6.15--You've got Mass Ass

I know, I know, I know. it's after 10 p.m., and I'm just now posting this. And, I have to apologize for a not-so-untainted review--I've spent too much time today on the TWoP forums, so I already have second and third and fourth opinions of the episode running through my head.

Also, Chapter Five of U-Turn is up. So go read it. And then tell me what you think. Please? Only the epilogue left... I'm just doing some last edits on it, and it should be up before the end of the week (just in time for Jen's visit, the watching of the end of season 4, and her subsequent re-read).

Now. Onto a review of 6.15, "A Vineyard Valentine."

I guess this one just had two main storyline-ish things--Rory/Logan and Lorelai/Luke. Really, this week, it all boils down to those two relationships, since we had a location shoot, which equals very limited townie interactions and storylines.

I liked the first Rory/Logan scene, in the apartment, if only because Logan's waking up looked so much more natural and less corpse-like than this. That was just creepy on every level. Besides that, though, I liked their interactions, although I was a bit put off by the timeline. Usually, GG doesn't focus on specific dates (with a few exceptions, like Rory's birthday, Luke's Dark Day, or Rory's sentencing), but the past two episodes have been very focused on the dates--Paris specifically mentioned last week being Feb 3, and this is the weekend before Valentine's Day, making it the 10th. Therefore, Rory and Logan have lived together for a week, and they already have the basis to know that they "see each other less now that [they're] living together"?

I can accept that they've gone to the Vineyard before, especially since they would probably have wanted a place to get away from Yale and the pool house during the fall, but it just seemed like they were showing them as having lived together longer. A fairly minor point, though, considering the fact that they have been together for close to a year (minus their break), and have obviously spent a good part of that time staying at each other's houses.

Whale sperm made me laugh. Out loud. Several times. Yes, I am a junior high boy.

Now, I have to talk about Rory for a minute. There's a lot of Rory-hate out there, and I can understand some of it, but I actually have quite a bit of sympathy for the character right now. I may not agree with all her decisions, or the attitudes she has towards them, but I'm actually enjoying watching her try to figure out a balance in her life. It's seemed to me lately that she's trying figure out how she fits into all these opposite worlds that she seems to be stuck in. I didn't see it so much when she was younger, probably because she still lived in Stars Hollow, so her life at Chilton and FND's were more like "visits" to the world of high society, but lately, I've seen her trying to figure out the whole balance, and I kind of like it. I just remember myself at 21, and even though I wasn't trying to balance such extreme lifestyles, there's a huge sense of finding your identity as an adult and beginning to discover where you fit into life.

For instance, her fight with Emily over the DAR--It surprised me a little bit that she was so insistent on staying in it, but then I thought that it might not be such a bad thing, if she balances it out with the rest of her life (which is what she wasn't doing before), and still makes time to go to the Winter Carnival in Stars Hollow. Those two things, shown almost back-to-back, really struck me as both being significant parts of who she is, and I loved watching her do both.

Also, I really loved the cooking scene in VV. I liked that she was moving away, a little bit, from being Lorelai's mini-me, but still included Lorelai in her life and the new things she was interested in, and let their banter extend to something new (showing that they can change, but their relationship can move with them).

And random side note to the cooking: It shows a way in which Rory is growing up in a different way than Lorelai did. Lorelai was thrown into a grown-up world at an age where pop-tarts and junk food were still haute cuisine, and even though she grew up quickly and admirably in the other areas of her life, her diet was always an area where she remained a 16-year-old. Rory, I think, is getting to the age where the junk doesn't cut it as much any more (in most social circles, not just the ones that Logan runs in), and she's starting to experiment and play around with that. I thought it was cool, and very indicitive of the fact that she's not 16 anymore, as much as everyone may lament the fact that OldRory isn't there. If she was exactly the same at 21 as she was at 16, I would be concerned.

