Gilmore Girls - Season 2 Episode 21 - Lorelai's Graduation Day

[00:00:03] This is a Bramble Jam Podcast. Deck The Hallmark.

[00:00:21] To another episode of Deck The Hallmark. I'm Brian. That's Chad. That's Dan. Hi. Having a great time. If this is your first episode, bold move. Bold move. But I can see how you got there. This is a big episode. Big episode, but also it's mid-September at this point. It's pretty much fall time.

[00:00:49] I know. So maybe you're one of these folks like we have over on Deck The Hallmark that until Christmas time they don't listen and then they jump in for the Christmas. This is fall time. Maybe you jump in for the Gilmore Fall. Well, if that's Episode 21. I would recommend you start in the beginning, but you do you. You do you. You do you. I don't judge. Heaven forbid you listen and get the wrong opinion. You know what I mean? We wouldn't want that. I will. But if this is your first time, I love Gilmore Girls. These two over here have never seen it before. They're watching it for the very first time.

[00:01:16] But both are fans. I would say I'm a fan of the television program. But we came into this not knowing if we would be or not. That's right. Because we've never seen it. I have avoided virtually all spoilers. Yeah, I think I got a mild spoiler, not through anything here just from hearing something. OK, very, very mild. But I've not gotten any actual spoilers. Spoilers. I've got one of the hardest spoilers, an ornament spoiler, as I told you, Branch. I think it was a spoiler.

[00:01:41] A what spoiler? An ornament spoiler. Oh, remember, we had a sidebar with Dan went on mute and I told you about a certain ornament I got from your Bramble Fest. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it was a bit of a spoiler. OK, yeah, because I don't I just don't think there is such a thing as an ornament spoiler. But I guess I'm wrong. I explained you would know. Yeah, you got it. I will tell you in the time. Great. Great. Yes. Yeah. The spoiler I got was I found out how many episodes Jess was in. That is a bit of a spoiler from a standpoint of learning how much he plays a factor.

[00:02:09] Well, you had to know he's not going to be in everything like I know. Yeah. And I will say I in my head, I tried to mathematically make it make sense for him to be there the whole time if he's only in a certain number of episodes. And I guess it could work. So I don't know how much of a spoiler actually is. OK, but it was more than I wanted. But I'll say that. I did have a fun. I learned something fun about Lauren Graham, the person who plays Lorelai. Yeah. When she had to join SAG, she didn't have money for dues. So she borrowed the money from her father. Just like Richard. I thought that was that's crazy.

[00:02:39] Did she have to go to Friday night dinner? That's what I was thinking, too. You got to go to Friday night dinner. Today's a big day for Lorelai because it's Lorelai's graduation day. That's the episode that we're talking about today. I don't want to just assume we don't have any new reviews, Dan. You get it, Jack. It has been two weeks since we read our last review. Do we have any new reviews, Dan? It's been two weeks. It's been two weeks. And so it's weird that I'm even having to look this up. But we don't.

[00:03:07] And that's a little sad. Plain Penguin Stung is pretty good. But there was one we didn't after Plain Penguin was Best Podcast. Oh, we do. I'm sorry. Mackler Wright, not Macklemore. Ryan Lewis? Ryan Lewis. No, Mack L. Wright says, Good Time. I really don't care about Gilmore Girls, but always a fun listen with the boys. How about that? Thank you, Mackler Wright. Don't care about the Gilmore Girls. Yeah. That loves us. Listen for the good times. And this is a handle we all wanted. We all fought for it, but he got it. It's MattQ987654321.

[00:03:38] Jenny Jenny. It's his best podcast. And then the review is Love This! With three exclamation points. There you go. So I love what we're getting here. I love it. Please leave us a five star. Take that, Plain Penguin. Yeah, take that, Plain Penguin. We are... You can update the review whenever you want, and then I'll update what we said about you. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. This is the penultimate episode of season two. Excited to dive in. Let's do it.

[00:04:02] Lorelai's graduation day, May 14th, 2002, is when it premiered, and it went a little something like this. Lorelai is actively avoiding Luke, so she goes to Suki's for breakfast. It's a whole thing. We find out that Lorelai is going to graduate from business school at the community college. She was planning to skip the graduation, but Rory's not having it. Rory says, you should invite Emily and Richard. I'm sure they'd love to see it. Lorelai's not having that.

[00:04:28] Naturally, though, Rory is going to honor her wishes. She's not going to honor her wishes. She goes straight to Richard and Emily and asks them to attend, and she gives them tickets and says, If you can go and encourage her, come. If not, that's okay. She doesn't need to know that you have the tickets. Lorelai bumps into Luke, and they go and they do some awkward small talk. Lorelai gets a call from Christopher.

[00:04:57] He says, I sent you a basket as a congratulations on graduating. You know, as friends do. Friends are one to send baskets for congratulatory events. Rory gets a call from Jess. Turns out he's in the city and says that she should come visit. Turns out, so she hops on a bus immediately and meets up with him. They walk around the city. They eat hot dogs.

