Stopping by Stars Hollow: A Critic’s First Watch of 'Gilmore Girls' – Season 1, Episode 14

This is the second time in my life that a TV show has come for my dating life. The first was the "Crucible Cast Party" skit on SNL. The second is the episode we are discussing today. So let’s stop beating around the bush and confront our dating transgressions by stopping by Stars Hollow.

Season 1, Episode 14: “That Damn Donna Reed”

Yay! A not filler episode… that somehow feels like a filler episode. What makes it feel like a filler episode? Probably the absolutely failed attempt to make a statement on feminism by having Rory dress up as a 1950s housewife and cook dinner for Dean.

It’s definitely the absolutely failed attempt to make a statement on feminism by having Rory dress up as a 1950s housewife and cook dinner for Dean.

I love when modern characters dress up in period clothing… as long as it’s done for a reason. The school is doing a production of Romeo and Juliet? Here for it. A character’s having a fever dream that places them at Woodstock? Perfect. But for Rory cooking dinner for Dean? Only if the reasoning is iron clad. And in this episode it’s most definitely not iron clad.

The argument of Dean wanting someone to care for him as much as he cares for them comes of as completely rude and shallow, while Rory’s pro-feminism argument also comes off as rude and shallow… There really is not overarching point to this argument, no stakes. They seem to be fighting over nothing because the dialogue does not make their arguments carry any weight. I can’t pick a side in their argument because they don’t really have a side to their arguments. Dean wants a wife who will make him dinner, Rory doesn’t wanna make dinner, Rory does research into Donna Reed, learns that she was a hard worker, than makes Dean dinner while dressed up as Donna Reed. Did anybody learn anything about the multifaceted nature of that? No? Great, then this episode just wasted half its run time in order to get Rory into a pair of kitten heels.

The Luke and Lorelai plot line? Good times. If this episode had just been the two of them playing hide and seek with a baby chick I would have been a happy camper. The dynamic between the two of them is lovely as always and this is really the first time we get to see the two of them play together for an extended amount of screen time. If this could have been what the entire episode was (which it should have been) it would have been great to have seen them have a consistent back and forth with Lorelai being the first person Luke calls and Luke being the first person Lorelai calls. This storyline really shows the codependent nature of their relationship and makes us very eager to see them finally get together.

But we don’t get to see that; we instead split screen time with a half-assed feminism argument.

The ending is gold too. A great use of timing to show us the great care and trust shared between Lorelai and Luke and then have Christopher sweeping in to challenge all that? Dramatic brilliance. It’s a great cliffhanger that would drawl the intrigue of even a part time viewer.

Let’s see how Christopher’s presence shakes up Rory and Lorelai’s life, turns Stars Hollow on it’s head, and provides with an episode that could (hopefully) by no means be considered filler in the next episode. And let’s also ponder why anyone would trust a teenager to raise a chick. You know they become chickens, right? What will they do with a full grown chicken?

Onto Season 1, Episode `15: “Christopher Returns”