Richard, who has become increasingly irritable and contentious with Emily, begins to put in more hours in the office than ever. Without telling Emily, he cancels several important social engagements due to the pressures of work, which leaves her both upset and concerned about her husband. At the urging of her friends, she decides that Rory's making her debut at a society ball will be just the thing to get Richard back into the social swing. To Lorelai's amazement, Rory willingly agrees and Emily goes into high gear shopping in preparation.

Dean protests loudly about the formal attire he is forced to wear and the fox-trot lessons he is forced to take from Miss Patty, so Rory promises him a lifetime of watching Battle Bots at his side if he'll be a good sport and go along with the occasion.

Lorelai asks Christopher to escort their daughter on the night of the big event, and he surprises her by agreeing to come willingly. Lorelai is in for even more of a shock when he arrives on time, dr

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.

Richard opens a new office and hires a secretary with Lorelai's help; Dean comes home; Lane falls in love with a drum set at Stars Hollow's new music shop and discovers that becoming a rock drummer is her new dream in life; Rory is dismayed to discover that everyone blames Jess for the accident despite her protestations; to the consternation of all in Stars Hollow, Luke closes the diner and goes fishing.

To Lorelai's horror, Kirk asks her out on a date after being encouraged by Luke; Emily's lunch with Lorelai at Luke's ends badly; Christopher shows up uninvited at Friday night dinner and quarrels with both Lorelai and Rory before Emily asks him to leave; Rory runs into Jess and they each betray their hurt feelings -- Rory about Shane and Jess about not hearing from Rory all summer; and Francie targets Paris and Rory for a world of trouble if Rory doesn't stop Paris from running the student council like a dictatorship.

Emily guilts Rory into bringing Jess to a Friday night dinner which turns out to be an unqualified disaster; Lorelai, Alex, Sookie and Jackson go to New York for the weekend; Jess gets a black eye in an altercation with an opponent he is too embarassed to reveal to anyone but Luke; Zach and Brian realize that Lane and Dave are hiding something from them, but miss the mark on the true nature of the secret; Rory and Jess have their first argument, and Luke helps patch things up.

A fire at the Independence Inn forces Lorelai to relocate its guests to her own house and those of her friends, and leaves her spending the night at Luke's, where she reveals her dream of being married to him and pregnant with their twins; Sookie invades Luke's with staff in tow to prepare breakfast for the Inn's guests, and gets into a culinary groove with Luke after a rocky start; questions arise about Jess's attendance at school when he receives the Employee of the Month award from WalMart and Luke discovers that he's working there more than full time; Lorelai and Rory start picking up on weird and somewhat unfriendly vibes coming from Nicole and Lindsay; Rory visits Paris, who's missed five days of school to take to her bed and hide from the world, and prompts her to stop watching soaps, call Jamie, tell her parents about Harvard, get a life plan, and rejoin the land of the living; after making extensive pro-con lists in an effort to decide whether to attend Harvard, Yale, or Princ

On their first free Friday night, Lorelai and Rory are at a loss over how to spend the evening, while Emily and Richard cavort at the party they're hosting; Lorelai is appointed Grad Night Treasurer and runs into a playing-it-cool Max at her first Chilton Booster Club meeting; Lane's band gets their first gig at a party and rocks the house, but Dave rocks Lane's world when he flips out after discovering that Young Chui is in love with her; a despondent Lane indulges in a little too much beer, and then drunkenly calls her mother and confesses all; when staff cutbacks at the Inn force Lorelai to do turn-down service, she becomes very unsettled at seeing a cozy Luke and Nicole in the room she's offered as thanks for Luke's help with repairs after the fire; Jess's inability to tell Rory that his frequent absences have caused him to flunk out of school and miss graduation and the prom prompts an argument between Jess and Rory, and then a full-blown brawl with Dean after Dean comes upon a te