[00:05:25] Lorelai shows up early for the graduation and is shocked to find Emily there with a full film crew. A little extra. A little extra. Chad, would you do full film crew for graduation? Oh, yeah, of course. It's a major event. I do full film crew for just brushing my teeth. Yeah, and you know what? I can't wait to see that documentary. It's coming out. Oh, yeah, it's a good one. It's going to be really good. After an amazing day in the city, it's time for Rory to leave, but she clearly doesn't want to leave.

[00:05:54] After she gets on the bus, he asks, Why'd you come? Why'd you come to the city? Through the window. And she says, because you didn't say goodbye. He says goodbye, and off she goes. That's the last we'll ever see a joke. But off she doesn't go. Oh, no. The bus is delayed because of a crash. This is bad news. All the other graduates are giving Lorelai a hard time for her fancy mom and fancy film crew, and honestly, who can blame her? And she's like, listen, it's just a family.

[00:06:24] Guy. Wow. Nice. Nice. She's tying that in. She graduates, and Rory misses the entire thing. Oh, no. But she does look out, and she sees how proud her parents are of her. Afterwards, they take a picture together, and Richard gives her a graduation gift of money. This money, though, you can do what you want with her. Do some fun with this. No strings attached, no extra dinners.

[00:06:52] When Lorelai gets home, she's relieved to see that Rory is there, but less relieved to hear that the reason why she missed a graduation was because she was hanging out with Jess. She tells her that all she really wants right now is to just get dinner with her daughter, and so off they go. And that, my friends, was Gilmore Girls Season 2, Episode 21, Lorelai's Graduation Day. Yay! We did it. We did it. Yeah. Let's take a break. We'll come back.

[00:07:21] We'll break this episode down here on Deck The Hallmark. This episode is brought to you by our friends at Cozy Earth, which is honestly really great timing because it's fall. Well, kind of. It's fall in our minds. We're watching Gilmore Girls. We're feeling cozy. And there's one thing that we could add to the viewing experience to really bring the cozy over the top,

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[00:09:15] And after you place your order, they'll ask you where you heard about them. Tell them Gilmore the Merrier right now. Welcome back, everybody. Gilmore the Merrier today, Season 2, Episode 21. A lot to get to today. Let's break this episode down. We're going to start with the hot takes for us to share exactly how we felt about this episode. I'm going to start with you, Chad. Chad, happy graduation day. Thank you. You know, the takes are hot, but my tea is lukewarm.

[00:09:43] And I'm very bummed right now, guys, because I made this giant cup of tea. I took my first sip during the synopsis, and it is lukewarm. How'd that happen? I don't know. You saw me heating it up. I saw you do your whole process. Yeah. I don't know what happened there. That's tough. Yeah, so I have to quit the show. I don't know. It's a lukewarm take today. Oh, no. Oh, no. Lukewarm. I see what you did there. Really good. Yeah. Well, let's see if your takes are lukewarm. Right. Okay. My tea needs a backwards hat and flannel. Here we go.

[00:10:12] So this is a major episode leading up to the season finale. There is a lot going on here. Starts off nice and calm. They're walking through town. Rory has no idea. She's walking towards Suki's house, although presumably she's walked there a hundred times before. Yeah. But we'll leave that for another. We bump into Dean at Ducey's Market. Jess calls. There's much ado about nothing, which is weird and unsatisfying. It was like a summer Shakespeare festival. Yeah. All good and normal there.

[00:10:38] But then we see Rory all of a sudden, impetuously, impulsively even, leave for New York City. Now, this is like the most planned out person, aside from maybe Paris, that we see on the show. I mean, her whole life is planned out. Yeah. And in this crazy, important milestone day for her mom, she decides, I'm going to go to New York City, take a bus. And so we see Rory not just being interested in Jess, but Jess bringing out this whole new side of Rory. That's right.

[00:11:07] Which was crazy and possibly like responsible girl being so messy with this. So I was like, wow. At what cost? Lori was mad. Lorelei was mad. A lot going on just to see her. We'll talk about Chris McFarlane and Family Guy later because that's weird. Seth McFarlane even. Seth McFarlane. Yeah. Chris, though. You don't want to mess with him. Yeah. You don't want to mess with him. Chris McFarlane. Yeah. Yeah. Chris McFarlane, of course. Chris McFarlane. Yeah. Yeah. Living in a van down by the river. An Irish van down by the river. Yeah. Close, but different. Right. Yeah. You got it. It's my tea. It's not right now.

[00:11:37] And nothing's right right now. And it's all off. It's all off. Yeah. So that's it. It was a really great episode. The way the main thing was that Jess gets Rory to act in a way that she never has before and with big ramifications. So there it is. Great episode. I, I, man, this is just another one of those episodes where they're, they're doing this a lot lately where I just am reaching out to Rory and just being like, don't go. Don't. Not today. Not today.

[00:12:06] Cause you know, you know what's going to happen. You know, it, it, it, I don't. I don't think once she went to New York, I don't think any of us were shocked that she didn't show back up in time for the graduation. And so when she decides I'm going to skip school on this, the day of my mom's graduation, this, the day of my mom's graduation that she wasn't even going to go to except Rory said she should go. Rory talked into it. You're right. This, the day of her mom's graduation, the graduation that she said, don't invite my parents.

