Christiane Amanpour, Rory’s idol, is staying at the Dragonfly and Lorelai drags Rory out of bed to meet her. Rory doesn’t believe it’s really her, so she goes to the inn in her pajamas. Christiane gives Rory her card and invites her to stay in touch. Right.

The Girls are planning a roller coaster road trip, which sounds like a really awesome thing to do. Rory unpacks her stuff and comes across the rocket Logan gave her. She asks Lorelai about Luke, and she says she thinks they’re done because Luke can’t ever show her how he feels. Liz asks Luke if he ever gave Lorelai that necklace, but he says he and Lorelai are just friends.

Rory has a drink with that Hugo guy and when she gets to Friday night dinner, she says Hugo has offered her a job writing for his online magazine. She leaves on Monday to join Barack Obama’s campaign. Everyone gets pretty emotional. The Girls go to the diner the next morning to tell everyone the graduation party is canceled. Luke goes to the inn to talk to Sookie about setting up a surprise party for the next day. The whole town goes to Miss Patty’s to start making preparations, and they set up in the town square that night after dark.

Babette tells Luke it’s going to rain the next day so there’s no way they can have the party. Luke gathers as many tarps and tents as he can find and stays up all night sewing them together into one big tent. When the Girls leave the house the next morning to take Rory around to say goodbye to everyone, they see the big party going on in the square.

Richard and Emily are there, and Richard tells Lorelai she’s a remarkable woman for having inspired all this. Taylor gives a gross speech, Rory gets up and does her awkward public speaking thing and Emily won’t stop bothering Lorelai about putting a spa in at the inn. When she starts talking about loaning Lorelai the money for it, Lorelai realizes Emily is worried she won’t come over anymore. She says Friday night dinners will continue. Sookie tells Lorelai that Luke was the one who organized everything and made the tent. Lorelai goes to Luke and thanks him, and he says he just likes to see her happy. They have a big kiss.

Luke opens the diner early the next morning so the girls can come in on their way to the airport and have a recreation of the last scene in the very first episode. Lorelai is wearing the necklace Luke got for her.

First episode ending

Last episode ending

The end.

The combination of Rory’s graduation, Logan’s imminent proposal and her recent public singing to Luke has Lorelai all worked up. Liz teases Luke about Lorelai’s serenade and asks him what he’s done in response. He hasn’t done anything. He buys a pair of Liz’s earrings for Rory as a graduation present, and a necklace Liz is convinced he’s actually going to give to Lorelai. Lorelai goes to the diner and Luke comes downstairs just in time to hear her telling Patty and Babette that the song didn’t mean anything. Luke starts acting all cold and weird and Lorelai can’t figure out why.

The whole town of Stars Hollow is upset that they don’t get to see Rory graduate because she only gets four tickets. They talk Lorelai into planning a reenactment of the graduation. Emily and Richard throw Rory a graduation party and sing a song for her. Then Logan gets up in front of everyone and proposes to Rory. She doesn’t really know how to react and says she wants to talk to him outside. She tells him she has to think about it. Lorelai runs into Luke later that night and tells him about the proposal, and they end up snapping at each other about “some people” never being ready for marriage.

At Rory’s graduation, Emily is a big crab and can’t stop hounding Lorelai about what Rory is going to tell Logan. But all is well when Rory is handed her diploma and there are tears and applause all around. Afterward, Rory sees Logan and says she can’t marry him. She loves him but she doesn’t want to tie herself to California. She says she wants to try long distance, but Logan doesn’t want to do that. He says it’s all or nothing, and Rory gives him back his ring. Oh, Logan. I totally would have married you.

Meanwhile, Kirk has put himself in a Lucite box in the town square just to see how long he can stand it.

Taylor: Bathroom safety is a serious business.

Richard, about Bill Clinton: I wonder if he records books on tape. [This is funny because Edward Hermann, who plays Richard, records books on tape.]

Rory has a dream that she’s back at Chilton. Headmaster Charleston comes to the classroom and says there’s been a mistake and she has to leave. Then she gets home and Lorelai says she’s going to Hawaii. Paris and Doyle are in the kitchen having dinner with their kids. Doyle gives her money and then Paris sends her off to her job picking up trash. I guess this is a stress dream brought on by her rejection from the New York Times.

