Gilmore Girls Season 1, Episode 2
"The Lorelais' First Day At Chilton"
Original airdate: October 12, 2000
Writer: Amy Sherman-Palladino
Director: Arlene Sanford
Cast: Lauren Graham, Alexis Bledel, Melissa McCarthy, Keiko Agena, Yanic Truesdale, Scott Patterson, Kelly Bishop, Edward Herrmann
The pilot episode of Gilmore Girls gave itself a lot of room. It took its time, introduced us to the characters, and its obstacles came rather gradually, culminating in that intense-yet-hilarious Friday night dinner scene.
With the biggest conflict of that pilot—ensuring that Rory has both the means and the desire to attend Chilton—resolved, it’s perhaps surprising that “The Lorelais’ First Day at Chilton” is so much more drama-heavy than the episode it follows. It starts out with a fairly mellow cold open, in which Lorelai paints Rory’s nails (“Everybody knows that private school girls are bad. And bad girls always wear red nail polish.”), before Lane shows up with the new XTC album, exciting Lorelai enough to abandon this manicure to go listen.
Oh yeah — I didn’t mention Lane Kim (Rory’s best friend) in the previous recap since she didn’t have much to do. She’s one of my favorite characters, and I’m waiting until she gets a more substantial role in an episode to dive in.
Then, things start going downhill immediately when Lorelai wakes up late for Rory’s first day at Chilton. She has no clean clothes, so she puts on some Daisy Dukes and cowboy boots, then hurries out the door to drive her daughter to school. She throws on a big coat to meet the headmaster, only to find her mother waiting in the office, wanting to make an appearance so the school knows “they have a Gilmore amongst them.” Both the headmaster and Emily insist that Lorelai take off the coat, pushing her embarrassment even further. To her credit, Emily at least sees the humor in the situation (“Dinner, Friday night. No spurs, please.”). But back in Stars Hollow, others don’t even try to hide their judgment.
Rory’s day starts off no better, as she is immediately given a tough speech from Headmaster Charleston about the likelihood that she will fail at Chilton, given her starting the school year late and her unfamiliarity with a school so demanding. After leaving the office, she instantly catches the eye of Paris Geller. If Emily Gilmore is the best character on the show, Paris is certainly runner-up, an adversary to Rory who becomes a friend, and who from her first appearance clearly has more depth than is yet fully apparent. Fiercely academically competitive to the point where she sees Rory as a potential threat before they’ve ever said a word to each other, Paris only worsens the unwelcoming environment of Chilton. From the minute she enters the school, Rory is set up to fail.
But she won’t fail. After Rory accidentally bumps into Paris, making her drop and ruin her class project, she tries like hell to make it up to her, only for Paris to become even more aggressive. So, with playing nice off the table, Rory begins beating Paris to the teacher’s questions. If you can’t join ‘em, beat ‘em. With everything and everyone seemingly working against her, Rory steps up her game.
Oh yeah — we also meet Tristin, played by Chad Michael Murray, who begins taunting Rory by calling her Mary. Lorelai later informs Rory that this is his way of calling her a goody-goody, Virgin Mary. Tristin is an insufferable character, but only just barely worse than Rory’s actual boyfriends will be.
Lorelai’s day only gets worse as Emily begins worming her way into her and Rory’s home life. She insists on buying Rory extra school clothes, a parking space, and even tries to forcefully give the Lorelais high-speed Internet, since Rory needs the Internet for school. Eventually, Lorelai shows up in person, screaming at her mother, insisting that how she and Rory live their lives is their business, not hers, and that her paying for Rory’s school doesn’t give her a right to interfere in that. Emily may be stubborn, but she accepts that she’s crossed a boundary, and agrees to back off (for now).
Along the way, we meet several more Stars Hollow residents who will become regulars: the Gilmores’ neighbors Babette and Morey Dell, Sookie’s produce supplier (and future husband) Jackson, and of course, the first appearance of Sean Gunn, though he’s not playing Kirk, but a DSL installer named Mick. The lineup is growing, and along the way, the show is finding its footing. (Yet, somehow, Taylor still hasn’t shown up yet.)
This isn’t a perfect episode. Notably, a subplot where Lorelai flirts with a Chilton dad, who then shows up at the Inn and asks her out, doesn’t serve much purpose beyond Luke’s relief at Lorelai rejecting the dad, reinforcing their will-they-won’t they (a will-they-won’t-they set even more explicitly in stone when Lorelai subtly broaches the subject of her and Luke’s compatibility to Rory). Furthermore, the show hasn’t fully figured out what to do with characters like Lane and Sookie, beyond just leaning into their quirkiness for extra jokes. Still, “The Lorelais’ First Day at Chilton” is an improvement on the pilot, or rather a progression, showing how each victory reveals more challenges. And Lorelai and Rory’s grateful hug after school lets out shows that the worst days will end; hold your loved ones close, and hopefully you’ll come out the other side stronger.
Grade: A-
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