The Independence Inn has only one guest. The owner’s son is walking around with some official looking people to see about renovations, but he says they’re probably going to sell. Lorelai goes to Sookie’s that night to tell Sookie and Jackson that the inn is closing and she can’t swing her share for the Dragonfly because the money she thought she had is going to have to go toward Yale. She tells Rory the same thing, and in the scene directly after that, the girls are packing for their trip to Europe. Hey, if you’re having money problems, maybe now’s not the best time to spend a month in Europe.

Rory runs into Dean and he acts like a jackass until she starts offering wedding-planning tips. Luke and Nicole are going on a cruise and Lorelai teases him about how cruises make people get engaged. Luke later has a dream that Lorelai asks him not to get engaged.

On graduation day, Rory goes to Emily and Richard and tells them she needs money for Yale. She offers herself up for Friday night dinners and she and Richard come up with a payment plan. Everyone is happy. Before the ceremony, Rory tells Lorelai to put a bid in on the Dragonfly because Yale is covered. She explains what she did, and even though the whole thing was Rory’s idea, Lorelai cries manipulation. But she puts a bid on the Dragonfly and gets it.

Graduation is boring. Rory’s speech is kind of silly, Luke cries, Brad sings a song and the grandparents give Rory a car. Rory has been getting phone calls all day and the other person doesn’t say anything. She thinks it’s Jess, so when he calls after the ceremony, she tells him he was an ass for leaving the way he did and she loved him, but she needs to move on. After she says goodbye, we see Jess hanging up a pay phone in California.

Paris, to Headmaster Charleston when she gets her diploma: No hard feelings.

Luke, to Lorelai: You have got to stop assuming I take pens with me everywhere I go.

This is the Jess in California episode, which I’m really not a fan of so I’m going to be a terrible blogger and skip the California stuff. Basically, he finds Jimmy, meets Jimmy’s really annoying girlfriend and her kid, and then gets Jimmy to let him stick around for while.

Back in Stars Hollow:

Luke comes over one morning to tell Lorelai that Jess has left town. Rory has been stressing really bad over graduation stuff, so Lorelai decides not to tell her right away.

Lorelai finds out Rory didn’t qualify for financial aid for Yale. She’s kind of freaking out.

Miss Celine, the Gilmores’ fashion consultant, helps Emily and Richard pick out their outfits for graduation. They make Rory come over after school to help them. Lorelai goes to pick her up later, and Emily pretends dinner isn’t ready yet because she doesn’t want to invite Lorelai to stay. Then she says they have plans and Lorelai makes a big deal about the whole thing and asks if Rory would be allowed to stay for dinner if she wanted to. Emily says yes, but they’re going out. Then Richard comes down and says of course they don’t have any plans and he’s delighted that Rory’s staying. Rory, who has too much shit to do before she graduates, apologizes and says she has to go. Then she tells Emily her fight with Lorelai is stupid.

On the way home, the girls get stopped at the stoplight in front of the diner. Luke is sweeping the sidewalk, but when he sees Rory, he drops his broom and runs inside. Lorelai finally tells Rory that Jess is gone.

When they get home, Lorelai looks through Rory’s yearbook and sees that a lot of the kids who signed it are congratulating her for being named valedictorian. Instead of being weirded out and hurt by the fact that Rory didn’t think this was important news that she should share, Lorelai smiles and tells Rory she can freak out about graduation as much as she wants.

Fran from Weston’s Bakery has died. Sookie and Lorelai go to the funeral and act in a totally inappropriate manner. Fran had no children, so they have no idea who owns the Dragonfly now. They talk to the lawyer in charge of the estate and he tells them that as long as their check clears, the place is theirs.

After the funeral, Dean takes Rory aside and says he asked Lindsay to marry him. Then he gets pissed when she doesn’t immediately jump up and down for joy. He says Jess treats her like dirt and it’s too bad she can’t be happy for him. Oh, shut up, Dean.

