[Season 3]

5 minutes ago, shron17 said:

Lorelai could have just as easily gone farther from home and not kept in contact with Christopher over the years.  I realize I'm giving Lorelai the benefit of the doubt here, but it always seemed clear to me she was running away from from Richard and Emily, not trying to keep Rory away from her father.  Also, if I had to guess based on Rory at 16 and the type of parent Lorelai was at 32, I would imagine Lorelai would have had a plan and savings before she left to avoid putting Rory in any danger at all.

If Lorelai had not kept in contact or not told Christopher where she and Rory were living one would think that an appropriate response to her telling him over the years that the door was always open to him would be Christopher saying, "Yeah? Well what of when you first left your parents' home? I didn't know where you had gone! I was worried sick!" . Instead he gave a mumbled apology and said she was right.

Is there any evidence that Christopher didn't know Lorelai and Rory had left Hartford?

[Season 3]

22 minutes ago, shron17 said:

Given his parents' attitudes, his own lack of responsibility and the fact that Lorelai probably never asked, I do get why he didn't feel obligated.

Oh I get that too, shron. I merely thought it was morally indefensible on his part. Perhaps Sherry came to feel that way as well - maybe that is why she left him holding the baby :)

22 minutes ago, shron17 said:

At the very least after inheriting millions from his grandfather he should have gone straight to Rory after he took care of Gigi's future.  Luke, on the other hand, insisted on paying a share of support for April for her first 12 years the first time he spoke with Anna

I agree. Rather than waxing poetic on all the things he could buy for Lorelai, he should have been focussing on his own flesh and blood. At the time, Rory seemed to be an afterthought. I hope Luke's lawyer raised his insistence on paying 12 years of child support to the custody judge. That seemed far more significant to Luke's commitment to being in April's life than any letter from an ex-fiancée.

[Season 3]

3 hours ago, hippielamb said:

The Gilmores would have considered it their responsibility to support the girls and I think would have taken offence if anyone tried to help financially. Which I get. If your teen has a child, you are going to think of them both as dependents. 

Of course the senior  Gilmore felt this way. And it was to their enormous credit. But Richard  and Emily were no longer supporting Lorelai and Rory even before Rory was even a toddler. Lorelai was doing that. But with respect, what has that to do with Christopher's ongoing obligations to his child?

[Season 3]

I am not so sure about subtle digs directed towards Lorelai, shron. In the pilot Richard at their first dinner  asks Loreai  - in front of Rory -

Quote

And how are things at the motel?

Back to Jess for a moment. Undoubtedly, the school should have contacted Luke about the absenteeism. But Luke should  have had more than an inkling of trouble. As far back as the Poes episode, three episodes before Jimmy Mariano meandered into town, Luke should have suspected Jess must have been skipping school because he now knew he was working more than a full-time workweek at Walmart. Why didn't he immediately call the school  after he left the awards ceremony? Or later when  he and Lorelai discussed  Jess' activities and  she mentioned the possibility of not attending school to him? Luke chose not to believe the evidence in front  of him and not to take any action. Not that much - if anything - could have been done to save Jess' senior year, of course. But some kind of action plan for going forward might have been devised.

[Season 3]

10 minutes ago, shron17 said:

It also fits with the way both Gilmore's continued to see Lorelai, as a child who was incapable of taking care of herself and her own child.

Very true. And yet - based on what we saw in the first episode - both Richard and Emily viewed Christopher as a respected and successful businessman. At least Straub and Francine thought he was a bum ;)

[Nitpicking]

9 minutes ago, hippielamb said:

Too bad Tobin couldn't have joined the fray, though I realize he was only a guest star. I love how he purposely needles Michel. 

That would have resulted in too many Canadians involved in the Dragonfly :)

[Season 3]

8 minutes ago, hippielamb said:

Richard believes in making sacrifices for the good of the family, or in doing what is expected. Chris was ready to do that. I don't think he wanted to do it, and Lorelai knew that which makes sense why she turned him down. Years later, Chris is ready to marry Sherry and support her and the baby. Again, it's not what he wants but he is willing to make that sacrifice. I think Richard respects that about him. 

Christopher was  willing to  marry Lorelai. Once that was no longer an option, he wasn't willing to make any sacrifices - like getting  a job and supporting his daughter. So while I can see Richard respecting the initial grand gesture, I would have thought he would have noted the absence of any  substantive involvement in Rory's life. And judged Christopher accordingly.

[Season 3]

 Christopher - once, as a teenager - offers to marry Lorelai and then gets a free pass on duty and responsibility for the next couple of decades. What a sweet deal!

1 hour ago, txhorns79 said:

Is there anyone on the show that didn't live their lives as they wished to?

Sure. Luke when he was lumbered with Jess. Lorelai once she had taken out the Chilton loan. Paris after her Harvard interview freak-out. Lane with her honeymoon twins. Sookie with her third and utterly unexpected pregnancy. It is likely I missed a few.

