Rory is excited about her upcoming internship. She’s Googled Mitchum to find out everything about him, and she’s disappointed when Logan can’t tell her anything personal about him. Her first day is a little hectic and she calls Logan and begs him for tips. He gives her a few pointers, like Mitchum switches to decaf after four.

Luke goes to the Twickham house and finds Taylor underneath a pile of mannequins. He’s been trapped for two hours and nobody has come, so Luke convinces him it’s time to sell the place.

Rory mentions to Emily and Richard that she had dinner at the Huntzbergers, and they freak out because it’s been a whole week and they haven’t reciprocated. Rory tells Lorelai, and she insists on being invited, too. Rory says that’s fine, but Lorelai has to call Emily and tell her she’s coming. Emily says that if she comes to dinner this Friday, she has to come every Friday.

Richard calls Lorelai and says a guy he knows, Mike Armstrong, found out about the article coming out about the inn. Mike wants to possibly buy the Dragonfly and keep Lorelai on to manage it. Luke yells about how she just opened the inn and shouldn’t sell it. Lorelai says she has no intention of doing so, but then Luke changes his mind and says she should at least meet with the guy. Lorelai starts thinking it might be a good idea.

Dinner is annoying. Emily treats Lorelai like a redheaded stepchild all night. Logan says his building is ninety Kropogs from Rory’s, and of course Lorelai feels left out because she’s the only one who doesn’t know Yale slang. Emily gives Lorelai a martini with an onion in it. Logan steals a knickknack from the parlor as part of a Life and Death Brigade thing and leaves something from the last rich person’s house he was in. Of course Emily notices immediately and Lorelai makes Logan give it back. All through dinner, Richard and Emily try to drop hints that Logan and Rory should get married on Cape Cod.

After Logan and Rory leave, Lorelai tries to tell Emily and Richard to back off. She tries to tell them the Huntzbergers were mean to Rory and tells Emily Logan stole the knickknack. They don’t listen to anything she says and she gets totally frustrated.

Logan: Maybe I’ll just shoot you an email.

Emily: Shoot me an email. That is so clever!

Now that Luke and Lorelai have reconciled, Kirk is collecting everyone’s ribbons. Lulu won’t give hers back because it’s pink and she likes pink. Kirk has been having problems with his mother lately. She’s allergic to Lulu. Luke tells him he should move out of his mother’s house.

A photographer from a travel magazine is coming to the Dragonfly because it’s one of the top ten inns in Connecticut. Michel has been to California and he comes back with Botox and whitened teeth. He brings back a smog globe for Lorelai and He’s Just Not That Into You for Sookie. He also got to be on The Price is Right and he won a motor home. The Price is Right people drive up with it on the day the photographer is there, and it gets in the way. Lorelai gets pissed and yells at Michel. She feels bad later and tries to help him sell it.

Rory goes to Friday night dinner and Emily is surprised and disappointed when Lorelai doesn’t come with her. She thinks that because she told Luke to go back to Lorelai, things should be back to normal. She assumes Luke must not have done it.

Lorelai and Rory go shopping and they see Logan having lunch with some girl. Lorelai gets mad about him being on a date, but Rory says they’ve agreed to keep things casual. When Logan asks if she saw him, she acts like she’s totally fine with the whole thing. The next day, Logan’s friend Robert asks Rory to go with him to Finn’s birthday party. Rory accepts.

It’s a Quentin Terrantino themed party and Rory wears her Chilton uniform. Logan is Bruce Willis, his date is the Bride and Robert is “dead extra number two.” It looks like a pretty interesting party. Logan comes up to Rory and says he wants to leave with her, but she reminds him they both came with dates. Logan is bothered and he doesn’t like that he’s bothered.

Luke and Lorelai go on their first post-breakup date, and when they get back they find Kirk sleeping in the boat in Lorelai’s garage. He’s taken Luke’s advice and moved out of his mother’s house. He ends up sleeping in Michel’s mobile home.

Lorelai has gotten Luke a cell phone and he doesn’t know how to do anything, so Lorelai has put her number on speed dial for him. Emily comes to the diner and yells at Luke for not getting back together with Lorelai. Luke speed dials Lorelai so she can hear Emily’s yelling, so she races to the diner and tells Emily to shut up and get the hell out.

Kirk: I had an imaginary girlfriend for a while when I was younger, but she left me.