[00:12:36] And she did it anyway. Of course she's going to be there for it. She's not going to be there for it. And so when she gets, when she decides I'm going to go to New York city, oh, I just like, Oh, you knew it. You knew it. And you know what? I am very excited to see what happens next. And, uh, I, this is, this is just another one. This is an episode where it's uncomfy and awkward and all of that. And I love it. I love this show. I love episodes like this. It absolutely works.

[00:13:07] And, uh, I can't wait for next week yet. Dude, they're casually shopping in that record store and you're like, you need to get packed. You need to. Those buses get delayed. Yeah. It's not like it's New York city or something. I was about to say, you trusted the buses. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I used to take those buses actually. I lived in the city. Same exact seats that she was when she was sitting in there. Wow. Wow. Around the same time. Early 2000s. There you go. Uh, Dan. Uh, yeah, this is a good episode.

[00:13:34] I don't know if I'm as high on it maybe as Brian is, but I think we like the show for different reasons. Um, I, there's some things I really loved about this episode and I also really continue to hate Richard and Emily in this episode. Um, any moment of pride completely unearned there. All I, I just desperately want them to show up and not make it about them. And I know that that's never going to happen. And I think that's part of the fun. It's a feature for most people, not a bug. I get that. Um, I have a lot of feelings about Rory missing Lorelai's graduation.

[00:14:04] I obviously frustrated for Lorelai for all that she's done for her daughter, but also like the thing about kids is you have to give them the chance to be irresponsible and learn from their mistakes. And because of who Rory is and who her mom is, that's not something she's gotten to do a lot of. Um, she's probably neurodivergent. She has been asked to be responsible for her and a lot of times for her adult mother on numerous occasions.

[00:14:33] She is expected to be top of her class, expected to be the brightest kid in the room, expected to be the most responsible kid in the room, expected to be all these things and be loved by everyone. And she's the, the pride of stars hollow. And so if you do that to someone, eventually they're going to break. They're going to find a path and go, I've got to at least dip my toe in the water of something that isn't this. Cause I feel like the walls are caving in on me. And so you do see that.

[00:15:02] And I think I've not exactly thought Alexis Bledel has killed it so far as an actor. I don't think she's bad, but compared to everyone else, I think it's been a little bit more of a challenge. This is her first acting job. Didn't we hear that? But yeah. And that did give me a little bit more sympathy for the situation, but I do think seeing her kind of with a furrowed brow, knowing what's expected of her and then knowing that

[00:15:26] she can't do that the rest of her life and trying something different to incredible consequences was actually really like kind of a relief for me. I mean, obviously I was, it was killing me. She wasn't at her mom's graduation, but also like, I think that, you know, doing that storyline along with her choosing Jess at the same time could be detrimental to their relationship

[00:15:53] because she's going to equate Jess with being the choice that has more negative consequences. Um, when Jess is involved, it doesn't go well for Lorelai. Almost always. Right. And so I, but, but there's something I really adored about this episode that I'm going to save for the feels, but this does evoke a lot of big feelings and emotions across the board. Uh, once again, I think the Gilmore girls shines and now that we're, we're, I will see how they do in the finale.

[00:16:21] But in the first season, the penult, the penultimate episode was a big showdown with Lorelai and Emily, and then the final episode, very little, uh, Richard and Emily, one of the best episodes of the series. This episode does all the things to make you feel uneasy and unsure. And like, you don't know who to root for very well. We'll see what happens in the finale. So it did its job. All right. Very good. Yeah. Uh, let's get to the feels.

[00:16:49] This is where we talk about lines that gave us feels or a moments in general chat. Okay. Well, last week, as you guys know, I was testing you to see how closely you're paying attention. I did my segment. That's right. You did. It was really good. No, no. I remember still that. I couldn't sleep that night. I was just like, what a curve ball from Chad. Exactly. Yeah. And I went all the way through as if acting like I didn't even realize it was the wrong You were, you were committed to the bit. Yes, I was. Method actor. Yeah. Thank you.

[00:17:15] Uh, so here I am now, you know, muddling through my lukewarm tea yet still pushing forward again. You're doing the best you can. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm really proud of you. Uh, so what we have here, all the feels. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, we have, first of all, betrayal feels. Dean is back in the picture now. He's back in town yet. Rory is visiting Jess and NYC. Okay, fine. But why are you dragging Dean along? You monster. This is after you wrote a letter to Dean explaining everything that happened. And he was like, it's all good.

[00:17:44] It's water in the bridge. You're safe. Took the high road. And then you do this to Dean. He said, as long as Dean, Jess is out of the picture, we're good. Right. And Dean just taking it on the chin again, man. He just can. Somebody put this guy out of his misery. Just full yeller. Like just whatever it takes. Oh my goodness. Take him out behind the independence in with a BB gun. One pump. One pump. Yeah. Single pump. Don't break the skin. Shoot guns. Drink beer. That's right. You got it. Tomorrow. Growth feels. I almost said that right. You're right.

