Célèste Review of S1E19 "Emily in Wonderland"

“Emily in Wonderland”

Season 1, Episode 19

Original airing: April 26, 2001

My Rating: 51

The Good:

•  I like the idea of Emily seeing the potting shed and being hurt and overwhelmed by the experience, and it makes a lot of sense that Rory would try to include her by showing her where she grew up.
• Seeing Emily interact with Mrs. Kim and Michel is a great cross pollination of characters.
•  The scene where Lorelai and Rory show Sookie The Dragonfly Inn feels like an introduction to a big dream that might come to fruition at some point and I like that. It’s a good way to close the episode and it makes me want to see storylines about their future plans.
•  Seeing Luke’s apartment for the first time was really exciting. This episode has a lot of firsts.

The Bad:

•  The Emily subplot was the most effective of the episode, but it didn’t entirely stick its landing. The moment when Emily ran off was tainted by Rune, and I thought the scene where Emily confronted Lorelai could have had a bit more heft to it.
•  I like the idea of things changing at Luke’s (especially as symbolized by Rory’s comment that the coffee tastes different), but I’m having trouble becoming invested in Rachel’s character because she doesn’t feel consistent and I don’t entirely buy her chemistry with Luke. I don’t even buy her friendship-chemistry with Lorelai. I think that, as with Dean, it’s partially that the character is written too flat and partially that the actor isn’t doing enough to breathe life into the character.
• Rachel saying she’s thinking of leaving because Luke doesn’t believe she wants to stay doesn’t make any sense. Having a scene where she actually did something to convince Luke she was serious would have made a lot more sense than asking Lorelai to step in and it would have helped flesh out her character. I guess that in Season One Luke doesn’t yet get to have his own subplots and scenes that aren’t all about Lorelai, but this subplot would make a lot more sense if he did.
• All the awkwardness surrounding the whole Lorelai-Rachel-Luke thing is overdone, and it’s especially annoying when characters say unnecessary things that make it even more awkward (“Not that I’ve been picturing Luke’s apartment”). Rachel doesn’t seem to even notice the awkwardness or be bothered by it and I’m not sure how to take that. She doesn’t seem threatened by Lorelai at all, which could be just a character trait (she’s confident), but seems instead to be a failure on the writers’ part to show us her point of view. 

Favorite Moment:

Emily and Michel speak French

The Bottom Line:

Second worst episode of season one