Cordia's Review of S1E2 - The Lorelais' First Day at Chilton

This face, people. THIS FACE!

The Lorelais’ First Day at Chilton

Season 1, Episode 2

Original airing: October 12, 2000

My Rating: 65

The Good:

This was a strong follow-up to last week’s pilot. It felt like the world just rolled right on forward with some excellent character moments and a true sense of passing time.

Rory’s first day at Chilton is surprisingly bad, but it gives us an excellent introduction to Rory’s new nemesis – Paris Gellar. Paris is a super overachiever, so she immediately sees Rory as a threat and basically makes it her personal destiny to take Rory down. I think it’s an excellent extension of Headmaster Charleston’s words to Rory about the competitive nature of the school. A girl who has a LOT in common with Rory can’t see her as anything BUT a threat.

I really like that Rory is extremely out of her comfort zone at Chilton. School is obviously her “thing” and we saw nothing but excitement last week for her debut at Chilton. But the real thing doesn’t match her visions and now she’ll have to deal with it.

The moral of Rory’s story is paralleled in Lorelai’s struggles with Emily. Lorelai doesn’t want Rory to have all the material possessions Emily is trying to push on her. Growing up in that lifestyle taught Lorelai that happiness doesn’t come from things. Now she’s working to prevent Rory from coming up in that kind of atmosphere and Emily just can’t understand. What she can grasp is Lorelai’s strong stance when she’s confronted in the salon. Emily may not understand, but she seems to at least respect it.

I really enjoyed meeting Lorelai’s neighbors – Babette and Morey. They are such an odd couple and I already find them quite entertaining. Gnome kicking should be an arrest-able offense.

Another quick scene that really entertained me was Jackson and Sookie’s peaches fight. While Jackson seems to think Sookie is putting on an act, perhaps for a discount, I find it totally believable that she is just that concerned over watery peaches.

The Bad:

Tristan was way too over the top for me. His attempts to embarrass/hit on Rory were incredibly creepy.

There was also a significant amount of poor logic in this episode, which did hurt my overall feelings. Namely, Lorelai's insistence that she had nothing else to wear for Rory's first day, Emily's insistence that Lorelai take off her coat, and no one mentioning that the "supposedly" smashed project was literally just outside the door. They were little things, but they added up.

Favorite Moment:

Luke’s face when Lorelai mentions her potential date with Chilton Dad is quite possibly the most adorable thing I’ve seen on the show yet. His slight side look and over compensating cover story (old dads!) led into some really subtle and sweet pseudo-flirting between the two. I thought it was really well played.

The Bottom Line:

Another strong early episode! The show is doing an excellent job of packing in lots of character-driven story for basically everyone without feeling bloated or slow.