The speed run

After Rory is accepted at Chilton, an extremely prestigious and expensive prep school, Lorelai's difficulty in raising the tuition money forces her to ask her wealthy parents, from whom she is estranged, for a loan. The elder Gilmores happily loan their daughter the money in exchange for an end to the estrangement and a family dinner every Friday night. In her last week at Stars Hollow High School, Rory meets a very cute new transfer student named Dean, which gives her second thoughts about attending Chilton. When Lorelai discovers that her ambivalence about Chilton centers on a boy, they argue about her future, but after the first Friday night family dinner at her grandparents' house, Rory makes up with her mother and decides to go to Chilton after all when she realizes the sacrifice her mother has made in agreeing to end the estrangement with her grandparents.

It's Rory's birthday, and her grandmother and mother each plan a party representative of their respective styles. Emily's elegant party so discomfits Rory that they argue. To make peace, Emily and Richard attend Lorelai's informal bash the next evening.

Chilton hosts a dance which Rory and Dean attend, confirming that they are "boyfriend-girlfriend". Emily sleeps over at Lorelai's the night of the dance to take care of Lorelai's injured back and to see Rory off. Rory and Dean fall asleep accidentally, causing Rory to arrive home at 5 a.m., which pushes Emily to think they had sex. Thus erupts another blow-up between Lorelai and her mother.

Luke's ex-girlfriend Rachel arrives in Stars Hollow unexpectedly, and immediately picks up on the attraction between Luke and Lorelai, which they deny. Rachel decides to stay for awhile, which leaves Luke and Lorelai with mixed feelings. Lorelai and Rory are amazed when Emily agrees to excuse Rory from Friday night dinner so that Rory and Dean can celebrate their three month anniversary. When Lorelai arrives for dinner, she discovers the source of Emily's largesse -- her mother has invited another guest -- a man with whom she secretly hopes to fix Lorelai up. After a painful dinner with one of the world's most boring men, Lorelai attempts to escape through the window of her old bedroom, but is caught in the act by Richard. When he is forced to admit that even he is bored by the man, he uncharacteristically covers for her and lets her make her getaway. Back in Stars Hollow, Dean treats Rory to a wonderfully romantic dinner, and then gives her a present: a car that he's restoring for her. As they sit in the car, Dean professes his love, but Rory is unsure how to respond.

Rachel finds an abandoned inn that Lorelai and Sookie fall in love with; Lorelai and Rachel spend the afternoon getting to know each other and Rachel asks Lorelai to put in a good word for her with Luke; as Rory takes Emily on a tour of Stars Hollow, Emily hits it off with Mrs. Kim and Michel, but becomes distraught when she sees Lorelai and Rory's first home; at Sookie's urging, Lorelai gives Jackson's cousin, Rune, a job at the Inn.

Paris wreaks her revenge after Tristan lies about going to a concert with Rory; Rachel leaves Stars Hollow after she becomes convinced that despite his protests, Luke is in love with Lorelai; Rory's defense of the Stars Hollow troubadour during a town meeting brings her back together with Dean, enabling her to finally say, and mean, the words that he's been longing to hear; Luke and Max meet and engage in a little not-so-friendly rivalry as Max begins to suspect, despite her protests, that Lorelai and Luke were once an item; Max proposes to Lorelai with a thousand yellow daisies.

Lane freaks out when her parents buy her a one-way ticket to Korea for the summer; Luke gives Lorelai a lot to think about when she tells him about Max's proposal; Lorelai finally says "yes" to Max and tells everyone except her parents; when Rory brings Dean to a special dinner at her grandparents' house to celebrate making it into the top 3% at Chilton and Richard attacks Dean for not meeting Gilmore standards of excellence, Rory springs to Dean's defense and creates a rift between Richard and his granddaughter; Emily is heartbroken when she finds out about the wedding from Sookie instead of Lorelai.

Lorelai, Sookie, Emily, Michel, and Rory go to a drag club for Lorelai's bachelorette party; Emily regales the group with stories about the week before her wedding, some of which give Lorelai pause about her own feelings about marriage; when everyone else leaves to call their sweeties, Lorelai calls Christopher instead of Max; later that evening at home, Lorelai announces to Rory that she's calling the wedding off because she's realized that Max isn't the one for her; mother and daughter decide to take a road trip to avoid the sympathies of all of Stars Hollow.