[00:18:14] Growth feels. Growth feels. Rory is terrible by missing the graduation. But before she was lying and we weren't even sure if she knew she was wrong. Right? We were like, she's kind of a sociopath. What's going on here? But now at least she realizes it and admits it to her mom. He's like, you've got to punish me. You've got to do all these things. So we had that going on. Gross feels. You guys have been in New York City subways, right? Yeah, man. They're insanely gross. Sure.

[00:18:41] How are they walking down there with their hot dogs to eat in the subway? I mean, people eat in the subway all the time. It's vile. It's gross. They do it, though. Yeah. I've gotten a piece of pizza. There's nothing like being in New York and then you see the slices that they're selling in the subway, which is still just crazy to me. I've done that before. I've done subways. I hold my breath the whole time. So I hope it's not a long one. There were just two other quick feels. A cozy feel. Seeing Emily and Richard proud of Lorelai.

[00:19:10] I know you've got your issues. I like when they're in scenes. They were proud of her. They had issues. They were proud of her. You could see it in their face. She followed through. He gave her the gift. Growth? Nah. Not even a little bit. They weren't proud. They showed up. They showed up and made it all about them. Brought a whole camera crew. Absolutely proud that they got to be there. That's what they're proud of. But you see in their face. They are proud of the daughter for doing that. They got the thing that they didn't deserve to get. Because they didn't learn anything. I don't think that's fair. No. I think it's completely conditional, even with the big check at the end. He will not give in. I don't know what you want from me.

[00:19:39] You show up, make it about you hours early. Then you hand her a big check. It was always about you. Let's give you that, but let's still say they were still proud. Somewhere in the middle, they got to feel like a good parent briefly. F off. Absolutely F off. 100% absolutely not. How many one-star ratings is this going to get? I don't care. Go on, Plane Penguin and your family. Change first, then be a parent second. What do you think, Bran? You think they were legitimately proud, right? I think they were proud. Cool. I think they were proud. I didn't say they weren't proud.

[00:20:10] I wasn't disagreeing. You asked growth different. They were proud in that moment, for sure. Absolutely. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. So we're great. You love Richard and Emily. You heard it here first, but this is growth for Dan. It's growth for Dan. Loves Richard and Emily. It really rolls off the tongue. There's one more funny line, if you may indulge me, because it's too funny. You've only had six feels, so yeah. Well, then we can wrap it up. For sure, yeah. Here's the one with the lukewarm tea, brother. Yeah, I don't know what's going on here. It's getting colder, actually. I think we misunderstood the feel segment. All right, forget it. No, no, no.

[00:20:40] Do the last one. Do the last one. No, you'll never know now. Do the last one. Do it. Now they're begging. Last one. Okay, it was a very funny line. Lorelei says, I'm supposed to graduate from high school. Go to Vassar. Marry a Yale man. Get myself a proper nickname, like Babe or Bunny or Shih Tzu. I thought that was just hilarious. That is funny. Shih Tzu. Okay. When Lorelei pulls up to the house and she sees Rory after her missing the graduation, I'm like, oh boy, here we go. And she does the whole rattling off. She's giving the excuses.

[00:21:10] She is obviously leaving out the fact that she was with Jess until like five minutes into this apology. And then Lorelei goes, well, you sure know how to bury a lead. That's right. Yeah. Great line. And man, I love that. That scene is as awkward and cringe as it gets. And I loved it. Dana? Only one? Not six more? That may be my favorite scene of the series. And I'll tell you why it's my favorite scene of the series is because if you're a parent,

[00:21:38] like the three of us are, you know when your kid is really messed up. And you know that by the way they're acting. You know, there's, I'm sorry I got caught. And then there, I'm sorry I actually hurt someone. And you know that difference and you clock that difference immediately. When they're sorry they got caught, there's a consequence coming. When they're sorry they hurt someone and you see it in their heart and their soul, all you do is melt. You just do. At least as a parent, I think that's your role is to just be like, hey, it's okay. It's all right. We all make mistakes.

[00:22:06] And watching Lorelei in that scene, as hurt as she's probably ever been by her daughter, see, and because of Jess, see that she has every right to be angry, every right to bury her kid, every right to tell her off. And knows that when she was a child, that's what would have happened to her. And for her to take all of that information and go, let's go get something to eat. I love you. Amazing.

[00:22:36] Right. That was good. Amazing. Amazing performance by Lauren Graham. Amazing writing to break that cycle of terrible, traumatic, toxic parenting by showing your kid what unconditional love looks like. Perfect. Perfect. Jess, I mean, Rory was so wrong here. She was so wrong so many times and was so selfish. And Lorelei looks at her and she sees her baby girl and she just gives her a hug and she says, let's go get something to eat because all I want to do is be with you.

[00:23:05] Even though you missed a really important day in my life, it doesn't matter. Right. All that matters is you're safe and that you're here. 10 of 10, no notes. Perfect. Love that scene. All right. Let's take a break. We'll come back. We'll get to the way what? And the Rent and the Stars Hollow here on Deck The Hallmark. La, la, la. La, la, la. La, la, la. There we go. You know, when I'm remote, I can't do it because there's a little bit of time difference. Yeah, the delay gets you. Well, you got to make the most of it, you know. In person, you also seem to struggle with it.