The night before the Gilmores’ re-wedding, Emily comes to Lorelai’s because she just picked up her dress. It’s not right and she wants Lorelai to fix it. She sees Luke fixing his boat when she gets there. He awkwardly congratulates her on her re-wedding, and she makes sure to tell him he’s supposed to congratulate the groom and offer the bride best wishes. Then she goes inside. Lorelai tries to fix the dress as quickly as possible and rush Emily out the door, but then Richard calls and says he hopes Emily is having a good time at her bachelorette party. Lorelai doesn’t know what else to do but call all her friends and make them come over. Emily gets drunk and has a good time.

Rory looks super cute in her best man outfit. Lorelai’s dress is kind of ugly. Emily’s dress is also kind of ugly, but the sight of her brings tears to Richard’s eyes. During the ceremony, Rory sees Logan whispering with some blond girl. When Lorelai sees Christopher at the reception, she finally tells Luke that she and Chris got drunk together after his dad died.

Chris gets drunk and stares at Lorelai and Luke all night. Rory frowns as she watches Logan and his date laugh and have a good time. Chris goes to another room and Rory follows him. He tells her about the first time Lorelai kissed him and says it was the greatest day of his life. Wow, that’s kind of sad, don’t you think?

Rory walks up to Logan and asks him to dance. Before Rory can even ask, Logan says the blonde is a friend of the family, not a girlfriend. Rory asks Logan if he’s ever going to ask her out. He says he’s not boyfriend material and he wouldn’t be able to commit to her. She insists she’s not looking for a boyfriend and just wants to date. He doesn’t believe her, but then she grabs a bottle and drags him off into the other room to make out.

Christopher sits down next to Lorelai and Luke. He tries to talk about old times and makes Luke jealous, but Lorelai does her best to discourage him. Then Cousin Marilyn says Emily wants a picture, so Lorelai goes off to find Rory. When she finds her making out with Logan, she yells at her. Then Christopher yells at Logan and then Luke comes in and starts threatening him, too. Rory and Logan slip away, and Christopher tells Luke he and Lorelai belong together. He says Emily came to him and told him it wasn’t too late for him. Lorelai tries to tell Luke she doesn’t know what Chris is talking about, but Luke takes off and Lorelai tells Emily she’s finished with her.

Babette: You may look highbrow, Emily, but underneath you’re just a broad.

Richard and Jason sign the documents that make their partnership official and Emily starts planning a launch party for the company. She calls Sookie and asks her to cater the party, and of course Sookie mentions the catering company she and Lorelai started. Kirk is looking for a caterer as well. His brother’s ex-wife, Lulu, is coming to town for a visit and he wants Lorelai’s help getting ready for his date. She gives him some advice about what to wear and tells him to take Lulu somewhere comfortable. Kirk chooses Luke’s. He sets up a video camera and does a taped rehearsal the day before the date. He’s surprised when the date goes well.

Paris is fighting with Jamie, Janet has a squeaky trampoline and Tana watches television too loud, so Rory is having trouble studying. She goes outside and finds a super special tree with that “studying vibe” and calls her mom to tell her all about it. A few days later, there’s a guy sitting under it and Rory demands her tree back. She goes back a few days later and gives the guy twenty dollars for the tree. Now just think about that. You’re sitting outside and some strange girl in a horrible green suede skirt comes up to you and tells you you’re sitting under her tree. How would you even respond to such a thing?

Emily is mad that Lorelai never told her about the catering company. After Emily lays on the guilt for a while, Lorelai insists that she and Sookie be treated like any other company she would hire. Emily makes them do a trial run and use the servants’ entrance. She gets really far into the planning, but then Jason says he’s planned a trip to Atlantic City. Emily has to cancel the party, and she goes to Lorelai and says she’ll reimburse her and Sookie because they won’t be able to use them. Lorelai starts yelling because she thinks Emily just put her through a bunch of crap for no reason, but Emily kind of starts tearing up. She tells Lorelai that Jason changed the plans and now she feels old and obsolete.

Lorelai goes to Richard’s office and yells at Jason for making Emily feel like crap. They argue for a while, and then Jason asks her to have dinner with him. She manages to forget how mad she is when he says Emily would hate it if they dated. She doesn’t say yes, but you know she’s going to. A cute boy can make you forget all about your mother’s hurt feelings.

Kirk: Say I was Tom Cruise. Where would you seat me?

Luke: In an acting class.

