Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life – Winter

By starrymag | December 8, 2016

By: Taylor Gates

 

Rory (Alexis Bledel) returns to Stars Hollow. She looks perfect even after a long flight, much to Lorelai’s (Lauren Graham) annoyance. She can also only stay for a day so they take a speedy town tour. Rory gets a work call and must stand on a shelf at Doose’s Market in order to get reception. There she runs into Lane (Keiko Agena), who informs Rory that Zach (Todd Lowe) got a promotion at work and now must wear a tie. Meanwhile, Lorelai talks to Kirk (Sean Gunn) who informs her of his newest business venture: Ooober. Ooober is where people can call his mother and request a ride from him.

 

Rory rejoins Lorelai, who tells her the town chipped in and bought Kirk a pig, Petal, to stop him and Lulu from having a baby. Rory picks up a copy of the Stars Hollow Gazette before heading home. It starts to snow. At home, Luke (Scott Patterson) is in the kitchen making dinner. He dotes on Rory about her New Yorker piece before chastising Lorelai and Rory for their pre-meal snacking. Lorelai and Rory disappear into Rory’s room, talking about how Rory has finally made the decision to leave Brooklyn for good. She’s excited to finally have no rent or ties and just go wherever there is a story to write. She can’t, however, find her underwear or lucky outfit.

 

Luke announces that Rory’s boyfriend Paul (Jack Carpenter) is there for dinner, but neither he nor Lorelai can ever remember his name or anything about him. Rory forgot that he had even invited him despite the fact they’ve been together for nearly two years.

 

While getting ready for bed, Luke gripes about Lorelai DVRing a myriad of Lifetime movies. Lorelai stalls further by organizing magazines, as she’s afraid of having her reoccurring bathroom nightmare again. Luke lures her into bed by promising her she can watch a Lifetime movie all the way through. She gets woken up by the nightmare and the sound of Rory tap dancing her anxieties away and the two have a late-night conversation over coffee. Rory informs Lorelai that her latest piece fell through, but she’s banking on the other irons she has in the fire. Lorelai admits she’s been worrying about her mortality lately: she’s even considered going on a cruise. Perhaps it’s due to Richard’s (Edward Hermann) recent departure.

 

Taylor (Michael Winters) comes into Luke’s Diner, begging him for a testimonial about septic tanks so that Stars Hollow can get a sewer system. Luke refuses, ignoring him and giving customers fake wifi passwords. He shows Rory his new menus—her New Yorker piece occupies the back of every one. Kirk comes in, telling Luke about his new business venture. Annoyed, Lorelai promptly throws a few bagels at him. Paul comes in the diner as it seems Rory forgot him at home. He passes up breakfast, which horrifies Lorelai. When he goes to the bathroom, Lorelai tells Rory she needs to cut him loose. Lorelai and Rory leave the diner only for Rory to return a few moments later remember that Paul was still inside.

 

Michel (Yanic Truesdale) complains to Lorelai about how his husband is pressuring him to think about having kids. Lorelai is weary of the new pop-up celebrity chef at the Dragonfly. Her hatred is intensified when she realizes the chef (Roy Choy) moved the coffeemaker and she fires him on the spot. Michel accuses her of being too picky since Sookie (Melissa McCarthy) left. Lorelai gets defensive, saying that she’s happy Sookie is following her passion and saving the world at her new job working with crops in the wilderness.

 

Gypsy (Rose Abdoo) calls Lorelai, telling her the jeep isn’t ready to be picked up yet. Desperate since she needs to go to Hartford, Lorelai calls Kirk’s ratchet pickup service. His car’s engine backfires outside Emily’s (Kelly Bishop) house. Lorelai refuses to go in alone so she tells Emily’s new maid Berta (Rose Abdoo) that she’s going to wait until Rory arrives. Emily greets Rory warmly, but completely ignores Lorelai. It also appears that Berta’s entirely family now lives with Emily. There’s a huge language barrier, which makes communication impossible. Lorelai and Rory are shocked to find a portrait of Richard taking up the entire wall of the living room. Lorelai finally pushes Emily to admit that she gave the artist the wrong dimensions and didn’t intend for it to be that large. Lorelai tells Rory what went down after she left Richard’s funeral.

 

Flashback to four months ago: At the house after the funeral, Emily is in hostess mode. Rory is concerned about her. Lorelai and ex-boyfriend/Richard’s former business partner Jason (Chris Eigeman) share a moment. Luke fixes things around the house since funerals make him nervous. Rory has to get going back to London and Luke drives her to the airport while Lorelai stays behind.

 

Emily, Lorelai and a few of Richard’s closest friends go outside for a drink late into the night. At Emily’s request, they share their favorite stories about Richard. When it gets to Lorelai’s turn, she shares a depressing story of the time she was ten years old and Richard left for a business trip in the midst of playing hide-and-seek and an awkward anecdote about when she was fifteen years old and he walked in on her having sex. When everyone leaves, Lorelai apologizes to her mother—she was taken by surprise, it was late and there was scotch involved. She had a brain freeze and panicked. Emily, livid, refuses to accept her apology. She accuses Lorelai of premeditating this just to hurt her and never asking anyone, including Luke, what they want. They scream at each other some more, flinging nasty insults, until Emily finally kicks her out.