[00:23:35] It works anyway. It's his tea brand. His tea. I'm still on delay. It's lukewarm. Right. All right. Let's get to the way what? This is where we talk about what in this episode made us go away what? He just can't do it. I'll start with you, Chad. Wait, what? This microwave is not full power. That's my weight. I'm going to go. I have a bunch here. I don't know what I was doing this episode. I got a lot of notes. It's a hog episode. You probably had normal tea. You're right. And it was really making you. Proper 160 degree Fahrenheit. I know. I like it.

[00:24:05] This is like 118, I bet. Oh, my gosh. Do you have a thermometer here? Yeah, let me go grab the thermometer, Brandon. You don't have a food thermometer? No, now you're in the office. Next time. That'd be a fun game. Guess the tea time. We get a lot of listeners. That's for the Patreon only, though. Yeah. Of course. That's right. What a YouTube short. Chad guesses the tea time. Even shorter would be the viewing time. I'll be honest. He takes a sip and he's like 158. We joke, but I kind of love this for the marathon. Really? Okay. Oh, yeah. That's a great marathon. We pull on a whiteboard. We do the whole thing. All right. You go. Go.

[00:24:35] Okay. I'm going to cut it down. He likes his tea at 160. I do not like the subway. I don't like New York City at all. Man, I love New York City. Wow. You ever lived there? Nope. Sure have. If you lived there, you might not. I don't know. See, I was born in a small town. Yeah, you get it. I'll die one. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. Hopkins. Shout out. South Carolina. South Carolina. That's right. Northern South Carolina by Jersey. Yeah. Northern South Carolina. Of course. That's right. So here we go. Rory, speaking of New York City, takes the bus to Port Authority in New York City. She goes alone.

[00:25:06] I know you're going to say, hang on. At this point, she has no purse, no bag, no cell phone. On the day your mom's graduating, then I know earlier on the last episode, Jess says, I hang around Washington Square Park a lot. Like, okay, it's a big city. There's a lot of people. He's out there all the time. He doesn't live there. She finds him immediately in a park in New York City. Yeah. And goes to New York City, hoping to just find him at Washington Square Park. That's a really big, wait, what? Bonkers. I mean, insane.

[00:25:34] I guess it's better than saying, hey, I'll be at Central Park. Right. Yeah. A little smaller. A little smaller. A little smaller. But then a major continuity issue. She has nothing on her. Nothing. And I double-checked that. I rewound. I took it to the tape, as we said. Yeah, you did. Nice. The tape-to-line. That's right. Yeah. And then there's a continuity issue. She's getting on the bus, and she has a giant backpack. Giant backpack. Which she didn't have before. And he didn't have an apartment to leave it at. She wouldn't leave it in Washington Square Park. I mean, I wouldn't send my 16-year-old into downtown Greenville with nothing. Right.

[00:26:02] I wouldn't put them on a bus and send them into downtown Greenville. You know, 80,000 people live there. I wouldn't send them there with nothing. Right. She went to the biggest city per capita of people per square mile of anywhere in the country with nothing. Yeah. Hoping to bump anyone. To a park where she immediately ran into the one person she was looking for. But Lorelai didn't send her there. That's true. It's like your kid could still go without a phone. That's true. No, you're right. If that's what they want to do with their choice. But they didn't even have cell phones.

[00:26:29] Like, he's calling her on like a pay phone, and she just bumps into him. So it was crazy. Yeah. Anything else, Chad? Well, Elise is saying Washington Square Park is not that big. I know that. But it's still not going to be empty with one person in the middle of the day. Yeah, I'm just saying it's a big wait what. She's just going there hoping to find him anywhere in New York City. And one of the odds he's there all day. Yeah, apparently he missed that. That was just week or he caught a break. You know what I mean? Yeah. There we go. Those are my wait what's. I mean, there are others, but I'm not one to go with a long list. No! He does one wait what. He does eight feels. That's how Chad rolls.

[00:26:59] Yeah, 100%. I have more if we need, but we'll go later. Oh, can I give you one more? Please do. Chris doesn't pay child support, correct? Didn't we establish this earlier on? I'm pretty sure that we, I mean, if he does, it's crazy that Lorelai has three mortgages on the house and is underwater. Right. I think we never, I don't think we ever heard confirmation one way or the other, but I think we assumed he did. We assumed. So taking that assumption, he buys Rory or Lorelai a nice pearl necklace. Like, put the money away for Rory. Help Lorelai pay off one of her 10 mortgages.

[00:27:29] That's all. Yeah. That was a little way what? Yeah. Knowing her financial situation, she doesn't need a pearl necklace. Plus she'll inherit a ton from Emily at some point. Yeah. If they give it to her, yeah. Possibly. We'll see how it plays out. Um, I got a kick out of the fact that Suki makes scrambled eggs, right? Yeah. And I couldn't help, you guys, you guys know hotel eggs, right? Like you see them and they look, they're not like traditional scrambled eggs. Like that look. They don't look fluffy. They don't look fluffy.