At Friday night dinner, Emily and Richard announce they’ve bought a place in New York and Rory can stay there when she goes to work for the Times. Rory has to tell everyone she didn’t get the fellowship. She gets a letter the next day from the Chicago Sun Times. They’re not hiring. She calls the Providence newspaper she turned down, but they’ve filled the position. Rory goes home to Stars Hollow and cries to Lorelai that she’s never going to get a job. Ugh. She calls Logan, and he tells her things will be looking up in the next few days.

Lorelai goes to the diner and Luke is wearing his blue baseball cap, the one Lorelai gave him. Lorelai gives him some advice about his boat trip with April, which he takes. He’s really excited about the trip, but then April calls and says she’s gotten into a prestigious science camp and won’t be able to go with him. She’s really upset, but Luke tells her he’s proud of her and they can take the trip next year.

Zack gets a call from a great band. Their lead guitarist has broken his hand and they want Zack to take his place on their two month summer tour. Lane is ecstatic until she realizes taking a couple of babies on tour would be really difficult. Lane says she can’t go, but she still wants Zack to take the opportunity.

The whole town goes to see Patty and Babette do a weird cabaret act, and everyone does karaoke afterward. Rory says the only thing that will cheer her up about her job woes is if Lorelai gets up and sings. Lane and Zack convince Luke to come, and he gets there just in time to see Lorelai drunkenly singing “I Will Always Love You.” She catches his eye and everyone notices that she seems to be singing to Luke.

I always feel awkward when people sing on the shows I watch.

Logan shows up at Lorelai’s house and tells her he’s been offered a job in California and he wants Rory to come with him. He’s asking Lorelai for Rory’s hand in marriage. Lorelai, as you can expect, doesn’t take this very well.

Lorelai goes to the diner for the first time since she and Luke broke up. Patty and Babette say they’re happy to see her back, and Kirk tells her she can’t have her stool back. Luke and Lorelai have an awkward conversation about the weather and Lorelai takes her coffee to go.

Lorelai’s Jeep breaks down and Gypsy says it’s unfixable. Lorelai calls Luke and asks him to help her pick out a new car. It’s still incredibly awkward because they’re trying so hard to be polite to each other. Lorelai doesn’t like any of the cars Luke suggests and Luke starts getting annoyed. Luke finds a Jeep that’s exactly like her old one and when she still doesn’t like it, they start arguing. After that, things start to flow better. Luke comes over later and says he found a 1999 Jeep Wrangler and test drove it, so if she wants to keep her old car, she should buy this one and have Gypsy switch the engines.

Sookie’s kids have chicken pox, but Jackson has never had them so Lorelai offers to let him stay at her house until the kids are better. Sookie is worried that Jackson is going to annoy Lorelai, and she’s surprised when Lorelai says she and Jackson had fun and he didn’t bother her at all. Then Jackson calls Sookie and says he broke Lorelai’s dollhouse. Sookie is really mean to him, and Jackson says he wishes she could forgive him for lying to her about his vasectomy and then getting her pregnant. Sookie says she doesn’t want to be mad and she’ll try to move on. When Lorelai gets home from car shopping, Sookie and Jackson are sitting on her porch. They tell her about the dollhouse.

Paris has gotten responses from medical schools. She’s gotten into Yale Law and Harvard Medical, and she doesn’t know how to choose. She’s also gotten into UPenn, Columbia and Stanford and she’s freaking out about the decision. Paris breaks up with Doyle because she doesn’t want to base her decision on a guy. Paris and Rory go out with Lucy and Olivia, and Paris gets drunk and starts talking about how much she misses Doyle. Doyle comes back to the apartment later and says he’s not moving out and he’s not breaking up. He says he’ll go wherever she goes.

Rory finally gets a letter from the New York Times. She didn’t get the fellowship.

Luke: Sedans aren’t afraid to get dirty!

It’s Spring Fling time in Stars Hollow and Rory brings Logan home for it. Rory shows Logan around town and takes him to the diner, where Zack talks to them about the twins, Kwon and Steve. Lorelai is awkward about Logan coming home with Rory, but plays it cool. Then she tells Sookie all the things she doesn’t like about Logan, like that he quit his job and is living with Rory at Paris and Doyle’s apartment.

