January 23, 2007: "It's a Big Bag of Weird in There"
Yep, that sentence can explain both Lorelai's head and much of this episode. We waited seven weeks, seven
long weeks for our
Girls to return. So where were the Lorelai and Chris struggles, the Luke and Anna tension, the Rory and Logan misunderstanding? They must've disappeared in rerun land and were replaced by seven Christmas trees, Chris' hugely garish stockings and Gigi and Rory's strings of cranberries and popcorn. OK, so Lorelai put Christmas on hold until Rory got back from London. She even did a dance with a coconut bra to make sure it didn't snow. (And for real, it didn't, not here in the Northeast. Maybe the bra worked.) Sure, that's sweet. But this whole scenario would have been
so much more charming, I don't know, maybe two weeks after the holiday? But not an
entire month later! It wasn't Stars-Hollow quirky, it was Stars-Hollow bizarre. And so was Lorelai as she tried to write Luke's character-witness letter. "Bicycle, unicycle, unitard, hockey puck, rattlesnake, monkey, monkey, underpants!" That's what she was coming up with? I mean
really. I can understand why she was so befuddled by his request - after all, she had to write wonderful things about the ex who got away. (When Luke formally shook her hand to thank her, her startled look was classic Lauren Graham at her best.) As much as she denied it, Lorelai had to dig deep to write that letter. That meant searching for her feelings, not turning into a blithering idiot. Good thing she was finally able to write the damn thing, hiding it from Chris the entire time. Which you know will blow up in her face.
Moving on. Loved every second of Lane - so much so that I'm starting to hope for a Zack and Lane spin-off. "Is it not acceptable to be a plus-sized woman is this culture?!" she yelled at a customer who'd asked if she was pregnant. (Our little drummer girl is carrying twins, but she does seem a little
too huge.) When the patron profusely apologized, she snapped, "Of course I'm pregnant!", slammed the plates of food on the table and waddled off in a huff. Hilarious. And how sweet was Zack, showing Brian how to hold a baby using his mandolin, and consoling Lane when she got upset about having had only a short window of time to rebel. "Sonic Youth has a kid, and they rock. Mick Jagger has like 15 kids. He rocks hard and then, like, makes another kid." Loved the way those two connected. Same for Luke and April, whose day of bonding was a pleasant surprise. Did you notice that April let Luke keep her microscope while Lorelai chose a telescope for Christopher? Can't help but wonder if it meant Luke's looking closely at the details of his life, while Chris' head is in the stars. That's the best I could come up with, in an ep that seemed mostly like a big bag of weird monkey, monkey, underpants.
