I am all in again. Oh, let's you. I am all in again with Scott Patterson in iHeartRadio Podcast. Hey everybody, Scott Patterson, I am all in Podcast, one of them productions iHeartRadio Media, iHeart Podcasts. We are recapping Season one, Episode nine, Rory's Dance. Air date December twenty year two thousand. That was twenty four years ago. Almost Oh gosh. Rory and Dean fall asleep together following a fairy tale evening at a formal dance, leading to a blow up between
Lorelei and her mother over discipline. Leslie Linka Glader, who directed the pilot, directed this episode. Amy Sherman Palladino wrote this rather brilliants and I am joined by none other than Vanessa Morano, who played my lovely daughter. Welcome, how are you.
I'm good.
It's been a minute, right.
A minute?
Yeah, you were on what a couple of years ago?
Has been a couple of years ago. I feel like last year was the All In live where you pummeled up with snow.
That's right.
I think it's the only way to describe that experience.
No, that was just last year. That was last year, last year. Yeah, So it was just a year ago. Yeah, and yeah, we're doing another big shindig this year at Warner Brothers lovely to see. How have you been you've been I'm sure you've been busy.
I've been good, been busy, very very excited for the end of the year, and just taking it easy at this point in time.
Right, Yeah, iHeart podcasts.
Listen on the iHeart Radio app.
Let's get into this thing. What did you think of this episode?
Well, as you know, I'm such a huge Gilma Girls fan, so I've seen this episode upwards of probably thirty times.
All Right, so let me let me ask you then if you're the expert here, because this is only the second time I've seen it. I know I ranked this because now I've seen it, and so I'm I'm able to sort of compare it and rank it. Got This is pretty high up there on the list for me.
It's a great episode, and it's really it's one of those ones where, like I remember just from watching it live too, like it was a big one. Like I remember it was a big thing that there was going to be this big. It's the first real fight we see with laurele I and Rory, you know, in the pilot. Obviously there's the disagreement about school, but this is the first sort of like, especially from louralized perspective, like all
of her you know, childhood for lack of a better term. Yes, it is really informing how she is feeling about this entire situation. Yes, obviously like the fear of like safety, my daughter didn't come home last night, but then it's about so much more than that, and Emily triggering her into that confrontation with Rory. It's just it's such like psychology,
that's just like bubbling up. That really is the sweet spot where Gilmore Girls lives, in my opinion, right right, just mother daughter trauma over and over and over and over again.
It's the three generations put inside that crucible and it explodes. It's it's just wonderful stuff. It's just so brought with drama and humor and dynamics. It's just it's great.
All right.
So we're Friday night dinner and uh, you know, as Friday night dinners go. I thought this was particularly great because it sees Laurel I acting throughout the episode, but especially here in a somewhat childish way, right and picking at her avocado and the tomato. But the the humor was elevated. Rory was a little you know, she was dismissive and ran and got a coke. But it's you know, the banter between mother, between Emily and Laurel I was was as good as it gets it at a Friday
night dinner and minus Richard. And it's interesting because I wasn't in this episode. You know, the Fellas weren't really in this episode other than Dean and and Tris stan Cestine referred to him Tris stan and it and and it, and it really flowed for me, you know, it wasn't even though you miss Richard, of course, but you know, this mother daughter dynamic is powerful, and you're right, it is. It is the backbone of the show. It truly is.
It is. And I obviously Laura and Rory we love, we watch, we adore, But for me watching Laurel I and Emily is one of the funnest things on the show. Whether they're fighting, whether they're it's humorous fighting, it's just two powerhouse actresses that are just playing in a way
that is so fun. And what I loved about this Friday night dinner is it's one of the rare times where we end with Emily getting the last word, like a lot of times Laurel I is able to get the last word, and then Emily kind of rolls her eyes annoyed and is like, I'm not going further. But that last bit where she was like, the owls will live, and she's like, well, apparently they won't, Dear, It's like, that's why they need the donations. That's actually what the issue.
Is, you know, in the hands of a lesser writer, and I would say nine percent of the writers out there are lesser writers than than Amy Sherman Palladino. Not to take anything away from those ninety nine point nine percent, because they're all done pretty dark good. But Amy's like, you know, she's she's special, uh, And in the in the hands of a lesser writer, that scene doesn't work. She makes that stuff work, you know, with all the verbiage, the word count, all that, it just works.
And it blows my mind too, and it must blow your mind as well, just like you know, being in television for so long and working on so many shows and knowing the restrictions that writers are under, especially in a network setting as well. Man she got away with what she was able to.
