The Gilmore Girls were walking down the streets in Stars Hollow talking about their new Thanksgiving plans. "So she coldcocked you, huh?" Rory asked.
"She bit me, incapacitated me with her poison, and devoured me whole." Lorelai was telling them how Emily came to the Inn to force her to come to Thanksgiving at their house.
"But how are we going to go to four Thanksgiving dinners?" Rory asks.
"It's not four, is it?" Lorelai wonders how many commitments they made.
"I said yes to Lane's. You said to Sookie." Anna pointed at her mother.
"We always stop by Luke's." Rory reminds them of their tradition. "Now, we have Grandma and Grandpa. That's four."
"Well, we've gotta go to my parents' or we'll be brought up on war crimes." Lorelai sighes. A few weeks ago, Richard and Emily took Lorelai and Rory to Yale to give them a tour. In secret, Richard set up a meeting for Rory to meet the head of admission. It upset Lorelai so much that she skipped a few Friday night dinners.
"We? I was not at Yale. I have no crimes." Anna missed it because her phone interview for culinary school was scheduled then.
"Me neither, I didn't skip Friday night dinners." Rory gave a smug look to her mother.
"Okay, I will be brought up on war crimes. So back to the matter at hand. Lane's is always super early, so that's easy to catch. Sookie's is mid-afternoon." They could do breakfast at Lanes, lunch at Sookie's, and dinner at her parents.
"Luke's the toughie." Rory didn't see how they could fit him in.
"Guess that's the one we'll have to skip." Lorelai shrugs.
"Bummer." Anna wanted to spend at least a part of Thanksgiving with Jess. But, she couldn't skip on Lane when she promised she would be there to save her from boring relatives. She couldn't miss Sookie's, thanksgiving meant so much to her.
"I know, but he won't care. Holidays are nothing to him anyway." Lorelai was convinced Luke's was the one to miss. Kirk walks out of The Chat Club with several bags. "Hey, Kirk. Discover a new freaky fetish?"
"What?" He had no clue what she was getting at.
"Nothing. You buy a cat?" Rory pointed at the cat bed in his hand.
"Yup. I'm very excited." He nods.
"You seem it. So what's all this?" Anna looked at all the bags in his hands that were filled.
"I'm assuming there's nothing left in the store." Rory smiles.
"There are several things left." He corrects.
"No, I meant you seem to be buying a lot of stuff." She explains.
"Oh, sorry. My excitement must be clouding my ability to judge comedic hyperbole." He said in a flat tone.
"So where'd you get the cat?" Lorelai asks.
"A lady had a bunch of them at the grocery store and Kirk seemed to take an instant liking to me." He told them.
"Kirk?" Anna pushes her lips together.
"Yes?" He looks at her.
"No, I mean, the cat's name is Kirk?" She elaborates.
"Yup." He pops out.
"Weird coincidence or. . ." Lorelai asks.
"I named him Kirk." He cleared up.
"Isn't that confusing?" She didn't see why he would do that.
"Not when you think about it." He had thought about if it is confusing but he decided it wouldn't be.
Lorelai dramatically tilted her head to show she was thinking. "No, it's still confusing."
"I like the name, and whenever I call Kirk's name, I obviously won't be calling myself." The girls nodded that it was true. Kirk went on when he thought about how it could be confusing. "Although when my mom calls for Kirk, that may be confusing. Maybe I can get her to say CatKirk when she's calling Kirk, and HumanKirk when she's calling me."
"That would keep it straight." Rory would give the cat a different name but Kirk's solution worked too.
"I'm glad I ran into you. See ya." He needed to get to his car because the bags were getting heavy.
"Bye HumanKirk." They waved while he walks away.
The Gilmore Girls walk into Luke's. "Hey. Anywhere?" Lorelai called to Luke.
"Anywhere." He cashed out a customer.
Lorelai looked at the nearest table that was occupied. "Hm, would you mind moving?"
"I hate when you do that." He went over to push her away from the other customers.
"It's my showstopper." She whines.
"An empty table." He sighs, guiding them over to one.
"Ah. You ready to order?" Lorelai asked the girls. They nod that they were as they took off their backpack and coats to hang them on the back of their chairs.
"Don't bother, saw you coming, already ordered your usual Wednesday, the French dip, extra fries, the every-Wednesday cherry pie." Luke filled up their mugs with coffee. They sat down at the table.
"Such service." Rory hums.
"Oh, and such a food rut we're in." Lorelai didn't realize they were eating the same thing every Wednesday.
"Thank you, Luke." Anna smiled.
"I gotta get back to stuffing my turkeys." He pointed to the kitchen.
"Oh, honey, do you have time to do that and prep your Thanksgiving food?" Lorelai put a hand on his forearm. Anna let out a barking laugh.
"Stop it." Luke scolds both of them.
"Here, here." Rory put her coffee in the air.
"It's a tedious job." Most people had to do one turkey, he had about a dozen.
"Well, what if we told you you could stuff one less?" She put up a finger.
"What do you mean?" He narrowed his eyes.
"We got jammed. Shanghaied by my mother and what with the other things we have going. . .well, too many commitments, not enough us." She expected him to be able to understand that.
When Luke looked confused, Rory filled in the blanks. "We can't make it tomorrow."
