Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days:
September 24, 2002
Amidst her sadness about Christopher, Lorelai has
an intriguing dream about Luke; Rory returns from Washington to realize that she
still may have feelings for Jess, but a chance encounter at the First Annual
Stars Hollow End of Summer Madness Festival makes her realize that he may have
moved on to someone else; relationship quarrels around -- Sookie and Jackson
over decorating their house, Lorelai and Rory over Jess versus Dean, Emily and
Richard over Lorelai and Christopher -- but are on the path to resolution; and
Rory once again guides Paris through the rocky shoals of preparing for a date.
Haunted Leg:
October 1, 2002
To Lorelai's horror, Kirk asks her out on a date
after being encouraged by Luke; Emily's lunch with Lorelai at Luke's ends badly;
Christopher show's up uninvited at Friday night dinner and quarrels with both
Lorelai and Rory before Emily asks him to leave; Rory runs into Jess and they
each betray their hurt feelings -- Rory about Shane and Jess about not hearing
from Rory all summer; and Francie targets Paris and Rory for a world of trouble
if Rory doesn't stop Paris from running the student council like a dictatorship.
Application Anxiety:
October 8, 2002
Rory's application for Harvard arrives, plunging
Rory, Lorelai and Emily into a frenzy; a Chilton seminar on college applications
only adds to Rory's anxiety and sends Paris into a tizzy; Taylor steamrollers
Luke into opening a soda shop next to the diner; Lane places an ad in the paper
for a band and finds a musical soul mate; Lorelai and Rory have dinner with a
Harvard alumni and his family which may assure her chances of acceptance; Dean
has a talk with Rory about their future after she goes to Harvard.
One's Got Class and the Other
One Dyes: October 15, 2002
Lorelai's stint in the Stars Hollow High School
local business success speakers forum gets derailed by some controversial
personal questions, much to the delight of Luke and the consternation of some
PTA mothers; Luke and Jess argue about the women in and out of their lives (and
their closets); Lane alleviates her frustrations about the strictures of her
household and the future of her band through a colorful, if temporary, display
of independence; Rory runs into Shane one too many times and succumbs to a
severe bout of snarkiness.
Eight O'Clock at the Oasis:
October 22, 2002
Lorelai attends Emily's society auction where she
meets a very handsome man but neglects to get his number, forcing her to ask her
mother for it; after a disastrous first date, Lorelai turns down an invitation
to another, not realizing that Emily and Richard have a lot invested in her
dating this son of their friends; after Lorelai and Rory agree to water their
neighbor's lawn while he's out of town, Jess comes to Rory's rescue when the
lawn's sprinkler system malfunctions.
Take the Deviled Eggs...:
November 5, 2002
Lorelai chauffeurs Rory to Sherry's baby shower in
Boston and finds herself dragged into the festivities against her will; Miss
Patty gets a new beau; Jess comes home with a car and Luke tries to find out
where he got the money to pay for it; one of Stars Hollow's more eccentric
citizens requests a permit to mount a demonstration in the town square.
They Shoot Gilmores, Don't
They?: November 12, 2002
Lorelai is determined to win the Stars Hollow
Dance Marathon and wrest the trophy from four-time champion Kirk, but has
trouble getting a partner until she finally convinces Rory to help her dance her
way to victory. Dean sits on the sidelines to cheer his girl on, and is soon
joined by Jess and Shane, who spend their time making out while Jess keeps his
eye on Rory. Lorelai breaks her heel, and Dean takes her place while Luke plays
shoe repairman. On the dance floor, Dean realizes that Rory is attracted to Jess
and breaks up with her. Rory tearfully runs off, followed closely by Jess, and
Kirk is declared the winner once again.
Let the Games Begin:
November 19, 2002
In the aftermath of the Dance Marathon, Kirk
parades around Stars Hollow with the trophy until someone steals it, while
Lorelai and Rory painfully inch their way towards Luke's; after Lorelai tells
Luke about Rory and Jess, he breaks up their first kiss and then lays down some
ground rules with Jess about dating Rory; Lorelai and Rory reluctantly agree to
accept Richard's invitation to accompany him and Emily on his Wiffenpoof reunion
at Yale, where he springs quite an unwelcome surprise on all three women; back
from New Haven, Lorelai and Rory head for Luke's, and Jess and Rory finally get
to have those first kisses; Rory visits Dean to apologize and tell him that she
misses his friendship; late at night, Lorelai and Rory each curl up with some
bedtime reading -- the Yale brochure.
A Deep-Fried Korean
Thanksgiving: November 26, 2002
It's Thanksgiving, and Lorelai and Rory have
dinner at four different places: the Kim's, where Lane has managed to get Dave
invited and Lorelai is forced to eat tofurkey; Luke's, where Luke and Jess make
it a foursome with Lorelai and Rory; Sookie's, where Jackson and his family have
deep-fried the turkey, the lawn and just about everything else; and Emily and
Richard's where, to Lorelai's horror, Rory reveals that she has applied to Yale.