Do is you know what you bring up probably the most salient point of all. How did she do it? How did she do it? Because, Yeah, I've been on a series regular in four or series now and it is a it's it's it's a cage fight trying to get a line changed. You know that, it's a it's just brutal. And the thing is is, you know a lot of actors aren't great writers, but there are some actors that are pretty pretty good writers, and they kind of know and you know, and like, hey, this isn't
going to work because of this reason. And it doesn't. You don't really need to say that line. I can act it, you know. Now it's better if I just act it. And what can we drop that? This has no logical reason to be in the scene. This is repetitive, it's redundant, whatever the reason is, right, cut it, just cut it. Less is more or less's more or less is more. So Yeah, she did that, and she did
it because she didn't back down. The courage and the courage of that woman, you know, defending her favorite children, not only us, but her words, right, her characters. Man, nobody was going to get near us. She protected us tooth and nail for six seasons until she just you know, got her heart broken. You know, wow, yeah, how do you do it? Well? It takes a special kind of person, right, it takes it takes a person who believes in their vision so strongly that they're willing to die on that hill.
It takes a person who survived the Roseanne writer's room.
What that must have been like, Oh yeah.
Because anyone who's worked in that writer's room is like a powerhouse person.
Right, do you know? Do you know the players involved in that writer's room.
A little bit? I've worked with a lot of them throughout the years, Like I did a pilot with Rob Ullin who was there at the same time as Dan and me. And yeah, it's funny. You just come across a lot of writers who you know, have all worked in the same rooms more or less through the years. In television, I mean, television is kind of a small pool,
even with new and people coming in. But it is an interesting thing to think about because obviously it's kind of notoriously known that that was a difficult room and again because personalities and because network restrictions, and they were doing something by groundbreaking at that time as well, which is always really really difficult, right, But I think when it comes to to Amy, like you see with the care that she has for Gilmore Girls and the care that she has for the writing, and I mean like
not a piece of exposition in sight, which again I think is very difficult to do on a network show where you have to remind people after everyecial break where we.
Are oh my goodness, oh man, yeah, it's all there. I'm fighting these battles right now. I've been fighting these battles for three years with the exposition, with the repetition, and it's just boy, it's tough.
And you see that in I think this episode in general too, like when you finally get to that big scene where they have that fight with Emily and Laura I and she's saying, I'm not gonna let you were like allow Rory to ruin her life the way that you ruined your life, and she's like, look around, this
is a life. Like it's just it's just beautiful. It's beautifully written and heartbreaking and again not like pointing to anything you've gone through this entire episode where Laura I has sort of regressed into whether it be the pain medication she's on for. But she's allowed herself to regress to sort of a child's state and let her mom take care of her. And Laura I never lets her
mom take care of her. And you see this joy that Emily has in being allowed to take care of her daughter, like loving being a mom, which is a very interesting side of Emily to see. And how quickly that fuse blows when just one one domino falls.
Even though you know it's coming, it still surprised me. It still surprised me at the ferocity of that blow up at the end. And it was so good, and that's you know, that's a Palladino signature episode where it is light and funny, light and funny with a little bit of drama on the way. Light and funny, light and funny, delightful, humorous, actually hysterical. There were so many great gags in this and then boom, they nail you at the end. They just get you, and it's just
so powerful. It's such a great formula. Anyway, for those listening that aren't aware of the protocols of network television, let's tell people a little bit about that. And it shouldn't take two long. Writers submit scripts, the studios read the scripts. The department the TV division heads and read those and they give notes, and since they're paying for the show, you're going to implement their notes, right. I
think it's a lot more collaborative than I'm making out. Actually, I think there's a lot more respect going back and forth, phone calls, emails, Hey, I got your notes. I don't think that's going to you know this kind of thing, right. I don't know that it's always so contentious, but I
think it can get contentious. I think it's more, you know, there's a lot of smart people going back and forth forth, and maybe there's some less experienced smart people that aren't writers per se, and that the network and the advertisers need a certain thing put into a scene or an episode because you know the reason and I don't want to say it. So there's pressure brought to bear on the writer's room or on the showrunner to implement this, and that's where the wars begin.
Well, and I think also the why it can get I'm not even gonna say contentious, I'm gonna say exhausted, right, because the thing with network television, especially at that time, is right, you're living in twenty four episodes. That is a lot to be putting together before you're even starting
to shoot. Before that first script is written for the first episode of whatever season you're in, right those writers are in a room breaking the whole season, figuring out we're going to get from this point to this point to this point by our midpoint, by episode twelve thirteen, that has to be a big episode because Christmas is around, Matt, we're going to be off for a few weeks, then we're going to come back for the back nine, back ten, whatever,
and then lead to a finale. So it's this whole situation of like figuring out, for twenty something episodes how that story goes. So you are breaking that, getting that network right, and then episode by episode you're outlining it and getting seen approval basically. So then by the time you are writing the actual dialogue that gets you there, you're kind of on the same page with whatever executives
about what's going to happen. But then you're also like, well, we got to cut to the clock and make sure that we're in this commercial break by this time, so you.
Don't have that much time right right right, get.