"Oh, okay, fine." For a second his face fell before it went back to his normal grumpy expression.
"It was beyond our control." Anna crumbled under his sad eyes.
"That's fine, whatever. I'll be right back." Luke walks away quickly.
"Um, okay, I may be crazy, but he almost looked. . . ." She turns to her daughters.
"Disappointed." Rory gaps.
"Yes, disappointed. We disappointed Luke." Anna covers her face with her hands.
"He likes it when we come for Thanksgiving. All these years and we never knew." Rory couldn't believe it. Every year he grumbled about all the preparations. When they beg him to sit with them, he would pout while he eats his turkey.
"Hm, he's the Grinch and we're Cindy Lou Who." Lorelai thought Luke would be happy to have less work.
"So Cindy Lou, what do we do?" Rory did a baby voice.
"I got it." Lorelai picks up her cell phone as Luke walks over. He put their food down in front of them. "Oh, uh, perfect. That works great. Okay, bye now." She hangs up. "Sorry, I'm just clarifying the schedule for tomorrow. As luck has it, we can make it. We'll be here."
"It's okay." He waves his hand to tell them not to worry about it.
"No, it's all cleared. That was my mom, and, uh, the time's just gonna work out just fine." She closes her flip phone.
"You don't have to. I already stopped prepping the last turkey." He tried to make it like he didn't care either way but it was too late, they saw his sad face.
"Well, start prepping it again 'cause we are coming." She gently punches his arm.
"I don't want you to feel like you have to come." He didn't want miserable people at his thanksgiving table.
"This is tiring." She sighes.
"I can kneel behind him and you can push him over." Rory offers.
"It may come to that." She nods.
"It won't be a hassle?" He asks.
"It won't be a hassle." Anna never wanted to see that look on Luke's face again.
"You sure?" He looks over at Lorelai.
"We're coming, now go away and let us eat. Shoo, shoo." She pushes him away. He went back to the kitchen.
"That was very nice." Rory looks at her mother.
"Well, I hate disappointing people." She ate a fry
"Okay, now, practical question. . . how are we going to eat four Thanksgiving dinners?" Rory asks.
"How? Rory, what are we if not world champion eaters?" Lorelai held her head high.
"It's too much food." Her eyes went wide at their unconcerned faces.
"Which is what people have been saying about us all our lives," Anna stated proudly. "If you count dessert, we ate four meals every day."
"Yes, we've been training for this our whole lives. This is our destiny. This is our finest hour." Lorelai raised her arms in the air like she was crossing the finish line.
"Or our final hour." Rory mocks.
"No, no. Get inspired and tomorrow I guarantee you, we will be standing on the Olympic platform receiving our gold medals for eating. We are not Michelle Kwan-ing this." She wags her pointer finger.
"Okay, okay, four dinners." She accepted her fate.
"Yeah, we'll skip the rolls." Lorelai tried to make her feel better.
"I'm not skipping Sookie's butter rolls." Anna scoffs.
"You know, we might wanna consider not eating much now in preparation for our finest hour. A little fasting so that we can enjoy more tomorrow, hm?" Rory's plate seems too full all of a sudden.
"Unnecessary." Anna took a big bite of her sandwich.
On Thanksgiving morning, Lorelai, Anna, and Rory are walking toward the market. "What's on the list?" Rory asked.
"Flowers for everyone we're visiting and cranberry sauce for the Kims," Lorelai told them.
"Tums." She adds.
"You mean amateur pills?" Lorelai and Anna scoff.
"Just in case." She insists.
"Okay, Tums." Lorelai gave in.
"I'll do the flowers." Anna volunteers.
"I'll make sure she doesn't go overboard." Rory saw her mother's worried face.
"Who's to say when a bouquet is too big?" She defended herself for the high bill she made last year.
"When it's bigger than your head. It's unnecessary and expensive." Lorelai was ready to drag her into the grocery store.
"Fine, come on Rory. Let's dial it back." She turns to the flower stand.
"I'll do Doose's." She went into the store.
"Thank you for the tums." Rory reminds her. "How about this?" She pointed at the yellow carnations.
"You want to tell people that you're disappointed and reject them on Thanksgiving?" Anna looked at her like she was crazy.
"No," Rory yelled.
"That's what yellow carnations say." She had read it in a home magazine at the dentist.
"Well, what says thank you for inviting me and I enjoyed the food?" She looked at all the pretty flowers.
"Pink roses show gratitude." She looks at the bundles.
"Great, let's get four." Rory grabs the four bouquets to take them inside to pay.
Anna stayed behind to look at the rest of the flowers. Jess sneaks up on her and grabs her sides. When she screamed, he pulled her head back to shove his tongue in her mouth. "Why do you do that?" Anna shoves him away. She tried to calm her speeding heart.
"I find it funny and hot." He hugged her from behind to pull her back against his front.
"I'm so glad, assaulting me in the street excites you." She snorted when she felt his excitement against her lower back.
"I feel like I'm walking in at a weird time." Lorelai and Rory came out of Doose's.
Jess separated from Anna. Since the dance, Jess and Rory have been feeling weird around each other. Anna tried to get them to talk but Jess wouldn't say anything and Rory turned into a red-faced stuttering mess. "Hey." He did a fast wave.
