Well, Jess certainly took some names, and in the process, completely stirred some shit up. His little surprise visit now likely has Rory 1) breaking up with Logan, 2) leaving the DAR, and 3) moving out of her grandparents' house and back in with mom. Well, the last two are definite; the first one hasn't fully played out. Jess' rant did fuel the fire of Logan and Rory's first major fight. While Logan's jealousy was the petrol, the fire was how unfulfilling Logan's lifestyle has been for Rory. His skate-by attitude and incessant partying is not a world a do-gooder like Rory wants to live in. Granted, one argument usually doesn't end a relationship, but Rory's words are pretty revealing, basically reiterating Jess' revelation "This is about you, Rory! This isn't you." Now, while the Jess reappearance was great and makes this a classic, landmark episode for the series, the other storylines were blasé. Paul Anka (the stupid dog) gets sick, which brings up all of Lorelai's feelings of inadequacy about being a mother. Her teary speech to Luke was very thinly veiled. She cries were about how she is such an inadequate pet owner, but every statement in the speech is really related to her situation with Rory. It was a pretty heavy handed scene. It's obvious that the dog is there for transference - to give Lorelai a place to channel all her mothering. The fact that she also has to trasfer her woe to the dog is just one step too far. To round out the episode, Luke sponsors a girls soccer team after two sweet little tykes nervously ask him at the diner. In a one joke plot tangent, it turns out the tykes are killers with an Al Davis, "Just win baby" attitude. Couldn't they have just shown Rory fighting with Emily some more? Their exchange of "You're becoming more like your mother every day!" followed by "You're becoming more like my mother's mother every day!" was great - the perfect culmination of Rory's time at the Gilmores. But hopefully they don't keep Emily so completely unsympathetic for long.
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