Gilmore Girls: They Shoot Gilmores, Don't They?
February 10, 2025 3:48 PM - Season 3, Episode 7 - Subscribe
There's drama galore afoot at the charity dance marathon competition: See Jackson getting wildly pissed at Lorelai for listening when Sookie came to her needing advice! Marvel at Dave Rygalski engineering a positive first-meeting with Mrs. Kim! And get ready to throw an awkward public scene when Jess and Lane sit on the bleachers as spectators!
It's the 24th Annual* Stars Hollow Charity Dance Marathon, and everyone's a winner! Well, no, that's not right - in reality Kirk's been the winner for four years running now and Lorelai is aching to knock him off his smug little throne and take home that big trophy. She just needs a dance partner willing to put up with being in physical contact with her for roughly 24 hours straight. Last year's partner ditched her at the minute for a McDonald's Apple Pie, so she's shopping around for a new one.
At Friday Night Dinner, Lorelai is giddy about having found someone - Stanley Appleman, new in town after having been on the touring company for Riverdance. But no sooner does she get to deliver this news than she gets a phone call from Stanley, whose wife has seen a picture of Lorelai and now very much does not approve of this arrangement. So Lorelai is alone again, naturally.
At Chilton, the 75th anniversary issue of The Franklin is less than a month away (which is weird - for those unclear on the lingo, a month is significantly longer than a week) but Paris wants to get started this weekend on working hard to make it an historic one. But who's this waiting outside the school gates but Jamie, the Princeton boy that Paris had a date with at the end of the summer program in D.C. back in the season premier! She's written him off, he thought dating her would be a distraction from his studies, but apparently missing her is more distracting, so it would seem that they're back on!**
As Rory advises Lane through calling up Dave Rygalski and hanging up on him, and Dean outright questions the practice, Lorelai pulls her daughter into the kitchen to talk her into being her dance partner. Rory is very opposed, but agrees to do it if Paris is okay with postponing the work on the paper. Normally this would essentially be a "no" with extra steps, but since Paris is glowing form her reunion with Jamie, she says ok. Whomp-whomp.
So Lorelai gets them up at an ungodly hour so as to be signed in before the 6:00 a.m. start of the competition. Rory, it should be noted, is starting off the day absolutely dead on her feet. Sookie stops Lorelai to talk to her about Jackson's "4 in 4" plan, meaning that he wants to have four kids within 4 years. Sookie - a.k.a the one who'd have to actually put her body through that - is unsure what to tell him, and Lorelai says that if that's not what she wants, she has to talk to Jackson. But for now - Dance! They get physicals (under the stern eye of Nurse Appleman), get registered, and are out on the dancefloor to the tune of "Sing, Sing, Sing!"*** (Babette declares herself done half-way through the first song, taking Morey with her.)
Luke is providing coffee (reluctantly, and of course at Taylor's urging), the Kims are providing eggless egg-salad sandwiches, and Dean the Dutiful Boyfriend is in the stands as a spectator. A certain number of events occur like clockwork each year - Andrew fighting with his date and storming off the dancefloor, Taylor getting "punch drunk" and turning his Emcee duties into a ramble about how we wanted to be a magician, and of course the "Runaround," where the contestants have to suddenly do laps around the dancefloor with the trailing parties getting knocked out. It's around this point where Jackson starts accosting Lorelai about getting involved in his family business, which would be tiresome even if his "4 in 4" plan weren't staggeringly insane. Jackson quits the contest, taking Sookie down with him.
When Jess and Shane show up in the stands, Rory starts to seethe with resentment. On a food break, Jess finds Rory and Dean by the sandwiches and the two boys posture and fight at each other like they always do, while Shane wonders what the hell they're even doing there. Towards the end of the night (read: very early morning), Dave Rygalski walks in, and tells Mrs. Kim how great her sandwiches look, takes two, and makes up a story about his parents being in Bible Study so as to suss out when Lane will be free to meet up with him. It's an impressive display if you don't think to hard about what a good liar he is.