 

Present day: Rory wonders how Lorelai neglected to tell her all of this. Lorelai hoped that maybe Emily would have hidden her anger in front of Rory. The three Gilmore women plus Kirk have dinner. Emily expresses her concern that Rory has no permanent address. When Luke comes to pick everyone up, Emily refuses to let him sit in Richard’s chair. She then goes on a rant about how Rory’s vagabond existence isn’t normal or healthy for a 32-year-old.

 

When they arrive back at Luke’s Diner, Kirk begs Luke to lie to the public about his car breaking down. Lorelai tells Luke about Michel’s husband wanting a baby, asking him if he ever wanted another child. Luke decides that helping raise April (Vanessa Marano), Jess (Milo Ventimiglia) and Rory has satisfied him enough, but Lorelai still feels guilty she might not have given him an option. They decide to go to Dynasty Makers fertility and surrogacy clinic owned by the intense-as-ever Paris Geller (Liza Weil) to pursue their options. She handles Lorelai and Luke’s case herself, giving them the spiel complete with a top-of-the-line powerpoint outlining the process and their surrogacy options. She promises hefty discounts considering Lorelai is the only mother she ever had. Overwhelmed by Paris’ abrasiveness, Luke leaves the office. “No,” is all he says when Lorelai joins him in the hallway.

 

In London, Rory meets with Naomi Shropshire (Alex Kingston) about a co-writing an autobiography. Naomi is enthusiastic about Rory’s help, agreeing to split the profits from the book 50/50. They’ll start ironing out the details in a month when Naomi gets back from India. Rory, thrilled about this deal, shares the good news with Logan (Matt Czuchry)—who she always secretly stays with in London—and they share a few celebratory kisses. He warns her that Naomi is rumored to be difficult and a little weird, but Rory is confident she can handle it. Logan tells her this project could be great and Rory deserves that. They then reiterate the fact that their relationship is on a “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” basis. Rory gets an alert on her phone, reminding her not to forget about dinner with Paul. She mutters that she has to break up with this guy.

 

Paris comes into Luke’s with two of her top surrogates. She apologizes for freaking him out the other day, asking him to still consider her clinic. He calls the Dragonfly, asking for Lorelai. Meanwhile, Rory comes in, asking Paris if she can spend the night at her place and inviting her on an errand run. Paris tells her of course she can crash, going with Rory and telling her surrogates to close the deal while she is gone.

 

Taylor comes in while Luke is still trying to reach Lorelai, hassling him about the septic tank issues again. A customer continuously pesters Luke about the wifi password and Taylor finally snaps, telling her Luke has been giving out fake wifi passwords since he got it and everyone should go home and pay for their own internet. Feeling bad, Luke follows him outside and gives him a septic tank testimonial.

 

Kirk drives Paris and Rory to Lane’s house. On the way, Paris tells Rory she and Doyle (Danny Strong) are getting a divorce—he’s a successful screenwriter now, which is causing issues and they can’t work it out even for the sake of their kids. Rory frantically looks through her boxes at Lane’s house, but there’s still no sign of her lucky outfit. Lorelai calls her to say it’s not at the dry cleaners either. Hep Alien rehearses for Rory and Paris after Zach gets home from work and Rory convinces Lorelai to check on Emily.

 

Lorelai goes to Emily’s house. Emily is in jeans and a Candies shirt—much more casual than usual. Lorelai is, understandably, freaked out. Emily announces that she is de-cluttering her life, as the house feels like it is closing in on her. A woman at her club told her about an expert’s book; the author’s advice is to throw everything out that doesn’t “bring her joy.” Because of that, Emily is getting rid of almost everything she owns. She also tells Lorelai that she would like to go to Washington if she gets a terminal disease since they let you die on your own timeframe with dignity there. Lorelai pours herself a drink, encouraging Emily to do the same.

 

Lorelai tells her that nothing will bring her joy right now, as her husband has just died. She’s going to kill the author of that book that encouraged her to give away all of her stuff and then she will go to jail wearing jeans. Emily admits that she doesn’t know how to live without Richard. Lorelai wouldn’t understand, as she is not married. Lorelai says she and Luke are as good as married, but Emily doesn’t believe it. Lorelai encourages her to seek the help of a therapist if she doesn’t want to attend her grief group anymore. What would be the harm in trying?

 

Lorelai and Luke decide to text Paris and tell her that they officially do not need a surrogate. Kirk informs them that his Ooobering business is done for good since Uber is trying to sue him. Gypsy tells Lorelai that her car is done, but she needs to buy a need one ASAP since it’s on its last leg. Emily phones to tell Lorelai that she’s taking her advice and visiting a therapist. The doctor is so wonderful that she wants Lorelai to meet her. Lorelai revels in her victory before Luke makes her realize that she’s been played—now must attend therapy with her mother.