After a minute of silence, Anna turned to her boyfriend. "You'll see you later at lunch. Now go help Luke with the turkeys."
"Please, last time I went near those things he nearly bite my head off." He kisses her goodbye before walking away.
"He's going the opposite direction of Lukes." Lorelai pointed out.
"I know." Anna lead the group to Lane's
"Hey look." She pulled out chocolate turkeys.
"Oh, did you get one for us too?" She looks into the bag.
"Of course." She hands her their turkey.
"So, was he there?" Rory asked about her ex. She nodded that Dean was there. "Good, good. I hope he's well. Did he seem good?"
"He seemed good. He's getting time and a half." She told them.
"Good, good." Rory nods.
"So, let's go eat." She swung the bag with a pep in her step.
"And eat and eat and eat and eat. . ." They sang their way to the Kim household.
Mrs. Kim opens the door for them. "Ah, the Gilmores. Happy Thanksgiving." She gave a small bow.
"Happy Thanksgiving." They smiled and bow back.
"Come in." She walks away, leaving the door open.
"So, um, Mrs. Kim, we, uh, we brought gifts." They walk insides.
"Flowers." Rory hands it to her.
"And cranberry sauce, our little Thanksgiving tradition." Anna took the can from the bag to give it to her.
"Thank you, you can never have too much." She looks down at the can.
"That's what we say." Rory knew the cranberry sauce was the first to go at Kim's thanksgiving, being that it was the only sweet thing there.
"Plus, a chocolate turkey." Lorelai gave her a surprise.
"What should I do with this?" She looks down at it in disgust.
"Oh, I don't know, let the kids share it." She thought the kids could have chocolate at least on the holidays.
"And then send a blank check to their dentist?" She wasn't going to do that.
"They don't have to eat it, they can play with it." She figure the kids could at least lick the chocolate that melt on their hands.
"Play with chocolate? It's missing its head." She got a good look at it.
"Ooh, that one's ours." Lorelai took it from her hand to get out the brand new one. "Here, this one has a head. There ya go."
"Okay." She walks away to throw it in the trash.
"My arms are too short to box with Mrs. Kim." Lorelai glares at her back. They move on the side to take off their coats and put down their things.
"And not strong enough either," Anna adds. "The woman moves around furniture all day."
"That's true, I did see her move a big wood chair by herself once." Rory nods.
"I will calm down." She took a deep breath.
"The singing's already begun." Rory listens to the church hymns.
"Mm. Who's that playing guitar? He looks familiar." Lorelai looks into the next room.
"Oh my God, that's Lane's Dave." Rory gasps.
"Oh, yeah, it is. He's all neat." Lorelai looks at his comb hair. It was normally messy.
"He's gone corporate." Anna looks at his sweater, slacks, and dress shoes.
Lane walks by and sees them. "Oh, hey, hi."
"Hey yourself. Hey, how'd you get your mom to let you…" Rory was cut off by Lean pushing them away.
"Come on, girls, let's get you some punch." She leads them to the other room.
"What's going on?" Anna asks.
"That is not Dave Rygalski." She whispers.
"Oh, intrigue." Lorelai whispers.
"Who is it?" Rory wonders what she told her mom.
"I mean, not the one that I'm in a band with. That is Dave Rygalski, a local Christian guitar player that my mom and I met very briefly and innocently at the dance marathon, and that I coincidentally ran across again when I found his ad seeking Christian guitar accompaniment gigs up on our church bulletin board." She took them over to the punch bowl to pour them a drink. "I even put the fake ad up at church and pretended to find it with my mom next to me."
"You're good." Rory was impressed along with her mother and sister.
"So, are you guys dating?" Lorelai was hoping for Lane to find herself a Dave. A guy willing to go along with her complicated plans because he was that crazy about her.
"We're laying the groundwork. If she gets to know him before we date and she approves of him, we won't have to hide anything." Lane explained why they were doing all this.
"Right, except how you met." Lorelai pointed out the first lie.
"That's an easy subject to lie about." Anna waves it off.
"And who he really is." Rory pointed out the bigger lie.
"Okay, that's hard to do," Anna admits.
"But other than that, it's completely fib-free. Shh, shh!" She hushed them when she saw her mother coming.
"Watch it. You break it, you buy it. Ten percent off for cousins, twenty percent off for nephews and nieces." She reminded everyone the chairs they were using were for sale.
Lorelai, Rory, and Lane walk into the room where the food table is set up. "Yung Kwan, good to see you. Hee Kim, hi. Oh, I love your hair. Su Nam, hi. Hi. Ho Kyung, Wan Kyu, great to see you, hi." Lorelai greeted everyone. "Oh, Mrs. Kim, just a beautiful table, as always." She passes out plates to her daughters before grabbing her own.
"Try the tofurkey. Turkey is made from tofu." She pointed to the tofu soaked in some kind of brown sauce.
"Oh, we definitely will." Rory lied.
"And meet the guitar player. Nice young man, big fan of tofurkey. David?" She called him.
"Yes." He came over.
"This is Rory Gilmore, Anna Gilmore, and Mrs. Gilmore." She introduced them.
"Hi, nice to meet you." He smiles.
"Oh, same here." Lorelai waves.
"I think I've seen you around town." Rory put some food on her plate.
