Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life – Summer

By starrymag | December 27, 2016

By: Taylor Gates

 

Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and Rory (Alexis Bledel) lounge by the pool, all the while complaining about how illogical it is to go to the community pool. Lorelai reads Wild while Rory continuously corrects people who welcome her back to Stars Hollow for good. Lane (Keiko Agena) and Zack (Todd Lowe) tell them that someone vandalized the floaty hut—something Luke (Scott Patterson) secretly donated.

 

April (Vanessa Marano) joins the family for dinner, telling them all about MIT and her plans to travel to promote pot legalization. April joins Rory in her room afterwards, confiding in her that she’s having anxiety and an identity crisis. Rory texts Lorelai to let her know what’s going on, leading to Lorelai and Luke having a serious conversation. Lorelai offers to help pay for April’s school and travel, but Luke assures her he can swing it as he’s her kid.

 

Rory calls Logan (Matt Czuchry), proposing going back to London sooner than planned. Logan offers to put her up in her favorite hotel, admitting that his fiancée Odette has officially moved in with him. Logan asks her to come out in a few weeks so they can figure out everything then. Rory reluctantly agrees.

 

Patty’s Dance Studio has officially gotten air conditioning, which excites everyone at the town meeting. Babette (Sally Struthers) introduces Rory to the Thirty Something Gang—a group of young kids all back in their childhood bedrooms. Rory; however, wants nothing to do with them, insisting that she’s different.

 

Taylor (Michael Winters) announces that Stars Hollow is going to put on an original musical he wrote. He’s hoping the event will help get tourist numbers back up. Lorelai and a few other people volunteer to be on the musical advisory committee. In sadder news, The Stars Hollow Gazette is shutting down because the paper’s editor retired and nobody is qualified to take his place. Rory is heartbroken and incensed by this news.

 

Rory and Lorelai return to the pool, this time employing some children to hold parasols to shade them. Luke is attempting to fix the floaty hut and lifeguarding. Michel (Yanic Truesdale) is also there, as his fiancée forces him to be around kids in order to train for fatherhood.

 

Babette and Patty (Liz Torres) are checking in people auditioning for the Stars Hollow Musical. Claudia (Kerry Butler), Lorelai’s therapist, is there, which makes Lorelai uncomfortable. Taylor announces they’ve found their lead: Violet (Sutton Foster). Rory charges into Doose’s Market, telling Taylor she won’t stand for the Gazette closing down. She agrees to edit the paper for free. Taylor takes her to the office, introducing her to the paper’s two elderly, sole employees: Esther (Jackie Hoffman) and Charlie (Charles C. Stevenson Jr.).

 

Lorelai takes Michel to The Secret Bar to celebrate his recent birthday and talk. He admits he had a meeting with another hotel in New York and he’s planning on leaving the Dragonfly. He desperately asks if there’s any way to expand the Dragonfly, but she tells him it’s not possible. Michel needs more to do and a bigger paycheck and he knows she’s already overpaying him as it is.

 

Rory is struggling with the outdated software in the Gazette office. To make matters worse, Taylor is critical of her decision not to print a seasonal poem on the paper’s cover. Lorelai visits her and the two share some scotch to drown their sorrows.

 

Luke is helping Lorelai out by cooking lunch at the Dragonfly, but the multitasking between that and the diner is clearly stressing him out. He demands that she hire a chef soon. Rory frantically calls Lorelai, saying she needs help delivering the paper. The two split up and frantically run around town, handing copies to anyone willing to take them. There are still a few kinks such as the fact that everyone is sad the poem is gone. Doyle (Danny Strong) also calls Rory, angry that she over-edited the movie review he wrote for the Gazette.

 

The next day, Rory calls Emily (Kelly Bishop) to check up on her. She’s concerned that Emily is still in bed at noon, as that’s out of character for her. Rory calls Lorelai out on not offering Emily the support she needs, but Lorelai reminds her Emily is the one who quit therapy.

