Lorelai receives a late wedding present without a card attached, and insists that it be returned. Sookie sees to what great lengths Lorelai is going to find out who sent it, and tells Lorelai to move forward in life to get some closure on her relationship with Max. Lorelai takes her advice and accepts a dinner date with Paul, one of the other students in her business class. The date goes well, but they decide to remain friends because they don't have very much in common. When Paul appears at Luke's the following Saturday with his parents in tow, Lorelai gets ribbed by everyone in town because he's so young. Luke is uncharacteristically quiet, which Lorelai can't figure out until Sookie explains that he's had a crush on Lorelai forever. Lorelai goes to him to let him know that he'll always be a very important part of her life, and Luke brightens up again.

Rory, Paris, Madeline and Louise are assigned to present the death scene from ""Romeo and Juliet"" as part of ther class participation

Christopher comes to town on a business trip with his girlfriend Sherrie in tow. Since Sherrie and Christopher's relationship is getting serious, Sherrie 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 Sherrie 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's always thought that they would get back together, too, and that's 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 w

Rory asks Richard for help in creating and marketing a first-aid kit for Chilton's annual Business Fair, which leads him to realize that he is unhappy in retirement and wants to start a second career; fresh from having underbid on Rory's lunch basket and the loss of the bracelet he made for her, Dean goes overboard in trying to be close to Rory, afraid that she is losing interest in him, and finally becomes resigned to her affection for Jess; at first, Michel is ecstatic when his flamboyant mother Giselle visits, but after Lorelai causes problems for him when she reveals to Giselle that Michel has been holding back from his mother, Michel quickly is driven crazy by his mother's incessant questioning.

Rory and Paris compete for the honor of speaking at Chilton's Bicentennial; Sookie and Jackson get some very good life (and diaper) changing news; Paris and Rory reconcile; Lorelai runs into Max and it's apparent that they're not quite over each other yet; Paris has a meltdown on national television when she fails to get into Harvard; Rory's college acceptance letters finally arrive; Paris isn't sure what to think about the latest development in her relationship with Jamie.

Jess heads out to Venice California only to learn that his father's community is just as quirky as Stars Hollow; the rift widens between Lorelai and Emily; Luke tells Lorelai that Jess took off for good; Lorelai waits for the right moment to break the news to Rory, who is stressing over finals and graduation.

Rory finally learns her mother can't afford to buy the Dragonfly Inn since financial aid for Yale didn't come through. She decides to take matters into her own hands with a quick visit to her grandparents' right before graduation. Luke has second thoughts about a trip with Nicole after something Lorelai tells him. Jess makes silent contact with Rory after she gives her speech at Chilton.