While Luke is willing to lend Lorelai his truck to help Rory move into her dorm, he's not too thrilled when the project turns out to take all day to accommodate Lorelai's last minute shopping trips to keep Rory's room on a par with the rest of the dorm, to say nothing of Lorelai's seeming inability to drive a stick, losing his spare tire, and saddling him with the old mattress from Rory's dorm room; Rory's roommates turn out to be a jock, a 15 year old prodigy sorely lacking in socialization skills, and none other than Miss People Person herself, Paris Geller, who arrives with a life coach in tow; Nicole's partners descend on the diner and threaten to ensnare Luke in a morass of paperwork and legal complications when he refuses to hire a lawyer or even discuss accepting a settlement; responding to Rory's attack of homesickness after just four hours, Lorelai returns to Yale and sets up a dorm-wide takeout food test to judge the quality of the local restaurants, their delivery speed, and

Back home for the weekend, Rory has an uncomfortable encounter with Dean, her ex, and ends up getting invited to his wedding the next day. Meanwhile, Lorelai and Sookie visit Michel at his trendy new workplace, but run into problems getting the permit they need to begin construction on the inn.

Sookie and Jackson decide to have a home birth and enlist the services of a formidable midwife; when Stars Hollow mounts a festival of living pictures, Kirk goes way overboard in getting into character for his role as Jesus in ""The Last Supper"", while Lorelai has a bad case of stage fright; Lane, Zach, and Brian finally find an awesome guitarist to replace Dave, but wonder if he isn't too old to join the band; Nicole asks Luke if they can postpone the divorce and start dating again; Jackson's brother Beau, who's come to provide moral support during the delivery, is less than enchanted with Stars Hollow, and is right behind Sookie in expressing extreme frustration with the tardiness of the baby's arrival; as he escorts Lulu through town, Kirk proudly and repeatedly reminds everyone in Stars Hollow that he has a girlfriend.

Jess's attempts to keep a low profile until Gypsy completes the repairs on his car are put to the test as he keeps bumping into Rory all over town; Taylor puts Kirk in charge of the annual Firelight Festival, and his managerial skills, or lack thereof, place a strain on the preparations; Lane follows Rory back to Stars Hollow and a place on the Gilmore couch for the weekend, but isn't quite ready to face her mother; Emily is in a dither about filling a table at a benefit and enlists the help of Lorelai and Jason, whom she encourages to pretend that they're a couple; Luke is less than impressed by Liz's latest business venture and newly-arrived boyfriend, which prompts Jess to give his uncle an earful about minding his own business; after Lorelai and Liz finally meet, Lorelai gets a renewed perspective on Luke; Liz's high school classmates descend upon her brother and reveal long-held crushes on him; Richard is suspicious when Jason's father greets his son at the benefit and doesn't inq

Kirk branches out from dog sitting for Lulu into a new canine-centered career; Paris goes into germ-phobic overdrive when Rory gets a cold; Lane gets an apartment with Zach and Brian and faces a frigid reception from her aunt and mother, and an overly-eager, non-stop-talking cousin when she packs up her things and moves out; when they realize that their relationship is increasingly being conducted over email and the phone, Lorelai and Rory decide to play hooky and go window shopping in the mall, where they run into Emily in the middle of a shopping binge meltdown; Luke lends Lorelai the thirty thousand dollars she needs to finish construction on the Inn; after Emily confesses that the shopping binge and bickering with Richard stems from her anger at being ignored, neglected, and made to feel useless by her husband, Lorelai reassures her of how much she's accomplished and urges her to talk to Richard, but Emily can't seem to make the connection with her husband she so desperately desire

As Stars Hollow prepares for the Renaissance-themed wedding of Liz and T.J., Kirk feels slighted when Miss Patty chooses someone else as the maypole dance captain; Lorelai discovers an equine visitor in the Dragonfly Inn's lobby; Rory's suite mates depart for summer vacation; Lorelai urges Mrs. Kim to call Lane; Lorelai unsuccessfully attempts to get Emily to admit to the separation during Friday night dinner; T.J. revels in the wonders of tights, but discovers their main drawback during the ceremony; Mrs. Kim gets some good advice from Lorelai after initially fleeing in horror at the sight of Zach and Brian and Lane's shabby apartment, and eventually returns for tea armed with a game plan; Rory calls Dean to rescue her from the disastrous date Emily has arranged for her with the son of a friend; Luke and Lorelai share significant glances during a slow dance at the wedding, which prompts Luke to ask Lorelai out on a date; Jess expresses his gratitude to Luke before saying goodbye; Ro