rory makes a birthday breakfast for logan in 715. Rory gets a call about a job from nyt in 716. Mitchum asks rory to help logan get on "track" in 715. Logan and Rory have dinner with the huntzes in 715.

Thanks 2ggObsessed for the Podcast TS.

FYI at about 39:30 there was a small bit about Lauren's new movie BISS.

Thanks for letting me know. I didn't go that far. I stopped right after GG. Did you want the BISS info transcribed as well?

However, on my part, I am not going to deny that LUKE STOLE FOCUS AWAY FROM RORY this season. He has his own storyline that revolved around his world. While Rory was stuck being in a reflective character to her own mother's storyline for most of the first-half. Chris is only a part of the problems with the time-managment skills. His involvement only led to Luke and Lorelai being seperated from each other's story. Which, again, screwed up the complete and total time management of this show.

Again, Luke does not suck for taking story time away from Rory. It just happened. It happened in such a way that I really do not mind because I love Luke and April scenes. I also love Type-0 scenes and the rest of the characters on the show getting some screentime. Screentime that was few and far between while the LLC MARATHON was taking up all of this time that could have been spent on a TITLE CHARACTER and more on the TOWN.

Why am I rooting for Rory and the TA ?

I don't really see them jumping each other or anything but I think the TA will bring the old Rory back. Since she met Logan everything is about him. She cries and whines about him not loving her, breaking up with her and sleeping with the braids maids, him being in London and being back but only to be around with his co-workers. Her whole storyline is wrapped around Logan while the show started out with her going after her goal to become a journalist. I really believe the TA will bring her back to that. I mean he shows up in ep14 and the next thing we know she is on the phone with the New York Times. I could be wrong there and it is Logan's doing or even Mitchum's to bribe her into helping him with Logan but the TA will probably set her back on track, show her the way into the future, give her some advice and perspective.
I mean the same thing happened in season 6 when Jess showed up. He gave her a piece of his mind and boom she took her life back into her hands. Logan could never achieve that. He only dragged her down. At Chilton Paris pushed her. In season 6 Jess pushed her and now the TA will push her.

To me, it just seems ridiculous to ascribe so much meaning and weight to the role of the TA at this point. He may very well serve as a catalyst of some sort in Rory's life, but to view him as Rory's "salvation" (that's how I'm taking it) rests on all your negative views of Rory and Logan and their relationship.

I disagree very strongly with many points in your post. First, the notion that there is a "new" Rory that is different from, and needs to go "back on track" to the "old" Rory. To me, Rory is the same studious, driven woman who wants to be a journalist and do well in school. What we've seen of her in Yale and at the YDN in S6 and S7 attests to this. If she had been shown as faltering in the first half of S6, I chalk that up to a crisis of confidence instigated by Mitchum; moreover, her decision to leave Yale was hers, not Logan's. If she is shown as faltering in S7, I chalk that up to the normative period of indecision that plagues many a college senior. Rory could not be the exact same girl she was when she was 16. Developmentally, that is just impossible. But still, to me, her essential nature has remain unchanged.

Second is the view that her relationship with Logan has been all whining and crying and dependency and heartache. What I've seen--and I believe most people would agree--is that their relationship had grown and matured significantly in the last 2 seasons. They are able to communicate, fight, and make-up, respect and love each other very well. Many of Rory's issues and reactions in her relationship are typical or normal (e.g., jealousy, missing him)--I like that she is able to show her vulnerability and her openness to Logan. And there's strength and maturity in that, in her ability to show that she needs him and loves him. If ever she is different in this relationship than with Dean and Jess, well that is precisely because this is a different--more serious/adult--relationship.

Third is the notion that Logan has done nothing but "drag her down" and that he could "never achieve that" (i.e., what Jess did in LMHYBRO). PLEASE, let's give Rory a little more credit here. Her decisions have always been hers, and Jess was merely a catalyst. Logan had never encouraged her to do something against her will. In fact, he's been nothing but supportive and encouraging when it comes to her schoolwork, her editorship at the YDN, her writing abilities.

Again, we'll have to agree to disagree.

Logan had never encouraged her to do something against her will. In fact, he's been nothing but supportive and encouraging when it comes to her schoolwork, her editorship at the YDN, her writing abilities.

I agree. This is what I was trying to say too, earlier in this thread and at the previous. I liked Luke's SL with April, I appreciated the development of LC's relationship, and I'm just as interested in seeing how Lorelai will come to terms with her relationship with both men.

We still don't know why Rory lacked a more substantial storyline. People have different theories and only DSR actually knows.

I've never bought the "no time to fit it in" theory about any storyline. This week's ep, for me, moved faster than most and contained more - and it had more of Rory. Rory/Paris and Rory/Richard are both potentially strong storylines, they're not just hair-dying digressions (which I quite liked, but it became a digression in retrospect because it never went anywhere).

It was only a couple of lines, you can if you like