Dave shows up at Lane’s in a suit. He tells Mrs. Kim he wants to take Lane to the prom and lists the reasons why he would be an okay person for Lane to hang around with (my favorite is that he doesn’t like soda because the carbonation freaks him out). Mrs. Kim cryptically quotes something and won’t tell him what it means. Dave comes back the next morning, still in his (now rumpled) suit. He tells Mrs. Kim he stayed up all night reading the Bible trying to find the quote but he couldn’t find it and he really just wants to take Lane to prom. Mrs. Kim says it was Shakespeare, but she’s really impressed that he read the entire Bible in one sitting. She herself has only done it three times. She says Dave can take Lane to the prom.

Jess’ father comes to town. Jess has never met him, but Luke has. He goes to Jimmy’s hotel and tells him to leave. Jimmy goes back to the diner after close one night and tells Jess he’s his father. He says he thought Luke would have told him he was in town. Jess is angry because Luke didn’t tell him anything. They sit down for a minute, and then Jimmy runs out. Jess yells at Luke for not telling him about Jimmy. Then he says he’s not graduating. When he refuses to agree to repeat the year, Luke tells him he has to go.

Lorelai starts asking Rory about prom dresses, and Rory freaks out and tells Lorelai everything that’s been going on with Jess and she doesn’t even know if she’s going to the prom. The next morning, Jess is on Rory’s bus to school. They chat for a minute and Jess says he couldn’t get tickets to the prom. After Rory gets off the bus, we see Jess’ big duffle bag.

Also in this episode:

• Taylor’s finally opening his soda shoppe.
• Lorelai calls Emily and tries to be nice, but Emily is still angry.

Jess: More coffee coming up. Glad to make your dining dreams come true.

The Gilmore girls sit around trying to remember what they used to do on Friday nights. Rory decides to call her grandparents because she feels weird not talking to them at all. The Gilmores are having a party.

The Booster club wants Lorelai to help out with something, so she goes to the meeting and is surprised when Max is the faculty adviser. He acts polite and distant, which freaks Lorelai out. After the next meeting, Lorelai corners Max in his office and tries to claim she was totally in love with him and she doesn’t know why she called off the wedding. Max really doesn’t want anything to do with her and says he doesn’t want to see her again. Surprisingly, Lorelai backs off and says she’ll respect Max’s wishes.

Lorelai offers Luke and Nicole a room at the inn for some reason. Because of the fire, most of the staff has been let go so Lorelai ends up doing turndown service. She makes it as totally awkward as possible. Seriously, it’s like she’s trying to make it an uncomfortable experience.

Jess gets called to the principal’s office. He’s told he won’t be graduating and therefore isn’t allowed to go to prom. This sucks because Rory was really looking forward to going to the Stars Hollow High prom and hanging out with Lane and stuff.

Lane’s band has their first gig: a party at a guy named Kyle’s house. Dave is annoyed with Young Chui because he won’t stop hanging around Lane. But without Young Chui, Lane wouldn’t be allowed to go to the party at all. Dave has finally had enough and he breaks up with Lane. After Jess shows the guys how to work the keg, Lane gets some beer. She drunk-dials her mom and tells her she’s in a rock band and is in love with Dave.

Jess has been crabby all night, and Rory finds him sulking in Kyle’s bedroom upstairs. They make out for a minute, but when Jess starts going for her belt, she tells him to stop. He’s frustrated and yells at her, and Rory leaves the room in tears. The first person she sees is Dean. When he sees Jess come out of the room after her, he figures he must have made her cry so he punches Jess. A big fight ensues and they end up on the front lawn. The cops come and tell everyone to go home.

Rory tells Richard and Emily that she’s going to Yale. They don’t react at first, but after Lorelai assures them that she’s totally fine with it, they jump up from the dinner table to call all their friends. Jess tells Rory that Yale is only 22.8 miles from Stars Hollow, and she’s really touched that he took the time to look it up.

