Stopping By Stars Hollow: A Critic’s First Watch of 'Gilmore Girls' - Season 2, Episode 7

Father’s Day has come and gone, and regardless of whether or not you have a father figure in your life… I hope you had a good day. I hope you always have a good day. I, for father’s day, made a giant meal: a roast, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, biscuits, two types of vegetables, and (for the grand finale) a large Miami Beach cake. This meal was made as a surprise, so most of the cooking was done late at night, and I’m very tired.

But regardless of lack of sleep, errands wait for no man, and we have to stop by Stars Hollow.

Season 2, Episode 7 “Like Mother, Like Daughter”

Goddamn filler episodes!

For those of you watching along with my articles, just skip this episode as it has nothing to do with anything. Lorelai joining the Boosters and Rory joining the Puffs doesn’t lead to anything beside Lorelai and Emily wearing matching outfits on a runway. The Puffs story line in particular is pointless because nothing changes in the end.

The main conflict of this entire episode is that Lorelai and Rory don’t participate socially at Chilton, and while the case can be made for Lorelai, the headmaster’s qualms about Rory are completely unsubstantiated. This episode would have made much more sense for season one Rory, new to Chilton, well documented fighting with Paris, keeps to herself. If Headmaster Charleston had mandated that Rory participate in more club activities and socialization then, it would have been believable under the guise of wanting to assist Rory and Lorelai with their acclimation at Chilton.

But since season one we’ve seen Rory make friends, participate in Chilton functions, and head clubs. Her on again off again friendship with Paris and her two not-Parises (still not gonna learn their names) has been seen by most member’s of the faculty including the headmaster, she’s a writer for the newspaper and seems to have a good camaraderie with the other members of the staff, and she’s hung out with students outside of school in both the extra-curricular sense and in the friendship sense. Being concerned with her socialization now makes absolutely no sense for Rory is the most social she’s been at Chilton.

As for Lorelai, yes it does make sense that Charleston would highly encourage, and pressure, her into joining a parent/teacher organization. However, I can’t shake the feeling that Lorelai’s booster club membership is only going to come up in later episodes as a plot device in order to throw a wrench into Lorelai’s plans. In fact, Lorelai’s booster club membership is much like Dean, unimportant to the growth of the characters or the story as whole and only existing to create tension in current and future episodes.

I could have let this all slide if, in the end, this episode had us learn more about the characters or the world surrounding the pivotal Gilmore family dynamic. Instead, we learn nothing truly new or important in this episode. “Like Mother, Like Daughter” purely exists to fill Amy Sherman-Palladino’s twenty-two episode quota, and while I understand that coming up with twenty-two hours of story to stretch over five months is difficult, at least try to have the audience learn at least one new thing about the world every episode. This episode could have focused on Headmaster Charleston or Luke or any other member of the town. We could have learned more about Chilton or whether or not the Puffs are going to continue being a big presence in the series. Instead we were left with an episode where nothing changed and nothing was learned.

Let’s hope there are no more “nothing” episodes ahead as we move…

Onto Season 2, Episode 8 "The Ins and Outs of Inns"