[00:27:58] And her eggs she makes at her house look the same as hotel scrambled eggs, which I would be like, like they almost like they came from a carton or something. And I, is Suki? I don't know about Suki. Suki doesn't strike me as somebody who would make traditional scramble. Right, right. On the eggs. I did not, I like scrambled eggs. Those eggs did not look appealing. They looked like the eggs that you would get at a hotel buffet, but they're in her house. They're in her house.

[00:28:27] Is she, which makes me wonder, is she taking like the carton of scrambled eggs? Taking them home or using them? I don't know. Eating them? I just, usually Suki, when it comes to the cooking, I'm like, yeah, yeah, she's got her stuff together. I was underwhelmed by Suki's scrambled eggs. Did you guys see the new Niall made her Ashley Williams movie? The pizza. Oh, God. That pizza. Yeah. Just not, just not good. That's a Sophie's choice right there. I think I'll take neither, but. Yeah. Yes.

[00:28:53] And I will say, Emily, if you do want to bring a film crew, I know that it's all a joke and it's also supposed to be silly and whatnot. But just any camera will do. Like, just put it up. She sends a guy with a, it's a full film crew with an actual film camera. And an audio guy. This thing is massive. But it is very funny when she goes on stage and they're following her up there and all that. I just, I don't think the community call, I know it's a community call.

[00:29:22] I don't think that we will allow it to begin with, but just get a camera. Any camera will do. Get Kirk out there. Get Kirk out there with a camera. That would have been way better. This whole film crew with a film camera seemed like a lot, even for Emily. I'll say it. It seemed like a lot, even for Emily. Dan? Yeah. So I, for years, was not a morning person. Jackson is not a morning person.

[00:29:51] And yet he sits upright in a bar stool with the sun blaring in his face, still asleep. Like people that aren't morning people, they just sleep until they absolutely have to get up. This bit that I guess paid off later was so weird. I just don't know of a morning person that is like, well, I don't, I hate the mornings. So I'm going to sit upright in a chair with no give. And like, I don't know. I just don't, I don't know how you could go.

[00:30:19] I just did so much of that was like, that was played for laughs. Just didn't work for me. What'd you think of the payoff at the end? I knew it was coming and it didn't do anything for me. Yeah. That was cute. I mean, it's fine. I like Jackson as a character. I just thought they just needed something for him to do and they made it up. That's what it felt like. At a school like Chilton, you're paying for a few things. One, you're paying for separation from folks that don't have the money that you have. That's what most people, like most parents, what they don't want to tell you is, is they

[00:30:46] don't want their kids hanging out with riffraff or a lower socioeconomic status than them. Gross. Riffraff. Street rat. I don't buy that. The other thing you're paying for. Put my kid at Chilton. That's right. The other thing you're paying for is what you think is a higher academic standard and a better chance to go to college. But the third thing you're paying for, and this is important, is that there are fewer kids per adult in the school.

[00:31:14] And if your kid were to skip school, you would receive a phone call immediately. Oh, yeah. You would receive an email now and a phone call immediately. Public schools are supposed to do that. But there's so many kids that sometimes they don't do that. At a private school like Chilton, the minute Rory doesn't, they are responsible for her all school day. The minute she does not show up to first period, a chain of events occurs where Lorelai finds out about that by nining up at the latest.

[00:31:44] Right. Like she, like the fact that Lorelai doesn't know, they would call her home. They would call her work. They would have it covered. So the premise of this entire episode hinges on something that would never happen at Chilton. Especially Rory who's probably never missed a day. Exactly. So that's even a bigger red flag. Right. Is she like never, ever misses a day. And she drives far. They could be legitimately concerned. Yes. Knowing her circumstances. So many reasons that you would hear from the school. The school's covering their own liability.

[00:32:11] They would call Emily because she's in the headmaster and stuff. Everyone would know. Right. 100%. Good point. They have a Kodak disposable camera and they take a, Lorelai gets a picture with her mom and dad and she's like, can you take a picture? And he takes one and hands it back to her. Right. Buddy, no picture has been taken on that camera yet. I don't know if you know this about those cameras. You don't know how the picture turned out until you develop them. Right. Maybe wind it up and take three or four. Let's make sure we get a good one. You know what I mean?

[00:32:39] Like let's, let's not leave it all to chance in one photo where someone could have been blinking. Yeah. Like why not get three or four pictures, help, help everyone out there. Make sure we get a good one and you don't get some bad ones when they're all, they're all developed. What was the deal? What was the deal with Richard was like, what is that a toy? It's not a camera. Like Kodak, those style cameras have been around for a long time by the year 2000. Oh yeah. Get outside Richard. Yeah. Come on, man. Yeah. Disposable cameras are a thing. Yeah. For a while. They still are.

[00:33:09] They're just very expensive now. That's all I got. It's time for Rent in the Stars. Wait, guys, before we move on, sorry, but we didn't discuss the cameo by- Oh, Seth MacFarlane. You mean Chris MacFarlane? Yeah. Chris MacFarlane. What did you guys think about that? What I found out was- Did anybody have it as a Rent in the Stars Hollow or were we just going to do it? Oh, did you? I thought that'd be more of a wait-what. That's fine. Yeah, I didn't. No, I didn't. So I saw him in the background. I was like, that looks like Seth MacFarlane. And then he started talking. I was like, that is Seth MacFarlane. God, I am a family guy. God.