The girls are back from their European trip. Rory has a week before school starts, and she and Lorelai have every minute planned. The first day back is for handing out presents from Europe, so they put all the gifts in their backpacks and hit the streets. They pass Luke yelling at Taylor for putting in a window between his soda shoppe and the diner, and it reminds them they didn’t get him anything. Lorelai gets some jam from Jackson and makes a label to go on the jar so it looks like it came from France or something. Luke knows it’s fake, but he’s a good sport about it.

Sookie is getting very pregnant, but Jackson doesn’t want to know the sex of the baby. He’s even had buttons made so that nobody tells him. Rory takes a button, but Lorelai wants to know. Sookie takes her outside to the shed, where she’s keeping all the baby stuff. Everything is blue.

Walking down the street, Rory passes Kirk putting up posters with her picture on them. Apparently, Taylor has proclaimed her the “ice cream queen” as part of his campaign to get people excited about the imminent opening of his soda shoppe. He’s deeply offended when she says she can’t do it and tries to guilt her.

Rory opens the mail and freaks out when she realizes she wrote down the wrong date for Yale. She’s starting school in two days. She has a ton of things to do to get ready, so Lorelai, who is super happy she’s not required at Friday night dinner, offers to take care of it while Rory is at the grandparents’ house. Emily is annoyed that Lorelai isn’t there, so she manipulates Rory into staying all night to watch hours of videos of ballroom dancing competitions. Rory calls Lorelai and asks her to come rescue her. Lorelai and Emily start arguing, but then Lorelai’s jet lag catches up to her and she starts laughing uncontrollably. She ends up sticking around, and Emily falls asleep in her chair.

Luke is being weird about his cruise with Nicole and won’t talk about it at all. He finally tells Lorelai he and Nicole got swept up in the romance of it all and got married, but now they’re getting a divorce.

Luke, about his marriage: We tried to ignore it for a while, you know, went snorkeling.

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.

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).

Luke is trying to serve customers while construction is going on upstairs. Most diners are getting debris in their food, but Jess gives Rory an umbrella.

Emily has gotten two gift certificates for a spa and offers them to Lorelai. Lorelai is so excited about it that Emily decides to just give her one so she can use the other. Lorelai calls the place to make sure she and Emily have all separate activities, but Emily thinks it’s a mistake and changes everything so that she and Lorelai are doing everything together.

Paris gets an A-minus. It’s the first time in her life she’s ever received anything less than an A and she’s freaking out. She wants Rory to study with her, but Rory says she’s busy. Dean wants to come over, too, but Rory says she really just wants to have the house to herself for the night since that almost never happens.

Emily is thoroughly annoying and Lorelai can’t relax. I can relate. I have a co-worker who never shuts up. Lorelai manages to set aside her crabbiness, though. She and Emily go out for a steak since the spa only serves tiny portions of health food.

Paris comes over despite what Rory said and can’t believe Rory’s just staying home and doing laundry in her pajamas. Rory says they can study together for an hour, but then Jess shows up with food. He says Luke was worried about her being alone and wanted to make sure she ate. Jess invites himself to stay for dinner, so Rory invites Paris to stay as sort of a chaperone. Paris and Jess have a hot debate about books. Dean calls and says he’s coming over, so Rory tries to push Jess out the door. Dean gets there just as Jess is leaving. He’s furious. He and Rory start yelling at each other, but Paris steps up and says she asked Rory to invite Jess over because she has a crush on him. Dean is placated. After he leaves, Rory thanks Paris for the save and asks her to spend the night because that’s what friends do.

Emily and Lorelai go to what Lorelai calls a 60/40 bar, where sixty-year-old men try to pick up forty-year-old women. A guy comes over and flirts with Emily. They dance together, but when it turns into a slow number, Emily freaks out and says she has to leave. She feels like she cheated on Richard and she somehow manages to blame the whole thing on Lorelai. Back at the spa, Emily wants to know why she and Lorelai can’t have the same relationship Lorelai and Rory have. Lorelai says too much has happened between them, but they can find a way to bond. She suggests stealing the spa’s robes. It’s a real bonding experience.

The next day, Rory thanks Luke for the food Jess brought over the night before. Luke doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Dean walks by the diner while Rory is teasing Jess about bringing the food over. He puts on his sad puppy dog face.

Emily: They certainly do like their tofu here, don’t they?

Emily, to the guy asking her to dance: I shouldn’t leave my daughter alone.

