Tuesday’s episode of Gilmore Girls is the last.
The show is one of my all time favorites, and in my last several years of college was one of the highlights of my week. For the first few seasons of the show it was the best thing on television, and even in the last several years, as the quality slipped, it was still far better than most other offerings. Like a lot of shows, the plots got thinner in later years, characters changed in odd ways in a desperate attempt to keep them relevant, and the universe folded in on itself as Rory became a bit of a bitch while Jess became awesome. That said, when the show was at its best there was nothing better.
With the series finale within twenty-four hours, I sat down to do a top ten episode list and I found that every episode except one came from the outstanding first season. This isn’t to say that other years weren’t good, particularly the second, which had a few offerings that almost mad the cut. It’s just that the initial twenty-one segments of the series were a magic arc cut to precision by Amy-Sherman Palladino, and the freshness of the show motivated the cast to give the tightly woven scripts their best efforts. Never do you see Alexis Bledel smile like you do in season one, and I can’t blame her. Seasons two through four were outstanding, and five through six weren’t bad. (Seven wasn’t even horrible, just not up to the standard the rest set.) It’s just that season one was, as I said, magic. Tremendous. Worth watching, in order, over and over again.
Original Air Date: 8 March 01
The first of many men that Emily forces upon Lorelai, coupled with Dean showing Rory the car he’s building for her – and promptly breaking up with her when he says he loves her and she can’t say it back (though her response is superior to “It’s nice that you think that.”) While the episode works better in tandem with the next segment (“The Breakup, Part 2″,) standing alone it’s still a standout offering, particularly for the act one scenes showing the continuing development of Rory and Dean’s relationship. The chemistry they showed throughout season one was remarkable at times, and “Star-Crossed Lovers and Other Strangers” serves as an excellent example.
Freedom Strike divx
Original Air Date: 10 May 01
One thing Gilmore Girls always excelled at was season finales, and like everything else in the series, season one did it best. Similar to that of David Chase’s first season of The Sopranos, the arc that series creator Amy Sherman-Palladino crafted for the debut year of the show was outstanding, with its ultimate hour drawing together threads that rekindled Rory and Dean’s romance, setup friction at school for the younger Gilmore’s upcoming junior year, and upgraded Lorelai’s dalliance with Max while simultaneously sewing more seeds into the Luke and Lorelai coupling. The two scenes in the final act where Dean meets Rory at Chilton and Lorelai is enveloped by one-thousand daisies stand out as Lauren Graham absolutely destroys all other actors with her reactions as she circles the lobby of the Independence Inn.
Trick or Treat dvdrip
Original Air Date: 5 Oct 00
Few TV series find themselves on such firm footing from the get-go. Amy Sherman-Palladino had imagined her universe so well that everything seems natural from the start as we meet the two Lorelais, the elder flirting with Luke over coffee while the younger finds herself more and more disenfranchised at Stars Hollow High. The series really gets things rolling when Lorelai goes to visit her parents: as she sits on the wheel well of her Jeep, sipping her coffee as she stares away from the Gilmore Mansion in despair, we don’t have to be told about the icy relationship between her and her parents. Her face says it all.
Original Air Date: 14 Dec 00
This episode is pure magic. Lorelai tells Rory about the magic of snow, and sure enough it comes true as she finds Max, whom she’s had no luck meeting up with, stranded in Stars Hollow as the white gold falls. Meanwhile, Rory’s trapped in Hartford, giving her a chance to bond with the grandparents, something we often forget she’s had no opportunity to do in her sixteen years. Again Lauren Graham steals the show, but Alexis Bledel shows some chops as well as she learns more about her mother’s history.