To that place either. So it's I would say, the restrictions that everyone sort of under is what can lead to the back and forth and lead to the battles, so to speak.
Right, and then there's the the inevitable uh situations on
set in rehearsal and like this makes no sense. Uh oh, this has to be changed or this can be improved, right, And then it's just it has to go off the chain of command or showrunner makes it on the spot decision says yes, okay or no, you know, and then you're kind of forced to So so all all these different choices are being made in an instant that are all like the worst ones can completely alter an intention of a scene or your your intention, and it's very
very difficult to perform that way, very difficult. Anyway, it's an interesting process, it really is. Can be fraught with tension and drama on the other side of the camera too, at the executive level. So it's an interesting and it is amazing And I'm really glad you brought this up about how brave, how courageous Amy always was in the face of all of this, because she just she fought for choices and you got to respect the hell out of that because you do.
Because no one makes it easy, even the easiest person to work with, even a network executive who has your back, which there are plenty of people who will fight for their writers, it's still, you know, for you to dig your heels in and know, like, if I change this one thing, it ruins the music of the scene, It ruins the it ruins the thing that ultimately with Gilmer
Girls has stood the test of time. That coziness of it isn't just the snow and the pumpkins and all that stuff too, It is the music of how the dialogue works is comforting. And you know, a change to any of that can ruin that situation. And yeah, could it just be easier to just get into in that Friday night dinner opening scene, none of the stuff about the avocado and the tomato and us just get right into Rory. You have a dance and you're not going
to the dance. Yes, it's easier to just get right to that, but you're missing the magic of the dynamic, which is the show.
Right. I'm so glad you brought this up. This crucial to the success of this show is that her voice, Dan's voice were protected they protected it, and that's why she was such a boss, and that's why she is getting so many accolades and so many awards, because that woman is not an employee. She's a boss running the show. That's a real show runner right there, right, She's uncompromised. She is not compromising her vision, and she's willing to go to the mat for her vision. She's willing to
defend her actors. She's willing to say bye bye after six years, like no, I'm not going to do that because you did this, you know. And just an amazing legacy that she has left us and still continues to create brilliant TV. And I can't wait to see this new Oneoile this dance. They're in Paris and New York and it's it takes place in the world of bell.
I'm so excited because, you know, Bunheads was on ABC Family at the same time my show Switched at Birth was on ABC Family, and so I hadn't seen Amy and Dan in like so long, but we went to the up runs and they saw both of them there for that show. But I love bun Heads too, I just think and the world of dance is so personal to her. Like, I had no idea that her mother was in ballet and was in dance.
I didn't know that. I knew she was, but I didn't. I guess it makes sense there was as well.
If I'm by the way, it's been years since I had this conversation, so let's also just everybody take that with a grand assault if I'm incorrect, giving us a little grace. But I'm pretty sure her mom was in dance as well. So again, like in the Gilmore Girls of it all, mother daughter relationships dance being so important, like there there's definitely a you know, an Amy Sherman Palladino like core to to what her storytelling is and what is important to her.
Right, she's the most unique character of them all. And then she's got a million a million voices in there.
But I already know I'm going to eat that show up with a spoon, like I'm so excited. I'm so excited.
All right, So now we're in Dosis Market and you know there's that delightful scene, you know, the thing that I marveled at in that walk and talk out in stars Hollow to to Dosie's Market with Lane and Rory is just how damn wintery it looked. I mean their ice on the street, I mean, they did a fantastic job. And that's probably an eighty five degree day, or maybe it's maybe it's a seventy five degree days because it
was a little overcast, it seemed. And you really don't see the Warner Brothers a lot overcast very often, and that's no trick they did in post production. That was like, that was a cloudy day. So it's perfect and it just looks so cold and wintery and great, you know, and what a fantastic job, very very nice scene. I love these early episodes. They are establishing what is to come, and I think there's some of the fun is crafted
most finely crafted episodes. So she goes in and she nervously asked Dean if she he wants to go to the dance with her? And does she not look like she was just like five years old? She looks so both.
Of them, by the way, both of them babies.
Oh he uh, you know, he's a cool city kid, right. He knows what she's getting that he's playing it a little cool. He says, well, do you want to go? You know, he's I really am liking Dean after this episode a lot. I think they're well suited.
I know this is this is this is our this is our good Dean period. We know what's to come,
so we will you know, wait for that. But yes, uh, this like beginning first romance is very very very sweet, and Alexis just has like this fabulous sort of natural like effortlessness about it, and like there was just this one point where she like looked away and then like look back to like be like I don't know, I mean if you did it, like just so like it was it was such a uh such a smart girl uh thing right where it's like, this is a girl who has been so insular so in her books so
like and but she is she is a beautiful like social, like interesting vivacious mother has obviously gotten some vivacious qualities from her, but she has been living sort of like that you know, book reader sort of life, and it is interesting to see this character grow into who she will eventually be, which is so so much more.