Luke's sister Liz, afraid that her 17 year old son Jess is headed for trouble, puts him on a bus to Stars Hollow to live with Luke. Lorelai finds out and offers Luke some guidance on the care and feeding of a teenager, but is rebuffed. Undaunted, she hosts a dinner party for Jess, who is sullen and angry with everyone except Rory. At the first opportunity, he takes a beer from the fridge and sneaks out to the back porch. Lorelai finds him and gives him a lecture on how good he has it with Luke. Jess tells her what she can do with her little speech and then leaves. When Luke finds out about Lorelai's meddling, they quarrel and he goes to find Jess. Taylor calls Luke the next day to accuse Jess of stealing money from the bridge fund container at the market. Luke confronts Jess about this accusation, and becomes so frustrated at his response that he shoves him into the lake. Realizing that he needs Lorelai's help, he goes to her house to patch things up, only to find that one of Babette's gnomes is missing. He goes back to the diner, lays down the law to Jess and retrieves Babette's gnome. Paris is intent on making Rory's life miserable, so she sabotages her participation on "The Franklin" by giving Rory the wrong time for the staff meeting, and then assigning her to a story on the paving of the new faculty parking lot. Her plan is frustrated when the faculty advisor singles out Rory's article for praise. Undeterred, Paris assigns Rory the job of interviewing Max after she sees Rory and Max painfully avoid each other in the hall. Rory accepts the challenge, and after a few painful moments, Max and Rory express their regrets to each other about not being able to be stepfather and stepdaughter.

Lorelai and Sookie gear up their plans to open an inn, but encounter a roadblock when the owner of their dream location refuses to sell the property. The unexpected arrival of Mia, the absentee owner of the Independence Inn, complicates matters even further when Lorelai begins to experience pangs of guilt at leaving Mia with the responsibility of running the Inn again. When Lorelai finally summons up the courage to tell her about their plans, Mia is supportive and enthusiastic, and announces that this was just the opportunity she was waiting for to sell the Inn. Lorelai is saddened at this news and tells Emily how much the Inn means to her as the place where she and Rory grew up together, oblivious to the pain she is causing her mother. Lorelai's emotional turmoil culminates with having her first ever argument with Sookie. After a pep talk from Luke, Lorelai apologizes to Sookie and recommits to their friendship and partnership. Stung by the loss of years and memories while Lorelai and Rory lived at the Inn, Emily decides to meet Mia, the woman who was such an important part of their lives then. Mia explains that she took them in to give them a place to feel safe, while Emily explains that she wanted Mia to send them home. Emily asks Mia if she has any pictures of the girls from those days, and Mia eagerly agrees to send them to her right away. Someone has planted a fake murder scene at the front of Doose's market, complete with police tape and the chalk outline of a body. Naturally, this gets Taylor in a dither; after scouring Stars Hollow looking for the culprit, he confronts Luke at the diner and accuses Jess. Luke jumps to Jess's defense and throws Taylor out. Later that evening, Luke, Lorelai, Rory and Mia stumble upon a secret town meeting where Jess is accused once more and Luke is vilified for bringing him into town. Luke stands behind his nephew again, supported by Lorelai. The next day, Rory tells Jess that she knows he's really the culprit, and that he's being a jerk for letting Luke take all the heat from everyone in Stars Hollow. After Jess gets her to admit that it was a pretty funny prank after all, he agrees to lighten up and be more considerate of Luke's feelings.

Lorelai and Rory have a major falling out after Rory goes against her mother's wishes and asks her grandparents to lend Lorelai the money she needs to repair termite damage to their house; Lane's desire to become a cheerleader causes a strain in her relationship with Rory; after an exhaustive and unproductive attempt to raise the funds she needs based on her own credit rating, Lorelai is forced to ask Emily to cosign a loan; Rory drives Paris crazy when she refuses to reveal her PSAT scores.

Rory embarks upon a campaign to improve Lorelai's relationship with Jess, and convinces her to let him clean out their gutters so he can make some extra money. Luke, annoyed by his cramped living quarters, goes apartment hunting. With the help of Lorelai, Luke is able to find a great place, but is shocked when he finds out who owns the building. Meanwhile, Dean notices that Rory isn't wearing the bracelet that he made for her. Rory makes up an excuse, but later flips into panic mode when she can't find the bracelet.