Rory has had an interview with a newspaper in Providence. It went really well and now Rory is checking her phone every two minutes to see if the paper has called. She finally hears back and she’s gotten the job. She immediately starts listing all the reasons she shouldn’t take the job, the main one being that it would take her out of the running for a fellowship she wants. Lorelai and Logan disagree on whether it’s more important to make money or follow your dreams. Lorelai says she’s worried about Logan’s lackadaisical attitude about money and responsibility, and he says he left his world of privilege to do things his way, just like Lorelai did. It becomes a bonding moment and they have some ice cream and pie together. Rory eventually decides she’s going to go for the fellowship and turn down the job.

Taylor has reallocated the entire Spring Fling budget to go into the hay bale maze. He wants it to take over the town. The maze is oh, so subtle in its symbolism. Rory and Logan come to a fork in the road, and they hold hands and go down one path together. Lorelai gets a little lost in the maze and she finds Luke in the middle. She apologizes out of the blue for everything that happened between them. Luke apologizes, too, and then he tells Lorelai how to get out of the maze.

Zack: I’ve mastered the maze!

Other notes: I just want to reiterate that Lane and Zack named their twins Steve and Kwon. I think that’s hilarious.

Luke has just found out Lorelai and Christopher slept together, and he drives to Christopher’s house, knocks on the door, punches Chris in the face and then leaves. It’s pretty much my favorite part of the entire series. When he gets back to the diner later, TJ is there to help him put the diner together again. TJ wants to make the wall a giant stained glass window. Luke looks across the street and sees Kirk has put on a backwards baseball cap and is serving coffee and breakfast in the square.

Zack and Lane are back from their honeymoon in Mexico. They had a horrible time. Zack got some kind of parasite and threw up for most of the trip, and now Lane is feeling sick, too. Lane tells Rory that now she knows sex is horrible. She’s convinced that women everywhere are lying about enjoying sex and that it’s terrible for all women. She says they only did it once and she won’t listen when Rory says it will get better.

Luke and Lorelai run into each other in the street. Lorelai says she’s sorry, and Luke is all weird and cold when Lorelai says she’s not okay. Luke says he’s over it. It doesn’t matter to him that they’re not getting married; Lorelai’s the one who proposed in the first place.

Lorelai knows Rory is sad that she and Logan aren’t able to go to Asia like they’d planned, so she decorates the house to look like Asia. They make a bunch of really weird sushi rolls (fried chicken, Butterfinger, Jujubee) and then watch movies like Karate Kid and Joy Luck Club. The phone rings and the Girls let the machine get it. Rory hears Christopher leave a message talking about “the other night” and Luke hitting him in the face. Rory is angry that Lorelai slept with him. Like, really angry. I don’t really get it.

Rory goes to Lane and does that thing they ALWAYS do on this show where she walks around talking and talking about her own problems before she realizes Lane isn’t looking so good. Turns out she’s pregnant. She’s terrified and is sure she’s not ready to be a mother. Rory tells her she doesn’t have to be perfect to be a mother. This makes her realize her own mother isn’t perfect and she just made a mistake. Lane calms down and they start talking about celebrities and the horrible names they give their children.

Luke tells TJ he and Lorelai broke up, so he makes him come home with him for dinner. Dinner takes forever to cook, so Liz gives the boys Jell-O cups. Liz says she’s not surprised about the breakup because Luke never totally moved in with Lorelai and never told her about April. Luke says they just weren’t right for each other.

Liz finally realizes the oven is broken and that’s why dinner isn’t ready yet. Luke goes to the store to get something they can make on the burners. Lorelai is there. Luke apologizes for being a jerk before and Lorelai apologizes, too. He says they’re just not right together and Lorelai doesn’t belong with him. He says he can just go back to being the guy who pours her coffee. Lorelai doesn’t seem to take that too well and she walks away. Rory comes home later and finds her crying on the couch.

Lane: I do know that. Do not name your baby after an inanimate object.

TJ: Don’t underestimate me, Luke. I read. And I watch Battlestar Galactica.

