3.11 - I Solemnly Swear

[LoveMe011]

I have to say my favorite scene in this episode is the one where Emily starts reading Lorelai's deposition back to Lorelai and Rory. Even though it's Emily reading Lorelai's words from paper, you can totally hear Lorelai saying ALL those things!

Emily: This? Nothing, just your deposition.
Lorelai: My...how did you get –
Emily: Shh. Listen, it’s fun. Okay. "Question – Would you say your mother is a tolerant woman?"
Lorelai: Oh boy.
Emily: "Answer – Um, well, sure."
Lorelai: What? I said you were.
Emily: You said sure.
Lorelai: Which to most people means yes.
Emily: Yes, to most people, it does, but I’ve heard you say sure, and your sure is always sarcastic.
Lorelai: I do not have a sarcastic sure...do I?
Rory: Pick spot on carpet and stare.
Emily: "Question – Why has your mother dismissed maids in the past?"
Lorelai: Mom.
Emily: "Answer – Different reasons."
Lorelai: Well, that’s true, right?
Emily: "Can you expand on that? Answer – Gee, how much time do you have?"
Lorelai: Okay, see –
Emily: "I mean, if you guys have a lunch or an afternoon squash game or something...you look like the kind of guys who play squash. And hey, why's it called squash? Is it something to do with the fruit? Or vegetable, right? A squash is a vegetable, though if you ask me, it's gross no matter what you call it. Well, anyway, what I'm saying is you might want to clear your afternoon."
Lorelai: I was flustered. He was using lawyer tricks.
Rory: By asking you to expand?
Lorelai: Now you decide to pipe in?
Emily: Didn’t I tell you this was important, Lorelai?
Lorelai: Yes, you did.
Emily: So, in spite of the fact that I told you it was important, you couldn’t find it in your heart to put aside your personal antagonism toward me for one day and help me out.
Lorelai: Mom, this is not fair. I said a lot of nice things about you in there.
Emily: Oh really? "Would you say your mother sets impossible goals which people cannot help but fail to reach, thereby reinforcing her already formed opinion of their deficiencies? Answer – Only for her daughter."

That last line by Emily is perfect. I thought this episode was geniously written to bring to light some lingering hard feelings between Lorelai and Emily.

Francie is a freak. Who really acts like that? Rory was perfectly capable of punching her in the nose...it's what I would have done..haha.
I just hate that Rory doesn't speak up sooner and tell Francie to kiss off. She usually isn't one to take crap from people, yet for some reason she really views Francie as a threat to her happiness at Chilton during her senior year. I suppose the fact that Rory hasn't been at Chilton as long as Francie makes Rory feel a bit intimidated, but I still wish she'd have stepped up when Francie first approached her (or rather yanked her into the bathroom) and told Francie to find another way to force her hand in the Student Government.

[thevoid99]

YOU RUINED CREEDENCE FOR ME!!!!

Oh, that was funny.  Even their opening argument over brussel sprouts.  The seminar meeting was hilarious at how childish Lorelai and Sookie are.  The desposition that Lorelai gave for her mother.  Ooh... that stings and Lorelai shouldn't have taken it more seriously.  Oh, another funny moment is when Madeline screams whenever she hears the word... BLOOD!!!!

I hate Francie.  I can't believe what she did to Rory and to manipulate Paris.  What Paris said was both shocking and sad.  Rory was her best friend.  That made me cry.  Wow, Rory was her first real friend... poor Paris. 

[Corey_Gilmore]

Lorelai and Rory are standing outside the Gilmores' house when Rory tells Lorelai what happened with Paris and Francie. Lorelai tells Rory what she should do when she goes to school tomorrow. They're going in for Friday night dinner, which would mean that tomorrow would be Saturday, and there would be no school, right?

[laurla205]

Sookie, Lorelai and Rory all had different degrees of disloyalty here and Sookie’s seems to be the least harmful.  Sookie’s and Rory’s have less of a foundation in reality as well.  It's cute that Jackson automatically knows Sookie cheated/flirted by the few buttery actions she took.

I was reading through some of the comments in this thread and I noticed that the consensus seems to be that Paris believed exactly what Francie said about her and Rory’s “meeting”.  I had the impression that Paris didn’t believe what Francie was telling her about how and why the meeting went down.  The evidence was damning in that it confirmed Rory did meet with her in private manner.  That was what Paris took issue with; the actual occurrence of a meeting was the official betrayal.  The friendship betrayal was Rory practically confirming that Paris had a boyfriend.  Maybe Paris can be faulted for believing that part of it except for the fact that Rory did as much as verify it. Rory is still learning about the wonderful world of manipulation but it should have already started to sink in to a point where she wouldn’t play right into Francie’s hand like that. 

Lorelai’s deposition was of course humorous in the typical Lorelai-rant kind of way but the fact that everything about it would hurt Emily in every way overshadowed the humorous portions.  Lorelai can’t really have thought that Emily wouldn’t find out how it went.  This seems to be a complete contradiction to the previous episode where Lorelai proved that she has Emily’s back when push comes to shove.  It certainly almost tipped the scales back to neutral in showing that Emily isn’t the only one responsible for the constant one step forward two steps back that defines their relationship.  What stands out is the way Emily approached it at the end of the episode, they sort of continued down the path of the two of them airing their grievances without getting into a screaming match. 

