Today we continue our Gilmore Girls discussions by starting the series over once again, heading back to where all our fond memories started! In the Gilmore Girls premiere ‘Pilot‘, we’re introduced to Rory Gilmore as a very studious girl with a great mom and best friend. But she’s also a girl whose head is turned by the new boy in town, Dean. She crushes so much that she actually considers not going to Chilton, the private school she was just accepted into.

Image Credit: TheWB.com

Are you surprised that Rory had doubts about Chilton just because of a boy she just met? Perhaps it’s more surprising, given what we’ll later know of Rory, but at this stage, perhaps it’s normal. Just a teen girl putting her heart first and defying her mother.

To me, the pilot episode shows Rory as a real teen girl, undergoing real problems and emotions. It’s not just about designer fashion (heck, Rory even wore oversized, frumpy clothes sometimes) or being perfect in everything, though it is obvious Rory is smart. To me, this is why I loved Gilmore Girls, and why I loved it less later. For the realism of it all.

Here are the Rory & Dean moments from the Pilot Episode:

Watch this episode of Gilmore Girls on TheWB.com here.

In ‘Bon Voyage‘, Rory accepts a job going on the road with Barack Obama as he campaigns for the Presidency. This means she’s going away in just 3 days - no special roller coaster trip with Lorelai, no lingering moments in Stars Hollow… and she could be gone for a long time! Rory, who wasn’t very happy to hear about the re-enactment graduation party that Stars Hollow had planned, now plans to leave Stars Hollow without a goodbye party.

Photo Credit: Bruce Birmelin / The CW ©2007 The CW Network. All Rights Reserved.

Luke, in a particularly intuitive moment, realizes that Stars Hollow needs a chance to say goodbye to Rory, as much as she needs a better way to say goodbye to all of them. It’s very unlike Luke to spearhead any town activity, particularly one of this size and with this kind of rush. We all know he loves Rory like a daughter, but what prompted Luke to make a big Stars Hollow party?

Why was it so important, even when rain threatened, for Luke to throw this party? Why didn’t he want credit for it? How much, if any, of the party idea was Luke’s way of getting Lorelai back? Or was that just an afterthought?

Watch this episode of Gilmore Girls on TheWB.com here.

In ‘Unto the Breach‘, so much happens that it’s hard to decide what to talk about in this discussion post! But, among all the things that we could discuss, I’ve decided to ask just this: Why does Logan propose at Rory’s graduation party?

Photo Greg Gayne/The CW © 2007 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved

Logan proposing - obviously a HUGE deal. Though Logan had told Rory to not factor him into her decision about what to do with her future, he’s evidently changed his mind (ok, that’s a whole other discussion, I know). Perhaps he’s scared of losing Rory, I don’t know. After asking for Lorelai’s permission in the previous episode, we’ve been waiting for him to pop the question to Rory ever since.

Where Logan chooses to propose to Rory…. at the graduation party that Emily & Richard throw for Rory! Of all places! The proposal (written out here) is truly very sweet. But should Logan have done it in front of so many people, some of whom Rory barely knows?

Why did Logan propose at this exact time? Was it just about the ‘grand gesture’? Did he perhaps feel he was losing time? Do you think maybe that social pressure was involved? That Logan perhaps thought Rory would be more likely to say ‘yes’ if her family were there to witness it? I’d love to know what you think motivated Logan to choose this place and this time for his “grand gesture.”

Here’s the scene where Logan proposes to Rory:

Watch this episode of Gilmore Girls on TheWB.com here.

On ‘Lorelai? Lorelai?‘, the episode begins with a dream sequence. All dream sequences seem to have special meaning on Gilmore Girls, and this one is no different.

In the dream sequence, Rory dreams that she’s back in Chilton. In her dream, the principal comes in to interrupt the class to have the teacher ask Rory to leave. That there’s been a “mistake” and she must leave. When she leaves class, Rory doesn’t end up in the hall… instead, she ends up back home. But there, Lorelai is heading off for a “break”, leaving to Hawaii. As if that wasn’t weird enough, Rory enters her kitchen to find Paris, Doyle & their 2 kids having dinner! Paris is a doctor and Doyle is an associate editor - they now own Lorelai’s house.

And Rory? They take pity on her. Call her “confused” and give her money. And what is she doing for her living? They hand her a trash poke, like she used during her community service!

