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| The cheese lady in the back with the side eye. She's the best. |
Rory’s Birthday
Parties
Season 1, Episode 6
Original airing: November
9, 2000
My Rating: 64
The Good:
The dueling birthday parties was a great way for the show to
continue the exploration of Emily’s relationships with her daughter and
granddaughter. It was awesome to see Emily reaching out to Lorelai for help
with Rory’s birthday gift. It’s a shame she didn’t do the same thing about the
party. Although, Emily throwing the type of party she did reminds me of Rory’s
trip to the Country Club. Emily made sure to point out to Richard that the trip
was important as an opportunity to show Rory off to their society friends. The
party felt like the same attempt.
It loved seeing Emily and Richard show up in Stars Hollow
after the blow up with Lorelai. I was moved about to tears from the humility
that showed through Emily. She really does seem to be attempting to reach out
to the girls and learn a bit more about them. I don’t think she realized just
how important that was until her trip to the house.
Emily’s visit also led to the amazing opportunity to needle
Lorelai about Luke. Lorelai’s face during the bedroom conversation was perfect
as she looked humiliated and extremely pleased at the same time. Can you blame
Luke, though? Lorelai said he was a vision and threw herself at him in joy! Of
course he was happy to see her.
It was also great to see Luke’s demonstration of affection
for Rory. Setting a special table for her on her birthday was obviously not a
tradition. I liked seeing him do it with his normal brusque attitude as well.
This episode felt like it really delivered more on Luke’s character. We already
know he’s interested in Lorelai, but I think showing he cares about Rory too
makes the interest seem more genuine.
Similar to last week, I really enjoyed seeing a “town
event”. It was incredibly sweet to have Lane, Miss Patty, Babette, and Morey
sharing stories of Rory’s childhood. This town is a community and their all
Rory’s family in one way or another.
Finally, I have no idea what’s going on with Paris, but yay!
She actually managed to be a civil human being! It also speaks to how much I
loath Tristan that I want to protect Paris from her interest in him.
The Bad:
I feel like a broken record, but Tristan is my least
favorite character. He continues to act like a broken record, pulling the
creepy card at every possible moment. The frustrating thing for me as a viewer
is his complete lack of development from his three appearances. He is exactly
the same as he was when we first met him. Behavior-wise that wouldn’t bother me
very much. But the lack of explanation for his motivations is extremely
frustrating.
Meanwhile, Dean and Rory couldn’t really get more awkward.
Dean continues to be the Most Confident 16 Year Old Male Ever. He silently
flirts with her stricken-looking face in Luke’s, then makes her a special
birthday present which he happily delivers in secret behind the house. And then
he brazenly holds her hand! Rory can’t even look at him.
Honestly, if I were Lorelai looking out the window, I’d be
feeling pretty shocked as well. I see a great deal of fear in Lorelai’s
reaction at the end of the episode. She doesn’t know who this boy is and Rory
is meeting him in secret. I’m sure she’s flashing back to her own life-altering
sexual decisions at sixteen.
Favorite Moment:
It was a small thing, and probably unintentional, but I
loved the clean-up lady putting the cheese away during Lorelai and Emily’s big
fight. The glances she kept stealing really added to the craziness of Lorelai
and Emily blowing up at each other in front of all these strangers in Emily’s
home. And it was hysterical.
The Bottom Line:
Another good episode overall! This episode did a great job
of furthering our main relationships between all the Gilmore women while also
giving hints in to Rory’s budding relationship with Dean.
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