Comfort bowl right.
But yeah, I love I love these these little moments when when Dean is being quite the sweet boyfriend and like reading between the lines too, like which I was like, oh, well that was an impressive teenage boy at that point for him to realize that, like, she's not saying what she actually wants. I was like, wow, Dean, we uh, we're more put.
Together than I exactly exactly, and the universe, the universality of it, it's like it's I'm a sixty six year old man and I'm watching you, a fifteen sixteen year old girl, be all a Twitter, and I'm fully engaged in this. This is not my demo, this is not my kind of thing, but it is because it's like I've been in this situation. I'm sure you've been in this situation. Everybody's been in this situation, and they're just acting out all of these classic scenes in a very
unique way that we've never seen before. But it's just familiar blueprint, right, So it's very comfortable.
And then my hero of the series, Lane being no but this is my entertainment for the week, Like we got rid of the television, I have to be.
Watch she's jumping up and down, she's so happy.
I don't know if you noted that this stuck out to me in the episode where the little clips in Lane's hair, because it was very much like, okay, we're Alexis looks so young, so let's put these clips in right, make hair to make sure that they look because.
As we know, Kiko was twenty seven at that time.
Luckily did not look it looks like a baby as well.
Didn't that look it?
You could see again, not to get too insidery, you could see the network notes at play of like take her down, take her down, take her down, and the hair department's like yellow and red.
Clap right right right, right right right, all right. So now we're now they're making the dress. Laura's making her dress, and it's a it's a great scene because there's like there's there's you know, prap falls and the the mannequin falls on top of Laurla she slips in, it falls. I mean, it's just really hard to do and pull it off, and she she makes it looks effortless, makes it look like an accident. That's hard to do. What's the think of this scene? There was a lot in
this scene. Let's uh, let's let's talk about this. I mean, we've got we've got Suki, we got Emily, we got we've got all kinds of stuff. It take us through let's stay here.
I mean, what was fun about, you know, the the Suki of it, all, right, is that idea of I'm coming over to help, right, and I actually can't help at all. Again, just like placing a character in there who's like, okay, if it all goes according to plan, Emily's not staying over. We're not going to get her there the next day. Like Lore lies lived enough of a life at this point in time where she knows how to keep her mother out of her house. We've weakened her with the back issue, but Suki is there
to help. It's going to be fine, and within two seconds. Because I also and you should knowing that Suki is so clumsy, you should see that hairspray moment coming. But again didn't see it.
Didn't see that's so good at all. She's whipped out four bottles of pills.
Yeah, so I know that was so great, right, just like I got it all because I'm constantly injured, right right right?
And uh yeah, the spraying in the eyes was you just I replayed that three or four times and just roared. I mean, it's easy to go. Amy and Dan must sit there and go, how do we make this hysterically fun, because this is just a scene about you know whatever, and it's a nice scene and we've written it well, but how do we enhance this? You know, it's so good, it's so good. And then Emily.
Calls, oh, yeah that's right, so sorry, we're I jumped ahead. Yeah, you're right. No, there's the uh her actually falling with Mannekin and then yeah, her calling to try to get in on the entire situation. What I love about how that particular scene worked is I love how that was shot. I loved that Laura I was getting further and further and further towards the ground to the she finally gives up and says, oh, you know, I am would you like to come over and see her get ready for
the dance? And it's just it's not until she is fully on her back on the floor that she has she's she's accepted defeat. I just thought that was a really clever way of doing that.
She needs, she needs a Suki delivered muscle relaxer in order to get her to comply with Emily. That she gets off. It's hysterical, all right. Now here we we go to Chiltern and Tristan notices that Paris's hair is shorter. Well, here we are confronted with my gosh, this guy.
You can say it, this guy. That's how I feel about it, this guy.
Have you ever known a guy like this?
Of course?
Wow, what produces such a person?
Well, wealth, upsete amounts of wealth apparently the thing. I mean, you know, it's obviously all insecurity. Yeah, but I love when Paris says, grory, he was being totally nice to you when you were a to him. It's like Paris, who hurt you? That seems nice? Like Paris.
I gotta say the dialogue, just like putting Tristan in his place was some of the best words ever to come out of her mouth.
I mean I replayed that scene many times.
Yeah, it's great. It's great again, like the the opposite of like comfortability too, like seeing her sort of you know, shy and afraid the Dean thinks and all that, and then her just not giving two cares in a world.
What I mean, is there a better way to call somebody stupid, slimy and a weasel? Those three elements I mean just brilliant, absolutely brilliant. I mean the fact that he hung in there for so long and took those blows.
Because he's not And this is why again she's in the right. He's not hearing her, he's not listening to her. He's like, oh, it doesn't compute in his brain that he's not going to get what he wants. And so it's just she's not being heard or listened to. And then finally it's almost like it's not the actual words that gets them to leave. It's like him being like, well, this is taking too long.
