Célèste's Review of S1E10 "Forgiveness and Stuff"

“Forgiveness and Stuff”

Season 1, Episode 10

Original airing: December 21, 2000

My Rating: 72

The Good:

• The show deals with the aftermath of the last episode well, incorporating Dean a little but focusing on the relationships between the three Gilmore girls.
• Emily has some incredibly strong moments here, two of which were runners up for my favorite moment: her telling Luke he and Lorelai are idiots, and her demanding to die first. That whole scene between her and Richard is so perfect and really breathtaking.         
• Rory’s reaction to Richard is nice also. I especially liked the moment when she tells Lorelai, “I was just getting to know him."
• Lorelai’s avoidance of Richard seemed perfectly in character, if a bit overplayed in places, and the moment when she finally confronts him but is interrupted played perfectly. It’s nice that this show understands not everything can or should be resolved. Sometimes there are no words.
• In addition to the family moments, this episode also spends a lot of time on Luke and Lorelai, which feels appropriate, since he seems almost like part of the family. I loved all the sweet moments between them from the Santa burger to the new baseball hat, and I loved that we got a much better sense of Luke than we’ve ever had before.

The Bad:

• The opening scene could have set the stage better. From the way Lorelai and Rory were just looking at each other, it seemed like they weren’t talking at all, but then they left together and shared a few words, if brief ones.
• The exact nature of their tenseness feels uneven later as well. Rory describes the tone of their house as “Miracle Worker,” but when Rory is asking Lorelai to come to the party, things don’t seem all that tense.
• The scene in the gazebo where Lane is giving Rory advice about what to get Dean for Christmas seems like it’s setting up a conflict or a storyline that never gets developed. Couldn’t this time be better spent developing something relevant to this episode?
• As nice as it is to see things developing between Luke and Lorelai, it's weird that Max keeps popping in and out of Lorelai's life, and that when he's gone, he's completely invisible. Luke saw Lorelai kissing him two episodes ago? What does he think of that? Has Lorelai mentioned that she's dating someone? The way that the existence of Max is completely omitted from episodes he doesn't appear in just strikes me as weird. 

Favorite Moment:

Luke can’t stop smiling when Lorelai says she thinks he looks good. Scott Patterson is just so cute here.

The Bottom Line:

A very good episode. A bit uneven in the beginning, but very good once the hospital scenes get going.