Original Air Date: 15 Feb 01
As sure as the weather turns cold in the fall, as sure as Luke wears a crappy flannel shirt and as sure as Taylor is condescending in a bold choice of sweater, Paris and Rory have a fight every year. Every. Year. And every year, it annoys the hell out of me. “Concert Interruptus” is the beginning of their friendship, as Ms. Geller along with Madeline and Louise head to Rory’s to work on a group project and all end up at a Bangles’ concert in New York with Lorelai and Sookie. The casual way that Rory starts to fit in seems natural, as does Lorelai’s conversation at the concert with her best friend as she explores Luke’s romantic history. Lorelai fiddling with the garage sale items strewn around the Gilmore house as the kids study are one of the many little things that help provide the show with a sort of authenticity many series lack, as is the actual concert footage of The Bangles rather than audio lifted straight from the original album.
Adam Had Four Sons video
Original Air Date: 15 Mar 01
Rory refuses to “wallow” over her breakup with Dean, which upsets Lorelai. Luke shows the first signs of being a father figure to Rory by quite publicly not allowing Dean to run into his ex. And Lorelai convinces Rory to go to a big Chilton party where Paris steals the episode, Lane meets a cute Korean guy, and everyone dances to Elvis Costello. Damn, this show is awesome. Oh, and Lorelai has sex with Max, but whatever.
Original Air Date: 12 Nov 02
The only episode on this list from outside the first season comes our way from the third, as Rory and Dean’s two-year relationship unravels and Jess, being a complete dick about everything, enters the picture. What to love here is the most awesomely offbeat idea ever to grace the streets of Stars Hollow: the all-night dance marathon, complete with period dress. Besides the fun of the Girls trying to out-Kirk Kirk, we get Dean’s quite justified dumping of the younger Gilmore and the accompanying visual of Kirk circling the dance floor with his trophy to the tune of “Gonna Fly Now” while Lorelai consoles her daughter. While many very good episodes would follow, this is the last truly great episode of the series.
Original Air Date: 12 Oct 00
Lorelai in Daisy Dukes and boots: just another first day at a private prep school. Neither Girl is ready for Rory’s introduction to Chilton, especially when Emily shows up to accompany her daughter to her meeting with the headmaster. The episode acts almost as part two of the pilot, but it’s the better half with more friction between Emily and Lorelai, Rory meeting Paris and the gang and the rest of the crucial details of the Gilmore family settling in before the next few episodes of doggy paddling in place before the fun would kick into gear.
Original Air Date: 22 Feb 01
Firestarter 2: Rekindled rip
Dean’s never seen The Donna Reed Show, and when the Girls learn he likes some of the ideals (woman cooking for the man, who runs the household) of the show they are mocking, Rory decides to put on a show for him while catsitting next door. Meanwhile, Lorelai has animal problems at home that require Luke’s presence, setting up a quasi-date for the two as they search the Gilmore house for a lost baby chick. If the episode wasn’t good enough, Rory decides that perhaps some details of the Donna Reed lifestyle isn’t too imperfect, enjoying the proper evening the two spend together and later finding out that Reed was a sort of trendsetter for women in entertainment, holding more power behind the scenes than she though. A tremendous episode that entertains, furthers the relationships and even educates. Wow.
Original Air Date: 20 Dec 00
Rory has her name in the episode, but Lauren Graham, as usual, steals the show. Chilton’s having a dance, and Emily persuades her granddaughter to go, introducing Dean to the masses as Paris freaks, Tristan gets jealous and Madeline and Louise gain respect for their classmate. Meanwhile, Lorelai tweaks her back and is stuck on the couch, causing Emily, down to see Rory off to the dance, to stay to take care of her – and here’s where Graham and Kelly Bishop put on a damned clinic. Apart but for fleeting hours for sixteen years, mother and daughter bond as Emily’s maternal instincts return and Lorelai lets her guard down. Then Rory falls asleep with Dean away from home, Lorelai gets pissed, she and Emily throwdown, and then Rory returns for a scolding from mother. All this is good enough without Rory’s additional bonding with Dean, further concreting this as the strongest relationship Rory would have in the series’ run. Easily the best episode of the series, and the last ten minutes is nothing short of amazing.
