Gilmore Girls

Season 6 Episode 1

New and Improved Lorelai

Aired Tuesday 8:00 PM Sep 13, 2005 on The WB



  • Trivia

    • When Rory and Logan arrive at the bar and the friends start singing, you can see Rory's skin between her shirt and her jeans. In the next shot you can see that her undershirt has been pulled down and is now covering her skin.

    • It's the only episode of the whole show in which Lorelai and Rory don't talk to each other at all - and don't share a single scene.
      In season 4, ep. 14 (The incredible shrinking Lorelais), they didn't share a scene but they were at least trying to call each other on the phone.

      Complement: actually, this the only season in which Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel don't share a single line in several episodes (6x01, 6x03, 6x05, 6x06 and 6x08).

    • In the Season 5 finale, Taylor says that the bike race was supposed to end at noon, and that it was 10 pm at the moment. When the season 6 premiere starts, it's a continuation of the same scene, but Taylor says "I've been waiting 6 hours for this race to end." but according to the last episode, he'd been waiting 10 hours.

    • Rory does not appear until approximately 15 minutes into this episode. That is the longest time it has taken her to show up in any episode of the series.

    • At the end of 'A House Is Not A Home' in Season 5, episode 22,, Lorelai has on 2 necklaces while she is proposing to Luke, a very thin gold chain and a cross on a leather strap. At the beginning of 'New and Improved Lorelai' in Season 6, episode 1 when Luke is answering her question, she has on two necklaces as well but the gold chain is now slightly longer with a bauble on it.

    • This episode takes place in June because of Rory's court date. Since Rory's court date is June 3rd, when Lorelai sets her wedding date it is a year from Rory's court date.

    • In the season 5 finale, there was a different maid than in this episode. This would mean that Emily would have to have fired and got a new maid over night.

    • When Richard calls Lorelai to tell her about the meeting with Charlie Davenport, he tells her that the meeting is tomorrow at 9 o'clock. In the next scene, Rory asks her grandmother how things went the night before with her mother, and Richard, on the intercom says that Charlie Davenport is there for their meeting.

    • It seems unlikely that Rory's lawyer wouldn't know her real first name until the day of the court appearance. Her real name should have appeared on the arrest report as well as the summons to appear in court.

    • In this episode, Lorelai introduces Luke to Paris when she comes over because supposedly, Luke and Paris have never met. They did meet, however, in Season 2, Episode 12, "Richard in Stars Hollow". At that time, Paris goes to Stars Hollow to find a story to write about for the Franklin and while it is realistic that Paris as self involved as she is would not remember, Luke would absolutely remember since he just about threw Paris out of his establishment.

  • Quotes

    • Emily: You've been working with my daughter way too long.
      Michel: Don't I know it.

    • Luke: Can you just open this door, Taylor?
      Taylor: Well what do you need in the store?
      Lorelai: We need something to toast this moment with!
      Taylor: Something alcoholic?
      Lorelai: Yes!
      Taylor: [Pulls Lorelai aside] You know, Lorelai, if you feel you have to be drunk to be with him, maybe you--
      Luke: Taylor will you just open the door!
      Taylor: ...alright...

    • (Lorelai and Luke are in bed in Luke's apartment. Lorelai is nearly asleep and Luke is sitting up, looking at his hands.)
      Lorelai: Was this mattress always this comfortable?
      Luke: I think so.
      Lorelai: 'Cause it seems so much more comfortable. (pause) We should drink Zima and have sex every single night.
      Luke: Okay.
      Lorelai: Okay. Good night.
      Luke: Night. (pause) So when I said "what about the kids", I didn't mean "what about our kids". I mean, yes, obviously, what about our kids? But I didn't mean we had to have any kids. 'Cause we don't. But - we can, I just didn't want you to think that I was laying down some kind of a mandate. I mean, kids. It's plural, so it sounds like a lot. But we can just have one kid, one's fine, or more if you want more, or we don't have to have any kids. We could just get a plant.
      Lorelai: (half asleep) What?
      Luke: Nothing.
      Lorelai: Okay.
      Luke: I bought a house, Twickham house. I bought it for us. I don't have it anymore. I could probably get it back, but I just thought you should know. I bought it. For the kids, that we don't have to have. It's a big house, and we don't have to fill it up with kids, you know? We could, we could get furniture. Go shopping for a couch, or get some end tables. (He sighs) I hate shopping for furniture. For me, kids are easier.
      Lorelai: I love shopping.
      Luke: Go to sleep.
      Lorelai: Mmkay.
      Luke: Is this really happening?
      Lorelai: (opens her eyes and smiles) Yes. It's really happening.
      (Luke smiles and lays down and Lorelai sits up suddenly)
      Lorelai: You bought a house without telling me?
      Luke: What?
      Lorelai: A house? I mean, a house is huge!
      Luke: Yeah, I know, that's why I told you.
      Lorelai: A house full of kids?
      Luke: No, a plant, don't forget the plant.
      Lorelai: Please don't do that, okay? Or, any other address or life changing decisions? Please include me in!
      Luke: I will. I am. I'm sorry. I won't. I will.
      Lorelai: Okay.
      (They settle back down)
      Luke: Sorry.
      Lorelai: Kids would be good.
      (both grin)