And I liked Rory and Logan's domesticity, and playing house. It shows a level of comfort with each other--particularly in the fact that she was playing host in his house. Obviously she had been there often enough to be comfortable with it, and I know that I totally do that when I'm at a friend's house--when I get to the point where I can go through the kitchen cupboards without asking (and without feeling awkward), that's when it's most fun. Plus, I think that it was appropriate, since it was her mother and stepfather-to-be, not his friends or family, that they were entertaining.

Logan, on the whole... still good. There were a few things that I was like, "Dumb kid," but they weren't on the same level as the "Logan's such a smarm!" moments from the first half of the season. I thought that it was great that he gave Luke the heads-up about the gifts at dinner, but it might have been better if he had re-thought his plan once he realized that there would be more than just the two of them there. I didn't think that he was trying to show Luke up, though--he was very generous, once he realized Luke's situation, and he can't really be blamed for not knowing Luke well enough to realize that Luke doesn't "do" Valentine's.

It bugged me that Luke and Logan introduced themselves again. They've met at least twice--granted, the first time was under "less than ideal" circumstances (and I thought that the way they handled that with Christopher last week was hilarious), but they were both at Rory's 21st birthday, too. Even though they haven't spent much time together, they shouldn't need to be re-introduced.

Logan and Mitchum... I felt bad for him. I think he made a dumb move by blowing off the London trip, and maybe Mitchum was justified in his anger, but I still felt for Logan, being lambasted in front of his girlfriend and her parents(ish) like that. Public humiliation is never fun, whether it's deserved or not. And the look on his face at the end of the fight was just heartbreaking. He looked like such a little boy, and I couldn't help but feel sympathetic.

I get his reasoning behind not telling Rory about London, too, even though, again, I think he should have told her. Avoidance is beautiful sometimes, and I got that he really wanted to believe that it would all be okay, but at the same time, she's fallen hard for him, and I really believe that he has for her, too, and if he doesn't tell her until he leaves, he (as a 23-year-old) is hurting her in the exact same way that Jess did as an 18-year-old. I think that if they're trying to write this as an adult (or becoming-adult) relationship, they would do well to avoid that particular comparison.

And now. Luke and Lorelai.

I couldn't believe Luke for a good part of the episode. He's not the type to be so petty, and I was so irritated by the way that he was badmouthing Logan to Lorelai. It has nothing to do with whether he likes or doesn't like Logan; the fact is, this is yet another character inconsistency in Luke right now. He's not that kind of two-faced, and it made me really sad to see that.

And that was what made the long-awaited I Love You seem less special. I mean, we've been waiting for it forever (and I liked that it was made obvious that this wasn't the first time they've said it), but it seemed like that whole scene, as sweet as it was, was tainted by everything lately. It was like AS-P said, "You know, the fans are getting really mad at Luke, and beginning to hate them. Let's give them a scene that they can squee over so that they forget just a little bit that they hate it so much."

Because I did love the scene, and I loved them waking up together--that sweetness has been missing lately--but it was then two steps forward, one step back, when they went back to the diner and Luke didn't pick up on the fact that Lorelai wanted to meet April. Plus, we haven't even gotten the benefit of seeing Dad!Luke lately. We've just seen Jerk!Luke without the sweetness of watching him learn how to be a dad.

Having said that, though, I'm still willing to wait it out and see where they're going with this. I think that there's a reason for the L/L storyline, and there's a reason for the way Rory is developing, even though those are both major points of contention right now, and I'm not going to give up on either.

I should probably have more to say about Lorelai and Luke, but right now, I don't really have anything. I wanted to love it more, but I was still put off by the scenes before and after the ILY.

And now, to end with some fun lines and moments...

Did anyone else notice that Logan didn't call Rory "Ace" once this episode?

I loved Luke's "Is that wise?" It was a normal-Luke moment, and I really appreciated that.

The whole kitchen bit with Lorelai and Rory... the banter is back, and I love it!

And the "Mass Ass"? Hilarious!

So there you go. Thoughts? Because really, no one comments on this thing, so I'm just sending my thoughts out into cyberspace and letting them float.