[Nitpicking]

9 minutes ago, Kohola3 said:

 I can't fathom Taylor allowing any road apples on his city streets

I don't think the Dragonfly was all that close to  downtown Stars Hollow.  I doubt road apples would be a problem.

[Season 3]

6 hours ago, junienmomo said:

The loving part of "distant yet loving" escapes me. Richard was detached from family life, clearly by choice, with him focusing on his job instead. It fit their stereotype of a rich corporate family in which the father earns and the mother manages the family.

Loving? Not so much. He loved Rory after he got to know her, but (excuse me if I'm too far away from season 3 here), he didn't behave lovingly toward Lorelai. He didn't care about her breakup with Christopher

I agree. Richard lived his life as he wished to. Other people came a distant second to his needs and comforts. And for someone who put so much emphasis on duty, his defense and praise of Christopher continued to astound me. When had Christopher ever done his duty to his elder child?

[Nitpicking]

 If horses were so important to the feel of the Dragonfly, I would have thought they could have made arrangements at a local riding stable that would have been able to provide a range of rides for the inn's clientele, rather than just rely upon Cletus and Desdemona. And while the horses themselves may have provided a certain ambience, I wondered about the location of their own lodging.  Being in close proximity or downwind of the stables might well change people's opinions about the charm of  these equine amenities :)

6 hours ago, AllyB said:

Sookie was an astounding chef, I can see anyone being willing to put up with her in business. Getting a reputation for utterly fantastic food is worth a fortune in the hospitality industry as people will stay at the inn especially for the great meals

Sookie may well have been an utterly fabulous chef. But she was also supposed to be in charge of the kitchen - something she proved both unwilling and incapable of managing. She couldn't be bothered to set up and organize her kitchen, wouldn't plan ahead for contingencies, declined to  train her staff to deal with her absences, broke agreements regarding staff hiring, or refused to recognize financial realities regarding dining room meals to be served. Food services management is tricky and risky enough without a  total disregard for the realities of the field.

It is all well and good to go to want to go to the Dragonfly for its great meals. But what if the meals are unavailable because the chef hasn't trained her staff and made arrangements to prepare them while she is off on maternity leave or for some other reason? Or if a customer wants to visit again sometime later but finds the Inn out of business as a result of an inability to manage costs?

[Nitpicking]

It was my recollection that Lorelai and Rory didn't have a full breakfast (eggs, pancakes, sausage, etc.) on a weekday on a regular basis. Instead  they had coffee and muffins, danishes  and  suchlike at Luke's.  So they wouldn't need to be there at  quite an ungodly hour. Of course, they really didn't need to be there at all. Coffee and baked goods could be managed at home.

1 hour ago, hippielamb said:

I will never understand why they kept Michel on. He's rude to customers and his boss. Then they ask him to be an investor in the new inn, it's crazy.

I thought Michel was hired by Mia. Perhaps she was fond of his French snootiness :) In his defense he did do well with some customers, including - oddly enough - children. Also, he  had formal  hotel industry training so that may have come in handy in setting up and managing  administrative systems and procedures.  And if Lorelai was nutty enough to go into - and stay in - business with Sookie, then asking Michel to be an investor didn't seem like lunacy to me.

[S04.E06: Episode 6]

2 hours ago, CoderLady said:

Tim Turner is my absolute favorite TV child

Mine too. I particularly liked  when Timothy kept a  notebook for his father of all the gifts that had been brought to the house and services provided to the family when his father was ill  with emotional exhaustion. No fanfare, no "aren't I a fine son" on his part. Just the preparation of  a detailed log of the kindnesses done, knowing it was something that his father could keep and reflect on.

[Season 3]

55 minutes ago, solotrek said:

of course Columbia is also an Ivy - with an amazing journalism program as well

But journalism is a graduate program at Columbia. So at that point  in time of no great significance to Rory.

I wonder why Emily's alma mater Smith was never in the mix. It was I believe every bit as prestigious as Vassar and Sarah Lawrence.

 

I

[Nitpicking]

9 minutes ago, twoods said:

I just watched an episode where Rory and Dean were eating at Luke's before school and had two bites to eat then ran off to school

Why the heck couldn't Mrs. Forrester make them a good breakfast- she was a stay-at-home Mom and had only Clara who was of grade school age cluttering up the place? Think of how differently things could have turned out if only the pair of them had had a decent meal before heading off to classes :)

[S04.E06: Episode 6]

15 minutes ago, LeGrandElephant said:

But I was speculating that maybe it wasn't odd in that time and place,

Thinking about it,  I don't believe attitudes are any different today  than they were back then. I  remember those baby boomers in my own family and of my acquaintance who lost  a parent  during their childhoods. Certainly it left scars and  readily embracing a new step parent  wasn't that common. Indeed, it was seen as disloyal. Especially if  the earlier family life had been happy.  But perhaps it is one of those storyline threads we viewers are  not supposed to notice. Like wondering about the apparent absence of locked doors in the bedrooms of Nonnatus House :)

[S04.E06: Episode 6]

2 hours ago, LeGrandElephant said:

But maybe back then with young adults dying much more often it was just much more normal to have a step parent and maybe kids saw it as more natural and expected to call them mum and so on?