    • Patty: Well, enough about us, honey. Come on, Luke, Tell us. How'd you do it?
      Luke: Well, actually, I didn't. Lorelai proposed to me.
      Babette and Patty: Oh
      Patty: You went modern.

    • Luke: (about Rory) She's a kid.
      Lorelai: She's not a kid. She's 20. She's going to be 21 in October. She's been living on her own for 2 years, she's not a kid.
      Luke: Fine. But she's young.
      Lorelai: And young people have to be allowed to make mistakes. I made a much bigger mistake than this when I was much younger.
      Luke: Oh, so what? Just because you made it on your own, Rory has to, also?
      Lorelai: That's not my point.
      Luke: Well, then, what it is your point?
      Lorelai: My point is that I wouldn't have listened to anybody in that situation, even if there was somebody to listen to. I had to go through that, and Rory has to go through this. Now, she's smart, and she's strong, and hopefully she'll figure it out, but I'm not going to force my way in. She wants to be on her own--fine, she's on her own.
      Luke: Really?
      Lorelai: Tough love, baby.
      Luke: So that's it?
      Lorelai: That's it.
      Luke: And you're okay with this?
      Lorelai: I'm totally okay with this.

    • Paris: Rory is my only friend. Do you understand that? She listens to me. She waits until I'm completely finished speaking before she leaves the room. I need that.
      Lorelai: Well, you know, Paris, I know I'm not Rory, but if you ever need to talk to somebody, you can always call me.
      Paris: Really?
      Lorelai: Yeah. I'll give you my cell phone number, which is basically my lifeline. You take it, and you use it.
      Paris: I can really call you?
      Lorelai: Anytime. Anywhere.
      Paris: I'm going to hold you to that.
      Lorelai: It's not a threat if the person makes the offer willingly, Paris.

    • Rory: So, drink, dinner, movie, that's really what we're doing tonight?
      Logan: I don't understand why you won't just believe me. I'm tired, I just want a mellow evening with my girlfriend.
      Rory: Last time you were mellow you had a hundred and four fever and even then, we were bar-hopping for an hour before you fainted.
      Logan: I didn't faint, I passed out.

    • Miss Patty: Oh, the spontaneous proposals are the best, you know.
      Luke: Uhm.. No.
      Babette: It was a brisk fall night and Morey was on top. No, wait, I was on top.
      Luke: What?!
      Babette: Hold on, Stoney Morrison was on top.
      Luke: Babette!
      Babette: We were playing twister. Did I not mention that?

    • Paris: (to Lorelai, in response to Rory quitting Yale) Why are you letting her do it?
      Lorelai: I have no choice.
      Paris: Yes you do! You can force her, you can pull some of that Supermom crap you always do and get her to change her mind!

    • Rory: People take time off from college all the time, Paris. Einstein took a year off!
      Paris: Yeah, after he discovered three laws of physics!
      Rory: You know what, Paris, I don't need to defend my life to you. I'm a grown-up, I'm independent, I'm on my own.

    • Richard: Lorelai, the three of us all want the same thing; we want Rory happy and healthy. Now, she's taken a bit of a stumble, but we can get her back on track if we work together. We're going to need your input and your involvement to make that happen.
      Lorelai: My involvement ends right here with the laundry basket. You win; she's all yours. Course, the laundry basket, I'm going to want back. (She turns and leaves)

    • Judge: I see you attend Yale. That's a great school. Very presitigious. I take the law very seriously, Miss Gilmore, and if there's anything I have no tolerance for, it's spoiled rich kids viewing the world as their own personal playground. I don't care who you are, I don't care who your family is. When you break the law, there must be consequences, and 20 hours of community service simply is not enough. I am ordering 300 hours of community service to be completed in no more than 6 months.
      Rory: But Your Honor, I can't do 300 hours of community service. I have to get a job!
      Judge: Well, you can add that to the list of things you should have thought about before you decided to go joy-riding with someone else's boat!

    • (gesturing towards Charlie)
      Richard: ...If you knew the number of truly guilty criminals put back on the street by this man here, you'd never believe in the criminal justice system again.

    • Lorelai: Paris. Listen to me. You are a very smart, driven young lady. You can be anything you want. Except a diplomat.

