Season 5, episode 13
Wedding Bell Blues
Lorelai has Luke order a pair of fishing boots for her because they're cute. Emily wants Lorelai to arrange her bachelorette party at five minutes notice, and spends half of her wedding throwing shade at Luke and Lorelai. As always, the suckiness of the coffee symbolizes how out of place the Lorelais feel.Logan comes to the wedding and Rory tells him she wants to be part of his whole open relationship thing. They end up in the backroom, where they end up having Lorelai walk in on them.
Wedding planner: Unnamed. Emily has no faith in her, and a drunk Lorelai thinks it's funny to sabotage her, but when she gets fired cousin Marilyn fills in.
Provides examples of:
- Bad to the Last Drop: The coffee at the wedding, which is usually a bad omen for the present event but foreshadows romance for the drinker. It's so bad Lorelai tells Chris to have some when she's mad at him.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Richard doesn't think they should separate and get married again more often.
- Betty and Veronica: Luke and Lorelai are in a committed relationship, like Betty and Archie. Christopher has his sights set on Lorelai, like Veronica pursues Archie.
- Blatant Lies: Lorelai keeps telling Luke "cousin Marilyn is standing right behind you" so they can't stop dancing. He sees through it.
- Call-Back:
- Lorelai finally tells Luke about the night she spent comforting Chris after his father died.
- Rory asking Logan if he likes her is very much like when she asked Jess the same thing.
- Luke cites his labor with the Yale mattress back in season four as one of his significant dad moments that Christopher missed out on.
- Captain Oblivious: Kyon doesn't understand how a married woman can have a bachelorette party.
- Captain Obvious: Luke admits to Emily that boats are supposed to float when they're finished.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Miss Patti calls Emily "Miss Gotti" when she starts to slur.
- Hates Small Talk: Luke even finds Lorelai's comedic impression of smalltalk with silly voices boring.
- Hypocrite: Lorelai is so mad at the entitlement of the rich guests at her parents wedding that she rearranges Emily's seating plan to have feuding people sit next to each other. The wedding planner ends up losing her job.
- Love Triangle: Luke - Lorelai - Christopher, except Christopher isn't quite as wanted as he thought.
- Metaphorgotten: "When a woman gives birth to a crack baby you do not buy her a puppy!" is Emily's way of saying that she is not handing her dress back to the seamstress who messed it up.
- Milestone Celebration: In-universe, this is Emily and Richard's second wedding, held on the fortieth anniversary of their original wedding. Out of universe, it is the hundredth episode of the show.
- Overly Long Gag: Lorelai's rendition of small talk bores even Luke.
- Papa Wolf: Both Chris and Luke to Rory, when they walk in on her half-dressed with Logan.
- Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Emily and Richard wage this on Luke the entire episode. Emily silently walks up behind him while he's operating a sandpaper machine, and they both pretend not to notice him when they arrive at the wedding.
- Pun: Rory leaves Emily and Lorelai to change into her suit. Lorelai tells her to change into Tora Birch instead.
- Reverse Psychology: Lorelai tells Luke he doesn't have to go to her parents wedding renewal. This makes him crack and agree to go to her parents' wedding renewal.
- Shout-Out:
- The title is the name of a song by Fifth Dimension.
- Rory is coming over to have a Cop Rock marathon with her mother.
- Rory uploads her Super Furry Animals and Arcade Fire albums to Lorelai's laptop.
- When Rory reasonably asks how she is going to stop Emily from having a drink, Lorelai tells her to show her Nick Nolte's mug shot.
- Miss Patty calls Emily "Miss Gotti", in reference to a song by General Degree with lyrics made of drunken slurred words.
- Emily falls asleep on Lorelai's Hello Kitty-pillow.
- Lorelai believes Ernest Hemingway never gave a crap about how wrinkled his pants were.
- Lorelai tells Rory to come back as Thora Birch.
- Lorelai says Jennifer Lopez has pretend weddings all the time.
- Lorelai calls her mother "Judy" when she wants to calm her bridal nerves with pills.
- Lorelai tells Luke they'll do the dance from Pulp Fiction and asks if he wants to be the Uma Thurman.
- Trying to find the right song to dance to at his and Emily's wedding, Richard went through Tony Bennett, Chuck Berry, and Frank Sinatra.
- Lorelai's taste in music when she was three was, in Richard's words, "not exactly Cole Porter".
- Wedding Bell Blues by Laura Nyro is played during the first dance at the wedding.
- Chris finds Rory's suit very Bugsy Malone.
- Moon River plays at the wedding.
- Lorelai wore her "Hell Is For Children" t-shirt to a funeral once.
- Stag Party: Lorelai improvises one for Emily, who gets wasted with Miss Patty and Gypsy. She only realizes that's what Emily wants her to do when Richard calls her from his stag party.
- Stop Being Stereotypical: Inverted as in the previous episode. Kissing a girl in a suit makes Logan feel like he's kissing a guy, so he would like her to start being stereotypical again.
- Take That!: Emily doesn't know how right she is when she says her seating chart looked like a drunk psychopath took a stab at it.
- Themed Wedding: Though unconfirmed, it looks like the Russian-themed wedding Emily said she wanted to throw Lorelai. Lorelai tells Luke that the main table is the Romanov table.
- Title Drop:
- The title of the episode is the same as the title of the song they dance to at the wedding, "Wedding Bell Blues".
- Christopher tells Rory that he can't think of anyone who wouldn't like being kissed by a Gilmore girl.
- Too Much Information: Marilyn wants Luke to be a gardener because having affairs with them is in now.
- You're Not My Mother: When Emily invites Christopher to the wedding, which leads to an argument that results in Luke storming out, Lorelai is furious and tells her off.Lorelai: You and me? We're done.