Kirk gets a cat, with disastrous results; Dave asks Lane out, and then kisses
her; Paris is afraid her difficulty getting into a shelter will impact her
acceptance to Harvard; and Dean faces off with Jess and lets him know that it's
no more "Mr. Nice Guy" for Mr. Forester.
That'll Do, Pig:
January 14, 2003
Lorelai's grandmother arrives in Hartford
unexpectedly on Richard's birthday and announces that she's moving back,
throwing Emily into a tizzy until she follows Lorelai's advice on how to manage
her mother-in-law; Rory declares war on Francie after she pulls a runaround on
Paris with the Student Council; Paris finds herself in love after spending
Christmas vacation with Jamie's family; after Rory and Dean bump into each other
a few times, they decide to be friends again; Jess initially declines Rory's
offer to attend the Stars Hollow High Winter Carnival, but changes his mind
after they run into Dean and his sister Clara, who invites Rory to join them;
Jess gets Dean alone at the carnival and lets him know that he's wise to his
plans to get Rory back.
I Solemnly Swear:
January 21, 2003
Offers of dates ensue when Lorelai and Sookie
attend a seminar on operating an inn and run into two handsome men -- an old
friend of Sookie's and his business partner; Lorelai unsuccessfully resists
being deposed when her mother is sued by a former maid for wrongful termination;
after Rory and Francie butt heads at the student council meeting, Francie
proposes a truce and then immediately lies to Paris that Rory is trying to
undermine her; Paris is crushed that her best friend has betrayed her and lashes
out at her during their fencing class, leaving Rory ostracized by the rest of
the student body.
Lorelai Out of Water:
January 28, 2003
Luke is opposed to having Taylor's attorney Nicole
oversee the paperwork for the construction of the new soda shop until he meets
the attractive redhead, who takes as immediate a shine to Luke as he does to
her; Lane's clever scheme to get her mother's permission to attend the prom
horribly backfires; Luke offers to teach Lorelai the fine art of angling after
Alex invites her to go fishing; Rory and Lorelai clear out their garage for
Lane's band and Lorelai gains a new admirer from the band; Lane and Rory have
some hearts-to-hearts about the men in their lives; Paris's ratcheting up the
conflict between her and Rory when she calls for Rory's impeachment by the
student council is brought to a swift end by Headmaster Charleston, who
threatens to revoke the glowing letters he wrote to Harvard for each of them.
Dear Emily and Richard:
February 4, 2003
Luke and Nicole have a successful first date; Jess
and Dean trade verbal blows; Sherry goes into labor with only Lorelay and Rory
for company; Lorelai reminisces about her pregnancy and Rory's birth; Lorelai
introduces Emily to modern entertainment technology; Richard and Emily decry
Lorelai's and Rory's plans to backpack through Europe; the war between Paris and
Rory continues when Paris picks a photo of the "Franklin" staff for the yearbook
that has the worst possible shot of Rory.
Swan Song:
February 11, 2003
Emily guilts Rory into bringing Jess to a Friday
night dinner which turns out to be an unqualified disaster; Lorelai, Alex,
Sookie and Jackson go to New York for the weekend; Jess gets a black eye in an
altercation with an opponent he is too embarrassed to reveal to anyone but Luke;
Zach and Brian realize that Lane and Dave are hiding something from them, but
miss the mark on the true nature of the secret; Rory and Jess have their first
argument, and Luke helps patch things up.
Face-Off:
February 18, 2003
The Doose clan invades the Inn for their family
reunion; Trix comes for a short visit and drives Emily crazy until Emily finally
finds something scandalous to hold over Trix's head; Lane and Dave cook up a
fake-date scheme with Young Chui to get Mrs. Kim to allow Lane to date Dave, but
neither Young Chui's real girlfriend or Dave is immune to a little jealousy; the
Stars Hollow High hockey team reaches the regional semifinals for the first time
in 40 years and everyone not attending the monster truck rally turns out to
cheer the team on and endure Kirk's hopelessly inept play-by-play; after Jess's
took laid-back attitude about going out leaves Rory sitting home alone for most
of the weekend, she takes Lorelai's advice and heads for the hockey game, where
she discovers that Dean has a new girlfriend.
The Big One:
February 25, 2003
Rory and Paris compete for the honor of speaking
at Chilton's Bicentennial; Sookie and Jackson get some very good life (and
diaper) changing news; Paris and Rory reconcile; Lorelai runs into Max and it's
apparent that they're not quote over each other yet. Paris has a meltdown on
national television when she fails to get into Harvard; Rory's college
acceptance letters finally arrive; Paris isn't sure what to think about the
latest development in her relationship with Jamie.
