To help meet the expenses of opening the inn, Lorelai and Sookie decide to become caterers on the side, with their first assignment being a ""Lord of the Rings"" theme party. At Yale, Rory returns from class to find that Emily has redecorated their rooms. Meanwhile, Richard ponders a proposal to take on a new business partner.

Emily offers Lorelai and Sookie the job of catering the party to launch Richard's new business venture, then runs them ragged with demands. Meanwhile, at school, Rory finds that her roommates' activities are preventing her from studying.

Jackson's devotion to his wife and her famous zucchini soup set the stage for the perfect antidote to the stress surrounding the opening of the Inn; Luke unwittingly comes to the rescue when Sookie tries to set Lorelai up with the poultry supplier; Liz returns to Stars Hollow to announce that she's getting married in the town square in a week; Paris and Asher decide to travel to England together during the summer; T.J. has a tumultuous bachelor party; at Luke's request, Jess changes his mind about attending his mother's wedding and returns to Stars Hollow for the festivities; Rory tries to hide her discomfort when Lorelai tells her about overhearing a fight between Dean and Lindsay; a self-help tape helps Luke clarify his thinking, and a talk with Jess gets him started on the path to having the relationship he's been looking for all along.

Danny 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 mo

Wanting to make peace with Rory, Christopher shows up at Yale, but she brushes off his attempt at compromise. When Lorelai learns that Christopher's father dies, she spends the evening at his place trying to comfort him, then disdains to tell Luke the truth about where she was. Also, Emily & Richard are briefly reconciled when they find and take in a lost dog.

Still smarting from her split with Luke, Lorelai is further stung when she notices that Luke has moved his boat. Meanwhile, Luke volunteers to build the sets for a school production of ""Fiddler on the Roof,"" knowing that Lorelai is doing costumes, in hopes that their paths will cross. Meanwhile, at Yale, Rory plans to reconnect with Marty (Wayne Wilcox) to watch Marx Brothers movies, but Logan interrupts their day by inviting them to dinner with his group.