Lorelai and Rory have breakfast at Sookie's in an effort to avoid Luke's, but Lorelai can't avoid an awkward encounter with him at Doose's Market, where he fails to pick up on her hints to patch things up; in an effort to help Lorelai through final exam stress, Rory gets her excited about attending her college graduation ceremony and secretly invites Richard and Emily, despite Lorelai's assertion that they'd never agree to attend; after a late night phone call from Jess, Rory impulsively cuts school the next day and visits him in Manhattan; Christopher sends Lorelai a graduation gift basket filled with fun goodies and an expensive necklace; Lorelai is shocked to see Emily, Richard and the film crew accompanying them to her graduation, and must contend with an obnoxious classmate with an attitude about the rich; Rory is furious with herself when she takes the wrong bus home and misses her mother's graduation; when Rory finally arrives home, Lorelai forgives her when she realizes that the trip to New York may indicate that her daughter has fallen in love with Jess, despite her protests to the contrary.

Sookie's wedding draws near, while Lorelai finally relents and goes into the diner, where she apologizes profusely to Luke. Christopher comes to town for the removal of Rory's cast and decides to stay for Sookie's wedding. While Lorelai and Chris seem to be getting along, Sherry drops a bomb. Paris is running for student body president, and employs Rory as vice-president. Jess returns to Stars Hollow and asks Luke if he can stay.

Rory's application for Harvard arrives, plunging Rory, Lorelai and Emily into a frenzy; a Chilton seminar on college applications only adds to Rory's anxiety and sends Paris into a tizzy; Taylor steamrollers Luke into opening a soda shop next to the diner; Lane places an ad in the paper for a band and finds a musical soulmate; Lorelai and Rory have dinner with a Harvard alumni and his family which may assure her chances of acceptance; Dean has a talk with Rory about their future after she goes to Harvard.

Lorelai is determined to win the Stars Hollow Dance Marathon and wrest the trophy from four-time champion Kirk, but has trouble getting a partner until she finally convinces Rory to help her dance her way to victory. Dean sits on the sidelines to cheer his girl on, and is soon joined by Jess and Shane, who spend their time making out while Jess keeps his eye on Rory. Lorelai breaks her heel, and Dean takes her place while Luke plays shoe repairman. On the dance floor, Dean realizes that Rory is attracted to Jess and breaks up with her. Rory tearfully runs off, followed closely by Jess, and Kirk is declared the winner once again.

Lorelai's grandmother arrives in Hartford unexpectedly on Richard's birthday and announces that she's moving back, throwing Emily into a tizzy until she follows Lorelai's advice on how to manage her mother-in-law; Rory declares war on Francie after she pulls a runaround on Paris with the Student Council; Paris finds herself in love after spending Christmas vacation with Jamie's family; after Rory and Dean bump into each other a few times, they decide to be friends again; Jess initially declines Rory's offer to attend the Stars Hollow High Winter Carnival, but changes his mind after they run into Dean and his sister Clara, who invites Rory to join them; Jess gets Dean alone at the carnival and lets him know that he's wise to his plans to get Rory back.

Luke and Nicole have a successful first date; Jess and Dean trade verbal blows; Sherry goes into labor with only Lorelai and Rory for company until Chris shows up at last minute; Lorelai has flash backs about her pregnancy and Rory's birth; Lorelai introduces Emily to modern entertainment technologyby getting her a DVD player and a couple movies; Richard and Emily decry Lorelai's and Rory's plans to backpack through Europe; the war between Paris and Rory continues when Paris picks a photo of the "Franklin" staff for the yearbook that has the worst possible shot of Rory.

Rory and Paris compete for the honor of speaking at Chilton's Bicentennial; Sookie and Jackson get some very good life (and diaper) changing news; Paris and Rory reconcile; Lorelai runs into Max and it's apparent that they're not quite over each other yet; Paris sleeps with Jamie and then has a meltdown on national television when she fails to get into Harvard, thinking her sleeping with Jamie is the cause; Rory's college acceptance letters finally arrive; Paris isn't sure what to think about the latest development in her relationship with Jamie.