Lorelai: It’s okay, the sitter will be here in a minute.

When Rory goes to sign up for summer classes at Chilton, Madeline starts talking to her about her plans for the summer. She’s forgotten she’s supposed to be mad at her because of the Paris/Tristin/PJ Harvey thing. Before Paris and Louise can shut her up, she tells Rory about an extracurricular called Rebuilding Together. It’ll look good to Harvard and she can help build a house. Rory decides to do it, despite Paris telling her she won’t like it.

At the next Friday night dinner, Richard takes Rory aside to apologize again for being so horrible to Dean. It’s really kind of cute how worried he is that Rory might still be mad at him. Back at the table, Emily is giving Lorelai the cold shoulder. Lorelai, never one for good timing, decides now is the perfect time to tell Emily about Max’s proposal. Emily tells her that’s nice and acts like she doesn’t care.

Lorelai decorates a hammer with pink feathers and rhinestones. She gives it to Rory to take to the job site of the house she’ll be helping build. Dean tries to get Rory to blow off the whole thing because he wants to hang out, but she tells him she can’t. When she get to the job site, Paris tells Rory about all the extracurriculars she’s done over the years. Rory freaks out because she’s not prepared for Harvard. When she gets home, she tells Dean she can’t hang out that night because she has to find someplace where she can volunteer or something. Dean gets pissy and they have a big fight.

Lorelai goes out to dinner with Max and he tells her his parents are thrilled about the wedding. It makes Lorelai crabby and she makes Max drive her to Emily’s house. Lorelai goes in and starts yelling, asking why Emily has never been happy for her. Emily says someone told her about the wedding a whole week before Lorelai could be bothered to share the news with her. Lorelai has the good grace to look sheepish as she leaves.

The wedding shower is thrown in the Stars Hollow town square and it’s a really big deal. Lorelai goes to the diner to try to get Luke to come join in the fun. He finally does.

Jackson freaks out because Sookie won’t stop talking about the wedding. He says he’s not ready to get married but he does want to move in with her. Sookie thinks he’s kidding. Dean tells Rory he shouldn’t have gotten so upset about something that’s going to help her get into Harvard. Rory apologizes for getting so obsessive.

The next day, Lorelai goes to Emily’s to apologize and to try to involve her in some wedding planning. Emily is cold at first, but finally relents, telling Lorelai her head is much too big for a veil and that she should wear a tiara like Emily herself did.

Lorelai, to Rory: Don’t those people have enough problems without having you as a contractor?

Rachel shows Lorelai some pictures she’s taken while exploring the town. There’s a picture of an old abandoned inn that Lorelai has completely forgotten about. Rachel offers to take Lorelai to see it. Luke’s a little weird about it, but he says he’s not. He acts like he’s just surprised that Rachel and Lorelai get along so well since they’re such completely different people. Right. Rachel tells Lorelai she wants to get more serious with Luke but that he doesn’t think she really means it. As a favor to Rachel, Lorelai talks to him and tries to convince him Rachel really wants to stay this time. Later, Rachel thanks Lorelai for making Luke believe in her. He’s emptied out a sock drawer for her.

At dinner one night, Emily is complaining that she needs more places to look for antiques. Rory tells her about Kim’s Antiques and invites her to check it out. Emily borrows some of Lorelai’s tennis shoes so Rory can take her on a walking tour of Stars Hollow. She goes to battle with Mrs. Kim over an antique deal, and when she leaves she’s in a great mood. Rory takes her to the inn. Emily meets Michel and thinks he’s just charming. Rory shows Emily the potting shed where she and Lorelai used to live. Emily kind of freaks out and leaves.

The next day, Emily calls Rory and starts asking her what her favorite color is and whether she likes *NSYNC or 98° better. At the next Friday night dinner, Emily shows Rory her new bedroom. She’s decided Rory should have a space all her own for when she’s in Hartford. She’s decorated it with boy band posters and Hello Kitty notepads. Lorelai says she thinks it’s kind of weird and Emily yells at Lorelai for hating her so much that she took Rory and went to live in a shack.

In other news, Lorelai goes to work one day and finds Roon sitting in the lobby. Sookie and Jackson convince her to give him a job so he can make some money and get out of Jackson’s house.

Michel, to Roon: Out of here, teeny-tiny man.

Lorelai, to Rachel about Luke: I told him about the underwear drawer.

Rachel: And the baseball cap fashion show?