He tries at least at least she won't be buying the tickets or some lame.
Ticket.
Oh god, it's so fun. It's so fun. I think I my love for Amy deepened after watching this show. I mean after watching the scene, yea, I thought, Okay, that's that's her message to these types of guys.
Absolutely, and then again like.
I because it's because it's a type. They're out there, they're kind of well.
And that's the thing is, you know, again, in what this show has done for young women especially, is it it takes those sort of types of guys and but it never really lives in a world of a type of girl like again, that Paris character, those Madeline Louise characters. We've seen those mean girls over and over and over and over again, and the choice, the choice to make Paris who she is is just fantastic, Like you cannot point to another sort of like female opposition foe, and like, yes,
obviously in that moment, is it about the guy? Is it about Paris has always had a thing for Tristian. He doesn't look at her, he looks at Rory, But we know on an even deeper level she's afraid of what Rory threatens in her education, which is a crazy thing to be also like tied into this entire situation of what these girls are are feuding over. Uh and just again, the anger in Paris. It's very hard to make anger funny and looks just like it's hysterical every
single time. One of my favorite characters in this series.
Just yeah, one of the great scenes of the entire when she's.
So upset that she won't wait for the change. She's like, I will not keep this change.
Right, just so good?
All right?
So, now Rory's getting ready for the dance, Emily shows up, Sukie's there. This is when all that hairspray happens. But it's nice to see them all together and it's nice to and then Emily, you know, Emily does her thing, She does her Emily thing, demands that and has horn honking and silence ever been so funny.
So great, And you know what's so hilarious in this moment is Emily's not wrong.
Emily's not wrong. You can't disagree with that.
You can't disagree with that. And because I was sitting there and I was like, in a normal situation, Laurrea I would be like would oh it would be like, no, that's not happening Rory Leaf and Laura I kind of sits a little bit back a I think because of the pain, Like she just doesn't have the energy to
fight with her mother. But he I was like, oh, is there a little small part of Laura I that's like, yeah, I already met him yet it's fine, but a little bit of like, you know, Laura's very untrusting of all the boyfriends, and even though Dean's the one that she liked the most. I wondered, was there a little part of her that was like, well, I'm not gonna fight too hard on this because you know, we should kind of come inside, Like what was the line that Emily said where she was like, you're not.
A you're not a fast food. Yeah, you're right, you're not in order of chicken or something like something like that. That sounds something, but I don't know. I think Laurel Lai is you know, she's so the anti she's so the antithesis of her mother. Yet there's always that you know, the DNA, and you know there's got to fight that, right so until you can't anymore. But she's yeah, she's in a very vulnerable state. She's on medication and muscle relaxers.
So every every hill that Suki had in her.
Right, the only way to deal with Emily is to get like lit up a little bit, you know, just go to an altered state of consciousness and maybe you could throw it. But really, really really love this scene. These are these are classic scenes, beautifully shot, beautifully acted, beautifully written, back to back to back to back to back.
There isn't a weak thread here. I mean, it's just it just keeps coming at And I thought to myself, how nice for the audience to witness this, the three generations coming together and all reacting in different ways to Dean and his Uh you know his lack of manners, would you say or he's just following instruction? He said, but you said that to do this, I did it.
You know. It's teenage boy simplicity, right.
Right, just fantastic and the and then you top it, just when you think it couldn't get any better, they get into this Baccarat crystal thing with the monkey lamp, and it's like, where do they get this stuff? It's fantastic.
What store was selling both of those items? What store was selling the back crystal candlesticks that you could go and be like, but I'm going to replace it with the monkey lamb?
Right, there's there's there's an inconsistency there.
Well, I just was like, I was like, look, I think it could happen, and I think there's a north Strom situation where that could be going down.
But maybe it's a pawnche up. You mentioned.
That could happen. I agree with you.
And then she pocketed the rest of the money because you know that's not equal value, not now worth a dance and and it and it really it really uh uh. It shows the difference between these two mm hmm. You know, and from Emily's point of view, she's fallen so far down where she came from, and from lorealized point of view, it's like I found my freedom and my joy all right now we're at the dance and they made it there. Take us through this, madel Louise spot him, and Louise
is very forward with Dean about his height. Mm hmmm uh that is a very bold and that shows a level of total disrespect toward Rory from these from Louise.
That that Dean handles brilliantly, very well. But again also Matt just in her own of like really fixated on my mom doesn't know how to make anything. That's just so well, this this blatant show of like disrespect of happening right in front of her, and she's just like, I don't think she could make anything. It just doesn't forget Again, that's just like the brilliance of where Gilmer Girls lives is like those two things can be happening at once, and that like elevates the scene.
You know, it is rather amazing to watch a sixteen year old girl, Rory handle all of these arrows coming at her all the time. I mean, if it's not if it's not Tristan, it's it's it's Paris and now it's Louise. I mean, it's just like full of disrespect.