A fire at the Independence Inn forces Lorelai to relocate its guests to her own house and those of her friends, and leaves her spending the night at Luke's, where she reveals her dream of being married to him and pregnant with their twins; Sookie invades Luke's with staff in tow to prepare breakfast for the Inn's guests, and gets into a culinary groove with Luke after a rocky start; questions arise about Jess' attendance at school when he receives the Employee of the Month award from Wal-Mart and Luke discovers that he's working there more than full time; Lorelai and Rory start picking up on weird and somewhat unfriendly vibes coming from Nicole and Lindsay; Rory visits Paris, who's missed five days of school to take to her bed and hide from the world, and prompts her to stop watching soaps, call Jamie, tell her parents about Harvard, get a life plan, and rejoin the land of the living; after making extensive pro-con lists in an effort to decide whether to attend Harvard, Yale, or Princeton, Rory has a heart-to-heart with Lorelai and chooses Yale.

Emily and Richard rejoice when Rory announces her decision to attend Yale; Kirk sustains baking-related injuries when Rory secretly enlists the help of her fellow Stars Hollows citizens to bake the world's largest pizza for her mother's birthday party; Michel and Tobin compete over giving Lorelai the best present, but Richard wins the contest hands-down with a check for $75,000 that's actually the proceeds from an investment he made in Lorelai's name at her birth; Luke confronts Jess about skipping school to work at Wal-Mart, but is blown off as usual; when Lorelai decides to use the money to pay back her parents for Rory's Chilton tuition, Emily becomes furious with Richard for giving Lorelai the money, fearing that the repayment of their loan is a sign that she'll never see either Lorelai or Rory again; Luke makes a bad impression on Nicole's parents, scaring them off with a rant on the horrors of parenting Jess.

Fran Weston dies and Lorelei and Sookie try to buy the Dragonfly Inn; Rory and Jess try approaching each other but fail to talk; Dean tells Rory that he's engaged to Lindsay; Mrs. Kim agrees to let Lane go to the prom with Dave; Luke finds out about Jess and Dean's fight at the party and gets even angrier at Jess, Jess' father comes to Stars Hollow and Luke tries to scare him out of town before he makes raising Jess even harder for Luke.

Jess heads out to Venice, California only to learn that his father's community is just as quirky as Stars Hollow; the rift widens between Lorelai and Emily; Luke tells Lorelai that Jess took off for good; Lorelai waits for the right moment to break the news to Rory, who is stressing over finals and graduation.

Rory finally learns her mother can't afford to buy the Dragonfly Inn since financial aid for Yale didn't come through. She decides to take matters into her own hands with a quick visit to her grandparents right before graduation. Luke has second thoughts about a trip with Nicole after something Lorelai tells him. Jess makes silent contact with Rory after her graduation ceremony from Chilton.

While Luke is willing to lend Lorelai his truck to help Rory move into her dorm, he's not too thrilled when the project turns out to take all day to accommodate Lorelai's last minute shopping trips to keep Rory's room on a par with the rest of the dorm, to say nothing of Lorelai's seeming inability to drive a stick, losing his spare tire, and saddling him with the old mattress from Rory's dorm room; Rory's roommates turn out to be a jock, a 15 year old prodigy sorely lacking in socialization skills, and none other than Miss People Person herself, Paris Geller, who arrives with a life coach in tow; Nicole's partners descend on the diner and threaten to ensnare Luke in a morass of paperwork and legal complications when he refuses to hire a lawyer or even discuss accepting a settlement; responding to Rory's attack of homesickness after just four hours, Lorelai returns to Yale and sets up a dorm-wide takeout food test to judge the quality of the local restaurants, their delivery speed, and the cuteness of their delivery boys; as a thanks for the takeout feast, the next morning some dormmates arrive with breakfast, having "Lorelai'd" a few places on campus to find the best place for coffee and muffins.

Back home for the weekend, Rory has an uncomfortable encounter with Dean, her ex, and ends up getting invited to his wedding the next day. Meanwhile, Lorelai and Sookie visit Michel at his trendy new workplace, but run into problems getting the permit they need to begin construction on the inn.

When Trix returns to town and berates Lorelai and Richard for being financial failures, Richard angrily sets his mother straight, to Emily's delight; Lorelai and Sookie explore ways to ease their financial crunch and raise money to pay their construction crew, one of whom is now Dean; Janet and Paris go head-to-head over the constant presence of Janet's boyfriend in the suite; Lorelai and Rory play an increasingly frustrating game of telephone tag; after Paris, Tanna, and Janet complain about close quarters in the suite, Lane moves out of the dorm and in with Lorelai, and gets her job back at Luke's; Lorelai and Sookie have a heated discussion about sharing the responsibilities of opening their inn; Rory is distraught when one of her professors tells her to drop a class because she can't handle her course load; Lane runs into her mother and receives a frosty reception; at the end of a very long, hard day, Lorelai and Rory still can't manage to connect, and end up taking solace in the arms of the married men in their lives, Luke for Lorelai, and Dean for Rory.

