Debbie and a gang of Debbie clones, who are furious with Lorelai for advocating teen pregnancy, as they see it (again, Debbie was the only one in the room for this, had the power to help the desperate Lorelai change the subject, and did nothing. Just to remember.) Lorelai tells them off.
Lane, her hair back to its "natural" color, kicks herself for chickening out, but Rory assures her that, hey, she did dye her hair, at least, so that's something. Luke has a talk with Jess about how to treat women (don't shove them in closets) and Jess responds with some monologue about getting a carton of cigarettes for Christmas or something, but the gist is that Luke is in love with Lorelai and not acting on it.
Lane and Rory show Lorelai the polaroid of Lane's rebellious half-hour, and Rory and Lorelai head off for dinner at Al's Pancake World.
* This scene at least tacitly acknowledges that the Kim family accounts for like 100% of the diversity in this town. Baby steps, I guess?
** Which is a real drink, kind of. There's a salad-flavored Coca-Cola product in Japan called Water Salad, anyway.
A.V. Club Review - David Sims
Woman in Revolt Review - Lindsay Pugh
Soundtrack:
"Funky Days are Back Again" - Cornershop
"Naima" - John Coltrane
"Love Burns" - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
"Cities in Dust" - Siouxsie and The Banshees (and one of my favorite songs ever)
"I Don't Mind" - Slumber Party
Random Guest Star Watch: A young, pre-Garfunkle & Oates Riki Lindhome as one of the students peppering Lorelai with questions about getting teen pregnant.
In a world... where Lane gets the A-Story for once...
The gals are sitting around the diner talking about Lorelai's comical death premonitions when Lane rushes in, psyched about her band's upcoming practice that evening. She's got big dreams and stars in her eyes and all Rory can see is Jess making out with Shane on the other side of the diner.
The as-yet-unnamed band practices in Sophie's, playing "London Calling" at a minimal volume until Zach gets too frustrated to continue. Lane explains that they can't possibly play any louder without alerting Mrs. Kim, so this is the best they can do. Lane thinks she's getting kicked out of the band, but Dave assueres her they would never Pete Best her - they just need to figure out how to practice in Hartford a few nights a week. Lane sees no way that will be possible.
So Lane calls up Rory to mope about it / try to find a solution, but all Rory's got is honesty and trying to convince Mrs. Kim to be cool with it, which she won't be. Rory gets another call and passes it over to Lorelai - It's Debbie Fincher! You remember. Debbie. Kathy's mom? From Stars Hollow High? Oh well, Lorelai doesn't remember her either, but she pretends to* on the phone as Debbie asks her to come speak to a classroom of high school students about business and stuff. Lorelai is flattered by the invitation and agrees, and ropes Luke into doing it too.
At home, Lane screws her courage to the sticking-place and goes to talk to her mom about band practice, but Mrs. Kim rolls right over her, sitting her down to fill out applications for Mrs. Kim-approved Seventh Day Adventist colleges (plus an Amish college in Nicaragua) before Lane can get a word out.
So (after finishing the applications, of course) Lane storms off to find Rory and the two hustle to the cosmetics store to find some hair dye and "take a stand." They choose a purple for her, Rory is disconcerted to see that Shane is the cashier, and they head back to Lane's house, where the bleach makes her head feel like it's on fire and they can't even use a purported 7-Up trick to help matters because the closest thing to soda in the Kim household is Salad Water.*
Lorelai goes to pick up Luke and takes him upstairs to dress properly, where they find Jess acting a little too nonchalant. As they leave, Lorelai informs Luke that Jess had a girl stashed in the closet. After the bleaching stage is done, Lane is in considerably less pain, and starts gushing about Dave Rygalski, and how she lurves him, and how this must be what Rory and Dean's relationship feels like, and it only takes Rory like ten or fifteen minutes to agree with that.
Lorelai's speech to the kids starts off okay (she's relying on her notecards a bit much, but it's fine), until the students start to interrupt with questions about her teen pregnancy. She says that she wouldn't recommend it, but that it can happen, and that if it does, school is still important, and that she's happy with where her life ended up, but that it's still not a good idea. She tries to get back on topic, but the students won't let her, and Debbie Fincher isn't helping her out even a little.
Lane's hair is a bright pinkish-purple and looks pretty awesome for what it is. They take a polaroid of it, and hear Mrs. Kim coming home, and Lane realizes that she can't go through with this. So Rory sneaks out the window to run back to the cosmetics store for black hair dye. Dealing with Shane on her own, Rory gets about as nasty and catty as Rory is capable of with her, and heads back to Lane.
After school, Lorelai runs into Debbie and a gang of Debbie clones, who are furious with Lorelai for advocating teen pregnancy, as they see it (again, Debbie was the only one in the room for this, had the power to help the desperate Lorelai change the subject, and did nothing. Just to remember.) Lorelai tells them off.
Lane, her hair back to its "natural" color, kicks herself for chickening out, but Rory assures her that, hey, she did dye her hair, at least, so that's something. Luke has a talk with Jess about how to treat women (don't shove them in closets) and Jess responds with some monologue about getting a carton of cigarettes for Christmas or something, but the gist is that Luke is in love with Lorelai and not acting on it.
Lane and Rory show Lorelai the polaroid of Lane's rebellious half-hour, and Rory and Lorelai head off for dinner at Al's Pancake World.
* This scene at least tacitly acknowledges that the Kim family accounts for like 100% of the diversity in this town. Baby steps, I guess?
** Which is a real drink, kind of. There's a salad-flavored Coca-Cola product in Japan called Water Salad, anyway.
A.V. Club Review - David Sims
Woman in Revolt Review - Lindsay Pugh
Soundtrack:
"Funky Days are Back Again" - Cornershop
"Naima" - John Coltrane
"Love Burns" - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
"Cities in Dust" - Siouxsie and The Banshees (and one of my favorite songs ever)
"I Don't Mind" - Slumber Party
Random Guest Star Watch: A young, pre-Garfunkle & Oates Riki Lindhome as one of the students peppering Lorelai with questions about getting teen pregnant.
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But I do like Lane's brief rebelliousness that she instantly regrets. Despite her love of cool clothes and rock music, she does truly love her mother.
I don't quite know how Shane going in the closet when Lorelai and Luke go up there works with Shane also working at the beauty store, but as I've said, time works differently in Stars Hollow (or they had a bad story editor).
Rory is so awful to Shane and I don't even find Shane to be that bad from what little we see of her. Saying "bloaty" is not a character flaw and who can blame her for enjoying making out with Jess? Look, I get Rory is jealous but acting like she's the enemy when she's literally done nothing wrong really troubles me.
I feel like the whole teen pregnancy & blonde mob bit is from another era because this show didn't take place in the 21st century overall (although ... we're kind of regressing so ...). Mostly, though, I liked that Luke found the whole thing funny.
Riki Lindhome shows up later as another character (or the same character who just happened to go from Stars Hollow High to Yale -- so suck it, Rory! You didn't have to go to Chilton after all!).
posted by edencosmic at 5:20 PM on February 5 [1 favorite]