Season 4, episode 20
Luke Can See Her Face
Lorelai has broken up with Jason and is being approached by stray cats. Luke tries to buy relationship books without showing Andrew the titles. Liz and T.J. are getting married. Asher Flemming has angina and Paris yells at hospital staff.
Tropes
- Age-Gap Romance: Nineteen-year-old Paris is finally realizing that Asher Fleming is old.
- Agree to Disagree: Subverted. Disagreeing about whether Jess should walk Liz down the aisle, Jess thinks he and TJ are at a stalemate. TJ disagrees about that.
- The Beard: Discussed and gender-reversed. Rory tells Paris she doesn't want to be her beard anymore, since Paris is using her as an excuse to go by Asher's classroom.
- Big Stupid Doo Doo Head: The last time Luke was in a fight was in sixth grade. Vince Williams called him a doodyhead. He took it personally.
- Boyfriend Bluff: Sookie tries to set Lorelai up with Shel, the poultry guy, which Lorelai gets out of by pretending Luke is her boyfriend.
- Captain Obvious:
- Lindsay informs Dean that they are married.
- Paris is unimpressed with a doctor telling her the procedures are the procedures, informing him that she thought the procedures were a hat.
- Subverted. When Lorelai can't wrap her head around Jackson sleeping with the zucchini, Sookie reminds her that she told him to do whatever it takes to get her good zucchinis. Lorelai insists that she meant within reason, which Sookie doesn't think was obvious at all.Sookie: Oh, now you add that.
- Crazy Cat Lady: Lorelai is not a cat lady, but she is convinced that the local cats think it's time for her to become one. Lorelai firmly tells them that she still has a chance to find a boyfriend before she hits menopause.
- The Cynic: Jess is not buying that Liz has found the one.Jess: I'll just catch the next one.
- Distinction Without a Difference: Luke is aghast that Jess didn't stick around to hear what Rory had to say after his Love Confession. When he asks Jess if he "just dropped the bomb and ran," Jess clarifies that he got in his car and drove away.
- Foreshadowing: Lorelai predicts Dr. Phil books in her and Luke's future. By the end of the episode Luke is listening to self-help relationship tapes.
- Grammar Nazi: The three leaders of the Dragonfly all have their own opinion on how to spell "laundry".
- Hypocritical Humor:
- Lorelai instructs Luke to not add stuff from his to-do list to her to-do list, then gets upset when he went to New York without telling her because she needed stuff picked up from New York.
- Jess tells Luke about his Love Confession to Rory months ago. He insists Rory could have reached out at any time between then and now to return his feelings, but she didn't. Luke points out that Jess changes his phone number weekly.
- Insane Troll Logic: Andrew wonders if the reason Luke is refusing to show him the books he's trying to buy is that they're porn, despite denying selling porn, meaning he's accusing Luke of bringing porn to the bookstore to secretively bring them to the cash register trying to buy them.
- Ironic Echo: While ranting about getting sucked into Liz's wedding preparations, Luke rhetorically asks Lorelai if she knows where he can find myrtle. She tells him not to add items from his to-do list to her to-do list. Then she learns he was just in New York, and complains that she had stuff she needed from New York. He tells her not to add stuff from her to-do list to his to-do list.
- Koan: TJ is inspired to ask himself: Where does a lap go when you stand up?
- Must Have Coffee: Lorelai couldn't sleep, so she drank all the coffee in her house and goes to Luke's at five in the morning and explains to him that she's out of coffee.
- Pregnancy Scare: Discussed by Rory when Lorelai tells her cats have started stalking her after she broke up with Jason. Rory thinks a cat on the porch beats a bun in the oven.
- Pun: T.J. considers nicknaming Jess "Reads" because he reads so much.
- A Rare Sentence: "He's sleeping with the zucchini" is a hard one for Lorelai to process.
- Reverse Psychology: Luke does this to Jess twice, both times accomplishing Jess being more willing to go to Liz's wedding.
- Seinfeldian Conversation: Luke's awkwardness around strippers makes T.J. reflect on how you "make a lap" by sitting down.
- Shout-Out
- Lorelai sees Dr. Phil books in her future.
- Luke informs his inspirational tape that he hasn't been hit with the Oprah stick yet.
- Liz's wedding dress makes her feel like Vanessa Redgrave in Camelot.
- Lorelai wants to watch Fatso with Rory. It's directed by Anne Bancroft.
- Rory calls Lorelai "Anne Sullivan".
- Lorelai recalls Toto running through fields of wheat.
- Jess surmises Luke has a lot of Jethro Tull records.
- Paris complains about being told to sit down. It's happened to her, Hillary, Martha…
- Luke spouts inspirational crap like a Bette Midler movie according to Jess.
- Stag Party: T.J.'s. Jess is nineteen or twenty, but invited to the strip bar and mud wrestling, and spends his time there reading.
- Stalker with a Crush: Glenn calls a girl on her lame excuse not to go out with him, because he knows her routine and purposely picked a time he knows she does nothing.
- Themed Wedding: Liz wants a renessaince wedding.
- This Is My Chair: Lorelai goes to Luke's early in the morning and unintentionally takes Kirk's chair. He demands it back. When she complies, he kind of wants the chair she moved to instead.