    • (Luke sits in the chair at the bottom of the stairs, flipping through a magazine)
      Luke: How much longer?
      Lorelai: (from upstairs) Oh, sorry. There's a purse-shoe incident that's threatening the entire outcome of the ensemble. It's technical, you wouldn't understand.

    • Luke: Kirk, where'd you get all these rings?
      Kirk: I befriend really old women.
      Luke: Excuse me?
      Kirk: Really old women need companionship, Luke. They are really old. Most people they know are dead. So when someone comes along and they're not dead, and they'll listen to their stories and care about their dosage, they are grateful.
      Luke: Are you serious?
      Kirk: Serious as a heart attack. Which is how I got that ring you're holding right now. So what do you think?

    • Lorelai: Luke and I are engaged.
      Taylor: You are?
      Lorelai: As of just a few minutes ago.
      Taylor: Well, what do you know? I thought there was a better chance of all four of the Beatles getting back together than you two ever calming down long enough to get engaged!

    • Lorelai: Yeah. Something to commemorate the moment. I mean, we're getting married. Luke. Married. You and me. Luke table-for-one Danes and Lorelai I'm-sorry-can-I-get-an-industrial-forklift-for-my-emotional-baggage Gilmore are getting - married. Huh?

    • Luke: Where are we going?
      Lorelai: To Funky Town.

    • Lorelai: Someone's not in the romantic spirit.
      Luke: Yeah, the one carrying a case of chick beer under his arm.

    • Paris: (about Doyle) And you know what? He's the tallest one in his family.
      Rory: Really?
      Paris: Yep. A family get-together is like a Lollipop Gould Convention. I have to stop myself from asking how it's going at the chocolate factory.

    • Rory: I'm not going back to Yale.
      Paris: You're pregnant.
      Rory: No I'm not!
      Paris: Sick? You look pasty.
      Rory: I'm not sick.
      Paris: Well, I know that your National Guard unit didn't get called up, so what's the story?

    • Emily: Lorelai, you scared me half to death!
      Lorelai: Yeah, well, follow-through has always been my problem.

    • Logan: You love school.
      Rory: Not anymore.
      Logan: No, Rory. You LOVE school. I saw it. That doesn't just go away!

    • (right after Luke and Lorelai became engaged)
      Luke: Are you sure you want to celebrate now? I mean, a minute ago, when you came in here -
      Lorelai: I just want to be happy right now. Okay?

    • Charlie: Goodbye Emily. (to Richard) Go! To! Hell! Richard
      Richard : I'm not through with you yet.
      Emily: Richard, you can't kill him here, we're in a court house!

    • Rory: Well, I have reformed, all right? From now on, no more scheduling. No more planning. I am just going to spend my days making ice cream beer floats and just taking life as it comes. You'll see. New me.

    • Emily: You know your mother, Rory. Everything's the end of the world -- so dramatic. Ladies and gentlemen, Lorelai Barrymore!

    • Babette: Where the hell is he?
      Miss Patty: There! He's right there!
      Babette: Get over here you!
      Miss Patty: I can't believe it!
      (hugs Luke)
      Babette: You finally did it, you dumb son of a bitch. You finally got in there and closed the deal!
      Miss Patty: Took you long enough.

    • Lorelai: Luke, will you marry me?
      Luke: What?
      Lorelai: Luke will you...
      Luke: Yes.
      Lorelai: Well, you don't have to answer so...
      Luke: Yes.
      Lorelai: You can take a minute to...
      Luke: No.

    • (After entering her parents' room in the middle of the night with the rest of Rory's things)
      Lorelai: I don't hate you. Why would I hate you?
      Emily: Because we...because you thought we....
      Lorelai: You were just being you. You couldn't help it.
      Emily: What are you talking about?
      Lorelai: The scorpion and the frog. It's an old story. The scorpion says to the frog, "Hey, frog. Give me a lift to the other side of the pond." Frog says, "No way. You'll sting me and I'll die." Scorpion says, "Will not! 'Cause then we'll both drown." Frog says, "Cool." So the scorpion gets on the frog's back and frog makes it to the middle of the pond and scorpion stings him. As the frog is going down he says, "Why would you do that? Now we'll both drown." Scorpion say,: "Sorry, it's just my nature." Frog (points to herself). Scorpion (points to her parents).
      Emily: (after a pause) I always thought it was a turtle.

    • Babette: (After finding out that Lorelai proposed) At least he's got a great ass.

  • Notes

    • Music:

      "Pre-owned Heart" by Grant Lee Phillips
      "Freaking Out" by Graham Coxon
      "Ant Music" by Adam and the Ants. At the Rory's party.