Oh, and Jackson and Sookie talked and everything's good now, apparently. This subplot also includes Luke giving a rant about how crazy it is to want kids, which he then pointedly walks back later when talking with Lorelai, both of them saying that the could maybe want a kid, you know, if they met the right person...
In the final hour, Lorelai breaks a heel off of her vintage shoes, and has to use her Emergency Yellow Card to take a ten-minute break while Rory (who can't stand up on her own at this point) remains on the floor dancing. Lorelai subs in Dean to help out while Luke tries to fix the shoe. In her weakened and sleep-deprived state, Rory starts loudly badmouthing Jess and, mostly, Shane, leading to some bickering on the dancefloor, and finally - after like a year of edging this - Dean saying he's had enough and breaking up with Rory. He leaves. Rory is catatonic on the floor and not dancing, and so Taylor calls her out, and she heads out to the Jess Bridge, where she confirms that Dean wasn't wrong, the breakup is real, and Jess says that he has to "take care of something."
Lorelai gets back with a freshly repaired shoe as Rory returns. They've lost. But as Rory cries on her mother's shoulder in the middle of the dancefloor, a triumphant Kirk does victory laps hoisting up his trophy to the theme from Rocky.
Good for him!
* Inasmuch as anything that happens in Stars Hollow is actually "annual", anyway.
** On first viewing, Jamie creeped me right the fuck out, from his smooth-talker romantic shit to the fact that he's in college and coming out to a high school to catch Paris off-guard. I expected there to be some sort of story-line there about Paris' inability to see the imbalanced relationship dynamic at play here, which given where Paris's story will go in the next seaosn or so is darkly hilarious.
*** Minor quibble, because of course they need to make this episode look and feel fun, but most of these couples seem to be wearing themselves out in the opening number, while by the rules you could basically just holds onto your partner and gently sway for the entire 24-hour period. Still a fun dance number.
A.V. Club Review - David Sims
Woman in Revolt Review - Lindsay Pugh
Soundtrack:
"In the Mood" - Glenn Miller Orchestra
"Sing Sing Sing (With a Swing)" - Louis Prima
"A String of Pearls" - Glenn Miller Orchestra
"Gonna Fly Now (Theme from Rocky)" - Bill Conti
And many others I can't be sure of.
Random Guest Star Watch: None that I caught.
It's the 24th Annual* Stars Hollow Charity Dance Marathon, and everyone's a winner! Well, no, that's not right - in reality Kirk's been the winner for four years running now and Lorelai is aching to knock him off his smug little throne and take home that big trophy. She just needs a dance partner willing to put up with being in physical contact with her for roughly 24 hours straight. Last year's partner ditched her at the minute for a McDonald's Apple Pie, so she's shopping around for a new one.
At Friday Night Dinner, Lorelai is giddy about having found someone - Stanley Appleman, new in town after having been on the touring company for Riverdance. But no sooner does she get to deliver this news than she gets a phone call from Stanley, whose wife has seen a picture of Lorelai and now very much does not approve of this arrangement. So Lorelai is alone again, naturally.
At Chilton, the 75th anniversary issue of The Franklin is less than a month away (which is weird - for those unclear on the lingo, a month is significantly longer than a week) but Paris wants to get started this weekend on working hard to make it an historic one. But who's this waiting outside the school gates but Jamie, the Princeton boy that Paris had a date with at the end of the summer program in D.C. back in the season premier! She's written him off, he thought dating her would be a distraction from his studies, but apparently missing her is more distracting, so it would seem that they're back on!**
As Rory advises Lane through calling up Dave Rygalski and hanging up on him, and Dean outright questions the practice, Lorelai pulls her daughter into the kitchen to talk her into being her dance partner. Rory is very opposed, but agrees to do it if Paris is okay with postponing the work on the paper. Normally this would essentially be a "no" with extra steps, but since Paris is glowing form her reunion with Jamie, she says ok. Whomp-whomp.
