National Post (National Edition)
10 essential episodes of Gilmore Girls
HOW TO CATCH UP BEFORE THE NEW INSTALMENTS
With Gilmore Girls making a highly anticipated return to Netflix on Nov. 25 — with four fresh hour-and-a-half-long episodes — after being off the air for a decade, you’re probably in one of two camps: either attempting to watch (or rewatch) the series in its entirety before the big day, or hating yourself for not having enough time to watch the series in its entirety before the big day.
If you are in the latter camp, we’ve got you covered with the following list of the 10 most important episodes to watch from the series’ seven seasons. So, grab a bucket of coffee and feast on the following, because this isn’t just any ol’ TV show, it’s a lifestyle, a religion.
SEASON 1, EPISODE 1: PILOT
The first episode of the series, like many, establishes not only the intimate relationship between Lorelai and Rory, but the dynamics between Lorelai and her parents (Emily and Richard), as well as Rory and Lane. It also includes a few longing (or pointed, depending on how much of a romantic you are) glances from Luke who, at this point, is not much more than the guy with the cap who keeps Lorelai in coffee.
SEASON 1, EPISODE 10: FORGIVENESS & STUFF
This is one of a few episodes early on that foreshadows a lasting connection between Lorelai and Luke, as he makes her a Santa burger at the diner right before she heads to the hospital when she gets the call that Richard may have had a heart attack. It’s emotional and fraught, but Luke holds it together, even closing the diner to go with her. We also establish the great love between Emily and Richard, when, in fear that he might have died, she demands that she “gets to go first.” With Edward Hermann having died before the new episodes were filmed, this episode’s sentiments will loom large.
SEASON 2, EPISODE 22: I CAN’T GET STARTED
This episode is an emotional doozy that takes all of the ups from the season and brings them to a crushing low. Christopher proves to be just as unreliable as he always has been, at least when it comes to Lorelai. After the two hooked up the night before Sookie and Jackson’s wedding, he made it clear he wanted something more and, for once, the two appeared to be on the same page. But just before they walk down the aisle, he lets Lorelai know his very recent ex-girlfriend Sherry is pregnant with his child, and he’s going back to Boston to be with her and be the dad he never was with Rory. Sigh. Honourable choice, Chris, but as always, the Gilmore girls are the last on his list of priorities. Dean, Rory’s very first and a little too sweet boyfriend seems to have his days numbered, as Jess, Luke’s bad boy nephew, returns to town to see Rory after being banished for getting her into a relatively harmless car accident. The two kiss, right before Rory makes a run for it, and the season comes to a crashing halt.
SEASON 3, EPISODE 7: THEY SHOOT GILMORES, DON’T THEY?
The Stars Hollow Dance Marathon proves to be far more dramatic than anyone intends, when Lorelai guilts Rory into being her dance partner so that she can steal the winner’s trophy from fourtime champion Kirk (who else?). Dean watches much of the marathon, as the ever dutiful boyfriend, but catches yet another longing stare between Rory and Jess. Having finally reached his breaking point, Dean eventually gets into an argument with Rory, breaks up with her and leaves. She also runs off, ruining Lorelai’s chances at winning the competition, while Jess runs right after her and yet again, Kirk is declared the winner.
SEASON 3, EPISODE 22: THOSE ARE STRINGS, PINOCCHIO
By the end of this episode, Rory not only manages to have a lifealtering conversation with her grandparents, securing the possibility of Yale for herself and the Dragonfly Inn for her mother, but she graduates Chilton. And if you can keep a dry eye throughout her graduation speech, entirely in ode to Lorelai, her “guidepost for everything,” you are made of stone.
SEASON 4, EPISODE 2: THE LORELAIS’ FIRST DAY AT YALE
Rory officially moves out of Stars Hollow and into her dorm at Yale. Of course, Luke comes into play when Lorelai borrows his truck to help move Rory, and he begrudgingly ends up being involved with the drama. When Rory gets homesick a mere few hours after her mother leaves, Lorelai comes back and stays the night, organizing a dorm-wide fast-food taste test. And, lest we forget, this episode also includes the shocking (but fantastic) return of Paris. Plus, The Mattress.
SEASON 4, EPISODE 22: RAINCOATS & RECIPES
As always, the season finales of Gilmore Girls tend to drop heavy bombshells, and this one is no different. After four long years, we finally see Luke and Lorelai kiss and, for all intents and purposes, make it official. To top it all off, it’s the Dragonfly’s opening night. In fact, it’s also the night Rory loses her virginity, a moment that Lorelai walks in on, but is shocked to see who she finds Rory with.
SEASON 5, EPISODE 7: YOU JUMP, I JUMP, JACK
Luke finds himself at Friday night dinner with Lorelai, and is eviscerated by a particularly vicious Emily. And with the best arc of the episode, Rory delves into her biggest assignment yet for the paper: investigating The Life & Death Brigade, a Yale secret society that Logan is a member of and tips her off about. He and his friends blindfold her and whisk her off into their top secret weekend in the woods, which ends with her joining him in a death-defying stunt, all in a blue ball gown. In omnia paratus, indeed.
SEASON 5, EPISODE 13: WEDDING BELL BLUES
In the 100th episode of the series, Emily and Richard renew their vows at a lavish ceremony in which Lorelai plays Emily’s maid of honour, and Rory flawlessly plays Richard’s best man — all in a tailored suit, no less. The night reaches a fever pitch when Luke gets into a heated fight with Lorelai over Christopher, who has been a dominating presence in her life once again. Amping up the drama, after Rory notices Logan has come to the ceremony with a girl who suspiciously looks like a girlfriend, she goes after him and the two finally hook up. But just as things are getting a little more heated than we’re used to seeing with Rory, Luke and Christopher and, eventually, Lorelai, walk in. Disaster, yes, but one of the more deliciously compromising moments of the show.
SEASON 7, EPISODE 22: BON VOYAGE
While it wouldn’t be a crime to ignore the last two seasons of the show, most of which were written without creator Amy ShermanPalladino, the series finale feels like an appropriate final send-off — not only for Rory, who ends the series by leaving Stars Hollow to begin her adult life — but for fans. And even though it still goes back to the very beginning in many ways, by still leaving Luke and Lorelai’s relationship status up in the air, there’s no need to worry, because we’ve got four new episodes coming that will hopefully answer that very big question.