    • French episode title: "Lorelai Nouvelle Version", meaning "A New Lorelai".

    • SPOILER: When Luke asks Lorelai if she's sure about celebrating their engagement she answers: "I just want to be happy right now."
      It echoes Luke's line in the series finale when Lorelai thanks him for organizing Rory's farewell party and he says: "I just like to see you happy".

    • This is the very first season premiere episode of Gilmore Girls that does not feature Jared Padalecki as Rory's on-again-off-again boyfriend Dean. For that matter, this Season 6 is the first year that does not feature Dean at all.

      Dean was also absent from season 4's premiere episode.

    • This is the 10th Episode with the name Lorelai in the title, 3 of which refer to both Lorelai and Rory, two which refer to Trix, one which refers to Rory and the rest referring to Lorelai herself.

    • This episode was Gilmore Girls' highest season premiere grabbing over 6.2 million viewers and was the #1 highest rated show on The WB that week.

    • There are 5 new pictures added to the opening credits and theme song from season 5.

    • Matt Czuchry is now added to the opening credits.

  • Allusions

    • Lorelai: He's paying a six hundred dollar hotel bill.
      Michel: I don't care. He smells, they all smell. The whole inn smell like sweat socks and damp nylon shorts. It's making me sick. I have to work at that desk, and I have no intention of catching jock itch on my forearm because Mr. Breaking Away over there can't shower before he invades my dance space.

      Mr. Breaking Away refers to the 1979 movie Breaking Away. Dave Stoller is a high school graduate who is unsure of his future plans. He decides to train on his bicycle in order to race with the cyclists of the Tour de France who will be visiting his town of Bloomington, Indiana. He and his townie buddies compete in a relay bicycle race against the Varsity cycling team.

    • Luke: Where we going?
      Lorelai: To Funkytown.

      "Funkytown" is the name of a 1980's song by the disco band Lipps Inc. The most memorable line being "won't you take me to Funkytown." It is considered by many to be one of the last hit songs of the disco era.

    • Richard: Lorelai, listen to me. I know that you think some sort of con has been perpetrated on you.
      Lorelai: Hey, it's only a paper moon, Dad.

      This could be an allusion to the 1973 movie Paper Moon directed by Peter Bogdanovich. The movie follows a scam artist and a young girl, with whom he soon forms a team, traveling from town to town conning people out of their money.

    • Colin: Oh, look how she mocks. The girl stayed home for a month after she had a tragic haircut.
      Rosemary: It wasn't a tragic haircut. It was apocalyptic highlights. I looked like a Tim Burton character.

      This is an allusion to the titular character from the movie Edward Scissorhands, which was written and directed by Tim Burton.

    • Emily: She's not here?
      Michel: No. I am here. I am here, and not at the Dragonfly Inn, which I theoretically run, when I'm not busy answering door like Benson.

      Benson was an American television series which aired from 1979 to 1986 on ABC about a butler, Benson DuBois, played by Robert Guillaume.

    • Paris: I need her to be at Yale. Rory has been my only real competition since she showed up at Chilton! She's the only one who has ever challenged me. She's my pace car. She's my Björn Borg.

      Björn Borg is a former Swedish World No. 1 tennis player. During his relatively brief eight-year career, he won 11 Grand Slam singles titles leading some to consider him the greatest male tennis player of all time.

    • Paris: Thanks. We have a great duplex right near campus, lots of room, separate bathrooms, and it's a two-bedroom, so I was thinking maybe you'd like to move in with us.
      Rory: Very Bob, Carol, Ted and Alice. Minus Bob.

      Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice is a 1969 movie about couples applying the principles of free love and complete openness to their marriage.

    • Charlie (the lawyer): Los Angeles. Just bought Ellen Degeneres' house.

      Ellen Degeneres is mainly known for her talk show, The Ellen Degeneres Show, that has received widespread critical praise.


      Lionel Barrymore was a famous actor from the silent movie era through the 1940s. He was known for his dramatic flair.

    • Paris: (about Doyle) And you know what? He's the tallest one in the family.
      Rory: Really?

      Paris is referring to Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory which is run by tiny men called 'Oompa Loompas'.
      She also refers to The Wizard of Oz in which the Munchkins represent the Lollipop Guild.

    • Michel: Mr. Breaking Away.

      Breaking Away was a 1979 movie starring Dennis Quaid as a young small-town champion bike rider.

    • Paris: It's Logan. That Christopher Atkins wannabe is the reason that she's suddenly Blue Lagoon-ing it right out of school.

      Blue Lagoon was a 1980 movie starring Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins as a young couple shipwrecked on a tropical island.

    • Kirk:..she thought she was Frida Kahlo.

      Frida Kahlo was a Mexican artist, wife of artist Diego Rivera.

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