Célèste's Review of S1E6 "Rory's Birthday Parties"

“Rory’s Birthday Parties”

Season 1, Episode 6

Original airing: November 9, 2000

My Rating: 68

The Good: 

• The Stars Hollow party looks like tons of fun, and I had tons of fun watching it. 
• Luke got a couple opportunities to be awesome in this episode, always a good. 
• I liked seeing the contrasting worlds of the show highlighted by contrasting parties.
• Even though Emily is at her most controlling and terrible in this episode, I felt for her in the car scene. Emily is so bad at reaching out, but she is trying, and that makes her sympathetic to a degree no matter how bad she gets.  
• Tristan is less one note in this episode. I’m intrigued to know that Paris likes him, and it will be interesting to see where this goes. I’m glad it looks like it’s finally going somewhere. 

The Meh: 

• I always like seeing Jackson, but what was the point of the rasquat scene? I thought it was setting up a subplot, but nothing else happened. It just felt out of place. I assume it was simply meant to add some color to a typical inn scene, but, after several Jackson and Sookie subplots, it felt like a red herring. 
• I like the Paris micro-plot, but Rory going to the college fair does seem a little silly. It’s one of those moments where you can see the writers trying to stick a character somewhere so that something can happen, rather than a character really having a motivation to go somewhere or do something. 
• On the heels of the last episode, it’s a little strange that Max isn’t even mentioned. I want to know if they ever had their first date and how things went. I like all the hints about Luke liking Lorelai, but they feel out of place with no mention of Max at all. I totally buy that Lorelai wouldn't tell Emily about Max as evidence that she isn't interested in Luke, but it seems like she should have mentioned him to someone at some point just to help that string that plot thread along. 

The Bad: 

• The gifts Lorelai suggested for Rory didn't seem all that on point. I mean, Rory just refused purple legal pads, and you think she'd like a mermaid eraser? In a scene meant to show that Emily is off base and Lorelai knows Rory well, I feel like the actual examples of gifts fell short by about a mile in terms of displaying that idea. 

Favorite Moment: 

Lorelai climbing into Rory’s bed in the middle of the night to tell her the story of her birth – mostly because this scene is really sweet, and reminds me a lot of my mom.

The Bottom Line: 

This is a solid episode that does a good job showing off both worlds and contrasting them.