But I feel like that was sort of a universal feeling as a teenage girl. I think you did feel like you had and I think probably for teenage boys as well. I think just girl tend to be, for whatever reason, a little bit more aware at that stage. It's probably has something to do with whatever hormones are
happening to both at the same time. But I do think it feels like you have so much going at you in so many directions and you're navigating, and so to see someone navigate it, well, it was very inspiring.
And you know, again in the world where we put Dean on a pedestal as like the perfect boyfriend at this point, like to be like, oh, she has sort of a partner in crime backing her up right here was a comforting thing again, lulling us into this false sense of security and comfort that will be disrupted by the end of the episode.
M Yeah, she's very strong, isn't she. Rory has some real, really good coping skills. You know, she doesn't take things personally, but it's hard. I mean, it all builds up and you know, anybody could break. But she says, very well, for somebody so young.
Well again, like if you're going into also like an absent father, to you get those hoping skills of not letting people get to you, probably quite early on, because you've had to not let your father get to you.
Right. And now we see in Paris meets Dean and it's very brief and it's not terribly memorable.
And then Jacob Richard we've seen there, all right.
And then it's later in that scene he asked for a number, isn't it Jacob comes up to her summer cousin. All right, So now we're back at Lorealiz's house and Emily's made a mash bananas and toast for Lorelei, and that is a would you say, that's a strange thing to make for an adult mash bananas and toast.
It's certainly a strange thing to make for an adult, but understandably so of like, oh, you're never an adult to your mom, right sure, So like she's I just love the idea of like Emily, who's going through a million maids and a million cooks, right, right, one thing she did when she was by herself, probably with a sick child, and overwhelmed, was like, if I take this banana and I mash it onto bread, then it's a meal.
We're gonna pick off right where we left off. She's she's not sixteen anymore, she's not pregnant. She's a little girl, and I'm in control and I'm gonna make her feel good.
And again the idea too of giving, Like when she was like, I would make it for you when you were sick all the time, it was like, okay, well hold on. So if it's if it's a head cold, that's so weird. We're not doing soup. We're doing we're doing but I guess there's potassium, all right, I got you. If it was a stomach thing, that seems like a horrible idea.
Mm hmmm mm hmmm. Yes, absolutely, it was just you know, she was just a back pain exactly. So she's being very motherly to Laurela, and she's loving every minute of this. I mean it's also you know, she's she's back in her element. She's getting to relive the past, maybe right some rights, some wrongs here. She evens and Laurel I even says, thank you, mommy. And then she brushes her hair away that I mean, so yeah, everybody in this scene is regressing.
Now absolutely, And that great moment where again Laurel I so trained, where it's like I can do everything by myself. Just give me the burrito, I'll eat it cold, and you could just see Emily wanting to caregive, wanting to caregive, wanting to care give, and then Loral I goes fine, hots better though, and Kelly Bishop's performance of be right back like that little three to go do that was
so fantastic, so absolutely wonderful. And yeah, you know when she's you know, finally asleep and letting her in and and I think really that that moment where she finally feels comfortable enough to say, hey, mom, I made the dress,
like I didn't just go out and buy it. And Emily takes a moment to really let that in and not be her usual Emily, you know, putting her down to say you did a lovely job, and you did a lovely job with Rory and the dress, and that moment, you're like, show's over, We're healed now, right, these two are come together. It's fine, she's accepted it. They're gonna
fight a path forward. This is wonderful. This is great, Like they're never able to have a conversation like this, Emily's never able to say you did a good kid, and that just that moment allows Laura if for the thank you mommy, for the moment she lets her be her mother right.
And just what a wonderful arc for Kelly to act for that episode. I mean, just she must have just been so thrilled when she read that episode, like, Wow, this is gonna be fun because of all the riches that she brings to a performance, you know, absolutely, Yeah, and Amy setting us up for the big fight scene. Just let's get them together. Let's get everybody teary.
Eyed and lulled into that false security.
That's so good. It's a now where it's a dance. Paris is angry that Roy knows her date is is her cousin. She's embarrassed and she kind of outs herself. That's a really funny scene, and you know, Roy just says, well, I don't have to say it, You've just told everybody. Yeah, and uh oh oh, Dean called him DRIs Dan. What is Dristane is what?
I'm so glad you asked that. I was like when he says, oh, very clever, I was like, this is going above my head. This is this is Amy and Dan being.
No, no, this is something I grew up with, DRIs Dan, and I think it's I think it's a headache remedy, okay, or it's something it's it's something to get rid of headaches. Hang on, let me, I'm gonna google this real fast.
Because I'm so glad you brought that one up because I was like.
This one, DRIs Dan.
This one above above my pay grade of under.
