Hello! Welcome to Return to Stars Hollow - a spoiler-free, retrospective podcast about Gilmore Girls! This is the podcast for Season 3, Episode 12 - Lorelai Out of Water.
You can direct download the episode here: S3E12 Podcast
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The next podcast will post on Monday, December 7, 2015 for S3E13 - Dear Richard and Emily.
Just a note: Do you use Spotify ? This morning found that there are Gilmore Girl playlist of the music from the show. Having a great morning working with good music which keeps throwing me back to the show.
ReplyDeleteI have found that " I will always love you - by Dolly" ... Makes me cry !
I mostly enjoyed this episode, but anytime birth is depicted on TV or in movies, my eyes tend to roll so far they fall out of my head. Particularly Sherry's storyline. While it's not super uncommon for women to go to the hospital and have not much going on, the hospital wouldn't admit them if they weren't in active labor. She didn't appear to be in active labor, or to have an epidural. She didn't have fluids, or any other IVs. It also makes me sad that all the newborn babies were in little isolettes with no adults nearby, but I guess that probably wasn't all that uncommon 15 years ago. "Rooming in" is a relatively new concept.
ReplyDeleteI am beginning to feel that Lorelai's selfish and self-absorbed personality is due to her rich upbringing and the privilege that affords. Her parents don't seem emotionally abusive, just preoccupied with their own lives. Emily and Richard unwittingly created the Lorelai that they are always struggling against. I felt from the first episodes that Emily and Richard must have done something terrible for Lorelai to run off with her infant daughter, but it seems like it was mostly in Lorelai's mind. To me, at least. Maybe I will feel differently after I've watched the rest of the series but so far I'm not on Team Lorelai.
Most of the plot surrounding type-A Sherry in the midst of messy, unplanned birth was predictable, and the “Sherry screwed up” concept was a little on-the-nose for me. But things really hit home once Christopher showed up. The contrast between “what is” and “what could have been” was heartbreaking. To me, two standout moments were Lorelai asking him “are you a daddy?” when of course he’s been one for 18 years, and Chris telling Lorelai to “come see my daughter” when that’s all she’s wanted him to do for Rory, all series long.
ReplyDeleteIt felt very sudden to get flashbacks when the show has never used them before. I could imagine adult Lorelai saying the teen dialogue, so the writing was fine. But filling Lauren Graham’s shoes would be a challenge for even an experienced actor, and I don’t think the actress here quite delivered on the Lorelai vigor.
I thought Jess trying to give Luke and Nicole some alone time was remarkably grown-up. Whereas the sight of breastfeeding once made him gag, now he’s trying to leave the room out of respect, not immaturity. He’s also allowing Luke an equal share of the apartment, which is an improvement after blasting music and leaving clothes everywhere last season. Even his side comment to Nicole – “sorry, I tried” – is this matter-of-fact, feminist way of acknowledging that she’s a sexual being in her own right, and I really liked that. Yes, a little weird for a teenage boy to say to an adult woman, but I think Jess considers himself savvier than the average teenager and probably does think of himself as Nicole’s fellow adult in some ways. Speaking of which, how do you guys think Nicole would do as Jess’ pseudo-stepmom, if things with Luke go well?
I like this episode a lot and how the two births and the situations surrounding them are contrasted, especially with Christopher there vs Lorelai doing it all on her own.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious what other people think about the casting of young Christopher and Lorelai. I don't like it. They look only vaguely similar to their older counterparts, though the scene when they fade from young to old Lorelai and Chris as they're looking at the babies always makes me laugh a little, because it's really obvious here that old Chris has a totally different hairline and much more hair than young Chris. What's worse though is that they don't feel like the characters, their chemistry isn't right and both of them, especially young Lorelai, give off a very different, I don't know, vibe? I must be really hard to cast these parts and maybe I'm just used to other shows doing a better job at it. It just doesn't really work for me and that's holding me back a little.
But I like the concept of the flashbacks a lot and I like that the scenes we see are rather lowkey where they could have gone for a screaming match between Lorelai and Emily about her becoming pregnant or a dramatic birth scene or something like that. It's also great to see how exactly Lorelai leaving home went down - not so pretty, it turns out. The look on Emily's face when she's reading the letter is heartbreaking.
What's still not entirely clear is what happened with Lorelai and Chris. We see that he was willing to give up his own plans and follow Richard's and care for this family, while Lorelai wasn't. So we can probably assume that she pushed him away as well and that it wasn't entirely his fault that he wasn't around when Rory was a baby. It bothers me a little that we still don't have a clear answer to this, especially because it's kind of important and from what I remember, the characters tend to contradict themselves when they're referring to this. This would have been a perfect opportunity.
The present day scenes with Lorelai and Emily are probably some of my favourites of the whole show, It's so nice and pleasant. It's great to see Lorelai care about her mother and she's genuinely interested in what she's doing with her time and wants to do something nice for her - another great contrast to the flashbacks.
Overall, this is a good episode for Lorelai. Despite mocking Sherry behind her back, she really comes through for, even though that must be the last thing she wants to do.
Of course, Sherry is super crazy and irritating, which fits her character and the situation. But even in contrast to that, her terrible friends are much worse.
So the Haydens have always been the worst Schnickelfritzes. Some things never change.
As far as german songs on this show go, I like 99 Luftballons here much better than when Christopher's car randomly played Rammstein. I also love that shot of young pregnant Lorelai sitting alone in the waiting room with her walkman.
nice
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