Gilmore Girls Season 1, Episode 3
"Kill Me Now"
Original airdate: October 19, 2000
Writer: Joanne Waters
Director: Adam Nimoy
Cast: Lauren Graham, Alexis Bledel, Melissa McCarthy, Keiko Agena, Yanic Truesdale, Scott Patterson, Kelly Bishop, Edward Herrmann
For the second episode in a row, Lorelai and Rory spend much of the runtime separated, in their own worlds. A significant contrast to the pilot, where the two were shown as inseparable, borderline intertwined, even when they were in the middle of a fight. Here, the Lorelais’ time apart hits a much more personal, bitter note for the elder Lorelai, as Rory spends a day with her grandfather Richard and ... actually enjoys herself.
Everything starts going wrong, as per usual, because of Chilton. According to Chilton rules, Rory needs to pick a team sport to play. Emily perks up when Rory mentions golf as a possibility, since Richard golfs, and against the wishes of everyone at the dinner table, suggests that Richard take Rory golfing. When Lorelai takes her aside and explains to her why it’s a bad idea, Emily calls her bluff: she’s really opposed to the idea because she hates the idea of Rory connecting with her grandparents. Earlier, Lorelai said that debate is a sport “the way the Gilmores play it”; now Emily proves her point, getting Lorelai to back off and let Richard take his granddaughter for a round of golf (though Richard kicks and screams about it more than anyone).
Over the course of their outing, Rory tries to get Richard to open up about his job. She tells him about her and Lorelai’s plans to go backpacking through Europe. And slowly, the two of them begin having fun, enjoying each other’s company; Richard brags about his granddaughter’s GPA to his acquaintances, while Rory spreads gossip to Richard using information she got in the women’s sauna. It’s about the best time Rory could have expected to have hanging out with her grandfather at his country club. And it’s close to the worst case scenario for Lorelai.
Speaking of, we get the most detailed storyline thus far relating to Lorelai managing the inn, as she’s in charge of a wedding. Not just any wedding, though; two sets of twins are getting married (how very Palm Beach Story). Lorelai does her best to handle things, dealing with the girl twins’ frustrated mother and Michel’s general cynicism (and fear of swans), but the stress of keeping this big event together coincides with her bitter relationship with her parents bubbling to the surface. Rory tells her how good her time spent with Richard was, and Lorelai is flabbergasted; then she becomes upset. Later, when she floats the idea of trying to make the golf day count as that week’s dinner, Rory rejects the idea. She wants to see her grandparents, chooses to. This is too much for Lorelai, and suddenly, she’s snapping at Rory, making up a reason to be mad—Rory borrowing her sweater without asking—so she doesn’t have to confront these complicated feelings.
The two of them reconcile at the wedding, with Lorelai confessing her feelings. It’s not just the feeling of losing her daughter in a way, but also mourning the fact that she can never have that kind of relationship with Richard and Emily. “Too much has happened,” she says. She can’t relate to Rory’s wanting to bond with them. But she doesn’t want to deprive her child of a familial connection, even if it means losing part of their own connection.
In the pilot, Rory replied “too late” to Luke’s warning not to turn into her mother. That extreme connection is slowly being chipped away, because it’s an impossibility. Rory isn’t Lorelai (I mean... you know what I mean). A daughter can’t be her mother. And that realization is a kind of death for Lorelai, the grief every parent feels upon realizing their kid is a person separate from them, and therefore will someday leave them. Lorelai and Rory like the same movies and music, they eat the same foods, they make the same niche pop culture references. But Rory can connect with Richard and Emily Gilmore in a way Loreali never could. That’s good. It’s also crushing.
In some ways, the show is still finding its footing. This is exemplified by Sean Gunn appearing a second time, again playing a character who isn’t Kirk, delivering swans to the inn for the wedding. Lorelai doesn’t seem to know him, so I have to wonder if he’s neither Mick from last episode nor the Kirk we’ll know and love, but a secret third thing. Perhaps, in addition to Kirk having new jobs all the time, he was meant to have a different name in each episode too? Who knows.
In other ways, “Kill Me Now” feels like a repeat—Gilmore Girls continuing to be Gilmore Girls well, but not adding much we haven’t seen in episodes one and two. We get several characters doing their schtick the same way we’ve seen it before. Luke gets upset at Rory about her supporting the “environmental blight” of golf, Miss Patty aggressively gives dance lessons, Sookie and Jackson argue about produce. Is it a bit early for the show to be coasting on how quickly it’s mastered being itself? Probably. But it’s cozy, it’s funny, the drama has bite, and if nothing else, the final scene—in which Rory, Richard, and Emily leave the dining room to look at a book Richard has found for Rory, leaving Lorelai sitting on her lonesome—is a devastating bit of symbolism. Enjoy the peaceful, comfortable familiarity while it lasts, because we haven’t even scratched the surface of how painful this show can get.
Grade: B
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