 

Before the first theatre run through, Taylor makes the advisory committee promise they will not divulge anything they saw as they want to keep it a secret. He also directs them to the pens and notebooks under their chairs so they can make notes during the show. Violet and Carl (Christian Borle) both give interesting performances chock-full of rapping, dancing, romance, incest, drinking and history. Everyone on the advisory committee raves about how much they loved the production, but Lorelai trepidatiously admits she wasn’t a fan. Everyone accuses her of not understanding the theatre community.

 

Lorelai runs into Violet outside the theatre, who smokes a cigarette and calls her out on not liking her. She tells Lorelai she’s never taken the risks that theatre forces you to take. She storms inside to rehearse again, sarcastically thanking Lorelai for the doubts.

 

Rory visits Emily during a DAR meeting. The ladies leave shortly after she arrives to get to their hair appointments and Emily ushers Rory into the living room. Rory is horrified to find a television and dinner tray in there. She tells Emily she needs to get out of the house and socialize more, encouraging her to go to the club. Lorelai calls Rory, saying that Emily just sent her an email about visiting Richard’s gravestone—they’ve gone through four incorrect versions already. Rory insists that she and Lorelai go to support Emily and visit Richard’s grave.

 

Jess (Milo Venitmiglia) visits Rory at work before meeting up with Luke. They share a glass of scotch and catch up. Jess is doing well at his little publishing company, but he’s not in a relationship. Rory admits that she feels like a failure, but Jess assures her she’s not. Jess tells her she needs to write about something she’s passionate about, pushing her to consider a novel about her relationship with Lorelai. Rory takes his advice, looking up old newspaper articles written about them when they first got to Stars Hollow.

 

Lorelai goes to Emily’s patio where Emily introduces her to Jack (Ray Wise). Lorelai excuses herself to the kitchen to call Rory at the Gazette. She’s convinced Jack is Emily’s new boyfriend. Emily joins Lorelai in the kitchen and Lorelai confronts her about her relationship with Jack. Emily defensively says she and Jack have been close friends for thirty years and that’s all there is to it. Emily gets upset, saying spending time with Jack doesn’t mean she doesn’t care about Richard. She also asks about Luke and his franchise locations, which he still hasn’t told Lorelai about.

 

The three Gilmore women go to Richard’s grave while Jack waits in the car. Unfortunately, this headstone also has an issue—there are singular quotation marks instead of double. Rory tells Lorelai she’s considering moving to Queens while the two rearrange Richard’s flowers. Rory excitedly tells Lorelai about her book idea, but Lorelai is less-than-enthused. Lorelai tells her she doesn’t have permission to write her side of the story, but Rory won’t take no for an answer. She quickly outlined the first five chapters and thinks the ease of it is a sign she has to do this. Lorelai tells Rory she’s sacrificed a lot, but this is the one thing she can’t give her.

 

Lorelai goes into Luke’s, looking to pick a fight with him. She asks Luke how much longer he’s going to be grumpy, angry that he didn’t tell her about the franchise location search. Luke turns the tables back on her, asking why she didn’t tell him about Emily quitting therapy. She sarcastically asks if he wants to call Emily and confirm and he says they had an agreement when they got together—they keep their crazy families separate from each other. Luke says she’s the one that set up their lives; he just had to go along with it. Everyone in the diner gets uncomfortable with their fighting and leaves. Luke follows close behind, as he has to get his muffins out of the oven at the Dragonfly.

 

Rory is over at Lane’s complaining about Lorelai. Lane comforts Rory, telling her that Lorelai will forgive her. Rory reflexively dials Logan’s number as she’s venting. Logan assures her that she can still call him any time to rant, but Rory doesn’t feel right doing it anymore. She says they should end their arrangement and Logan tells her they can if it’s what she wants.

 

Taylor calls Lorelai, saying he has written a new song for the musical. Out of politeness, he is inviting her to see it. Lorelai goes and ends up crying at the emotional new number about not being unbreakable. Babette and Gypsy; however, remain unmoved and unimpressed. The song inspires Lorelai to tell Luke she is going away for awhile. She wants to do like the woman in Wild did—hike parts of the Pacific Crest Trail and figure some things out.