Season 7, episode 13
I'd Rather Be In Philadelphia
Rory calls Lorelai from the hospital to tell her about Richard's heart attack. They suggest bypass heart surgery. Zach fills in for Lane at the diner. Babette tells Luke about Richard's heart attack, so he goes to the hospital and offers to help out. Emily takes advantage. She also sends Rory and Logan to receive the fish she ordered and pick up music to play for Richard at the hospital.
Christopher ignores Lorelai's calls but gets her messages and shows up at the hospital just as Luke is dropping off food for the Gilmores.
Tropes
- All Women Love Shoes: Rory finds it unbelievable how many pairs of shoes Emily owns. This is the daughter of a woman who has admitted to owning 64 pairs of shoes.
- Brick Joke:
- Richard repeatedly says he'd rather be in Philadelphia. After Lorelai has tried and failed to get ahold of Chris and Rory asks about it, Lorelai says he might be in Philadelphia for all she knows.
- Lorelai and Emily's discussion about expressions that are clichés comes back at the end when Emily keeps talking in clichés to comment on her relationship with Christopher.
- Call-Back: Emily's reason for being practical is that she's following up the plan they made after Richard's last heart attack in season one.
- Continuity Nod: Rory mentions that she got Richard a Chuck Berry record for his sixtieth birthday.
- Cool Car: Richard drives a 2006 Jaguar.
- Fun with Acronyms: Rory is not a fan of the medical industry acronymizing everything, as it makes it hard not to get the various conditions and treatments mixed up.
- Gold Digger: Lorelai implies that her mother is this when she is angry that Emily has practical concerns.
- Immediate Self-Contradiction: Emily says to Lorelai she's not in the mood for tea, then Logan comes by and offers to fetch tea and she happily accepts.
- Malaproper: Discussed by Emily and Lorelai in line at the canteena.
- Mistaken for Romance: The Zimmerman's are not married as Michel and Lorelai assumed, but brother and sister, and would prefer separate beds.
- Product Placement: Persephone's, and fish in general. Duds.
- Shout-Out:
- Emily does not share Susanna Shaw's barbaric interest in Cormac McCarthy.
- Babette thinks Richard has chi like Warren Beatty, Sean Connery, and Henry Kissinger
- Abbott and Costello got nothing on Logan and the fishman.
- Rory economics class is gonna do a The Apprentice, with Richard as Donald Trump.
- Rory finds music for Richard such as Bobby Short, Cole Porter, Scott Joplin, and Chuck Berry.
- Emily's shoe collection rivals Imelda Marcos'.
- Rory fetches Milton Friedman's The Monetary History of the United States
- Logan found Bing Crosby and Gary Crossby.
- Richard might read Arthur Conan Doyle in the hospital.
- Stealth Insult: As usual, every word Emily says to Luke.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: Zach is filling in for Lane, and the thought of doing this trope gives him a sense of power.
- Technologically Blind Elders: Babette can't tell a ringtone from a smoke alarm.
- Title Drop: Dropped by Richard, who would rather be in Philadelphia than in the hospital. He would also rather be in Tucson, despite hating every aspect of the place.