Tobin the night manager comes to a meeting at the inn to talk about what they’re going to do with the place. Michel hates him. Tobin gives Lorelai a present because he knows her birthday is coming up. It’s just a candle, but Lorelai loves it. A few days later, Michel comes to the inn with his own present for Lorelai. Michel is feeling pretty good about himself until Tobin gives Lorelai her real present, some dead guy’s jacket (Joe Strummer from The Clash).

Luke watches Jess go to school one morning. As soon as he gets near the door, he cuts around the side of the school, gets in his car and drives away. Luke tries to talk to Jess that night, but Jess insists he has everything under control. Luke has lunch with Nicole and her parents the next day, and he loses it when they ask him if he might ever want children. The next morning, Jess leaves to go to school and freaks out because his car is gone. Luke tells him to just go to school and he’ll take care of finding the car. When Jess is gone, Luke smiles smugly.

Paris calls Rory and asks if there’s any more homework for her to do. She wants to keep her mind off things, but Rory says she’s done all the work she’s missed. Rory tells her to go out and do something, and Paris shows up at school the next day with her nose bandaged. She got it pierced after getting off the phone with Rory, and she was apparently allergic to the metal and her nose swelled up and she had to go to the emergency room.

Richard’s secretary calls Lorelai to arrange a lunch. At lunch, Richard tells Lorelai that on the day she was born, he went out and made a real estate investment in her name. That property has been sold and all the investors get a check. Richard gives Lorelai a check for $75,000. At Friday night dinner, Lorelai gives the money to Emily to repay her and Richard for Chilton. Emily is angry because she thinks it means Lorelai and Rory won’t be coming over anymore. Lorelai mentions that Richard gave her the money, and he gets upset because he didn’t want Emily to know about it. Everyone starts yelling at each other and the Girls leave. When they get back to Stars Hollow, Rory kind of yells at Lorelai for giving Emily the money that way. Lorelai is pissed. She borrowed money and she paid it back. Rory understands and apologizes. The Girls go to Lorelai’s birthday party.

Emily: I saw an open can of cream of mushroom soup. Nothing good can come of that.

Also in this episode: For Lorelai’s birthday, Rory gets the pizza parlor to make a huge pizza.

Other notes: I hate Bruce McCulloch (Tobin).

Rory has been accepted to Harvard, Yale and Princeton. While she and Lorelai make some pro/con lists to help them decide which one is the right choice, everyone else tells them not to bother because of course it’s going to be Harvard. Luke is very proud of Rory and gives her an awkward head-hug.

Jess has been named Employee of the Month at Wal-Mart. Luke goes to see him get his plaque even though he knows Jess wouldn’t want him to. Jess’ boss tells Luke how happy he is to have someone like Jess who will work extra hours on top of his regular forty a week. Luke is confused because he knows there’s no way Jess is working forty hours on top of going to school and working at the diner. He tells Lorelai he thinks Jess is skipping school.

The Edgar Allen Poe Society is staying at the inn and they put on a show at Miss Patty’s. During a never-ending reading of The Raven, Nicole and Lindsay give Lorelai and Rory the stinkeye. That night, Lorelai gets a call from Tobin, the night manager. There’s been a fire at the inn.

Everyone gets to the inn and starts trying to make arrangements for the guests to stay in nearby hotels. Sookie takes her kitchen staff to Luke’s the next morning so she can make breakfast for the remaining guests. Luke is pretty crabby about it until he finds out about the fire. By lunchtime, he and Sookie are working together. Rory entertains the guests’ kids with sock puppets until it’s time to go to school.

Paris has been at home watching soap operas since the disastrous speech at Chilton. Rory goes to her house after school and tells her to get out of the house and try to decide which of the many other schools that accepted her will be lucky enough to get her.

Stars Hollow folks are taking in guests from the inn. Lorelai has a few too many show up at her house. Rory goes to spend the night at Lane’s, but Lorelai has nowhere to go. She takes her pillow and blanket and hits the streets. She calls Rory, who tells her to go to Luke’s. Luke lets her in and makes the bed for her. Lorelai tells Luke about the dream she had where they were married. Nicole calls and Luke doesn’t tell her Lorelai is there. He tells Lorelai she’s been kind of a sore spot with Nicole since their first date. Luke couldn’t think of anything to talk about and may have mentioned Lorelai a little too often.

