Alexandria's Little Corner of the World

Last night's episode was entitled "I'd Rather Be in Philadelphia," a line Richard utters while in the hospital about other places he'd be rather than hooked up to the machines.

Show summary: Richard is in the hospital having suffered a heart attack. A coronary bypass is later required because of blockage to the arteries. Fortunately Richard recovers from the heart attack and from the surgery.

Emily's reaction to the news is at first stoic and even indifferent. She came directly from the club in her track suit. At first she railed on and on about how the people who worked at the club had a combined IQ of a grapefruit, she complained about having to pay for meals despite the steep club dues, then she remembered an article she read about how eating a lot of fish lowers your chances of a heart attack so she ordered lots of fish to be delivered to the home. Then while having dinner in the cafeteria, Emily called the family lawyer to get Richard's will and his DNR orders. Lorelai was upset over this and stormed out of the cafeteria. Later in the hospital gift shop, Emily broke down and said that she had been Richard's wife for more than 40 years, which was two-thirds of her life and she didn't know what she would do without him. She said that after his first attack (during the first season), they had developed a plan about what to do in such a case and that she was simply carrying out the plan because that is what she did. She told Lorelai about all the little things she did for Richard as his wife such as finding his glasses, whispering names he had forgotten to him, planning and packing his trips, etc.

Logan flies in on a helicopter when he hears of Richard's heart attack. He sits next to Rory like a dutiful boyfriend. They later go to the Gilmore house and get things to make Richard comfortable during his stay at the hospital, such as his record player and some of his favourite albums.

Lorelai tries reaching Christopher to no avail. Christopher has been missing since the previous evening when he stormed out on Lorelai after their fight about him being the rebound guy and second best to Lorelai's feelings for Luke.

Babette, who was with Lorelai when she got the phone call about her father, tells Luke about Richard being in the hospital. Luke shows at the hospital and is promptly sent away by Emily on errands like picking up Richard's car from the Yale parking lot. Later in the show he shows up with three bags of food for Lorelai, Rory and their family.

Christopher shows up at the hospital and see Luke talking to Lorelai. When Luke says that he should go, Christopher agrees with him. Lorelai tries to explain to Christopher that she didn't call Luke, but Christopher doesn't want to hear it. Rory then shows up and asks her dad if he wants to see Richard and Christopher agrees, leaving with Rory and Logan to see Richard. Emily catches onto the tension between Lorelai and Christopher and tells Lorelai that there is a silver lining to every cloud. Lorelai stares wistfully at the food Luke has brought, which is now sitting on the counter.

My commentary: Lorelai makes a comment about how her father looks when she sees him in the hospital for the first time. She says he looks "small." At the end, after the successful bypass surgery, she tells Luke that her father looks "tall" again. This rang true for me. When my dad is at his most vulnerable, I always think that he looks "small" or "frail" when most of the other times, in my head he is "tall" and "strong."

Logan and Rory felt more like best buddies than boyfriend and girlfriend in this episode. I don't want to see a make out session between the two while Rory's grandfather is in the hospital, but some affection beyond just a hug would be nice. Even when they were packing away the chess set, the conversation was generic, the kind Rory might have with Doyle even. The chemistry is gone between them now, I think. Logan has matured nicely though, I think. He showed how he could take care of Rory in a nice role reversal in this episode. In previous seasons, Rory has taken care of Logan (like when he hurt himself jumping out of a plane in a life and death brigade stunt) but now Logan was taking care of her. Another role reversal was how Logan is now the one with direction in his life, making business deals and with a general purpose to his day and his life while Rory flitters about, getting engaged in teenage antics with Marty and Lucy and without any plans about what to do post-graduation from Yale.

Emily's speech to Lorelai was a really good one -- Kelly Bishop also did a great job with the scene. And combined with the motherly advice Emily gave Lorelai about her marriage at the end of "Merry Fisticuffs," if one didn't know any spoilers, it would seem as if the show was setting the plot for Lorelai to really try to make her marriage to Christopher work. So knowing that ultimately Christopher and Lorelai will divorce, such scenes seem like a waste of time. They are fruitless, throwaway scenes that will lead nowhere because obviously Lorelai isn't going to heed her mother's advice.

Maybe I am alone on this (I seem to be for the most part at my GG forum), but I think Luke was out of line and presumptuous in going to the hospital both times. He couldn't have known that Lorelai and Christopher had had a fight and that Christopher wasn't with his wife, his daughter and his in-laws at the hospital. Considering that Luke just had a fist fight with Christopher, one would think that Luke would think twice about showing up at the hospital to be at Lorelai's side, even if they are friends. And while it was a nice gesture on his part to bring the food (didn't he think though that there would be food at the hospital or that Logan or Christopher could have gone to get food for the Gilmores if they were hungry, not to mention that usually you can't bring outside food to a hospital), it was stepping his bounds a bit, even as a friend. Friends know that sometimes they need to back off and let their friends figure things out for themselves or to just give them friends. And considering that these friends were engaged not so long ago, the situation requires even more sensitivity. Plus, Emily and Richard have never really liked Luke. They barely tolerated him while he was dating and engaged to their daughter. They would hardly like him more as their daughter's ex-fiancee. Why show up and cause more tension during an already stressful time for the family? If he wanted to be a good friend to Lorelai he could have found other ways to do so, such as calling as her other friends did.

Only two more episodes until apparently Christopher moves out of Lorelai's home. Ugh! The beginning of the end for us BB fans I guess. When I get the season 7 DVD series, I will just watch until the previous episode. I will block all the following episodes if this is the direction we continue on.

Labels: Gilmore Girls