3.16 - The Big One

[wmushell]

This is such a great Season 3 epi.  I absolutely adore all of Paris's qualms about sleeping with Jamie and then her subsequent meltdown when she doesn't get into Harvard.  While extreme, it is a good bit of drama to liven up the C-Span taping and it really gives Liza Weil a huge chance to shine.    When she goes to Rory for advice, looking for reassurance that losing her virginity was "okay", it really made Paris seem so vulnerable and gave her a new layer.

I can very much relate to the whole Big One envelope concept!  I vividly remember being a senior in high school and checking the mail first thing when I got home every day to see if I was accepted to my first choice university!  I had already been accepted to my back up but had my heart set on a particular school.  At the time, it was SO true that the thickness of the envelope meant everything!!!  Registration forms, housing forms, financial aid, and so on were necessary if you were in.  If you weren't in, one little form letter let you know that fact as poor Paris found out.  I find it fascinating that the world changes so rapidly that what was true during season 3 had changed by season 7, as Paris points out when her grad school acceptances come pouring in.  These days, all the registration stuff is done online so the bulk of an envelope no longer determines your fate!  Sad in a way, because much like Rory I was thrilled when my "big one" envelope arrived in the mailbox and I knew right away I was in.  It was a cool feeling.

Ahhh - Lorelai and Max.  I'm glad that there's this little bit of closure between them at the end of season 3.  I think the way they handled their unexpected meeting in the drug store was met with class on both of their parts.  I think their impromptu kiss in the Chilton coat room is sometimes what happens when two people who used to be very close to each other find themselves face to face again . . . a bit awkward, yet natural out of old habit.

I love when Lorelai says to Sookie, "My finger's hitting the fast-forward button, hun!"     They have such a great friendship.  It is even more apparent when Lorelai realizes that Sookie is pregnant the same time Sookie does herself. 

I, too, think it is a very substantial moment between mother and daughter when Lorelai starts pulling the envelopes out of the mailbox at the end.  Both Lauren and Alexis do a very nice job here.

[lessa]

Heh, the big envelope, the big love of your life, the big... I can't even finish, I just watched the House episode where Dakin Matthews plays Gastrointestinal Santa, and my brain is on a Charleston loop. Poor guy, even he pays when he crosses Paris! I wonder how often he wished he could combine Rory and Paris into one overachieving, emotionally stable package. XD

But what got me about the "Big" title was that Lorelai had two big ones - Max, the one that got away, and Rory, the "good kid" she celebrates giving up Harvard for. Rory has two big ones going, too, but while she was speechin' and coping with senioritis, neither Dean nor Jess is remotely visible. It reminded me of a late-game theory that Paris is the big relationship of her life, especially when she was comforting Paris instead of doing her rightfully earned "I win, I win, I win" dance.

[thevoid99]

One of the reason this is one of my favorite episodes is because it fully humanized Paris. 

For the first two seasons, we saw a girl who was very driven yet psychotic as she had hoped to take Rory down.  Then she started to develop into someone that was socially awkward while realizing she's not much of a people person.  When she got rejected from Harvard, everything she worked for.  She lost it and she came to realize that Rory is her true friend. 

[Gilmore Gyrlie]

my heart broke for Paris, great job by Liza Veil.



R0TFLMA0 at Richard sleeping thru Paris's meltdown.

[iatmyhome]

I like this episode a lot