"Yeah, that might be a possibility. Happy Thanksgiving." He went back to his seat.
"Same to you." Anna waved at him.
"Hymn 17 please." Mrs. Kim suggested.
"Yes, ma'am." He played.
"Wow, he seems like a very upright young man." Lorelai compliments.
"Not a bad sight-reader either." She walks away to talk to her guests.
"You're taking tofurkey?" Anna looked at her mother.
"Uh-huh, and some extra napkins to slip the tofurkey into when no one is looking and then toss them away." She took a few napkins.
"Very smart." Rory nods.
"Oh, Mandu." Anna put some on her plate along with the gyeran mari. The side dishes that everyone else brought were the reason Anna came to Kim's events. She rarely took the main dish that Lane's mom made.
The Gilmore Girls were walking down the sidewalk. "The best-laid plans." Rory held the flowers up to her chest.
"Tell me about it." She huffs.
"How do you feel?" Anna asks.
"I ate tofurkey. How do you think I feel?" She grumbles.
"Tofurkier." Rory giggled.
"Drat that Mrs. Kim for not taking her eyes off me the whole time. . . it's like she was anticipating my napkin maneuver." She was outsmarted again by Mrs. Kim. They walk up to Sookie's yard. Sookie was sitting at a picnic table and a group of people was standing near the porch.
"Hi, hon!" She greeted her best friend.
"Happy Thanksgiving." The girls greeted the closest thing they had to an Auntie. Rory gave her the flowers while Anna gave her the chocolate turkey.
"Ah, thank you. Thank God, civilization has arrived." Sookie was grateful to have people that understood her. They joined her at the table.
"What's wrong?" Lorelai asks.
"What's wrong? Uh, do you not see what's going on there?" She pointed to the men standing around a pot.
"What's that?" Anna wonders.
"That is a vat of boiling oil." She told them.
"Really? Where's Quasimodo?" Lorelai smiles.
"This is not a joking matter." Sookie didn't find anything amusing.
"What is the oil for?" Rory asks.
"For pouring on Visigoths." She went on with her joke.
"Lorelai!" Sookie scolds.
"When else am I gonna get to use my visigoth material?" She shrugs.
"What's the oil for?" She repeats.
"The turkey. My beautiful, expensive, organically grown turkey." She had been dreaming about that turkey since she ordered it in advance a year ago.
"Oh my god, they're going to deep fry the turkey. Why didn't you put a stop to it?" Anna gasp after she put it together.
"Because I didn't know. A couple of days ago, Jackson asked me if he could cook the turkey. I thought he was gonna roast it, stick a couple of onions around it, something simple. So I said yes, figuring that the minute he put it in the oven and leaves the kitchen, I can sneak in and give it a nice herb-butter rub and stuff it with a pancetta-chestnut stuffing." She did the hand motion of rubbing and stuffing the turkey.
"Sure, 'cause he'd never notice that," Lorelai said sarcastically but it went over Sookie's head.
"Exactly. Then the propane tank arrived, and the industrial burner, and the fifteen gallons of peanut oil. Then he springs it on me…I'm gonna deep-fry a turkey." Her nightmare started early this morning.
"Deep-fried turkey," Lorelai repeated.
"It's going to be so dry." Anna felt Sookie's pain.
"I tried to talk him out of it, but I'd already promised and now he's excited about it." She should have asked what he was going to do first before promising.
"That's love." Anna hummed.
One of Jackson's cousins came over to the table. "Hey, what's keeping Jackson? Is he on the pot or something?"
"Lots of precious memories in the making here." Sookie looks at them to say this is what I married into.
"Hey Jackson, get your butt out here with that gobbler!" He yelled at the house.
"A gobbler," Sookie mutters under her breath.
"Maybe it won't be that bad." Rory tried to make her feel better.
"Yeah, deep-frying's kind of in now." Lorelia didn't want to admit it but she wanted to try a deep-fried turkey.
"I don't care. You don't deep-fry a turkey. Uh, filet of fish, yes. A batch of fries, yes. A donut, yes. Not turkey." Sookie was bitter about what was going to be done to her dream turkey.
The drunk crowd chanted. "Jackson, Jackson, Jackson, Jackson, Jackson, Jackson, Jackson, Jackson. . ."
Jackson pushes open the door and holds up the turkey. "Did someone say. . .Jackson?" His family and friends cheered loudly.
"Wow, it's like Thunderdome in here." Lorelai stared at Jackson's grandma's fist-pumping.
"He should've just driven it out on a monster truck. He's shamelessly catering to his demographic." She felt like she was staring at a stranger as Jackson made a show of letting everyone see the raw turkey.
"Are you ready?" Jackson roared.
"Oh my God, I can't look." Sookie covered her eyes.
"Ten, nine, eight, seven, six. . ." The crowd counted.
"Oh my God, they're counting down." She put a hand over her heart that ached for her prize turkey.
". . .five, four, three, two, one!" Jackson lowers the turkey into the vat.
"It's in the vat," Lorelai told her.
"It's like a death in the family." She had such high hopes for that turkey.
"Look at the bright side, Sookie. At least this took your mind off the dinner at the inn." Lorelai pointed out the thing she had been worried about all week.
"Oh my God, the inn. What if Bob decides to do something equally awful to the turkey at the inn? I have to call him." She was about to get up when Jackson came over.