As Stars Hollow prepares for the Renaissance-themed wedding of Liz and T.J., Kirk feels slighted when Miss Patty chooses someone else as the maypole dance captain; Lorelai discovers an equine visitor in the Dragonfly Inn's lobby; Rory's suite mates depart for summer vacation; Lorelai urges Mrs. Kim to call Lane; Lorelai unsuccessfully attempts to get Emily to admit to the separation during Friday night dinner; T.J. revels in the wonders of tights, but discovers their main drawback during the ceremony; Mrs. Kim gets some good advice from Lorelai after initially fleeing in horror at the sight of Zach and Brian and Lane's shabby apartment, and eventually returns for tea armed with a game plan; Rory calls Dean to rescue her from the disastrous date Emily has arranged for her with the son of a friend; Luke and Lorelai share significant glances during a slow dance at the wedding, which prompts Luke to ask Lorelai out on a date; Jess expresses his gratitude to Luke before saying goodbye; Rory tells Jess it's over between them when he asks her to go away with him.

Momentous changes are in the air as: the Dragonfly Inn approaches opening day by having a shakedown weekend; Rory and Dean take a major step forward in their relationship, to Lorelai's dismay; Emily and Richard admit that they're separated; Kirk decides to let Lulu in on the deep, dark secret of his night terrors; Jason appears at the Inn to plead his case with Lorelai, to no avail; Luke answers Lorelai's question about the status of their relationship when he makes it passionately clear to Lorelai that they're dating, to which she enthusiastically agrees.

Luke and Lorelai go on their official first date at a restaurant owned by old friends of Luke's parents. Luke reminds Lorelai of how they met, shows her a horoscope she gave him for good luck that he's kept in his wallet, and assures her that he intends to go the distance with her. Lorelai spends the night at Luke's place; in the morning, she goes down to the diner to get coffee, and the breakfast crowd sees her wearing only Luke's shirt. There's surprisingly little gossip about Luke and Lorelai until the next town meeting, where Taylor uses charts to show how disastrous a breakup between them would be for Stars Hollow. Meanwhile: Rory meets a rich Yale student named Logan and chews him out for being rude to her friend Marty; Paris holds a wake for Asher that all the guests assume is a keg party with a weird theme; and Emily freaks out when she discovers that Richard has a social life she doesn't know about, so she invades Rory's dorm during the wake.

Doyle is jealous when Glenn's article gets picked up by the New York Times; Rory discovers that Logan, the son of a newspaper magnate, is also on the staff of the paper; Paris wages a fierce campaign to get the religion beat, and takes an ecumenical approach to alienating the local clergy; desperate for a story idea for her features assignment after several concepts fail to pan out, Rory uncovers a secret Yale society which counts Logan as a member, and enlists his cooperation in getting a story on the group; Sookie becomes upset when the Inn's accountant suggests dropping lunch temporarily to save money and Norman Mailer stakes out a table in the dining room to work and give interviews, and refuses to order anything from the menu except iced tea; Lorelai and Rory show up for Friday night dinner, and when they discover that neither Emily nor Richard are home, decide to order pizza and eat on the living room floor; Christopher calls Lorelai in a panic when Sherry suddenly decides to move to Paris, leaving him unprepared to care for a colicky Gigi; and after freaking out completely over Norman Mailers constant presence Sookie realizes that her extreme emotions and sensitivity in the past days are the result of her being pregnant again. Rory asks Christopher to stay away from Lorelai.

After Kirk spills the beans that her daughter is dating Luke, Emily demands that Lorelai bring him to dinner so that they can get reacquainted; although Lorelai tries to warn him away, Luke goes anyway and is subjected to an evening of oblique insults from a passive-aggressive Emily; after Zach announces that he's ready to start going out with Lane, they spend a cozy first date at home after banishing Brian to Lane's bedroom; having not learned his lesson with Emily, Luke agrees to accept Richard's invitation to go golfing, and both men turn a deaf ear to Lorelai's pleas to cancel; Rory gets her story on the "Life and Death Brigade" by being blindfolded and whisked away by Logan and his friends to observe the elaborately staged weekend in the woods, and finally, after Logan encourages her to take a risk, to participate in the event's breathtaking finale.

