Gilmore Girls: 'Always a Godmother, Never a God' (6x04)

Once again, Gilmore Girls gives us a solid but not extraordinary episode that continues to show us the lives that Rory and Lorelai are living without each other. I wouldn't say the show's been in a rut since the season premiere, but it hasn't matched that level of intensity since. I don't think the creators want to be that dark, the show is a dramedy, but that means that we've gotten a series of episodes that haven't really led anywhere and leave a lot of the more meaningful stuff to subtext.

Rory once again is getting more and more sucked into her grandmother's world. She's forced to run the party by herself, and makes all the polite jokes required of a person in polite society. But it's not clear whether this is something she actually enjoys, or just a task she has taken on to keep herself busy and further the illusion that she's actually doing something so dropping out of Yale was not a mistake.

Her conversation with Lane was all about this. I liked the fact that the awkwardness was palpable. These were two people who were really close, but very rarely interacted in recent episodes, so they have to cross that initial barrier to relate to each other again. Rory tries to defend her lifestyle, but it's pretty clear she's not entirely convinced even herself that what she's doing is the right thing.

Over with Lorelai, there were some funny bits with Beau. That setup was pure screwball comedy, it makes no sense in the plot, and is just dropped out of nowhere to be used for some jokes. They worked, but it was a bit odd nonetheless. I did like the scenes with her and Rory, where they both want to reach out, but just can't and as a result further alienate each other.

One curious thin about this episode was the fact that they went to commercial after what I assumed would be the end, when Rory goes to New York, but then came back for one two minute scene. Very strange. But that scene was great, the 'Riding the Bus with My Sister' clip was hilarious, it's hard to believe someone actually made that movie, but it's all too real.

So, not too much to say about this one, though next week's episode looks like it's got a lot of potential.