You know I misspelled it. Darn it. I just start over sinus and nasal decongestant. I think that's okay, Chris Dan, Oh that's clever. He called it a sinus and nasal decongestant. What a thing? What a thing? And you know when you see those two kissing on the dance floor and DRIs Stan is in the background just like and then his date comes out.
I'm gonna say this entire sequence could be recut. That Dean and Tristan are actually in love with each other, right like that. You could easily recut this scene. That's what struck me when I was watching it. I was like, there is helpable chemistry between Shad Michael Burry injured.
How lucky really, I think.
Because you're looking obviously, you know, with context clues. He's looking at the dance floor. He's clearly looking at Rory. But I'm telling you the twenty twenty four version of this show, the reveal is he's in love with Dean.
But he's still just doant either way.
Yeah, either way, either way, he's a nasal de congested.
He's a nasal d congested. Very very satisfying to see this. You know that this is another iconic universal experience that everybody witnesses at a dance when they were growing up. We've all seen this.
I'm gonna have to take your word for it because.
I never saw that well that this chick was homeschooled.
So this is my window into is this what idt you?
Oh yeah, yeah, I've seen this a couple of times. This is what happens, you know, there's guy fights over girls, and uh it was very satisfying, and I thought, I thought Dean acquitted himself very well. He said, you don't want to fight me, Tristan, I will kill you, and uh you.
Right, you, which, by the way, ultimately right. We know, Dean's from Chicago. He's a city kid. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right, right right, I really want to get down to it. This is the you know, nice guy from the Midwest versus like, you know, losty kid from.
Connecticut, right exactly.
Neither one of these guys are that hard, you know what I mean?
Mm hmmm hm. But it's it's it's great stuff and it really brings the Rory and Dean closer together. She refers to Hi as her boyfriend and he's like, but that's later on anyway. So they're walking home and uh, they happened upon after dancing around the word boyfriend with Dean, and she finally asked him if he is her boyfriend, and then they go to Miss Patty's. So it's progressing, the relationships progressing. This is a perfect first date for them.
They go in to Miss Patties and they fall asleep. They fall asleep and as kids do, right, and never happened to me, but it's it's possible.
The problem is Rory's so immune to coffee at this point, right, like they're they're they're walking and getting coffee, but it doesn't matter. She's like an Italian that was like her evening espresso, you know what, I go to sleep afterwards, like.
All right, So they fall asleep on the bean bags and Miss Patties And next morning Miss Patty comes in with a group of older women at five thirty am to her studio. I guess they're doing a jazz or size or something or a yoga no dance, it's a dancing right, she doesn't dance.
Well, I think I think it was a yoga clash. She's a dance teacher, but I think it was. I believe so because of the mats.
But you know, right, and there they are passed out, Rory freaks out. Dean insists he's gonna come with Rory to explain to Laura lines and.
Liz Torres has that brilliant line reading of like it's five thirty in the morning. She's like, Rory sweeting, worry sweet sometimes it's five thirty in the morning. Just so like nice to Rory and so like we don't trust you, new kid. But yeah, and then all the running with Dean, where she's he's like, I'll explain, and she's like you cannot be anywhere near right, And I think that's such intense reaction to again, no exposition needed. We got what
this means. Like, we know the one thing Rory has grown up with her entire life is to not be in the same position that her mother was in. That is the one thing that Laurai and Emily both can agree on. Then Rory knows what the stakes of that are and what the stakes of her losing her mother's trust are, so that you know, super intense reaction isn't about I'm gonna get in trouble like it would be with any other teenager. It's about, oh, this is like something that is going to hurt my mother on a
level that like nobody else gets but me. Yeah.
I love that scene if Rory running past looks you know, it's like a wide shot of her just running down the street to her home yelling, Oh no, I gotta go, you can't come with me? Just great, just great. And then Emily wakes up Laurala I and then it all begins. This all begins, this big scene, this big shootout at the OK Corral begins, and everybody's freaking out and Emily's
freaking out, and Mom stop yelling at me. I know, I know she's missing, and I'm calling and where's the phone I'm looking for the you know, the whole thing. It was just terrific tension ratchet up. We as an audience knows she's safe, but it's still creating some anxiety watching these two freaking out because boy, you know, as a father, I can relate to that, right, being in a situation where you don't know where your kid is. So that's that's terrifying. Uh And there's nothing in life
more terrifying than that. And then it all begins. What was your impression of this?
I mean, love love, love love, It's it's it's a perfect scene, it really is. It's it's so layered, it's and and again we've been joking. You know, the whole episode lolows into a full sense of security. But because it does, and you said something so great, Scott, we all know everything is actually okay, but it doesn't matter.
The damage is done. And and again it's just the history. It's the history that comes out in that argument between Emily and Lorlai and between Kelly and Lauren. It's just like a masterclass like acting the hell out of it. When Lauren just grabs that coffee pot, which she says no she's not.