Emily and Richard renew their vows in front of their closest friends with Lorelai as Emily's Maid of Honor, and Rory as Richard's Best Man. Luke gets in a fight with Christopher over Lorelai. Logan comes to the ceremony with a girl that looks like his girlfriend, and Rory gets jealous. Rory confronts Logan and Logan and Rory go a level up from flirting.

While the town takes sides in the breakup, dumped and devastated Lorelai takes to her bed...and Rory rides to the rescue in Logan's limo, armed with cookie dough, DVDs and TLC.

Disaster in a blue dress. Rory dines at the Huntzbergers...and does not measure up to the family's idea of a suitable girl for Logan. With Sookie on bed rest, Luke fills in as chef at the Dragonfly.

24/7 Huntzbergers. Rory starts work as Mitchum Huntzberger's intern. And Emily and Richard vie for Most Obsequious honors when they host a dinner for Logan. Lorelai receives a tempting job offer.

The Kims face trouble and everyone pulls together. The Gilmore's face trouble and everything falls apart. At school year's end, Rory makes a decision that leaves Lorelai stunned and grieving.

What's the very best thing for a broken heart? An engagement! With the Gilmore girls not talking (who would have thought!), Luke provides despondent Lorelai with a much needed happiness boost.

Who can finally get Rory thinking that she made a big mistake dropping out of Yale? If you guess Jess, you're right. Her old flame returns with exciting news about his life...and some blunt advice about hers.

Like meat and potatoes, like salt and tomatoes, the Gilmore girls belong together: Rory comes home. And a super-smart middle schooler shows up at Luke's Diner with a startling idea for a science-fair project.

When the Yale Daily News staff finally ousts Paris as editor, Rory steps in to let her old schoolmate down gently. Paris meets her Waterloo with dignity - until she discovers the name of the new editor.

One couple joined, one couple separated. When Rory helps Honor prepare for her wedding, she learns that Logan wasn't spending their time apart in celibate longing. Zach wows the diner patrons with a proclamation.

Major disaster: Logan, unconscious and badly hurt after a Life-and-Death-Brigade stunt goes wrong. Minor disaster: April's birthday celebration, hosted by wholehearted but fun-challenged Luke.

Lorelai chauffeurs Emily, who's recovering from eye surgery. Paris and Doyle take care of Logan, home from the hospital. And Sookie and Jackson try to play it cool as they dispose of bags and bags of pot someone grew on their property.

Goodbye. The town troubadour departs Stars Hollow for his Neil Young gig (creating a stampede of would-be troubadours to town). Logan graduates and leaves for London. And the Lorelai-Luke love affair may be ciao, adios, game over.

From bed to worse. The morning after her blowup with Luke, Lorelai wakes up next to...well, someone else. And complications definitely ensue. Logan leaves Rory a puzzling parting gift.

Togetherness: Lorelai and Christopher start dating. Rory meets some artistic new friends. April moves in with Luke short-term and Emily gets up close and personal with the local constabulary.

Christopher knows exactly how Rory will feel when he and Lorelai tell her they're married: happy! They tell her. How does she feel? Not happy. And when April falls ill, Luke calls the one person he can depend on: Lorelai.

This is all a new marriage needs : Christopher finds the reference Lorelai wrote for Luke...and freaks. And what more could an established marriage need? Jackson and Sookie find out.

After Richard's heart attack, Lorelai, Rory and Emily anxiously await news in the hospital waiting room. Then Logan arrives. Then Luke. But - despite frantic repeated phone calls from Lorelai - not Christopher.

Lorelai finally gets up the nerve to tell Emily that she and Christopher are phfffft. And Logan thought he bought an internet company. Instead his dreams of entrepreneurial glory bought the farm.

On karaoke night, a tipsy Lorelai take the stage to sing...and exposes her feelings for Luke. And Logan returns to Stars Hollow with a question for Lorelai.

Pomp and circumstances. Rory's graduation brings the expected: tears, hugs, a Richard-and-Emily party, a communal bottle of champagne and a diploma. And it brings the unexpected - a heartfelt suggestion from Logan.

An exciting job offer for Rory and a beneficent gesture from Luke add up to a big surprise party, where every Stars Hollow friend, neighbor and eccentric exuberantly celebrates the Gilmore girls.