What does Rory’s dream mean? Is she simply expressing her uncertainty about her future? That everyone has a path laid out but her? Or is she also feeling excluded? If so, why? I think, perhaps, Rory is also feeling that her future is out of her control, and Rory never likes that. She likes to be the one to make her own decisions, not to have them made for her.

Given Rory’s uncertainty about her future, and what Logan surprises Lorelai with later in the episode, should we be surprised that Rory, once again, later decides that she needs to stand on her own feet and decide her own future?

Here’s Rory’s dream sequence:

Watch this episode of Gilmore Girls on TheWB.com here.

Image: TheWB.com

In ‘Hay Bale Maze‘, Rory is confronted by a difficult decision about her future. She’s offered a job with the Providence Journal Bulletin, one of the “best jobs” out there for journalists just starting out. But, it’s not the best. It’s not the 6 week unpaid Reston Fellowship with the New York Times.

Photo Bruce Birmelin /The CW © 2007 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved

Rory seems to have all her confidence back now - fully sure she’s in the running for the Reston Fellowship. Logan encourages Rory to “screw the 401k” and gamble on the Fellowship. Lorelai, who thinks Logan is financially irresponsible (doing a business deal behind his dad’s back, only now dealing with bills, and expecting his ‘contacts’, not ‘work’, to get him back ‘on top’), reminds Logan that “gambling is his thing, not her thing.”

Rory tries to sit down for a pro/con list, but it seems to be frustrating her, rather than calming her. A big issue for Rory is Logan - should he be a factor on the list? Logan tells Rory that she should do what she wants, that he will “factor her in” after (ahem, does he forget saying this later??). And then Rory decides to take the risk and say no to the job offer.

I’ve never understood why Rory didn’t accept the job offer. If she’d gotten the Fellowship, should could have ‘changed her mind’ and dropped the job, after all. But that’s beside the point I was trying to make - I’m curious if Logan, and his risk-it-all personality, have influenced Rory’s decision to go for the Fellowship?

Watch this episode of Gilmore Girls on TheWB.com here.

On ‘Gilmore Girls Only‘, we start to see people in Rory’s life realize that perhaps she won’t always be there. Lorelai, probably anxious for more alone time with Rory, tries to get Rory to come to Mia’s wedding. Rory wasn’t planning on going, being busy with her interviews and with Logan’s immaturity. However, after finally standing up to Logan, telling him she’s “not going to support every stupid decision” he makes, she decides she needs to get away from him.

Photo: Bruce Birmelin/The CW ©2007 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Overhearing about the road trip, Emily decides she too wants to get away from Richard and to spend time with Rory. Lorelai is anxious that Rory may move far away to join a paper, though Emily takes it as a natural thing that may happen. She even asks Rory how Logan will take it - because they take it for granted that Rory would put her career before any boy. Rory is also anxious that Emily & Lorelai “bond” more, in case she moves away.

Meanwhile, while Emily & Lorelai are individually trying to picture life without Rory, Logan travels all the way to the wedding to see Rory. Rory wants nothing to do with him; since Logan ditched Lane’s baby shower to go to Vegas, she’s annoyed that he’d simply show up when it was Rory who needed time off from everything (ie from Logan). Perhaps this was obvious to Logan? That Rory was pulling away from him? Only then did Logan take charge of his own life… making me wonder… did he do it for himself, or for Rory?

Watch this episode of Gilmore Girls on TheWB.com here.

In an interview published this week, Alexis Bledel (Rory Gilmore on Gilmore Girls) talks about her upcoming film, Post Grad, and about her experience portraying Rory on Gilmore Girls.

Alexis shares a few tidbits about the relevancy of the film today, but is quickly asked about how she wanted to make Ryden different from Gilmore Girls’ Rory. In comparing the two characters, Alexis says:

“Well, as the years went by on Gilmore Girls, I noticed that Rory was kind of like an idealized product of the show’s imagination because she was really perfect in a lot of ways, which started to annoy me a bit, but you have to keep playing the character. But Ryden -– I think she’s much more relatable in a lot of ways and this character’s story picks up in the same stage of life where Rory left off, graduating from college. So for anyone who likes the show, its kind of -– it’s a continuation in a way, but she’s a completely different girl because she makes a lot of mistakes. She has a very typical college experience. She’s kind of an average girl, and I can relate much more to her.”

I have to agree with Alexis here and I think that Season 6 and 7 of Gilmore Girls suffer from this perfection. It’s not just limited to the character of Rory, though. I think all the characters became too perfectly coiffed, with things that came too easily to them (relationships aside). Many of us bonded with Gilmore Girls because the characters were realistic - they ran out of clothes, they were late to class, they made mistakes. That realism was lost as the series progressed (in my opinion). I always thought that Alexis seemed the most disconnected from this perfect-Rory, so it’s nice to hear Alexis talk about it.

