Stopping By Stars Hollow: A Critic’s First Watch of 'Gilmore Girls' - Season 1, Episode 9

Have you ever watched a couch burn? My friends and I burn furniture for fun and I highly recommend you try it. Just, ya know, do it safely. We don’t want to anger Smokey the Bear.

And hey, after we roast marshmallows over the embers of Grandma Millie’s antique China cabinet, let’s stop by Stars Hollow!

Season 1, Episode 9: “Rory’s Dance”

Fight! Fight! Fight!

Ahhhh… another episode filled with some great moments. But before we start gushing, I have one pressing question.

When is Lorelai Gilmore going to go on Project Runway?

Seriously, the dress she made for Rory was so well made and stunningly designed, I have to wonder when the heck she had time to learn such seamstressing skills. Perhaps it was out of necessity in order to help provide for Rory, but with all of the other necessities of being a single mom, I am extremely impressed that Lorelai would have the time to master such fashion techniques.

And also extremely skeptical and am hoping for some one-liner that establishes when and how Lorelai learned to sew so well.

Moving on.

Fight! Fight! Fight!

What a fun and weird Rory and Dean episode. Fun in the fact that the two of them wandering through Stars Hollow and hanging out in the dance studio (and then falling asleep in the dance studio, oh my) was a beautifully stiff breeze to fill the sails of the S.S. Dory. Weird in the fact that Dean basically went full on J.D. from Heathers on Tristian for a moment which was… something.

I mean don’t get me wrong, bad boy threatening to kill someone for your honor… kind of hot. Bad boy screaming he’ll kill someone in front of your entire school (and teachers? are these kids being supervised?), it’s a little unhinged.

Dean has these weird little outbursts and I’m not sure what they are trying to say about his character. I am all for developed morally gray characters that are truer to life than a stereotype, but these semi-psychotic one-liners happen to far and few to make it a character trait, but often enough to make it noticeable. Most of the time with Dean’s dialogue, I am left wondering what background information constitutes you saying these off the wall lines? What context? And that’s where I realized that the problem with Dean is that his character is underdeveloped. Dean’s background is about two sentences long and he is used more as a plot device. Dean is a deus ex machina, not a character.

This doesn’t mean that still isn’t nice to see him and Rory play together, it just means that he is only ever going to be used to create conflict and will never get a turn to tell his story. Which means that most of the audience is going to dislike him eventually because he will always be causing problems for no reason.

All of Emily and Lorelai’s scenes together were delightful to watch, like a slow-motion video of a paper plane spiraling through the air and suddenly nosediving into the ground. Though I understand the fight between Lorelai and Emily, the fight between Lorelai and Rory when she comes home seems a little… little sister. Yes, Lorelai has every reason to be upset and angry, but when she shouts at Rory for pulling something like this while her grandmother was there seems a little ridiculous. Yell at her for not being responsible, not because she made you look bad in front of your already disapproving mother.

Also, Sookie has a hardcore codeine addiction and I know it was the early 2000s and all but like… that’s concerning. Who needs that much? Anyway…

On to Season 1, Episode 10: “Forgiveness and Stuff”!