And like the build of the no, she's not, No, she's not. No, she's not. No, she's not. No, she's not. No, she's not And then she gets a little like almost childish again, which I think was such an important choice because again she's sitting there arguing with her mother about her own child, but it is still about something. They're
not arguing about Rory. They're arguing about Laura I and all the Ultimately, no matter what, can they have a nice relationship eventually if both of them just give a little absolutely, But it doesn't change the fact that neither one of them has dealt with the pain of that situation, and so it will forever be the thing that is under both of them in any situation. And then again her really really standing up for Rory and standing up
for themselves. Emily leaves, Rory comes in, Rory thinks it's gonna be okay, And the flip of like her losing her strength in that moment of you're absolutely right, just being from a parent of not knowing where your kid is. But again what that her getting into her own insecurities about what that means too, Like she knows Rory is okay, and once she knows Rory is okay, it's about something not scarier than your kid being dead. Obviously, you're so
happy your child is fine. But it becomes about something deeper, which is what Rory calls her out on, which is like, I screwed up and I did it in front of Grandma, and you're the one who got nailed for it.
Right right, right, right, yeah, boy. And we thought that that was the thing. We thought that that falling asleep in Miss Patty's was the scene. We thought that was the thing. No, it was just a catalyst to get these two women at each other's throats and really dig into what was really going on. Can you imagine a more powerful narrative to a predominantly female audience that this show represents other than dealing with this directly in this way? I mean, what a powerful.
Hook, Absolutely a powerful hook. And again, like you know, you're dealing with the the sex of it all and all of that too, but with the core of the show, which is always the mother daughter relationship, dealing with something that I think is a very nuanced thing, which is what it means to be a mother and a daughter, which is you're so connected rite any mother and child.
You know, obviously you've raised the kid in a way that is very very unique to you, being able to you know, birth the child, and even again mothers who are doing that too, but just the mother nurturing is a very very unique sort of experience, but specifically with mothers and daughters. What it is about, like Emily's self worth is in Laurel I. And because Laura I didn't live her life the way that Emily thinks she should, that has hurt Emily in a way. And in many
ways we see that with Laura I and Rory. Even though Laura I, you know, says that that's not what she does. She gives Rory space, she talks to Rory, and that is so true like with any sort of psychle trauma, right, you hope that the next generation does a little bit better and LAURAI does a lot better, but.
Again it does do a lot better.
But if Rory screws up, and if Rory doesn't go to an Ivy League school and Rory doesn't have the life that Laura I was supposed to have, does that mean Laura I failed? And what does that mean to Laura I? Is the exact same journey that Emily's having.
It's the big question of the show. It's a big question. It really is a very exactly what I thought of was that because they do talk about that, they do argue about that, and then we know from the episodes what happens, right, because her life does go off the rails a little bit. Right, Man, What an episode? What a scene? What a scene? All right, here's some fun facts and a various student analysis. By the way, Vanessa, very rare.
I've only spent you know, twenty something years rewatching this show.
All right. There's some fun facts that the dance, they talk about Dean's height, and I was bumping against this a little bit. As they say up here in Canada. He's actually six four. He's he's a tall drink of water. He's not six too, he's taller than six two. And he's nineteen twenty years old at the time, I think it was eighteen or nineteen. I guess it was nineteen. And this is the first episode, as we mentioned, not
to feature Luke Dane spoiler. Rory and Dean physically fall asleep together at Miss Patties, and Rory has to explain to her mom that they were just innocently sleeping. In a later season, they actually do sleep together at Miss Patties.
They do all yeah, and.
I thought this was the episode. I thought, Oh, this is the episode where they actually do. But I think a great use of sets and a great use of Miss Patties, right, Why create a whole separate set when you can just when love can bloom in Miss Patties where it often does. Anyway, So all right, Veness, what are you getting up to now? You? What do you? What are you doing?
I mean, I've been producing mostly, which has been really, really lovely. I did a Christmas movie not too long ago that I believe you can watch on Discovery Plus or Max called One delicious Christmas film I produce called The Royal Treatment is on Netflix. My sister stars in that. It's very very fun. I highly recommend. Yeah. So I've been doing that, been doing some writing. Hopefully I'll come back on this podcast and I can actually tell you
what I've been writing. But again, yes, in the world of how this entertainment industry works, you are hired to do something and then you can't actually talk about it because they may not make.
It all right right, exactly exactly well, it was a lot of fun catching up and thanks for coming on. Yes, we will have you back and when you can talk about these things, maybe even if you can't.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, have me back anytime, you know. I'll rewatch you, Morgles. I'm already doing it, Scott, right.
Right, right right, Why not talk about it on this platform anyway? Thank you so much for your time. Always at delight, Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Vanessa Morano, the one and only. Thanks so much. All right, everybody, we will see you next time, and remember where you lead, we will follow. Stay safe, my Augusta. Hey everybody, and don't forget Follow us on Instagram at I Am all In podcast and email us at Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com.