Things are still chilly between Rory and Lorelai; Lane gives Rory advice about the right Christmas gift for Dean; Emily and Lorelai have a tiff about Christmas dinner, leaving Rory to go by herself; Dean and Lorelai patch things up; Luke makes a lonely Lorelai a Santa burger; Richard collapses and is rushed to the hospital; Luke gives a car-less Lorelai a ride to the hospital; relieved that Richard's collapse was only a bout of angina, the Gilmores settle their differences.

Luke's ex-girlfriend Rachel arrives in Stars Hollow unexpectedly, and immediately picks up on the attraction between Luke and Lorelai, which they deny. Rachel decides to stay for awhile, which leaves Luke and Lorelai with mixed feelings. Lorelai and Rory are amazed when Emily agrees to excuse Rory from Friday night dinner so that Rory and Dean can celebrate their three month anniversary. When Lorelai arrives for dinner, she discovers the source of Emily's largesse -- her mother has invited another guest -- a man with whom she secretly hopes to fix Lorelai up. After a painful dinner with one of the world's most boring men, Lorelai attempts to escape through the window of her old bedroom, but is caught in the act by Richard. When he is forced to admit that even he is bored by the man, he uncharacteristically covers for her and lets her make her getaway. Back in Stars Hollow, Dean treats Rory to a wonderfully romantic dinner, and then gives her a present -- a car that he's restoring for h

Rachel finds an abandoned inn that Lorelai and Sookie fall in love with; Lorelai and Rachel spend the afternoon getting to know each other and Rachel asks Lorelai to put in a good word for her with Luke; as Rory takes Emily on a tour of Stars Hollow, Emily hits it off with Mrs. Kim and Michel, but becomes distraught when she sees Lorelai and Rory's first home; at Sookie's urging, Lorelai gives Jackson's cousin Rune a job at the Inn.

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

Sookie's wedding draws near, and both bride and groom are getting frazzled, to say nothing of Michel, who Lorelai has placed in charge of the preparations at the Inn.

Lorelai finally relents and goes into the diner, where she apologizes profusely to Luke, who is polite, but cool and somewhat remote.

Christopher comes to town for the removal of Rory's cast and decides to stay for Sookie's wedding. After he confesses that his relationship with Sherrie is over, he and Lorelai rekindle their relationship, much to the delight of both Rory and Emily. Their reunion is cut short when Sherrie telephones Christopher to tell him she's pregnant, and Christopher returns to Boston, leaving Lorelai devastated.

Paris is running for student body president. She's commissioned Madeline and Louise to poll the student body and is shocked to find that even though she's overwhelmingly considered to be the most competent candidate, she'll probably lose the election because she's also the least liked candidate

Offers of dates ensue when Lorelai and Sookie attend a seminar on operating an inn and run into two handsome men -- an old friend of Sookie's and his business partner; Lorelai unsuccessfully resists being deposed when her mother is sued by a former maid for wrongful termination; after Rory and Francie butt heads at the student council meeting, Francie proposes a truce and then immediately lies to Paris that Rory is trying to undermine her; Paris is crushed that her best friend has betrayed her and lashes out at her during their fencing class, leaving Rory ostracized by the rest of the student body.

The Doose clan invades the Inn for their family reunion; Trix comes for a short visit and drives Emily crazy until Emily finally finds something scandalous to hold over Trix's head; Lane and Dave cook up a fake-date scheme with Young Chui to get Mrs. Kim to allow Lane to date Dave, but neither Young Chui's real girlfriend or Dave is immune to a little jealousy; the Stars Hollow High hockey team reaches the regional semifinals for the first time in 40 years and everyone not attending the monster truck rally turns out to cheer the team on and endure Kirk's hopelessly inept play-by-play; after Jess's too laid-back attitude about going out leaves Rory sitting home alone for most of the weekend, she takes Lorelai's advice and heads for the hockey game, where she discovers that Dean has a new girlfriend.

Rory accepts a classmate's invitation to go out on her first date since breaking up with Jess, while her roomates engage in a war of wills. Meanwhile, Lorelai invites Luke over to share the traditional Gilmore movie night she used to have with Rory, although she is somewhat disturbed after discovering that the designer she just hired to decorate the inn used to work for Emily.