Lane is on the phone with Young Chui. Rory thinks they’re having kind of a weird conversation for a fake couple and she tells Lane it sounds like Young Chui actually likes her. Lane kind of panics. Jess knocks on the window and Rory talks to him for a minute. Lorelai asked her earlier if Jess has been going to school, so Rory asks Jess. He says he’s going “enough.”

Lorelai has realized that Rory’s pro/con lists clearly show that Yale is the best choice. When Rory gets home from Lane’s the next morning, she finds Lorelai has taken down all the Harvard stuff from her bedroom wall and replaced it with Yale stuff. Meanwhile, Lorelai, Sookie and Michel are at the inn. It’s pretty much ruined.

Michel: I’m looking for my cyanide capsule. Have you seen it?

Luke has new menus. Nicole said there wasn’t very much for her to eat, so he added some salads and got rid of some sandwiches nobody ever ordered. Lorelai, Rory and Lane give him trouble about it.

There’s a speech writing contest at Chilton and the winner will get to read his or her speech on C-SPAN. Rory doesn’t really feel like entering, but after Paris baits her a little, she decides she wants to crush her. Nerdy Brad is back. He’s been in a Broadway production of “Into the Woods” and now he’s returned with even more self-confidence than before. Paris still manages to scare him. Headmaster Charleston can’t decide if he likes Paris’ or Rory’s speech better, so he tells them it’s a tie and makes them merge their speeches together.

Sookie is making terrible food at the inn and getting complaints from guests. She thinks everyone is just crazy, but Lorelai tastes the food and says it really is bad. Sookie and Lorelai realize she must be pregnant. When Sookie tells Jackson, he immediately gets out the calculator and starts freaking out about preparing for the baby.

Rory and Paris decide to work on their speech over the phone, but then Paris shows up at Rory’s house. They work on their speech for about two minutes, and then suddenly Paris says she and Jamie had sex. She apologizes for letting Francie mess things up and then asks what Rory thinks about the sex thing. Lorelai comes home and overhears the conversation. When she hears Rory say she’s never had sex, she gets a really sickening smile on her face and actually says to herself, “I’ve got the good kid.” Fuck off, Lorelai.

Lorelai runs into Max at a drugstore in Hartford. He’s been teaching in California, but he’s back now. He and Lorelai actually have a nice conversation. She sees him at Chilton later when she goes to watch Rory’s speech. She tries to apologize for the way she treated him before, but Max says he’s fine, he’s over it. Then they kiss later in the coatroom. That kind of came out of nowhere.

Paris is late getting to Chilton for the speech, and when she finally does show up, her hair is a mess and she seems to be wearing pajamas. She walks like a zombie up to the podium when it’s time to go on, and doesn’t say anything while Rory does both parts of the speech for a minute. Then she suddenly starts ranting about Chilton and how she thought it was going to be so good for her. She pulls a small envelope out of her pocket and says it’s her rejection from Harvard. She goes crazy, talking about how she had sex so now she’s not allowed to go to Harvard. Rory starts to pull her off the stage and Paris tells the audience that Rory’s a virgin so Harvard probably loves her. Rory gets Paris to a quiet place and lets her cry on her shoulder.

When Lorelai and Rory get home, they find acceptances from Harvard, Yale and Princeton.

Paris: Why’d you use this font?

Rory: Because I was on the crack.

Paris: Pack your chastity belt, Gilmore. You’re going to Harvard.

Other notes:

• The promos for this episode were the most ridiculous display of misdirection I’ve ever seen. They showed Lorelai listening outside Rory’s door when she and Paris were talking about sex. The voice over said, “A mother will be crushed,” and the dialog was edited to have Rory say, “It was just time.”
• The actor who played Brad, Adam Wylie, actually debuted on Broadway in a production of “Into the Woods” in May 2002.

