3.15 - Face-Off

[lessa]

Ooh, the double meanings of words, I love it. On the one hand, everybody has their inevitable face-off, from Rory's answering machine rant to Emily taking her best shot at her tormentor. On the other hand, everyone took off their fake-faces and dealt with the truth.

Trix admitted she wasn't as prim and fastidious as she pretended, and Emily has exposed her true feelings about Trix to Richard. Rory faced the truth about her new relationship, and Jess's shortcomings are no longer washed away by his dreamy James Dean impression.

Dave Rygalski knew he would look a little needy running to the hockey game, (talk about a relationship where not calling is not an option!) and the face that loves the espionage and doesn't mind the games slipped a little bit. And every bit of Lindsay's reaction to her encounter with Rory suggested that she and Dean had bonded over saying what they really thought of the girl who broke his heart.

But my favorite example was Taylor - nothing melts the wax and makeup faster than having family visit, and I loved the way his cousin loudly announced that not even his closest relatives could stand his controlling habits and megalomaniacal event-planning. I wonder what drove Mr. "I'm taking a nap" guy to snap and humiliate Taylor?

It almost makes me feel sorry for Kirk, whose antics drag people to that love-hate edge on a daily basis!

One thing I was wondering. In the opening scene with Lorelai in her sweats getting grilled by Taylor about his event, a guy pays for something at the register and the camera follows him to the OS of their discussion. Did anybody recognize him? He looks really familiar, but I can't put my finger on it...

[honkifuluvGG]

Ooh, the double meanings of words, I love it. On the one hand, everybody has their inevitable face-off, from Rory's answering machine rant to Emily taking her best shot at her tormentor. On the other hand, everyone took off their fake-faces and dealt with the truth.

See I consider myself a fairly intelligent person lessa but then I read comments like that and realise just how much I get swept up in the entertainment and completely forget to look at the meaning behind these titles and episode themes.  Thank goodness for you!

I love Frinday Night Dinner in this episode.  The dialogue is so witty and true to each character and I just love that Emily threatens them with a game of charades if they continue to rush through the evening.  Seriously Emily playing charades makes me laugh out loud. 

I also love the Brian and Zach 'bulwark' conversation.  I much prefer early Zach to late Zach, but that may be because I liked Dave with Lane.  Who knows?

And I think Rory annoys me in this episode.  She's such a great communicator but she really falls in a heap when it comes to guys.  If it was early days of the first boyfriend then I get it because it's new ground, but the way she handles the lack of communication with Jess just bugs me.  She's better than that.

[lessa]

No fault there, it's reaally entertaining. That's what I love about a dark patch in the revisiting, I get to watch the episode without remembering it already, so different things jump out.

Plus the revisiting bonus - Rory is discovering that for all her determination to make her first second-boyfriend work out, there are things about the relationship that just aren't right. Her expression at the end, (when she's lying on her side and digesting that she's exactly the sort of wimp Lorelai warned her off of being,) was backward deja vu to Season 7.

[SIDNEY]

I think it's weird the way Jess was ignoring Rory on purpose in this episode, not calling her or not thinking of it as a big deal. It's weird because he'd done a lot more for Rory when he wasn't with her than now when he is her boyfriend. Makes me think of Rory has to have Dean in the same room to get some attention!!!

Rory was annoying by not confronting him and when finally she does confront the situation, she asks him to delete her message. Talk about regress!!! She was a little ashamed of herself at the last scene but i always wonder if she was upset because of what she thought of herself or of what her mom would think of her???!!!

Dave was so cute to run that long. He knows what he has and he's afraid of losing it. I like how Lane was so impressed with herself to have this kinda power on a guy!

I looove when Emily was humming that song to Gran! Wow, who is that woman? It's nice to see Emily out of her mind. I always wonder what happens to her personality when Trix is in the room? Emily was nice to apologize later but it wasn't worth it considering of how Trix went back to being her again.

[laurla205]

In this episode it certainly appears that the thrill was in the chase as far as Jess was concerned.  He may have been more interested in getting Rory than actually having her.  That or Luke’s lecture about the proper way to treat a girl like Rory didn’t stick.  Lorelai was close to the line when telling him off for not calling Rory as he said he would but that would fall under taking off her fake-face and being straight with him.  Is it possible that Rory really does know Jess isn’t the type to kowtow to a schedule?  At this point it’s hard to picture them having a conversation to set the guidelines of their relationship with Rory’s inability to explain that she does live by a schedule. 

Caryn and Sidney, I couldn’t agree more that Rory was annoying in this episode.  I’m sure that she was disappointed in herself for doing what Lorelai advised her not to by being “that girl”.  I think she would have been regretful for not telling Jess how she really felt even if Lorelai hadn’t said anything and her forewarning only made it worse. 

I liked Emily and Trix’s resolution.  Their shared moment wasn’t cheapened even though Trix went back to being just as nasty as ever towards Emily.  Rather, it fits the Gilmore pattern of emotional progress taking one step forward only to take two back. 

The contrast between Dave/Lane and Rory/Jess is sharp.  Is there anything about Dave Rygalski that isn’t perfect for Lane’s first official boyfriend?  He might even rival Dean in the first boyfriend department. 

[bingbong]

The x-factor in the Emily/Trix face-off is, as always, Richard. He always bugs me for passively allowing his wife to be verbally berated by his mother. In this episode, we discover he's not so passive after all and prefers they be at odds rather than in cahoots. What's his motive, divide and conquer? We know he over-ruled Gran's objections to their marriage, good for him in taking his own course, but he allows her to berate Emily because it serves his perceived purposes.

[lessa]

Well, I don't doubt that Emily's glimpse of the real Trix makes her criticisms easier to swallow. After all, Emily couldn't be the only person not to notice how much they have in common. She positively aspires to that level of emotional repression!

I don't think Lorelai ever bothered showing a fake face to Jess. On the one hand, she's helping him out the same way she tried to help Dean, the way she would any person who she thought was making a mistake by accident.

On the other hand, once she has him where she wants him, she can't resist all the zingers she's been saving up. It's like she's super-Emily, on fire with all the derision she unloads the second she catches Jess vulnerable enough to listen. He must really rub her the wrong way!

Well, the joke's on her, he can treat Rory any way he wants to, and she'll still get swept away by his spontaneous romantic poofs. Unlike Dean, who did everything and got nothing but a penciled-in movie marathon that usually got canceled over homework or a fight or both.

Hah, when she heard that Stars Hollow high resented her snobbery after she became a Chiltonite, all I could think about was the times Dean roared because he felt threatened by her brains. Who started that rumor, anyway?

[flowergirl321]

Dean's new girlfriend is ugly. Rory and him should have stayed together. I don't like her with Jess because he doesn't really know how to treat her that well.

[Gilmore Gyrlie]

Now Rory is learning what an insensitive jerk Jess truly is...LMA0!

Gilmore  has lost her  "allure" , since she's no longer Dean 's girlfriend. 


He doesn't feel the need to put forth the EFFORT, now that he has her.


Love Zack, he's hilarious!