[00:33:35] So it turns out that Amy Sherman Palladino's husband, Daniel, wrote on Family Guy with Seth MacFarlane. Okay. I knew that had to be a reason. And apparently he shows up two more times as a voice on a phone when they needed someone. Oh, really? What did you guys think about that storyline? It was so jackhammered in and weird. Like all he was going to do was be mean to someone who just met? I don't know. I didn't like it. I mean, it's a- I don't know. They needed to fill time and they needed to showcase Lorelai being embarrassed by her

[00:34:04] parents showing up and making it about them. And that's a great way to do it. But it did feel like Seth was doing a Seth bit. Every line, yeah. I could absolutely see somebody, some jackknob at a community college graduation, seeing a full film crew and being like, you seeing this thing? You guys seeing this out here? Who's this? I went to a Bible college for a year and then wanted to go to Carolina to get a history degree and they wouldn't take my Bible college credits, but the community college would. So I went to the community college for a semester to get an associates in arts. Yeah.

[00:34:34] And then South Carolina would take that entire- Full transfer. Yeah. Right. And my parents wanted me to walk at the associate. They were like, why don't you go and walk? Right, right. And I was just like, no. Absolutely. You didn't have a film crew? Is that why? Well, no, because I just was like, I literally did this to go and get a bachelor's degree. But I will say this. I can imagine someone at that graduate, I didn't go. But I can imagine someone at that graduation definitely being that person. Right, right. Okay. For sure. Fair. Yeah.

[00:35:04] Red and the Stars Hollow. What are we still wondering about? Predictions for the future? We've only got one more episode left. Ooh, I know. Big episodes. Wow. That's a lot of loose ends here going on. I have a lot of questions. So what happens, again, when Dean now has to learn that Rory skipped school, goes to New York specifically to see Jess. I mean, this is vastly elevated above where we were just bringing over food while Lorelai was out of town a couple of episodes ago. I mean, this is going nuts.

[00:35:30] I've not ever really wanted a Men in Black Neuralizer to be a real thing, but I think now would be the time. If I could neuralize Dean and just hit him with the butt one time and go, you're a hard worker. You're a great kid. Go leave this town. Go off and go on your next great adventure. I would love to do that for this kid because, oh my goodness, it is just, we're piling on like I've never seen before. Yeah, he's just stuck right now. We were piling on 12 episodes ago.

[00:35:59] We are really piling on right now. Yeah. Is it going to get worse than this brand? For Dean? Yeah. Oh my God. Wow. It doesn't, guys, it doesn't go well for Dean. Oh no. It hasn't. It has not and it will not go well for Dean. Much of it will be his own undoing. Oh, wow. I want to know, Richard hands Lorelei a check. This is mine. How much is in the check?

[00:36:28] Because it's like there's a certain point to where it's too much and then it's a straight like, but then there's a certain amount where it's not enough and you're like, you guys, that's all you could give me? Right. It's like, what is the gift? When you make your love conditional upon things and money, it is never enough. How much is? What did you guys think? So here's what I would say. I think a grand. That's what I thought. Well, no. Not nearly enough. Not nearly enough.

[00:36:54] You're paying, according to the chat, $5,000 a semester. I thought it was $5,000 per year. $10,000 a year for her daughter to go to school and there are strings attached all over that money. If you give your daughter a measly $1,000 for doing a thing you've wanted her to do for 25 years, you should burn in hell. You have millions upon millions of dollars. And he says, use it for something fun.

[00:37:22] That better be starting in money. That better be pay off a mortgage money. You think it's starting in money. That better be money, money. Are you kidding me right now? I think they ran through it and they were like, well, we can't do too much or else she's going to turn it down. We got to give her something. If you are Richard. I think $1,000 is that number. If you are Richard and present a check and make it a big deal, you go buy yourself something nice and it's $1,000 from those two people.

[00:37:50] That is like me giving Chad a dollar. That is nothing. I'll take it. That means nothing. The thing where I think Brandon and I are on with the $1,000 is because if it was such a big amount, they would have sat them down and said, let's talk about this. Let's make a business plan. Let's do it over Friday night. But how insulting is it to get a pittance from them when you know they're shelling out 10 grand a year, so however many years that is now, that's 20 grand right now. And that's easy money.

[00:38:20] That's just like, oh, this gets us dinner every Friday. But fun funds to him, pocket change would be like, here's a grant. I know, but why would he present it? Like if it's just a grand, it's like, here you go. You did it. A grant, like that would have been a lot of money in my family. $1,000 would have been like an unheard of amount of money in my family. But in that family, that's nothing. That's absolutely, that is an F you. That is a no, that's a nothing burger. He's, you know, he's not, he's not a, he's a man of a certain age. He's not comfortable sharing his feelings.

