Hello! Welcome to Return to Stars Hollow - a spoiler-free, retrospective podcast about Gilmore Girls! This is the podcast for Season 2, Episode 15 - Lost and Found.
You can direct download the episode here: S2E15 - Lost and Found
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Due to Memorial Day, the next podcast will post in two weeks on Monday, June 1, 2015 for Season 2, Episode 16 - There's The Rub.
I like both of the stories in this episode a lot.
ReplyDeletePutting Lorelai and Emily together is always great. It's a little sad that Emily knows she has to trick Lorelai into spending time with her, and that Lorelai doesn't get what Emily is doing. They're both annoying at times but it remains in character for both of them and never goes too far that it bothers me. They also switch back and forth on who's more annoying to me. Lorelai at the spa, but she pulls herself together pretty quickly after Emily tells her she's behaving like a child. I'm also not that big a fan of the moment at the bar when the guy comes over and Lorelai is kind of pushing the situation even though Emily is clearly not comfortable with it. And then of course Emily goes too far when she feels guilty and blames Lorelai for everything. But the scenes where they do get along are really great.
Rory's story is also very good. I love the scene at the kitchen table with Rory, Jess and Paris are discussing books and it's good to see Jess be friendly with someone other than Rory. He doesn't have to be a jerk to everyone. It's also a nice touch that Jess and Lorelai make the same comment about Rory having to burn the house down after having the indian food.
This is also a great episode for Paris. From the sad little moment when she explains to Rory how she can't study at home, to being completely irritated by Rory's plans for the evening but still forcing her to study with her, being excited to be invited, her banter with Jess, and then of course jumping in to help with the Dean situation and ending up officially being friends, or at least friendish, with Rory.
And now, Dean. When I try to see things from his perspective, then okay, he wants to spend time with his girlfriend who'd rather do laundry instead. He misses his girlfriend and comes over to her house and finds that she was lying to him about being alone and apparently wants to see people, just not him.
But he loses all of my theoretical sympathy points with the way he behaves and this episode is actually very high on my list of least favourite Dean episodes. In the scene under the tree, he behaves like a 4 year old who's pouting because he doesn't get what he wants even though Rory promises him the whole next day. Then he completely ignores her saying she wants to be alone for the night and comes over to the house. And the "highlight" is the way he's yelling at her there and the way that makes Rory flinch. I like what you discussed in the last podcast about why would Rory lie if she wasn't afraid of Dean's reaction. We see that here again. At first Rory is telling the truth about what happened and that it's not her fault that Jess is there, but Dean doesn't believe her. The only way to get him to calm down is to lie to him. And sure, Rory lying to her boyfriend is not cool, but in this situation I think it's totally understandable.
With Dean as a comparison, Jess can only look better, even as he's actively provoking Dean.
I was listening to the podcast about "There's the Rub" and thought, why IS Emily being so annoying at the spa? Why is she so chatty and flibbertygibbet? It's so out of character!
ReplyDeleteSo here's my theory: she's trying really hard to relate to Lorelai, and so she ends up sounding...like Lorelai.
Emily desperately wants to bond with Lorelai, but most of the time when they're together, they're doing something (like Friday dinner) that Lorelai doesn't really want to do. When Lorelai gets so enthusiastic about the spa, Emily seizes on the opportunity to do something with her daughter that Lorelai is guaranteed to enjoy. When they get to the spa, she natters on about the bathrobes because she thinks the robes are something Lorelai would get enthused about. (Seriously, has Emily Gilmore never seen a comfy spa robe before? She probably has a dozen comfy spa robes --- she's just trying to get Lorelai to respond to her.) She's trying to open a conversation, but of course it backfires because all the chatter is the opposite of what Lorelai wants.
It's pretty ironic. Who is the most talkative character on the show, the one who can carry on a conversation all by herself? Lorelai. And now she's stuck listening to the same chatter she subjects other people to...and Emily grows more and more frustrated, because she's trying so hard to make this work and it's having the opposite effect.
Once they get to the bar, you can see Emily relax and start behaving like herself. And eat peanuts. Watching Emily eat peanuts is fantastic.
As for the Rory/Dean/Jess stuff, the last scene outside the diner is so sad. Dean clearly realizes that he's out of his depth, but Lorelai is so certain of Rory's honesty. It makes me wonder whether Rory has really been telling Lorelai everything about this triangle.