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In ‘I’d Rather be in Philadelphia,’ I’ve always thought we were meant to compare this episode to the Season 1 ‘Forgiveness and Stuff‘, both of which involve Richard in the hospital. However, the real comparison (for me) is about how the men in Rory & Lorelai’s lives are there - or not there - for them during these stressful times.

Luke - in Season 1, Luke was there. He even drove her to the hospital. He’s there for her completely, even getting her coffee stolen from the nurses lounge. It was a big step in their friendship - and relationship - for him to be her rock in this time of stress. Again with Season 7, when Luke hears that Richard is in the hospital, he goes right over to help - despite their estranged relationship. He is a huge help to both Emily and to Lorelai. No matter what happens, Luke is showing that he’ll be there.

Christopher - we didn’t see Christopher in Season 1 much, but in Season 7, he’s absent from the hospital. Lorelai has been frantically calling him, but because of their fight, he was ignoring his phone. Lorelai’s messages get more and more upset, saying that he should be there for his wife and that Richard’s heart attack is bigger than a fight. It’s clear Chris isn’t even checking his messages. When he finally does arrive, he immediately starts sulking because Luke is there. He’s not grateful that people are there to help Lorelai, nor does he attempt to comfort her. He cannot get over his own selfishness to comfort Lorelai.

Logan - it’s our turn to see how Logan reacts to stress. Just like Rory dropped everything to be at his bedside after his accident, Logan is putting Rory ahead of his business needs. Turns out, he even flew there by helicopter. Just like Luke, he’s doing what he can to help out the whole family.

In this episode, we see not just the contrast between Luke & Christopher, but also how like Luke that Logan has become. I think this is the first time I made that comparison. I think Rory & Lorelai are meant to see what it means to have someone support them fully, no questions asked. Do you think so?

Watch this episode of Gilmore Girls on TheWB.com here.

Photo: Patrick Ecclesine/The CW ©2006 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

In ‘The Great Stink’, there are a number of things that seem to trigger a more serious relationship between Logan & Rory.

First off, Logan surprises Rory by not only coming back home (granted, he’s there on business), but setting up a romantic dinner on the roof. He has flowers, candles and her favorite foods. Logan is nearly a different man, so self-assured and seemingly pleased with his new career - not like the disaffected rich boy he was before.

The second indication of seriousness is when Rory joins Logan and his business partners for dinner. She meets Bobby, who turns out to be a sexy older woman who is obviously well-admired. And Rory didn’t know Bobby was a woman. She gets jealous, also wondering why Logan didn’t tell her more about Bobby or the fact that she was a woman. Bobby, to Rory, seems to be pretentious and Rory becomes suspicious of Bobby’s intentions towards her man.

But, in the end, Rory admits her jealousy to Logan and they become even closer. Here’s that reconciliation:

So, to me, it seems like a) Logan’s confidence and b) Rory’s jealousy did wonders for their relationship. What do you think?

Watch “Gilmore Girls” ‘The Great Stink’

Also don’t forget to check the deleted scene for this episode here!

Check out Gilmore Girls on TheWB.com here.

Photos: Markk Liddell / The CW©2006 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

In ‘‘S Wonderful ‘S Marvelous‘, we are introduced to two new friends for Rory: Lucy (Krysten Ritter) and Olivia (Michelle Ongkingco). I thought I’d take a break from talking about Lorelai & Christopher and instead ask: Do you like Lucy & Olivia?

Photo: Scott Humbert/The CW ©2006 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

I think it time that Rory make more friends at Yale, since we mostly just saw her with her roommates, with Marty, or with Logan’s friends. Sure, she has friends at the Yale Daily News, but Rory has very few girlfriends. Paris and Lane have always been there, and I guess the writers thought it time we had some new girls!

Lucy and Olivia are hyper and artsy, very different from Rory’s Yale crowd… though they do admit to being obsessed with Paris! At the end of the night, Rory invites the girls back to her place, and we start to see a change in Rory. She seems happier, more independent. Perhaps it’s her confidence in having found friends? What do you think? What is it about Lucy & Olivia that appeals to Rory?

Watch “Gilmore Girls” ”S Wonderful ‘S Marvelous’

Check out Gilmore Girls on TheWB.com here.