[00:38:50] I think that that was just how he, here's the, proud of you, here it is. All I know is this, is the people that buy love, I've known some, they don't come with the check that's anything less than eye popping. They don't do it because then they're not buying their love. The people that that's important to, they, their check is going to make you wow. It is not there to be an all thank you. So what do you think the amount is? I would say. More than what they're paying for children?

[00:39:19] I would say it has to be. No. There's no way because then it would be a thing. I don't think he would give her $1,000. I just don't think she's capable. But she wouldn't take it. If it's a certain point. For graduating? She wouldn't take it. So she's cool taking $1,000. If you have three mortgages and you're underwater, $1,000 is a lot of money. Why is she taking it? Because she knows it's not a lot to them. No, that's not the barrier. $5,000 is not a lot for them. And she took that because they got her daughter.

[00:39:46] I think $1,000 is a nice round number that they would give her for. She wouldn't take it thing I'm not buying at all. No. Because she graduated. You think that she would just take a no-strings-attached $25,000 from her parents? For graduating, yes, I do. I'm going to sit back and do it. 100%. No, there's no way. Let us know in the comments. What do you think? How much do you think it was? There's no way Richard shows up with a check that he considers insulting. Yeah, let us know in the comments. Or that doesn't buy him any love. This would be a good reel. Yeah. He's buying love.

[00:40:16] He's in the business of buying love. Let's put a poll on it. You don't buy love with $1,000. You don't do it. That's not love buying money. So you say $1,000. I say $1,000. You say like $20,000. I say, yeah, in the high five digits. $50,000, $25,000, somewhere in there. Enough to help and not enough to get her under their thumb. Richard doesn't strike me as the guy who is thinking this is buying love. Oh, yeah, he does. I think it's Emily doing that, and he's very passive. No, I think Richard is leading that charge.

[00:40:45] Really? I don't think so. He's completely aloof and out of touch with her personal life all the time. How does he make up for that? Here's a check. That is who he is. Yeah. And he's kind, but that's who he is. Well, the comments so far, Whitney's saying $5,000. Lisa's saying she wouldn't take that much more along the lines of you, Brad. My thing is this, is it would be enough money to make her wow, but not enough to fix her problem. Like, I'm not saying a million, guys. $1,000 is to do something fun. Yeah. But it doesn't do anything for Richard or for her.

[00:41:15] I just don't think that that's how. It's possible that she just wanted her to do something fun. A much more healthy parent gives $1,000. That's what a healthy parent does, and it costs them a little something. $1,000 that hurts them a little, that's a great gift, right? Richard's not coming with $1,000. He just does. I think that Emily is the mastermind behind how do I manipulate my daughter with everything. I think that Richard is a very passive, not, not, like, this is just, you know, he's not

[00:41:43] thinking about it like, oh, this is going to get me something with her. This is a guy who's not involved in his daughter's life, and he's just like, this is how, this is what I should do. $1,000, that sounds good. She'll do something fun. I think Emily manipulates with passive aggression and words, and Richard makes up for his complete out-of-touchness with his checkbook, because that is an MO of a lot of people, and that's what happens. That's my take on it. We've got everything from 10K.

[00:42:12] 10K would have kind of been my floor. Would have been 10K. But that's a full semester. That's a full year. That's a full year. Yeah, but that doesn't, if she takes that and turns it into a year and says, ha ha, I'm not going anywhere, she's still out, she's underwater. Sure. So it doesn't, they know she can't do that. But it's not get out from underwater money, it's fun money. It's do something fun. That's right. Yeah, that's a richer do something fun number. His initiation fee at the country club costs 10 times that.

[00:42:37] He won't even pay a secretary what she's making at the other place because he's so cheap. He doesn't need that woman to love her. He needs her to work underpaid for him. That's what he needs. No, I disagree. But T, you got people in your camp too. So I think it's across the board. That's what makes it fun. It does make it fun. And you know how cold my tea's gotten during this discussion? It's so cold. We're going to be done so that you can go heat up your tea. We're going to be back next week. 88 maybe? Yeah, let's see. We're going to be back next week for the finale.

[00:43:04] We've got some bonus Gilmore Girl fans joining us next week. Host of the Gabbing Gilmore podcast. Shut up. They're going to be helping us break down this finale. It is a big finale. Lots to get to next week, so come on back for that. Until then, keep Gilmore-ing and be merry. Gilmore the Marry is a Bramble Jam podcast produced by Brandon Gray. And you have that Greenville, South Carolina. For more information on the show, give the Instagram a follow. It's a great one at Gilmore the Marry or Pod on Instagram.

[00:43:34] And leave us a five-star rating review. Tell us how much you love the show. And then if you want to get in on the live chat, video watch-alongs, ad-free episodes of Gilmore the Marry or Head on over to BrambleJamPlus.com. You'll thank me later. If you don't thank us later, we're going to be really mad at you. I'll give you one star. You're about to hear some ads that help keep the lights on here in the old studio. Thanks for listening. Or don't listen.

[00:44:03] It's really up to you at this point. It's at the end of the show. I mean, you're listening to me. Hi. But here they come. I promise they're coming. Yep, here they are. Happy day. Happy day. Happy day.