All three actions raise the question of what betrayal is exactly and how it’s justified.  Sookie saw her non-actions as the worst possible betrayal where until called out Lorelai didn’t seem to give hers a second thought even after Rory rationalized how she should handle it.  Rory seems to be the only one who was levelheaded about the cause of her betrayal once she was confronted with it. 

[bingbong]

Lorelai handled the deposition in her usual Lorelai manner, but her options were limited because she was under oath. She probably made herself look silly more than anything else and it was only to avoid doing worse harm to her mom by giving truly honest answers. Ok, what is the truth? But how was she supposed to answer some of those questions honestly under oath without doing more damage than she did? "Why has your mother dismissed maids in the past," for example. Even if she tried Emily's line of them not performing the services she asked, the lawyer might have pressed for details and no way an honest detailed answer would serve Emily well. "Would you say your mother sets impossible goals..." is another example. I suppose in the form of an opinion she could have lied by saying in her view her mother sets reasonable goals. But she told Emily she wouldn't lie and Emily's problem is that she truly doesn't think she sets impossible goals. Lorelai could have done better than her sarcastic answers but she could have done much worse with straightforward answers. I think in the real world Emily's lawyer would have prepped Lorelai beforehand to keep the befuddled silly answers to a minimum. Lorelai has proven on plenty of occasions (past and future) that she comes to the side of her parents when the chips are down. This wasn't her greatest moment of loyalty but she was in a tight spot.

[lessa]

Well, she did keep saying "I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie," the whole time it was hanging over her head. What can you do to prep someone who blurts out whatever's on the top of her head when she's being watched by a roomful of people? And not to put too fine a point on it, exactly how invested was Emily's lawyer in protecting her from the maid's lawsuit, anyway? It's not like he shouted "Objection!" in the transcript.

I was thinking about the respective broken promises involved. Sookie promised to forsake all others, Rory promised to tell no one about Jamie, Lorelai promised to be on Emily's side. They all failed and they all got into fights. It isn't exactly about the betrayal, it's about how they relate to one another.

See, Sookie and Jackson fight all the time over stuff that isn't important, the exact opposite of the way that Lorelai and Rory repress everything and "have no wish to fight you." Sookie and Jackson always end up in a hug, is it because they have a deeper capacity for love than anyone on the planet, or that they don't hide their feelings?

When you've got a real beef, fight early and fight often, and you'll never end up with a rapier to your throat or making Ben Hur jokes about your mom in court. Though your maid might sue you...

[laurla205]

I think that with Lorelai’s sarcastic answers she did as much damage as she would have with honest, negative answers.  The damage perceived by Emily was the same either way.  At what point do you write off the feelings of the individual who feels hurt.  The fact that each of Lorelai’s answers was draped in sarcasm/attitude speaks volumes about her opinions.  I understand her refusal to lie under oath and that is admirable.  I think she could’ve tried a little harder to make it work favorably, or at least neutrally, for Emily.  “Gee, how much time do you have” in response to being asked to expand on Emily’s reasons isn’t even making an effort.  She could have named one or two instances and moved on.  I do agree that Emily’s lawyer would have prepped Lorelai.  I think the lawyer should have been invested in the outcome, the Gilmore’s are paying him/her after all.

Each instance does stem from how Lorelai, Rory and Sookie relate to others.  Sookie and Jackson are an exception in how it ended up because despite their usual bickering, when it comes to the serious stuff they definitely have a couple issues with communication.  When push comes to shove Lorelai comes out with it and so does Rory.  Things went a little too far in each situation but that could also be seen as picking their battles. 

[lessa]

That's just it, though; Emily had a side in it, she was getting shaken down for cash by someone whose feelings she had bulldozed in her mindless perfectionism. Even if she won the case, Lorelai's eloquent testimony on behalf of Emily-disappointers everywhere must have taken her down a peg or two! And I can't fault What's-his-name, attorney-at-law for not vigorously cross-examining Lorelai - it would have meant dragging her history with the Gilmores through the courtroom. At what point does it go from embarrassing to horrible?

Paris having her personal life used against her seems like a karmic justice, too. She was so worried about how Mad and Lou would tease her soupy conduct with Jamie, the same way Emily was upset when jibed about her chronic staffing difficulties. These vulnerabilities had to be kept secret from their "enemies" or they risked being taunted the way they had taunted so many others.

The fact is, I just have a hard time feeling sorry for a well-paid housemaid with a severance package, I live in a right-to-work state!

[lessa]

Wow, this place is quiet.

Kind of a funny coincidence. Revisiting this episode is a little strange because it's in a sort of GG dead patch for me. You know, a region of the series I don't visit often, a score of consecutive episodes I've only seen once before. Not specifically without a lot of interest per se, just haven't had a chance to overthink it yet. I wonder if other people have blank patches in the show like mine...

Alternatively, I would have to believe it was a conspiracy of silence to conceal the existence of Alex!

[Gilmore Gyrlie]

this episode was pretty mediocre, hated seeing Paris and Rory fight.

Francine=The AntiChrist