Lorelai wakes up on Sookie’s couch and overhears Jackson asking Sookie what’s wrong with Lorelai. Sookie tells him she doesn’t know what’s going on. Lorelai goes home and thanks Miss Patty for taking care of Paul Anka. Luke comes over looking for Lorelai, but she asks Miss Patty to tell him she’s not home.

Taylor is walking around town when he sees a guy playing guitar. There’s another guy playing a keyboard and the other troubadour is back. Taylor doesn’t know what the hell is going on. Kirk tells him the regular troubadour has been discovered and now other musicians have come to Stars Hollow in the hopes of also being discovered. Taylor tells them all to leave, but the next time he goes to the town square, it’s full of people playing guitars. The real troubadour comes back upset because he only made seven hundred dollars and got booed.

Richard and Emily are donating a large sum of money to Yale in Rory’s name, and they want to donate it in the form of “The Rory Gilmore Astronomy Building.” Rory is horrified. Christopher shows up for Friday night dinner, and so does the woman Emily wants to set him up with. Her name is Carolyn and she’s a psychologist. Lorelai goes to the bathroom and Christopher follows her to try to come up with a plan of escape.

Logan is graduating from college. Rory has the whole evening planned out because he’s going to be going to London. Logan’s parents take him out after the ceremony and Mitchum makes him late coming back. Rory has to go to Friday night dinner, and she ends up sharing an elevator with Mitchum on her way out. She tells him she’s pissed that she’s sending him off to London, but Mitchum says he’s sending Logan away because it’s time for him to grow up and he wants his son to use his potential instead of drinking every night and jumping out of planes. Logan comes back from hanging out with Colin and Finn later to find a surprise party. The place is decorated with Union Jacks and Rory is speaking in a horrible British accent.

When Lorelai leaves after dinner, Carolyn is in her car finishing up a phone call. Lorelai asks her if she has a minute, and she ends up in Carolyn’s back seat telling her all about what’s been going on with Luke. She says she is totally ready to get married and have another kid, and it’s making her feel like crap that Luke is making her wait. Carolyn advises her to tell Luke exactly how she feels.

Lorelai goes to the diner and tells Luke she wants to elope. She says she’s waited and waited and she’s going crazy. He says he can’t just take off and get married right now, but Lorelai says it’s now or never. She walks away and Luke lets her go. She ends up at Christopher’s place.

The next morning, Logan leaves for his year in London, and Lorelai wakes up in Christopher’s bed.

Taylor: Who’s Neil Young?

Kirk: One of the Monkees.

Sookie tells Lorelai all the crazy things she did at the wedding the night before. Lorelai is horrified. Luke is back from April’s trip. He says he’s throwing a birthday party for April the next day and he turns down Lorelai’s offer to help out. He also won’t let her help him pick out a gift. He says he’s afraid if Lorelai gets involved in April’s life, April will like her better and won’t like him anymore. He lays down the law and says he’s April’s father and this is the way he wants it to be.

Rory can’t get any information about Logan from the hospital staff. She’s pissed that Colin and Finn don’t seem to care about Logan and are making a big joke out of everything. She calls Paris for help. Paris calls the hospital, yells at people for a minute and then calls Rory back and gives her the scoop. Logan has a whole slew of problems, including a partially collapsed lung and six broken ribs, but he’s expected to make a full recovery.

April’s party is a total disaster. Luke scares everyone when he tells them all they’re not allowed to go into the kitchen or they might burn their faces off. The girls just sit around playing cards and reading books. Luke calls Lorelai and begs her to come and help. Lorelai gives the girls makeovers and makes the party totally awesome. Lorelai hopes this means things are going to be different from now on.

Rory talks to Honor and finds out Mitchum isn’t coming to the hospital because he thinks Logan needs to grow up and quit doing Life and Death Brigade stuff. Rory calls him and tells him he’s a narcissistic ass and he needs to get to the hospital to see his son.

Anna comes to the diner the day after the party and yells at Luke for letting Lorelai, a woman she’s never met, help with the party and spend the night with April and her friends. Luke tells Lorelai how upset Anna is, so Lorelai goes to Anna’s store and apologizes for the party. Anna says she doesn’t want Lorelai involved in April’s life until she and Luke are married.

Luke, to Lorelai: You’re practically a cartoon character.