"Oh, hey guys." He greeted the Gilmores.
"Hey." They look at him in the hard hat.
"Neat, huh? And it only takes forty minutes." He pointed at the oil pot.
"Cool." Rory nods. Anna liked cooking a lot but not enough to stare down into a pot to watch a turkey fry like Jackon's family was doing.
"How is ya doing, hon?" He kissed her cheek.
"Oh, fine, Sweets." She sighs. He went back to man the turkey. Lorelai hands her a beer. "And keep 'em coming." She opens the bottle.
The Gilmores walk into their third event. "Hey everybody."
"Oh, hey there doll faces. Happy Thanksgiving." Babette smiles.
"Yeah, Happy Thanksgiving." Morey tips his hat.
"Hey." Rory hands Luke a bouquet when he comes over.
"What's this?" He stared down at them.
"Pink roses," Anna told him.
"What do I do with them?" He looks at them from every angle like he was trying to figure out the point of them.
"Ugh, not this again." Lorelai sighes.
"Put them in a vase with water," Rory stated plainly.
"I don't have a vase." Luke scoffs.
"You do this every year." She yelled.
"I don't have vases." He repeats.
"Buy a vase." Lorelai took her gloves off.
"But I don't need a vase 'cause I never have flowers." He was the most frugal person Anna knew. He wasn't going to spend money on something he didn't use all the time.
"Except when we bring you flowers every year on Thanksgiving. Buy a vase." She pointed at the flowers in his hand.
"Stop bringing me flowers." They yelled at the same time
"I knew you were gonna say that because you say the same thing. We have this same conversation every year." Lorelai pretends to be tired of it.
"And every year you point that out." Luke pointed at her.
"And every year you point that out." She mocks him.
"And every year you point that out." He mocked her mocking him.
"And then every year we put the flowers on the counter and forget the ugliness ever happened." Rory watches them argue like children.
"Actually, I got something." Anna went into the kitchen to get the vase she had hidden there. "I got you a vase." She carried it out like the Superbowl trophy.
"You waited until they had the whole argument to bring that out." Rory put a hand on her hip.
"Of course, it's the last time we're going to hear that argument." She grabs the pitcher of water to pour some into the vase. She put the pink roses in before putting them down on their table.
"Hey, Kirk." They greeted the man on the table next to theirs. "Oh my God!" They gasp at the large bandage on his face.
"What happened?" Anna looks at all the claw marks on his arms.
"I'm scratched over sixty percent of my body." He hissed as it was painful for him to move to look at them.
"Aw, CatKirk again?" Lorelai put a hand on his shoulder to pull it away when he let out a painful noise. "Sorry."
"I'm so mad at that cat." Babette shook her head.
"Very uncool cat." Morey agreed with his wife.
"I love cats, but I love Kirk, too. It's pretty much fifty-fifty, and that's a high compliment, my friend." Babette gave him a thumbs up.
"How did this happen?" Lorelai asks.
"Well, the tension of our standoff was unbearable, so I got on the floor and tried to play with him." Kirk wanted a pet all his life. His mom finally agreed, and he had the luck of getting a demon.
"It's a him?" She asks.
"I caught a peek." He went on with his story. "I rolled this cute little ball of yarn over to him all nice and gentle. He tried to garrote me with it."
"Oh my God." Anna gasps.
"Very uncool." Morey shook his head.
"Just grabbed two ends with his paws and came at me." He shudder at the flashbacks he was getting.
"But he doesn't have opposable thumbs." Rory wonders how he did it.
"He's beyond them. And he's smart. He knows things, sometimes before they happen." He looks at them with fear in his eyes.
"Get a hold of yourself, man." Lorelai need him to remember he was the more intelligent animal.
"You haven't heard the worst." He told them.
"Oh geez, there's worse?" Rory didn't know if she could handle hearing anymore.
"When the attacks got particularly brutal, I had no choice but to strip naked and hide underwater in the bathtub. I read that cats are afraid of water." Kirk add in the last part when he saw their confused faces.
"They are, they are," Babette yelled.
"Kirk isn't. He found me, and he seemed to derive greater power from the water. That's when the bulk of the scratching happened." He had scratch marks in place only lovers should give to each other.
"Well, then, I think it's good you're giving Kirk a little space right now. Just relax and enjoy your food." She nods to his plate.
"I can't taste my food." He couldn't taste the food because of the pain pills he was on.
"Well, then, just try to relax." She let him know to put his guide down.
"Thanks." He relaxes his muscles.
They sat at their table. Jess walks over. He gave Anna a fast peck before sitting down next to her. Rory had the seat across from Anna. Lorelai had the seat across from Jess. Luke and Caesar bring the plates over to pass them out.
"God, I'm starved." He complains.
"You could've eaten," Luke told him.
"You kept telling me not to eat." He glares at the man for having the gull to say that when he hit his hand for trying to take a spoon full of stuffing.
"I did not." He takes his seat at the head of the table between Lorelai and Jess.
"You did, too. You said you were waiting for them." He pointed at the ladies.
"Aw, you didn't have to wait for us." Lorelai felt bad.
"I wasn't waiting for you, it just worked out this way." He denies.
"I can't believe you were going to eat without me." Anna pouts at Jess.
