Célèste's Review of S1E18 "The Third Lorelai"

“The Third Lorelai”

Season 1, Episode 18

Original airing: March 22, 2001

My Rating: 64

The Good:

• The introduction of Lorelai I is an interesting one that fails in places and succeeds in others. Seeing Emily freak out before she arrives is a definite highlight of the episode. Emily has never before been so funny or so sympathetic.
• Vulnerable Paris is the most interesting Paris. I enjoyed seeing her panic before her date and seeing Rory be such a good friend, even as she continues to miss Dean.
• The trust fund plot point was a great way to show how tenuous Emily thinks her relationship with Lorelai still is. It’s a really great moment when she offers to talk to Richard and clearly takes no pleasure in having “won” and lost Rory the trust fund. It keeps her sympathetic, and shows that she really does love Lorelai and Rory. 
•  Lorelai I has some funny moments. I especially liked the ransom joke and her calling fro the next room, “I shall die soon.”

The Bad:

•  Lorelai I’s dislike of Emily is just overdone. Some of her lines are funny, but it’s too much to believe that Richard would be okay with anyone, even his own mother, openly and intentionally humiliating Emily in front of everyone. It doesn’t align with the Richard/Emily relationship we know. The show plays these scenes off as if Richard is simply oblivious to Emily’s pain or that he thinks she’s overly sensitive, which would work if Lorelai I were a touch less scathing. As is unfortunately sometimes the case on Gilmore Girls, the writers forgo subtlety in order to add more jokes, and end up creating a grating character while sacrificing the consistency of the characters around them. In other words, it’s Rune all over again.
• The scenes between Rory and Tristan just don’t play as well as I’d like them too
•  Overall the episode felt a little empty, like they could have trimmed some of the fat from the A and B stories and added a whole C story for Lane or someone. There were just so many redundant scenes that could have been compacted. For example, Rory and Tristan are awkward, then Paris comments on it, then Rory circles back for her notebook and she and Tristan comment on it, then they make an appointment to take about it some more.
• No Luke.

Favorite Moment:

Emily freaks out and Lorelai talks to the dogs.

The Bottom Line:
The scenes of Emily and of Paris freaking out are strong enough that they save an otherwise pretty anemic episode.