Recap / Gilmore Girls S 03 E 08

Let the Games Begin

Richard convinces Rory to join him and Emily on a trip to Yale. Rory in turn convinces Lorelai. Kirk's dancing trophy gets stolen to shut him up. Rory and Jess try to spend time together, but they have an awkward time of it.

At Yale, Lorelai finds out that Emily stole Richard from a woman nicknamed Lynnie. Richard arranged for Rory to meet with the dean, but he didn't tell Rory about it beforehand, so she has to go in with baggy clothes and messy hair.

Maid of the week: Lilliana, who puts walnuts in salads.

Plot-relevant foods:
• Walnuts
• Tacos

Provides examples of:

• A Cappella: Richard reveals that he was in an a-cappella group at Yale. They were called The Wiffenpoofs.
• Added Alliterative Appeal: Linny Lott, who was dating Richard when he met Emily.
• Agony of the Feet: After a 24 hour dance marathon on Saturday, the girls can barely walk on Monday.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Lorelai's thoughts on Jess and Rory are: "she's 17, it's about time for a Jess."
• Ask a Stupid Question...: Emily's skirt fastening breaks while touring Yale, and Lorelai attempts to help.
  Emily: And what do you intend to do with that paper clip?
  Lorelai: I intend to carve something really dirty into the bathroom door.
  Emily: Lorelai.
  Lorelai: What rhymes with Nantucket?
• Blatant Lies: Rory claims to prefer burgers after she has let them age a bit.
• Call-Back: Rory never figured out that Jess had the Dean bracelet when she lost it, and Lorelai never figured out that he didn't steal it so much as he found it and kept it, so when Rory accuses her mother of thinking Jess would have stolen it if it hadn't broken in the shower, Lorelai makes an extremely inside joke that only viewers would get.
• Captain Obvious: Rory comments that Luke's apartment seems bigger after they took down a wall inside it.
• Comically Missing the Point:
  • Rory thinks the list of backup luggage to pack for their Yale trip that Lorelai leaves on her dresser is a joke, having no previous experience with Emily on road trips.
  • When Richard takes Emily and the girls to show them where he proposed to Emily, and says there used to be a bench there, Emily exclaims "I can't believe it!" Lorelai mistakes it for her mother's usual entitlement, agreeing that for all the bench-placing people knew, their group might have wanted to sit down there.
  • Luke doesn't notice that Jess and Rory sneak off to hang out despite his own determination to keep an eye on them.
• Companion Cube: Kirk took his trophy to the movies. He refers to it as "she."
• Continuity Nod: Rory mentions to Dean that he was kind enough to attend her "stupid debutante ball."
• Gibberish of Love: After months of being friends and sharing a Commonality Connection in the form of books and music, Rory and Jess find it hard to talk to each other after their Relationship Upgrade. They run into each other at the diner and a conversation consisting of nothing but the word "hi" between Rory, Jess, Luke, and Lorelai ensues, much to Luke's confusion.
• I Was Just Joking: Luke is appalled he Failed a Spot Check and is determined to track Rory and Jess down. He insists Lorelai come with him, and she declines, but offers to let him sniff Rory's left-behind sweater if it will help. He picks it up, and she checks to make sure he's not actually going to do that. He's not, but takes it in case she's cold when he finds her.
• If Only You Knew: Rory accuses Lorelai of thinking Jess would have stolen the bracelet Dean gave her if she kept wearing it, unaware that Jess "found" it and kept it last year when it was missing.
• Immediate Self-Contradiction: Played With, since it's over the course of the episode. Luke is initially supportive of Rory and Jess's relationship, hoping that Rory will have a positive influence on Jess...until he's informed they just snuck off to be alone.
  Luke: How did you let this happen?
  Lorelai: Me?
  Luke: Yes, you. I thought you were against this.
  Lorelai: I thought you were all, ‘This is so great and Rory’s gonna change Jess.’
  Luke: What is she, a miracle worker? Come on, Lorelai, wake up – the guy’s trouble.
• Insane Troll Logic: Richard assumes Lorelai's reason for not wanting Rory to go to Yale is that he went there. She calls it a crazy reason.
• Insert Song: XTC's "Then She Appeared" plays in the background and then foreground of Jess and Rory's meet-up at the gas station.
• It's All About Me:
  • Richard and Emily both think Lorelai is doing this about Richard tricking Rory into having a meeting with the dean at Yale.
  • Dean thinks Rory's apology for how she treated him is this trope, as she talks more about how she feels than how he feels.
• Macgyvering: Lorelai jokes that she could build a scud missile with just a thumb tack and a paper clip.
• Meet the In-Laws: Richard planned on introducing Emily to his parents after he proposed.
• Non-Answer: To hide that she knows her mother is making up the Frank Lloyd Wright story without getting involved in the lie, when Lorelai asks her to confirm that Frank was murdered over walnuts, Rory says that the exact cause has not been proven.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Lorelai accuses Richard of dealing with problems this way, such as when he couldn't control her when she was a teenager and stopped dealing with her.
• Parental Obliviousness: Luke was unaware of Jess and Rory's Relationship Upgrade. Lorelai informs him after a very awkward, monosyllabic conversation that this was "Jess and Rory: The Early Years."
  • Luke fails a spot check at the end of the episode when Rory and Jess both give thinly veiled excuses to leave the diner so they can spend time alone, just after assuring Lorelai he won't be leaving them unsupervised. Lorelai clues him in.
    Lorelai: You know, they’re together now.
    Luke: What?
    Lorelai: Oh yeah. ‘I have to get a part for my car’, ‘I’m going to go study’ – that’s kid code for ‘Meet me at the previously agreed upon location far away from my clueless uncle.’
    Luke: You’re kidding me, right? You don’t really think that... damn, they are! They’re together. They used the kid code and now they’re together!
• Product Placement: Hector's Taco Shop in Hartford.
• Rule of Three: It takes Lorelai three tries to get the number of a cab company so she can remember it.
• Shout-Out:
  • Dire Straits inspires Lorelai as she waits for walnut-free salad.
    Lorelai: Now it's "your money for nothing and your chicks for free".
  • Richard claims his a cappella group was a hit, like The Beatles.
  • Jess compares himself and Rory to Romeo and Juliet.
  • You can tell a guy is a Yale student by his Kierkegaard, according to Lorelai.
  • Emily was the Helena Bonham Carter in her marriage after stealing Richard (Gilmore, not Burton) from his then-fiancée Pennilyn Lott.
  • Luke yelled "finally!" at the end of Love Story.
• Take That!:
  • The mere thought of Ari Fleischer makes Lorelai lose her appetite.
  • Lorelai thinks an unclean coffee pot is a good metaphor for New Haven.
  • Rory, on her part, recommends a book to a dean and tells him not to be fooled by the Oprah-seal on the cover; it's actually very good.
  • One of Rory's role models is Gloria Estefan.
• Too Much Information: Invoked by Lorelai, who hopes out loud that her parents' tour of Yale university does not include the vending machine where she was conceived.
• True Blue Femininity: Emily won Richard over with a blue dress.
• Wacky Marriage Proposal: Downplayed. Emily and Richard reminisce about theirs: Richard got annoyed with Emily and just handed her the box with the ring; Emily took one look at the ring, showed no emotion, snapped the box shut and said: "fine!"
• Writers Cannot Do Math: Lorelai claims Rory is 17, despite Rory's birthday being in October and this episode being close to Thanksgiving. She should be 18.

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