So Lorelai gets them up at an ungodly hour so as to be signed in before the 6:00 a.m. start of the competition. Rory, it should be noted, is starting off the day absolutely dead on her feet. Sookie stops Lorelai to talk to her about Jackson's "4 in 4" plan, meaning that he wants to have four kids within 4 years. Sookie - a.k.a the one who'd have to actually put her body through that - is unsure what to tell him, and Lorelai says that if that's not what she wants, she has to talk to Jackson. But for now - Dance! They get physicals (under the stern eye of Nurse Appleman), get registered, and are out on the dancefloor to the tune of "Sing, Sing, Sing!"*** (Babette declares herself done half-way through the first song, taking Morey with her.)
Luke is providing coffee (reluctantly, and of course at Taylor's urging), the Kims are providing eggless egg-salad sandwiches, and Dean the Dutiful Boyfriend is in the stands as a spectator. A certain number of events occur like clockwork each year - Andrew fighting with his date and storming off the dancefloor, Taylor getting "punch drunk" and turning his Emcee duties into a ramble about how we wanted to be a magician, and of course the "Runaround," where the contestants have to suddenly do laps around the dancefloor with the trailing parties getting knocked out. It's around this point where Jackson starts accosting Lorelai about getting involved in his family business, which would be tiresome even if his "4 in 4" plan weren't staggeringly insane. Jackson quits the contest, taking Sookie down with him.
When Jess and Shane show up in the stands, Rory starts to seethe with resentment. On a food break, Jess finds Rory and Dean by the sandwiches and the two boys posture and fight at each other like they always do, while Shane wonders what the hell they're even doing there. Towards the end of the night (read: very early morning), Dave Rygalski walks in, and tells Mrs. Kim how great her sandwiches look, takes two, and makes up a story about his parents being in Bible Study so as to suss out when Lane will be free to meet up with him. It's an impressive display if you don't think to hard about what a good liar he is.
Oh, and Jackson and Sookie talked and everything's good now, apparently. This subplot also includes Luke giving a rant about how crazy it is to want kids, which he then pointedly walks back later when talking with Lorelai, both of them saying that the could maybe want a kid, you know, if they met the right person...
In the final hour, Lorelai breaks a heel off of her vintage shoes, and has to use her Emergency Yellow Card to take a ten-minute break while Rory (who can't stand up on her own at this point) remains on the floor dancing. Lorelai subs in Dean to help out while Luke tries to fix the shoe. In her weakened and sleep-deprived state, Rory starts loudly badmouthing Jess and, mostly, Shane, leading to some bickering on the dancefloor, and finally - after like a year of edging this - Dean saying he's had enough and breaking up with Rory. He leaves. Rory is catatonic on the floor and not dancing, and so Taylor calls her out, and she heads out to the Jess Bridge, where she confirms that Dean wasn't wrong, the breakup is real, and Jess says that he has to "take care of something."
Lorelai gets back with a freshly repaired shoe as Rory returns. They've lost. But as Rory cries on her mother's shoulder in the middle of the dancefloor, a triumphant Kirk does victory laps hoisting up his trophy to the theme from Rocky.
Good for him!
* Inasmuch as anything that happens in Stars Hollow is actually "annual", anyway.
** On first viewing, Jamie creeped me right the fuck out, from his smooth-talker romantic shit to the fact that he's in college and coming out to a high school to catch Paris off-guard. I expected there to be some sort of story-line there about Paris' inability to see the imbalanced relationship dynamic at play here, which given where Paris's story will go in the next seaosn or so is darkly hilarious.
*** Minor quibble, because of course they need to make this episode look and feel fun, but most of these couples seem to be wearing themselves out in the opening number, while by the rules you could basically just holds onto your partner and gently sway for the entire 24-hour period. Still a fun dance number.
A.V. Club Review - David Sims
Woman in Revolt Review - Lindsay Pugh
Soundtrack:
"In the Mood" - Glenn Miller Orchestra
"Sing Sing Sing (With a Swing)" - Louis Prima
"A String of Pearls" - Glenn Miller Orchestra
"Gonna Fly Now (Theme from Rocky)" - Bill Conti
And many others I can't be sure of.
Random Guest Star Watch: None that I caught.
Once again, not quite a bottle episode, but close enough.
