Season 7, episode 5
The Great Stink
Paul Anka is spending the night at Christopher's. Logan visits Rory. Sherry is dating her yoga instructor and wants Gigi to visit her in France. Stars Hollow stinks again. A town meeting is called and it's revealed that it's three and a half ton of pickles from a derailed train. They vote to pay the $2.500 to have the pickles removed. Paris fills in for Rory while she's dating Logan.
Lorelai is afraid to tell Christopher she doesn't agree with sending a four-year-old to France with an eighteen to twenty(-five)-year-old nanny because she can only think of how Luke reacted when she had an opinion about how to deal with his daugter. Rory discovers that the date with Logan includes his British co-workers.
Maid of the week: Hildegard.
This is one of the few episodes to actually use the word "feminism".
Tropes
- Analogy Backfire: It's argued that Paris being editor again for a single day is like giving Captain Bligh another ship after the Bounty, which he got, because mutiny is illegal and leadership wasn't about keeping your crew fed back then.
- Call-Back:
- There is another stink plaguing the citizens of Stars Hollow, but instead of Easter eggs it's a few tons of pickles.
- This time, spy speak for "I need to see you in the bathroom" is "I need to see you in the bathroom".
- Comically Missing the Point:
- When Taylor declares that the stench descending on Stars Hollow is pickles, Kirk asks if he means one giant pickle.
- Christopher mumbles something about Sherry, and Emily thinks he's saying that they got his drink wrong.
- Compliment Backfire:
- Bobby has the gall to call Rory's relationship with Logan "adorable".
- Christopher takes it personally that Lorelai thinks that he thinks that him walking out on her and Rory when he was sixteen is the same as a grown woman leaving her baby.
- Continuity Nod: Lorelai discusses how Luke was the one who wanted her to stay out of his daughter's life, not Christopher. Christopher values her input.
- Continuity Snarl: Lorelai thinks Christopher feels that Sherry walking out on him and Gigi is karma for him doing the same to her and Rory when he was sixteen. Based on previous episodes' flashbacks and arguments, Christopher did not walk out on Lorelai and Rory. They never even lived together.
- Foreshadowing:
- Lorelai asks Chris if he doesn't want to hide Sherry's letter so she can find it month's later and get really insecure.
- Sookie talks about the symptoms of a heart attack.
- Insane Troll Logic: Christopher assumes the reason Lorelai thinks he shouldn't send his daughter and her nanny to Europe without him is that she feels threatened by Sherry.
- One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Chris and Lorelai talk about Sherry by discussing foods they changed their opinion about, whereas Richard and Emily think they're just talking about foods they changed their opinion about.
- Irony: Invoked. Christopher thinks it would be funny if they stay in the Ice Hotel and the go down the hall and the ice machine was out.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Lorelai finds herself afraid to express her opinions about the decisions Chris makes about Gigi.
- Product Placement: Pickles from Ohio or Delaware.
- Pun: Lorelai claims that Chinese is perfect for dogs because it's tonebased and dogs pick up on tone.
- Scandalgate: At a town meeting, Taylor admits that he knew about the train derailment three days ago and didn't tell anyone.Gypsy: It's a coverup!Babette: We got Picklegate!
- Secret Relationship: Defied and discussed. Christopher has a letter from Sherry that he shows Lorelai. Lorelai points out that he could have hidden it from her so that she could have found it months later and gotten really insecure about it.
- Separated by a Common Language: Subverted, since Rory understands British English just fine, but it annoys her (mostly because she's already annoyed) that Bobby says "loo" instead of "restroom".
- Shout-Out
- Christopher tapes The View, Girlfriends and Sabado Gigante. He blames it on the nanny.
- Chris reads Gigi Cinderella.
- Lorelai thinks Sherry's letter is very Dangerous Liaisons.
- Rory is practically Vincent van Gogh from how much Logan has talked her ear off about his colleagues.
- Every time college kids talk about Franz Ferdinand, Richard thinks they are talking about the Archduke who got shot in Sarajevo.
- Emily thinks you can only grunt while playing tennis if you're Maria Sharapova.
- Bobby Kennedy, Bobby Brady, Bobby Knight, Bobby Brown – all the Bobbies Rory can think of are male, yet Logan neglected to mention that his Bobbie was female.
- Rory feels that "adorable" is a word you use about Full House reruns, not about her and Logan.
- Rory and Lorelai finally agree to listen to "Come A Little Bit Closer" by Jay & The Americans in the car.
- Something We Forgot: Played with. Lorelai packs all of Paul Anka's stuff to spend the night at Christopher's, but almost forgets Paul Anka at home.
- Vague Age: Lorelai thinks Gigi's nanny is eighteen, but Chris claims she's twenty-five.
- Verbal Tic: The guy Logan's team negationate with repeated everything he said twice.
- Would Rather Suffer: Lorelai would rather smell rotten pickles for the rest of her life than see Luke at a town meeting.