Sookie is in a funk because she doesn’t know what to serve on Valentine’s Day. Lorelai is also bummed because Luke hasn’t made any plans for Valentine’s Day. A zydeco band comes to the inn and starts playing. Lorelai set it up a while back because she was thinking of having them play for the wedding.

Logan wants to go away with Rory to Martha’s Vineyard for the weekend and he says she should invite Luke and Lorelai to come, too. Luke is really crabby about everything; he’s afraid to leave the bedroom and he’s sure Logan and Rory are going to break up while they’re there. He thinks everything Logan says to Rory is a slight. When he wakes up in the morning, he eats a power bar because he doesn’t know what the deal is with breakfast.

They all go to the gym, where the Girls get massages and the boys play basketball. Luke didn’t bring any kind of workout clothes, so he has to buy sweats and shoes from the gym’s store. When they get back, Luke is still complaining about everything and Lorelai finally gets fed up and yells at him. She goes out to the kitchen to help with dinner, and Luke goes out to the deck to help with the lobsters. Logan says he’s going to give Rory her Valentine’s Day present at dinner, and Luke says he didn’t get Lorelai anything. Logan says he got Rory a bracelet and a necklace, so he lets Luke have one to give to Lorelai.

Rory tells Lorelai she and Logan are planning to go to Asia after the school year ends. Then she says she thinks Logan might be “the one.” Later, Lorelai tells Luke she feels like the wedding isn’t going to happen. Luke assures her that he loves her and they will definitely get married one of these days.

The next morning, Mitchum shows up and starts yelling at Logan. He was supposed to be in London this weekend. He also says Logan is going to be in London for a year, starting the day after graduation. I’ve never been really for sure on what exactly he’s supposed to be doing in London, but I’m guessing it’s newspaper stuff.

When Luke and Lorelai get back to Stars Hollow, Luke says April is coming by from three to seven the next day, so Lorelai says she’ll see Luke after seven. I hate that she doesn’t just tell him she wants to be involved. When Lorelai gets home, she has a ton of messages on her machine congratulating her on her upcoming wedding. Apparently, Emily put a wedding announcement in the paper.

Rory: You guys have fun throwing the old hoop around?

Lorelai wakes up really early and starts to leave the house all sneaky and wakes up Luke. She’s supposed to meet Sookie at the flower mart to look for wedding flowers and she didn’t want to tell Luke. Lorelai tells Sookie the wedding is postponed and she immediately thinks it’s Lorelai’s fault. Lorelai explains about April. Lorelai decides not to cancel everything right away in the hopes that Luke will come around.

Richard calls Lorelai to tell her a check to Yale has been returned. Lorelai calls Rory to tell her she should let them know Christopher is paying for Yale. Rory doesn’t seem to care about it, so Lorelai calls her parents to tell them there was no mistake. Emily slams down the phone, but Richard hangs on. Lorelai assures him this is not a snub and they shouldn’t be offended. She tells him she and Rory will come have dinner Friday night.

Rory finally tells Logan he can take her to dinner on Thursday night. She’s looking through the Yale Daily News on Thursday afternoon and finds a blank spot where a photo should be. She goes to the office and finds Paris all in a tizzy and by that night almost the entire staff has quit. Paris is hiding in her bunker, and Rory goes in to tell her what’s happening. Paris doesn’t want to hear it so she puts on her noise reduction headphones and keeps working. Rory leaves the bunker and takes over. Logan shows up at the paper and Rory apologizes for forgetting their date. He helps out tremendously and the paper ends up going out on time. Then Paris comes out of her hole and congratulates everyone.

Lorelai gets a message from Luke telling her April’s going to be at the diner until eight so he’ll see Lorelai after eight. Lorelai’s a little annoyed. She goes to the soda shoppe and has to deal with everyone looking through the window at April. Later that night, all Luke can talk about is how smart April is. He thanks Lorelai for understanding that he and April need time alone to get to know each other.

When the Girls get to dinner on Friday night, Richard is reading a book and Emily is painting a moonscape on the patio. A big fight starts when Rory tries to explain about Christopher paying for Yale. Lorelai stops everyone from leaving the room and says they need to work things out. This is my favorite sequence in the whole series, a big montage of fighting during dinner, dessert and drinks.

Lorelai: The wedding has been postponed.

Sookie: What did you do?