Taylor is having a family reunion at the inn. They’re all coming to town because the Stars Hollow High hockey team is in the regional finals for the first time in something like thirty years. Even Taylor’s family finds him obnoxious.

Rory thinks she has plans with Jess after Friday night dinner, but he never calls so she stays home all night doing nothing. She tells Lorelai she wishes Jess was more like Dean. Lorelai tells her it’s really not fair to compare one guy to the other because Dean was the perfect first boyfriend and he spoiled her.

Lane and Dave have worked out a plan with Young Chui, the guy Mrs. Kim has decided will take Lane to prom. Young Chui has a Japanese girlfriend his parents don’t approve of. The plan is for Young Chui and Lane to pretend to date for a little while, and then Young Chui will pretend to break up with her. Lane thinks this will make Mrs. Kim feel so sorry for her that she’ll let her go to prom with Dave. Lane and Young Chui leave to go to the hockey game while Dave, Zack and Brian play guitar for Mrs. Kim’s bible class (or something).

Rory is sitting around at home waiting for Jess to call. Lorelai tells her to get out of the house, so she goes to the hockey game. She’s hanging out with Lane while Young Chui talks to his girlfriend on the phone. The girlfriend isn’t really cool with Lane and Young Chui fake-dating. Neither is Dave, as it turns out. During a break from playing music, he runs all the way to the hockey game just to say hello. Lane thinks it’s cute that he’s jealous.

Rory and Lane run into a girl from Stars Hollow High named Lindsay. Rory can’t figure out why Lindsay is acting weird; they were always friendly before Rory went to Chilton. Later, she sees Dean and Lindsay kissing and figures it out. After the game, Rory decides she’s fed up with Jess. She calls and leaves a message for him telling him how she wants things to be from now on. Then she goes outside and finds Jess waiting for her with Distillers tickets. Lorelai asks her about her night when she gets home, and Rory is evasive. This, after the previous episode and because of the way the promos were edited, made me think she and Jess had sex when I first watched it.

Emily comes to the inn and tells Lorelai she’s not allowed to go home. Gran is staying there and she’s having some people over. She doesn’t want Emily to bother them. When Emily does go home, she sees Gran kissing a man who is wearing a purple jogging suit. Lorelai tells Emily not to mention the guy to anyone, but Gran insults her one time too many and Emily blurts it out in front of everyone. She apologizes later, but tells Gran she wishes she’d stop treating her so badly. They end up having tea together.

Emily, about Gran’s fella: He was dressed like a bookie.

Richard: I guess I’ve got a new daddy.

At Friday night dinner, Emily says she noticed Rory stopped mentioning Dean eleven dinners ago. Rory confesses that they broke up and she is now seeing Jess. Emily wants Rory to invite Jess to dinner. Rory agrees, but makes Emily promise to be nice. The next day, Dean and Rory each get pulled into Miss Patty’s to see a sneak peek at the one-woman show she’s putting together. Jess finds out they were hanging out together and gets upset, but Rory says it wasn’t anything they planned. Jess calms down and asks Rory to tell him about Patty’s show.

Dave, Zack and Brian are driving through Stars Hollow one day and Mrs. Kim sees them. She comes up to the car and Dave introduces Zack and Brian as part of a Christian combo he sometimes plays with. Zack and Brian are bewildered. Mrs. Kim tells Dave that Lane has a crush on him and he should watch out. Zack and Brian say they’re upset that Lane and Dave have been keeping a secret from them, but they think the secret is that Dave’s a Christian. They still have no idea there’s anything going on between Dave and Lane.

Lorelai is going to New York with Alex, Sookie and Jackson for the weekend and she’s worried about Jess and Rory having sex. Rory says she’s not ready for that yet, but promises to talk to Lorelai when she starts thinking about it.

