Season 1 Episode 1: The Pilot

“I’m gonna be in a Britney Spears video?”

One Sentence Recap: To everyone’s excitement, Rory gets accepted to Chilton, meanwhile Lorelai struggles to find the tuition money and finally turns to her estranged parents; thus, Friday Night Dinners are born. Oh yeah, and Rory meets a boy (Dang! that’s two…maybe next time? ya’ll, these are gonna be run-on sentences let me assure you).

My Commentary:  Ok, this is the one where it all begins.  When we first spot Lorelai she is walking through the town square to the familiar tune of The La’s “There She Goes,” firmly setting the 90’s tone, if her boxy blue coat and ribbed hot pink cardigan hadn’t yet clued you in.  I, for one, cannot decide if the song was a great choice or a terrible one (it’s seems a tad too literal. Lorelai=she, she’s going…”there she goes,” you get it, we all get it!), but I accept it because I am overwhelmed with a sense of happy nostalgia within the first few notes.  Quickly, Lorelai begs for coffee, a perfect introduction to her character, and we meet Luke.  I must interject here to say…. Luke is lookin’ good. Ladies? For obvious reasons I love Luke’s character, and yes, he is an attractive man, but I must say that Season 1, Episode 1, Scene 1 Luke might be my favorite.  Though his look doesn’t expand much from the flannel/baseball cap combo, but there’s just something about this particular one.  All I’m saying is that I too would buy five cups of coffee in one day to keep seeing that face, and this is coming from someone who orders exclusively hot chocolate at Starbucks.

Soon a young man approaches Lorelai and attempts to deliver a smooth, albeit very strange line: “You make that look good” (referring to the coffee). Can we all agree here that this is a weird thing to say? Does this imply that Luke’s coffee is only so-so? Or that the manner in which Lorelai sipped it was exceptionally enticing? I understand that it was simply an excuse to talk to the pretty woman, but still. Weird. Then he proceeds to hit on Lorelai’s teenage daughter, allowing their small age difference to dawn on the viewers.  He even presents a bizarre mother-daughter double date idea.  Blech, get outta here. Thankfully he continues on his way to Hartford, never to return again.

Wow, scene one is done and I’ve already written a novel. I’ll get better at this I promise. Keep reading to see it happen before your eyes! #shamelessselfpromotion Anyways, let’s kick this in to high gear! What this pilot does better than any other is introduce secondary characters.  Stars Hollow is filled to the brim with quirky town weirdos, and this episode manages to acquaint the audience with about a dozen of them utilizing just a couple of lines each.  Luke grunts “red meat can kill you, enjoy,” Mrs. Kim warns “boys don’t like funny girls,” Mrs. Patty hollers “hands in the air, not in the nose!…1, 2, 3! 1, 2, 3!” Michel complains “people are particularly annoying today,” and Richard Gilmore drones “People die, we pay, people crash cars, we pay, people lose a foot, we pay.” Sookie is introduced as an extremely lovable ditz, although I do stand by the belief that her clumsiness is a little too extreme in this first episode; however, to their credit it is extremely well choreographed. But I mean, she hurts her ankle, gets stitches, burns her bangs, and almost starts a fire in one episode. It may be over the top, but it in no way prevents me from wanting a Sookie myself: a constant source of entertainment and a friend who would offer you “anything [she] has” in a time of need.  And then there’s Dean… Guys, you should know up front, I do not like Dean.  The first time I watched the series I was in love with Dean, the second time I despised him.  I’m not one-hundred percent sure where on the spectrum my feelings lie now, but they aren’t favorable as they once were.  I won’t get into my beef with him just yet, as he does not do anything particularly annoying this early on. Instead I will make just one comment. Boy, get a hair cut.

You all know the rest of the story, Lorelai can’t pay the “5 with a lot of zeros after it” tuition deposit and after much deliberation asks her parents for a loan.  They agree but require that she and Rory have dinner with them every Friday night.  The first one goes awry when a fight breaks out fueled by 16 years worth of deep-seeded hostility.  Rory briefly exclaims that she’s not going to attend Chilton.  But they finish back at Luke’s and all returns to normal, and by normal I mean their totally ab-normal mother-daughter relationship.

Luke even makes an appearance in a nice shirt! What are the odds? Him and Lorelai share a moment of intense sexual tension. Am I the only one who prefers him in a backwards baseball cap? I think it’s something about the hair.

Friends (can I call you friends yet? Psh, you just listened to me rant about television for several paragraphs, I think we’ve reached that level), it’s been a good chat. Until next time!

Who Won the Episode?  *drum roll please* ……Lorelai Gilmore! Though the show is called Gilmore Girls, Lorelai is the clear center of attention right off the bat. A decision that I greatly credit to the creators.  It would have been easy to make this show focused on the 16 year old Rory, especially on a network like the WB, but instead the show splits its attention, allowing it to thrive on both levels.  But back to the episode at hand, in forty-four minutes Lorelai manages to swallow her pride, do what’s best for her daughter, re-establish her relationship with her parents (not necessarily a great one, but a relationship nonetheless), AND prove that she is hands down, the coolest mom like, ever. She got to say “if you’re going to throw your life away, he better have a motorcycle!” for god’s sake! #goals

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Gilmorism Guide

• Adventures of Huckleberry Fin: a novel by Mark Twain, commonly named among the great American novels
• Antonio Banderas: is a Spanish actor, director, and producer, appearing in a number of high-profile Hollywood movies. Oh and did I mention he once looked like this? He’s got that sexy smoldering thing down.
• FloJo: Florence Griffith Joyner was one of the fastest runners in the world. She won silver and gold metals in the 200 meter dash at the 1984 and 1988 Olympics
• Jack Kerouac: American novelist whose best known work, 1957’s On the Road, was inspired by drug-fueled cross-country car rides that made him the voice of the Beat Generation; also the inspiration for this 10,000 Maniacs song
• Laura Ingalls Wilder: an American author of the Little House on the Prairie children’s novels, based on her childhood in a settler family
• Little Match Box Girl: Danish fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen about a poor young street girl who sells matches in the freezing cold of winter
• Macy Grey: an American R&B and soul singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, and actress, known for her distinctive raspy voice
• Menendez: A pair of brothers who are known for their conviction in 1994, as a result of a much-publicized trial, for the shotgun murders of their wealthy parents
• Mrs. Robinson: Character in the 1967 film The Graduate. Mrs. Robinson is a married woman who seduces a much younger man
• Officer Krupke: Beatcop from the Musical West Side Story
• RuPaul: Drag artist known for the international dance hit “Supermodel” (You Better Work)
• Ruth Gordon: Actress who won an Academy Award for playing a nosy, devil worshipping neighbor who poisons Mia Farrow with tannis root in the 1968 film Rosemary’s Baby
• Stephen King: an American author of contemporary horror, supernatural, and suspense
• Zsa Zsa Gabor: Glamorous beauty and sometime actress best remembered for slapping a Beverly Hills policeman in the ‘90s