"Didn't you have two meals before this?" He bites into the roll.
"Don't be mad at me because I'm more popular than you." She flips her hair in his direction.
"If you get your hair in my food. I'm going to mash it into your face then take your plate." He had to push her hair back when it almost got into his mash potatoes.
"Looks great," Rory said when she saw her mom's face at the empty threat.
"Tasty." Lorelai took a bite of mac n cheese.
"Shouldn't we give thanks first?" Luke stops them from digging in.
"Thanks for what?" Jess asks.
"Well, that we're not Native Americans who got their land stolen in exchange for smallpox-infested blankets." He put a napkin on his lap.
"Amen." Lorelai nods.
"So where are you guys in your day?" He asks them.
"We hit the Kim's, we hit Sookie's, and we go to the grandparents from here," Rory told him.
"Yeah. Well, you can skip eating this one if you want. Just have cokes or something, it's no big deal." Luke didn't want them to get sick.
"No, no way, you're the main event today, my friend," Lorelai said that for the second time today, having told that to Jackson earlier.
"Oh, good." He nods.
"What's good are the yams," Anna said with a mouthful.
"Definitely. Got some more marshmallows" Lorelai asks.
"Yeah, I can grab some." He nods to Jess. "Hey, refill some coffees." The guys got up to do as they were requested.
"So, no offense, but lame-o kiss," Lorelai told Anna.
"Excuse me." Anna tilts her head.
"It normally feels like an opening to skinamax movie, so I'm wondering is their trouble in paradise?" She pours some gravy on her turkey.
"If it makes you feel better he was fingering me under the table." Anna curls her middle and pointer finger.
"I'm trying to eat here." Lorelai pointed at her plate.
"It's my fault for the awkward tense isn't it?" Rory wishes things could go back to when they were all friends.
"Oh Rory," Lorelai had been filled in on what happened at the dance. She didn't want this situation to tear her daughters apart.
"I mean…" Anna didn't know what to say. It was because of her. They felt uncomfortable flaunting their relationship in front of her.
"You guys can act normally. Dean and I weren't meant to last forever. We want different things, it's good it happens now and not further down the line." She felt bad that she was happier without him. She no longer had to worry about scheduling him in between family, friends, and school work.
"Well, we're outta here." Babette put on her coat.
"Time to walk some of this off." Morey pats his stomach.
"Oh, we'd have to walk to China to walk all of it off. Which way's China?" She laughed.
"Thataway. Have a good night." Lorelai pointed in the directions of their house.
"Thanks. By the way, that was some half-assed kiss you two had. You gotta give it a little something, honey." She told her teenage gossip buddy.
"Bye Babette. Bye Morey." They waved.
When the door closed, Anna got up to take the coffee pot from Jess's hand and put it in the side. She pushed him up against the counter and yanks him down to kiss him. After a few heated seconds, she pulled away and turn back to the diner. "Is that better?" Rory, Kirk, and Lorelai gave a thumbs up.
"What's going on?" Jess enjoyed it but he was confused.
"Just giving the people what they want." She went back to their table leaving Jess with more questions than answers.
Lorelai, Anna, and Rory walk up to the front door of Gilmore Manor. "You ready for this?" Rory asks her mother.
"Of course." She nods.
"Even with the Cold War?" Anna refer to it as the name her mother gave it.
"That's been going on for thirty-four years? I can manage." She rang the doorbell.
"It's been a bit colder these past few weeks." Rory felt the coldness when she wasn't there at Friday night dinner.
"Oh no, I'm fine, you know why? Because in two hours and I plan on extricating us from here in exactly two hours, the night will be over and I won't have to see them again until next year. Oh, start your stopwatch." She turns to the door that was opening.
"Hello." Emily greeted them.
"Hi, Grandma. Happy Thanksgiving." Rory held up the flowers.
"Thank you, Rory. Happy Thanksgiving, to all of you.." She passes the flowers to the maid.
"Happy Thanksgiving, Grandma." Anna smiles.
"Happy Thanksgiving." Lorelia gave a fake smile before muttering to her daughters."One hour, fifty-nine minutes, and forty seconds."
They walk into the house. "Oh, wow, it's a piano player." Lorelai looks at the man sitting on the piano bench, playing.
"That's Brad. I found him at Nordstrom's." Emily told them.
"Was he on sale?" Lorelia gave her coat to the butler along with Rory's and Anna's.
"I thought a little background music would add a nice touch. He knows every song ever written." She brags.
"Free Bird!" Lorelai yelled before waving at the man. "Hi, Brad."
"Lorelai, please. Now come along, everyone's here." They walk to the living room. "We're all here."
"Oh, good. Happy Thanksgiving, Rory. Anna." Richard hugs them.
"Happy Thanksgiving, Grandpa." They greeted him.
"Lorelai." He nods.
"Dad." She copied him.
"These are our guests, Natalie and Douglas Swope." He introduced them.
"You two have met." Emily pointed at Natalie to Lorelai and Anna.
"Yes, at the auction." Lorelai nods.
"We've been to the same tea parties together." Anna smiled.
"It was great to see you, Anna. Good to see you again too, Lorelai." Natalie smiles.
After going through the greetings, Richard guides them to the couch to meet the other guests. "And this is our international contingent, Claude and Monique Clemenceau. They're just in from France."