The whole Jamie Princeton to Chilton map doesn't quite math but, sure ...? (Princeton is in New Jersey & Chilton is in some vague part of Connecticut -- so it's at least 2 hours, but it's Gilmore Girls time.)
There are things that don't hold up if you think about it -- including the 24-hour time line and when characters show up -- but it's such a good episode I'm going to ignore all of it.
Rory is awful here and Dean is the worst but I'm going to be more on Rory's side. Just because Dean is a jerk here. (Also, the show ignores that Dean was the one to break up with Rory, very loudly and very publicly, after this episode.)
Poor Shane. I like the people that say Jess killed her by pushing her off the bridge when he said he needed to "take care of something." I don't believe that, but I'm also someone who believes that this show takes place in the same universe as Twin Peaks so ... maybe there's something darker happening. At the very least, I like this show just gets rid of characters when they're not needed anymore.
I love Dave's moments with Lane. Lorelai and Luke have good chemistry. The Sookie and Jackson stuff is tiresome (but Melissa McCarthy looks so gorgeous in this episode).
This is truly one of my favorite episode of the series and like you said, one of the best, if not the best. It moves the plot forward but is also just a good standalone episode on its own. It's good TV.
posted by edencosmic at 5:59 PM on February 10 [1 favorite]
The whole Jamie Princeton to Chilton map doesn't quite math but, sure ...? (Princeton is in New Jersey & Chilton is in some vague part of Connecticut -- so it's at least 2 hours, but it's Gilmore Girls time.)
There are things that don't hold up if you think about it -- including the 24-hour time line and when characters show up -- but it's such a good episode I'm going to ignore all of it.
Rory is awful here and Dean is the worst but I'm going to be more on Rory's side. Just because Dean is a jerk here. (Also, the show ignores that Dean was the one to break up with Rory, very loudly and very publicly, after this episode.)
Poor Shane. I like the people that say Jess killed her by pushing her off the bridge when he said he needed to "take care of something." I don't believe that, but I'm also someone who believes that this show takes place in the same universe as Twin Peaks so ... maybe there's something darker happening. At the very least, I like this show just gets rid of characters when they're not needed anymore.
I love Dave's moments with Lane. Lorelai and Luke have good chemistry. The Sookie and Jackson stuff is tiresome (but Melissa McCarthy looks so gorgeous in this episode).
This is truly one of my favorite episode of the series and like you said, one of the best, if not the best. It moves the plot forward but is also just a good standalone episode on its own. It's good TV.
posted by edencosmic at 5:59 PM on February 10 [1 favorite]
Shane seriously gets done so dirty. Used and cast aside by Jess, Rory just opening spitting venom at her every chance she gets, straight-up disappears after Jess goes to "take care of something" (and when we go into the cosmetics store the next time, Kirk has her old job, even!) And, just to recap, Shane did nothing at all to anybody. She does not deserve even one iota of how she is treated. Very frustrating. Great episode.
posted by Navelgazer at 7:31 PM on February 10 [2 favorites]
posted by Navelgazer at 7:31 PM on February 10 [2 favorites]
Shane did claim "bloaty" was a word that one time so she clearly deserved her punishment.
I kid! I'm on Shane's side with that one. Words are formed because people say them.
I haven't looked but I hope there is fanfic about Shane & how she's just living her best life.
posted by edencosmic at 4:16 PM on February 11 [1 favorite]
I kid! I'm on Shane's side with that one. Words are formed because people say them.
I haven't looked but I hope there is fanfic about Shane & how she's just living her best life.
posted by edencosmic at 4:16 PM on February 11 [1 favorite]
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So, about this episode: it looks amazing, is fun throughout, it's wacky and surreal, finally brings the First Dean Era to a decisive close and opens up the door for Rory to really get The Jess Experience (which might not be as fun as advertised.) I like that Paris and Lane both finally (at least kinda) get boyfriends in the same episode where Rory finally loses hers. I love that Dean actually stood up for himself. But most of all I love that the emotion at the end is so thoroughly undercut by Kirk's victory lap. It's fucking amazing, is what it is, and it's what keeps this from being a standard-issue CW teen soap opera.
posted by Navelgazer at 5:00 PM on February 10