With respect, we are talking about the mid nineteen fifties here. I don't think the mortality rate was all that ghastly for young(ish) adults back then - compared to a few decades earlier.

In any event, Timothy was already fond of  Shelagh when she was Sister Bernadette. They had a friendship before the two adults became involved. So it was not as if he had to get used to some unknown woman coming into his life as a companion to his father. Indeed, Timothy had actively encouraged (and abetted) the romance between Patrick and Shelagh. He was part of it from the start.

It is also possible that  Dr. Turner's first marriage wasn't a particularly contented  one (I don't recall any mention, positive or negative) . And he and Timothy decided to put their earlier family life pretty much behind them and focus on this new opportunity for happiness.

[Nitpicking]

40 minutes ago, solotrek said:

But it seems like Lorelai wants to eat breakfast with Rory, and it's a bit unethical to bring Rory over for a free breakfast every morning.

That would be tacky. Now I've certainly heard of bringing your kids to work, but bringing your kids to work for breakfast  seems a bit much :)

[Nitpicking]

We know Sookie usually worked 6 days a week at the Independence Inn. It was my understanding that Lorelai had a six day work week as well. Although I doubt either of them worked 12 hours a day on a regular basis. It doesn't  seem practical. Or particularly fitting for a feel good, fairy-tale-ish  television show!  If I recall correctly, we saw other administrative personnel at the Inn in addition to  Lorelai and the night manager. And there were also a number of  staff in Sookie's kitchen. Presumably they had roles beyond first aid.

[Nitpicking]

34 minutes ago, clack said:

But the Inn has a restaurant, and Lorelai's best friend is the chef!  Why are Lorelai and Rory eating out at all? Lorelai runs the place for an absentee owner, why isn't she eating free at the Inn?

In part perhaps  because the Inn had effective cost controls. I recall from the Chilton fashion show episode, they had to find another use for lettuce that  had been planned to for part of the meal.  I can see the staff (including Lorelai) having access to leftovers, errors in dining room orders and such like. But I don't think most profitable hospitality businesses are going to be feeding their non-kitchen staff on an ongoing basis.

[Nitpicking]

16 minutes ago, junienmomo said:

I still shudder at the lack of emergency fund.

She had an emergency fund for substantive emergencies. It was called Richard and Emily.

[Nitpicking]

53 minutes ago, deaja said:

Given that she was on bedrest, I think we can safely assume that a homebirth was out of the question for her.  Homebirths are typically only done in pregnancies without complications.

Another reason why Jackson's rather devil-may-care attitude toward birth control from the end of season 5 was so surprising to me.

[Nitpicking]

1 hour ago, JaggedLilPill said:

And what kind of business class is Lorelai taking in the first two seasons? There's....lots of business classes. Be more specific! Did she get her Associate's in general business? Business administration? Probably a stupid nitpick, but it always bugged me that they just had Lorelai refer to it as her business class.

Speaking of education, I was more puzzled by the fact that despite Rory attending Yale for four  years of the series, we only learned of her major  in a throwaway line in the last season to one of Logan's friends. It was English by the way. It would have been interesting to hear Rory explain why she thought that particular major would better prepare her for a career in journalism than say political science, economics, sociology or any other of a number of fields. And given her ambition to be a foreign correspondent, why not East Asian or African studies?

[Season 7]

2 hours ago, twoods said:

Is it bad of me that I still laugh that Rory didn't get the fellowship?

Yes. But you are in good company :) Recognition of her own failures and shortcomings was never Rory's long suit. But given that her grandfather was still telling her - at the ripe old age of twenty-two - that she was perfect, perhaps it was too much to expect. Of course, that  pesky felony conviction  as an obstacle to getting the Reston fellowship at the New York Times and any number of  jobs in journalism seemed to have slipped her mind entirely.

And while editor of the YDN was quite an honour, that NYT fellowship emphasized analysis and feature writing.  Did she have much experience of that? I don't recall. At the very least I would have thought she would have been able to calculate the odds better as to the likelihood of receiving the fellowship in getting up her hopes. How many other editors of highly rated college papers were there who might have applied? How many feature writers? Not saying it wasn't completely understandable that she was disappointed but I thought  she was a distant long shot at best - and should have known it. 

[Happy Valley - General Discussion]

16 hours ago, Diana Berry said:

Is there going to be a season 3? According yo Wiki,  Lancashire is saying no to season 3.

According to some British newspapers (so take the information with a box of salt), there will indeed be a Season 3 but it will be delayed. The source of the delay is not Sarah Lancashire but  writer and creator Sally Wainright.  She  cannot give her full attention to the development of a third season storyline at this point in time.