"Ah, Clemenceau, huh, I'd have guessed Spain." Lorelai sticks her hand out.
"Hello, how are you?" Claude kisses Lorelai's hand. She was surprised by the action.
"Hello." Monique greeted them loudly.
"Monique, voici ma fille et ma petite fille." Richard introdued them to her.
"Ah. Elle sont si jolies." She said something to them.
"My Monique speaks only French, so please excuse the inconvenience." He apologizes.
"Oh, no, that's fine. I love French." Lorelai smiles.
"She wants to learn English, perhaps tonight will inspire her." He turns to Monique. "Je leur ai dit que tu voulais à prendre l'anglais."
Richard and the couple had a conversation in French. "That's why I love it when the Clemenceau's visit. It allows me to haul out my rusty French." He told them.
"Your French is wonderful, Richard. It always has been." Claude thought his friend was being humble.
"Aw, non, tu es tres gentil. Please, sit, sit, sit." Richard got all his guests to sit around the coffee table.
"Merci. So, Anna, Rory, do you speak French at all?" He asks them.
"I'm not good at speaking but I can read and write it." Anna only passed French because she could ace the written exams.
"Just a tiny little bit." Rory answers.
"Un tout petite peu?" He asks.
"Oui, un tout petite peu." She nods.
"And you, my dear?" He asks Lorelai.
"Even less. Uh, voulez-vous couchez avec moi ce soir? That's about it." She said the only phrases she knew.
"Lorelai." Richard was scandalized.
"Oh my God." Emily grips her wine glass tightly as Monique was whispering to Claude.
"It's just a joke." She didn't see the big deal.
"Asking my friend to go to bed with you is a joke?" Richard knew she was upset with him but to ruin Thanksgiving was too much.
"It's a song." Rory defends her.
"A popular song," Anna adds in.
"It's just a joke, Dad." Lorelai didn't know how she always got into these situations with her parents.
"Oh, voici c'est un chanson du pop. It's a pop song, ah, Monique. . . I did not know that." Claude grabs his wife's hand.
"Lady Marmalade." She made it said elegantly with her French accent.
"It's very rich. It's very, very funny." He smiled.
"Oh, well, thank you." Lorelai let out a breath of relief.
"You need a drink, oui?" He nods to her.
"Very astute, Claude. Martini with a twist, Dad." She smiled.
"Alright." Richard was having a hard time keeping up his happy face.
"Is this your first American Thanksgiving, Claude?" Douglas stood behind his wife who was sitting.
"It is, it is. I've seen it in the movies. People seem to eat and eat and eat until they can't eat anymore." He teases.
"That's about it." Lorelai nods.
"It's about giving thanks, gets you thinking about the good things." Natalie didn't want him getting the wrong idea.
"We have a lot to give thanks for in this country." Douglas put a hand on his wife's shoulder.
"Definitely." Emily nods. Anna thought the country comment was unnecessary. It could come off as a dig to Claude.
"Me, I start each day giving thanks for three things, Cuban cigars, French champagne, and gorgeous women. And I must give extra thanks for the extraordinary group here tonight." He smiles at the women in the room.
"Douglas, Richard, leave us, won't you?" Lorelai nods to the door.
"What?" Richard hadn't been listening to the conversation from the beverage cart.
"Just another joke," Emily told him.
"Oh, I missed another joke?" Claude looks at Lorelai.
"You have your mother's wit." Natalie lifts her glass to her.
"Sometimes I wish she'd give it back." Emily gave a tight smile.
"Emily mentioned that you were coming from another function?" Douglas asks. Richard came around to hand drinks to his daughter and grandchildren.
"No, this is your second dinner?" Claude asks.
"Fourth, actually," Rory told them.
"Fourth?" Natalie was amazed.
"Oh yes, we're quite a popular bunch." Anna took the soda from her Grandfather.
"Oh, thank you for fitting us in, Lorelai." Richard hands her a glass.
"Don't worry, Dad. You're the main event." She took the glass. When he went back to his spot by Emily. She whispers to Rory and Anna. "An hour and fifty-six minutes."
Everyone is seated at the table. "Beautiful table, Emily. You've outdone yourself yet again." Natalie looks at the beautiful flower centerpiece.
"Oh, it's nothing." She sat at the head of the table across from her husband.
"Well, is everyone settled? Is everyone comfy?" Richard stood up. After getting a yes from his guests. He nods to his wife. "Well, then, let's get going."
Emily rings a bell, the maids bring out the turkey. Everyone gasps in amazement at the big bird. "Sookie would die of envy," Anna whispers to Rory.
"Is it for us or the whole neighborhood?" Claude got a laugh from the table.
Richard carves a piece off, then the maids took the turkey away. "Oh, ho, who gets the big piece?" Lorelai watches the mouth-water food go away.
"I'm sorry?" He took a seat.
"Aren't you supposed to keep carving?" She waves for him to go on.
"That was strictly ceremonial." He told her.
"Ceremonial?" Anna thought it had to be a rich person think when all the guests agreed that it was normal.
"Please, start on the salads, everyone." Emily put a cloth napkin on her lap.
"Is there anything ceremonial about the salads? Do we carve a crouton, then have them taken away?" Lorelia asks.