A Tale of Poes and Fire:
April 15, 2003
A fire at the Independence Inn forces Lorelai to
relocate its guests to her own house and those of her friends, and leaves her
spending the night at Lukes, where she reveals her dream of being married to him
and pregnant with their twins; Sookie invades Luke's with staff in tow to
prepare breakfast for the Inn's guests, and gets into a culinary groove with
Luke after rocky start; questions arise about Jess's attendance at school when
he receives Employee of the Month award from WalMart and Luke discovers that
he's working there more than full time; Lorelai and Rory start picking up on
weird and somewhat unfriendly vibes coming from Nicole and Lindsay; Rory visits
Paris, who's missed five days of school to take to her bed and hide from the
world, and prompts her to stop watching soaps, call Jamie, tell her parents
about Harvard, get a life plan, and rejoin the land of the living; after making
extensive pro-con lists in an effort to decide whether to attend Harvard, Yale,
or Princeton, Rory has a heart-to-heart with Lorelay and chooses Yale.
Happy Birthday, Baby:
April 22, 2003
Emily and Richard rejoice when Rory announces her
decision to attend Yale; Kirk sustains baking-related injuries when Rory
secretly enlists the help of her fellow Stars Hollows citizens to bake the
world's largest pizza for her mother's birthday party; Michel and Tobin compete
over giving Lorelai the best present, but Richard wins the contest hands-down
with a check for $75,000 that's actually the proceeds from an investment he made
in Lorelai's name at her birth; Luke confronts Jess about skipping school to
work at Wal-Mart, but is blown off as usual; when Lorelai decides to use the
money to pay back her parents for Rory's Chilton tuition, Emily becomes furious
with Richard for giving Lorelai the money, fearing that the repayment of their
loan is a sign that she'll never see either Lorelai or Rory again; Luke makes a
bad impression on Nicole's parents, scaring them off with a rant on the horrors
of parenting Jess.
Keg! Max!:
April 29, 2003
On their first free Friday night, Lorelai and Rory
are at a loss over how to spend the evening, while Emily and Richard cavort at
the part they're hosting; Lorelai is appointed Grad Night Treasurer and runs
into a playing-it-cool Max at her first Chilton Booster Club meeting; Lane's
band gets their first gig at a party and rocks the house, but Dave rocks Lane's
world when he flips out after discovering that Young Chui is in love with her; a
despondent Lane indulges in a little too much beer, and then drunkenly calls her
mother and confesses all; when staff cutbacks at the Inn force Lorelai to do
turn-down service, she becomes very unsettled at seeing a cozy Luke and Nicole
in the room she's offered as thanks for Luke's help with repairs after the fire;
Jess's inability to tell Rory that his frequent absences have caused him to
flunk out of school and miss graduation and the prom prompts an argument between
Jess and Rory, and then a full-blown brawl with Dean after Dean comes upon a
tearful and distraught Rory.
Say Goodnight, Gracie:
May 6, 2003
After the brawl between Jess and Dean, Lane is in
a lot of trouble with her conservative mother, and Luke is furious at Jess. But
ironically, Lorelai is proud of Rory for causing such passion in two guys.
Later, a mysterious coffee shop patron observes Jess at work and accidentally
leaves his wallet behind. Upon finding it, Luke is amazed to discover that the
man is Jess' estranged father, Jimmy Mariano, from California. Jimmy's arrival
causes Jess to ponder a major decision. Meanwhile, Lorelai's relationship with
her mother gets worse. Dean amazes Rory with a life-altering announcement. And
Lorelai and Sookie guilty try to capitalize on the death of a beloved bakery
owner whose building they desperately want to convert into their own inn.
Here Comes the Son:
May 13, 2003
Jess leaves Stars Hollow and travels across the
country to Venice, California, where his father, Jimmy, lives. The reunion and
the important decisions it engenders cause tension with Jimmy's live-in
girlfriends, Sasha. Jess also becomes ingrigued by a skateboarder, Ivy--after a
rough introduction. Meanwhile, although she has an almost impossible amount of
school-related work to complete before graduation, Rory agrees to help her
grandmother choose an outfit for the ceremony--resulting in another conflict
with Lorelai. Also Lorelai agonizes over paying for Rory's Yale education.
Those Are Strings, Pinocchio:
May 20, 2003
Jess calls Rory's phone continually but hangs up.
After graduation, she gets yet another one of his calls. When he doesn't speak,
she suspects that it is him and tells him that he made the wrong decision by
leaving her and not going to her graduation and not telling her that he was
failing and couldn't graduate. With tears in her eyes, she then says "I guess I
Ioved you...but...goodbye. I Know it is a really lame word to use, but goodbye."
She hangs up, then the camera shows Jess hanging up the phone at a payphone in
California.