Season 6, episode 3
The UnGraduate
Lorelai and Rory cheerfully continue their lives separately. Paris makes herself hated at the Dragonfly. T.J. believes he has Tom's job and Tom is getting paid extra to let him think he does. Hep Alien are loving their church tour. Logan comes home from his summer vacation in Europe where Colin fell in love with a Dutch milkmaid who doesn't speak English despite Dutch and English being very similar.
Luke dogsits Paul Anka, who eats chocolate and needs a veterinary. Lorelai doesn't want to set a wedding date until things are right with Rory.
Tropes
- Accidental Pervert: Inverted, as Lorelai accidentally got seen by the guys when she stepped out of the shower.
- Big Eater: Luke brought Lorelai twenty muffins without questioning whether she was going to eat them all herself.
- Blatant Lies:
- Lorelai tells Paris they're out of espresso, since they shut down the machine at three to give it a break, because it's Italian and therefore temperamental.
- Lorelai claiming to enjoy Paris's visits in general.
- Brick Joke: Paul Anka's fear of wristwatches is mentioned early in the episode when the workmen pet him, then at the end of the episode Luke removes his watch before he picks up the dog to take him to the vet.
- Comically Missing the Point: Emily thinks the blueberries in her food are red. Rory points out that they are raspberries.
- Commitment Issues: Lorelai's is well known. Sookie can't stop worrying about it.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: TJ's uncle had a pork smoker room. They called it the dead pig room.
- I Call It "Vera": Gil's food van turned tour bus is named Martha.
- Insane Troll Logic: T.J. figures since he got paid a contractor's sallary, but wasn't really a contractor, but once put up shelves for Luke, his shelf-building rate just went way up.
- Irony: Paris wants people to want to be around her. She just doesn't make it easy for people to want to be around her.
- Meat-O-Vision: Gil was so hungry while talking to a guy that the guy turned into a giant turkey leg.
- Memetic Loser: In-universe, anyone who participates in the Gloucester Cheese Rolling Festival, Rory figures.
- Non Sequitur: When Lorelai doesn't want a bigger kitchen, T.J. wonders if she's Jewish.
- Nose Shove: On their Europe trip, Colin fell asleep on the train, and Logan took pictures of Finn stuffing carrots up Colins nose.
- Plot Parallel: Lorelai has become a Team Mom for the men working on her house. At the same time Rory has the same role among her fellow community servers.
- Product Placement: Maxwell House Coffee.
- Shout-Out
- The title is a reference to The Graduate.
- Luke thinks they might as well hire Blake Edwards as their pretend contractor as TJ.
- Constance Betterton from the DAR writes a note to Emily that Rory calls "not exactly Martin Luther nailing the theses to the church door".
- Rory claims she shot a man in Reno
- Lorelai does an impression of Daniel Day-Lewis in The Last of the Mohicans.
- She has one of My Left Foot as well.
- That guy in Coldplay compares himself to Bono, so Gil feels comfortable comparing Hep Alien to Foo Fighters.
- Sookie was inspired to bake a cake by a dream where Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise jumped out of it. It looked so good that even that couldn't ruin it.
- Lorelai thinks sookie is pessimistic like Cpt. Ahab.
- Lorelai imagines Luke Jude Law-ing it with the bridesmaids.
- Michel announces Paris's arrival by humming The Witch's Theme from The Wizard of Oz''.
- So Bad, It's Good: In-universe, Lorelai argues that TJ's lack of competence combined with his complete lack of follow-through makes him the perfect pretend contractor.
- Too Much Information:
- Lorelai is regretting telling Paris she could talk to her because she won't stop talking about how naked she should be around her third boyfriend.
- Gil declares that when he gets home he's gonna "do my wife for like an hour".