"No, no ceremony." Emily shook her head.
"Salad's great, Grandma." Rory stops her mom from digging herself into another hole.
"I'm surprised you can eat at this point, even salad." Emily watch Anna eating like she was starving.
"There's still room." Rory pats her stomach.
"And if there isn't room, we'll add on. I know a good contractor." Lorelai winks.
"She's like your Jerry Lewis. She's very, very funny." Claude laughs.
"Your grandmother says you guys were a high school senior?" Natalie turns to the girls.
"Yes, we are." Anna nods.
"So you're going through this horrible period of applying to college?" She asks.
"I've been applying to culinary school, the process isn't that different, especially for the top ones. But Rory has been applying to colleges." She pointed to her sister. Anna knew it was bad to push the conversation onto Rory. But, if they kept their attention on her they would try to convince her to go to college. People saw the value in college but they didn't in trade schools.
"It's not so horrible." Rory felt like she had a handle on things.
"She's got it pretty well covered," Richard told them.
"That's right." Lorelai gave a smile that was looking a little villain-like as she cut her turkey into smaller pieces.
"All your applications are in?" Natalie asks.
"I've applied." Rory nods.
"We have a grandson your age, he's going through hell," Douglas told her.
"He's already been turned down for early admission to Stanford, his dream." Natalie knew when the small envelope came.
"Took it pretty hard." His heart broke for him.
"Children put so much stress on themselves these days." She looks at the teens on the table, hoping they weren't stressed.
"It's pretty stressful." Rory had her share of freakouts.
"He's waiting to hear from his backups." She hope he could find happiness at another college.
"I have a grandson who lives with his mother in Orlando, you know, he's going through a very similar thing, poor boy." Claude joins the conversation.
"How do they like Orlando, Claude?" Emily was thinking about going vacationing there.
"Well, it's all Mickey Mouse this and Mickey Mouse that, you know. They want to die." He got an earful every time they talked.
"That's too bad." She started thinking of another place they could go.
"Where did you apply, dear?" Natalie asks.
"Harvard," Rory told them.
"No word yet?" Douglas wonders.
"I'm not supposed to hear back for a while." She tried not to think about it.
"Where else did you apply? Your alternates?" He askes.
"We're so curious, it's like we've been going through this ourselves," Natalie explain to the group why they had so many questions.
"Well, I'm pretty much counting on Harvard." Rory tries to avoid answering.
"Well, you didn't apply to just Harvard, did you?" Douglas would be worried about the girl if she did.
"Well, no." She looks down at her plate.
"No?" Lorelai was shocked.
"Am I prying?" Natalie asks.
"No." Rory glance at Natalie before looking at her plate. Anna lean back into her chair praying that the train wrack wouldn't be too bad.
"We applied elsewhere?" This was her first time hearing this.
"You can't just apply to one place," Douglas told her.
"Chilton wouldn't allow that." Natalie knew from her grandson that they make you apply to at least five schools.
"Is that true?" Lorelai asks Rory.
"Pretty much." She nods.
"Why didn't you tell me that?" She hate when they kept secrets from her.
"You have to be safe." Natalie defends the teen.
"My grandson, six schools." Claude let it be known that it was common.
"Same with Dustin." Douglas nods.
"Where else did you apply?" Lorelai asks.
"Well, if you're aiming at Harvard, that would be Princeton, Yale, maybe Vassar, Wesleyan." Douglas lists.
"Certainly Yale because of Richard's connections, yes?" Claude pointed to the man. Richard nodded, happy that others were pointing out the obvious to his daughter. Lorelai hated it but he was right when he said she had no idea about the process.
"Those are the kinds of places, yup." Rory nods.
"The kinds of places or the places? Rory?" Lorelai asks.
"Princeton. . . um, Yale." She whispers.
"Yale?" Lorelai yelled.
"It's just an application, mom." Anna didn't see why she was freaking out.
"I need some air, Dad, Mom why don't you join me." She walks out of the room.
"We'll be back." Emily and Richard follow her.
"I'll get some air too." Rory went with them.
"So, have you guys been to Esther Gillespie's restaurant in French. It has three Michelin stars." Anna asks the French couple.
Jess and Anna were at Weston's bakery. They were drinking hot chocolate and eating pie. "I can't believe you're eating again." Jess watches her eat the pumpkin pecan pie.
"She only makes this for thanksgiving." She pointed at the pie.
"So, Dean confronted me today when I was throwing out the trash." He told her.
"What?" She dropped her fork.
"Yeah, he was trying hard to get me to fight him. I realize I may have teased him too much and that's probably why he thought I liked Rory." He reluctantly admits.
"Oh, he didn't know you were just an ass." She sips her drink.
"I guess he was the only one in town that didn't get the memo." He shrugs.
"Soon, they'll move on and we can put this behind us." It was fresh, so she understood the raw emotions.
"Like your mom moved on from her childhood." He had to hold back the snort from hearing her poor rich girl origin story when Anna had to explain why tonight's explosion happened. He thought it was funny that she hated her parents for trying to control her life when she was doing the same thing to Rory. Rory wanted to explore other options than Harvard and she lost it.
"We'll be moving soon, so Dean can't be annoying forever." She thought of another solution.
"You graduation can't come soon enough." He agreed.
