Season 1, Episode 6 – Aired: 11/9/2000
Rory's Birthday Parties

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

Season 1, Episode 7 – Aired: 11/16/2000
Kiss and Tell

Dean gives Rory her first kiss; fearful of her mother's disapproval, Rory decides not to tell Lorelai for a little while; Lorelai gets stressed when she hears about the kiss from Mrs. Kim instead of Rory; Rory freaks out at first when Lorelai invites Dean over to watch videos and eat junk food, but ends up having a good time after all.

Season 1, Episode 8 – Aired: 12/14/2000
Love and War and Snow

It's snowing, and Lorelai is giddy. She runs into Max in Stars Hollow, and invites him back to her place. But they run into someone unexpected when they get there. Lane feels left-out of Rory's life.

Season 1, Episode 11 – Aired: 1/11/2001
Paris is Burning

As Lorelai and Max grow closer, Rory begins to get attached to the idea of Max in their lives, which worries Lorelai; Sookie and Lorelai have a frank discussion about relationships; Lorelai tries to ease out of her relationship with Max during Parent's Day at Chilton, but ends up passionately kissing him in his classroom just as Paris walks by; stung by the details in the newspapers about her parents' messy divorce, Paris tells everyone in the lunchroom about Max and Lorelai to deflect gossip away from her and towards Rory; Rory confronts Paris, gets an apology, and offers a sympathetic ear, which is grudgingly accepted; Sookie asks Jackson out on a date and he accepts.

Season 1, Episode 12 – Aired: 1/18/2001
Double Date

After Lorelai encourages Sookie to ask out Jackson, she finds herself on the double date from hell with Jackson's cousin, Rune, which makes Luke jealous enough to finally work up the courage to ask Lorelai out. Meanwhile, Rory and Lane get into trouble when they double date with Dean and his friend Todd without telling their moms.

Season 1, Episode 15 – Aired: 3/1/2001
Christopher Returns

Wanting to play a greater role in Rory's life, Christopher settles in for his visit and lets Rory give him the grand tour of Stars Hollow. When his parents arrive in Hartford for a visit, Emily invites everyone to Friday night dinner, which turns out to be an unqualified disaster after Richard nearly comes to blows with Christopher's father over critical comments about Lorelai. In the aftermath of the ruined dinner party, Richard retreats to his study to calm down, Emily makes a plate for Rory in the kitchen and reassures her how much she is loved and regarded, and Christopher finds Lorelai on the balcony of her old bedroom and comforts her by repeating a little romantic history. The next morning, Lorelai awakens with a start, horrified that she forgot to help Luke paint the diner after dinner on Friday night. Grabbing a jacket, she races to the diner still clad in her pajamas, and begs Luke's forgiveness. He shrugs it off at first, but appears somewhat wounded when he realizes that Lorelai was with Christopher the night before. When Lorelai returns to the house, Christopher asks her to marry him and she regretfully turns him down, claiming he's not ready for the responsibility of a family quite yet. Christopher returns to California with the promise of doing a better job of staying in touch. The next morning, Lorelai surprises Luke by having the diner completely repainted when he arrives to open up for the day.

Season 1, Episode 17 – Aired: 3/15/2001
The Breakup, Part 2

Rory decides to engage in a flurry of activity to avoid thinking about Dean, despite Lorelai's advice to wallow; Lorelai runs interference as the residents of Stars Hollow reach out to console Rory and Luke attempts to bar Dean from the diner; Rachel pitches in to help Luke out at the diner; Jackson prepares dinner for Sookie, and has a tough time keeping her out of the kitchen; Rory decides to attend Madeline's party and takes Lane along for company; Lorelai decides to visit Max when she realizes how much she misses him; Lane is torn when she meets the perfect guy at the party; Rory attempts to befriend Tristan after he has very public breakup with his girlfriend at the party, and when he apologizes for his past bad behavior towards her and kisses her, she bursts into tears; at home, Rory sobs to Lorelai that she's ready to wallow now.

Season 1, Episode 18 – Aired: 3/22/2001
The Third Lorelai

Emily becomes unhinged at the prospect of a visit from Richard's mother Trix; Paris is outraged when she discovers that Tristan asked her for a date at Rory's urging; fearing that she'll never see Lorelai again, Emily opposes Trix's offer to set up a trust fund for Rory.

Season 1, Episode 21 – Aired: 5/10/2001
Love, Daisies and Troubadours

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.

Season 2, Episode 1 – Aired: 10/9/2001
Sadie, Sadie

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.

Season 2, Episode 4 – Aired: 10/23/2001
The Road Trip to Harvard

To escape everyone's reaction to the news of the broken engagement, Lorelai and Rory hit the road, and stumble upon the bed and breakfast from hell before eventually arriving at Harvard, where Rory gets a taste of college life and Lorelai muses over what might have been; Lane comes home loaded with bootlegs from Seoul; Lorelai breaks into tears when she sees the chuppah that Luke made for her; Luke commiserates with Lorelai even though he's secretly overjoyed to hear that the wedding's off; Lorelai decides to get serious about making her dream of opening an inn a reality.

Season 2, Episode 5 – Aired: 10/30/2001
Nick & Nora/Sid & Nancy

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. Luke realizes that he needs Lorelai's help after pushing Jess into the lake.

Paris is intent on making Rory's life miserable, so she sabotages her participation on "The Franklin". Her plan is frustrated when the faculty advisor singles out Rory's article for praise.
Episode Overview

Season 2, Episode 8 – Aired: 11/20/2001
The Ins and Outs of Inns

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. Lorelai's emotional turmoil culminates with having her first ever argument with Sookie.

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.

Also, 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 doing some investigation, he confronts Luke about Jess.

Season 2, Episode 10 – Aired: 12/11/2001
The Bracebridge Dinner

A blizzard prevents a group from attending the historical dinner that Sookie has painstakingly prepared at their request, so she and Lorelai decide to invite all their friends in Stars Hollow to enjoy the feast at the Inn. At Rory's urging, Lorelai also invites Richard and Emily, in an attempt to boost Richard's spirits. During dinner, Emily is hurt and angered when Richard reveals that he has quit his job without consulting her. Jess tries to get between Rory and Dean when Dean is distracted by his little sister.

Season 2, Episode 11 – Aired: 1/22/2002
Secrets and Loans

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.

Season 2, Episode 14 – Aired: 2/12/2002
It Should've Been Lorelai

Christopher comes to town on a business trip with his girlfriend Sherry in tow. Since Sherry and Christopher's relationship is getting serious, Sherry wants to begin bonding with Rory -- on Friday night. Without consulting Emily, Lorelai excuses Rory from the Gilmore Friday night dinner, and takes Christopher with her instead. When Emily finds out about Sherry over cocktails, she has a meltdown and rushes off to the kitchen. Lorelai follows her there and finds out that Emily has always envisioned that Lorelai and Christopher would end up together. Now that she sees that this isn't going to happen, Emily blames Lorelai for always keeping him, and everyone else, at arms length. After mulling over her mother's words, the next morning Lorelai tells Christopher that she believes she's always thought that they would get back together, too, and that's one reason why she's never had a relationship that lasted, including the one with Max. Christopher gets very angry, refusing to accept the responsibility for the way Lorelai's romantic life has turned out. Lorelai immediately apologizes, saying she did not mean it blamefully, but more as self-realization, but Christopher is too angry to listen.
Episode Overview