Friday night comes around and Jess is late to dinner with Emily. When he finally does show up, he has a black eye. He won’t tell Rory where it came from, so she assumes he got into a fight with Dean. I get the feeling Jess wouldn’t mind trying to get through dinner, but Rory won’t let go of the black eye and keeps bringing it up. Jess finally gets angry and leaves. For once, Emily was perfectly nice through dinner.

Rory decides to spend the night at the grandparents’ house, and she talks to Lorelai the next morning and tells her everything. She puts Emily on the phone. Lorelai starts to thank her for being so nice about Jess, but as soon as Rory is out of the room, Emily starts yelling at Lorelai for letting Rory go out with “that thug.” Back in Stars Hollow, Rory goes to the market and asks Dean about Jess’ black eye. He says he doesn’t know anything about it.

Luke also assumes Jess got into a fight with Dean. Jess gets angry and tells him a swan attacked him. Luke thinks he’s lying, but Jess is totally serious. He says he’s going out onto the lake to get revenge on that vicious bird. Luke goes with him, and while they’re floating around in their boat waiting for the swan to show, Luke tells Jess he has to treat Rory right, and that means getting along with her family.

That night, Rory is walking by the diner. Jess comes out and apologizes for being such a jerk at dinner. He’s too embarrassed to tell her about the swan, so he makes up some other reason for his black eye. He and Rory make out a little bit, and when Rory gets home she tells Lorelai she’s maybe thinking about sex now. She promises to tell her before anything happens.

Jess: What the hell are raisins doing in a salad? Why can’t people leave well enough alone?

Mrs. Kim: David, who are all these unwashed boys?

Lorelai and Rory tell Emily and Richard about their plans to backpack through Europe and sleep in hostels and stuff. The Gilmores are appalled. They want Lorelai to call their travel agent. Emily sends a box full of old travel books that Lorelai remembers reading as a teenager. She and Christopher were planning on taking a trip to Europe after they graduated high school. Lorelai also remembers the day she realized she was pregnant. She was putting on her debutante dress to pose for her coming out portrait and couldn’t get it zipped up. Later, she remembers hiding on the stairs with Christopher while their parents discussed their future. Christopher was okay with the idea of getting married and working for Richard’s company. Lorelai wouldn’t let him give up his life like that.

Rory receives an invitation to Sherry’s c-section because that’s the kind of classy lady Sherry is. She decides to go so she can welcome her new sister into the world. Then one day she gets a call from a friend of Sherry’s. She’s freaking out because Sherry “totally screwed up.” She’s gone into labor a week early. The friend asks Rory to get to the hospital as soon as she can.

Sherry doesn’t seem to realize she’s actually in labor and she has Rory help her out with some work stuff. Rory’s fine with that. Then Sherry asks Rory to be in the delivery room with her because Christopher isn’t there yet and all of her friends had to go to back to work. Rory freaks out. She calls Lorelai and asks her to come. Lorelai is at Friday night dinner and tells Emily she has to leave. Emily can’t believe she’s actually going to go help Sherry. Lorelai says she’s going for Rory. Luckily, Christopher shows up before Sherry goes into the delivery room.

Being at the hospital makes Lorelai remember when she gave birth to Rory. She wrote her parents a note telling them she was going to the hospital. As Lorelai was being wheeled into delivery, Emily and Richard showed up and started yelling at her. Now, she sees Christopher’s and Sherry’s daughter, Georgia “GG” Hayden, and it makes her a little sad.

Before going to the hospital, Lorelai was asking Emily what she does when Richard goes out of town. She thinks Emily seems kind of bored and lonely, so she shows up a few days later with a DVD player and a bunch of Emily’s favorite movies.

Lorelai, about the box Emily sent: It’s heavy. Must be her hopes and dreams for me.

Also in this episode: Dean is working on Taylor’s construction crew next door to the diner. He goes to Luke’s to place an order for the crew and has a good time tormenting Jess. Luke and Nicole have a successful date, and when they get back, Jess offers to go out, “for about an hour.” It’s clear he’s offering Luke the opportunity to score with Nicole, and Luke smacks him upside the head for being so rude.