Ep 6. Welcome to the Doll House

Lorelai and Rory find themselves in a heap of trouble in Gilmore Girls season 6 episode 6, "Welcome to the Doll House." The episode starts with a call from Emily, who invites Rory and Lorelai to dinner with her and Richard. Rory happily accepts the invitation but Lorelai is hesitant, as she is avoiding any unnecessary contact with her parents after a recent falling out.

Meanwhile, Zach and Lane plan to sneak out for a night together without Mrs. Kim finding out. However, when Zach fails to convince Mrs. Kim to let Lane out, he decides to bring the fun to her by setting up a rock-and-roll rehearsal space in her house.

As Rory and Lorelai prepare for dinner, they can't help but feel uneasy about the whole arrangement. Due to the recent tension between Lorelai and her parents, the dinner is far from enjoyable. While Richard and Emily are trying their best to ignore the elephant in the room, Lorelai can hardly stand to be in the same room as her mother.

Just when it looks like they might be able to make it through dinner without incident, Rory makes a comment about Emily's "grandma-ish" dolls, which sets her mother off. Lorelai quips back, leading to an argument between the two. Emily, Richard, and Rory are all left stunned and uncomfortable.

As if things couldn't get any worse, the situation escalates when Emily sends the dollhouse to the Gilmore residence as a gift. Rory and Lorelai are horrified, realizing they have to keep the dollhouse in the living room to appease Emily. As guests start to arrive for a dinner party, the tension rises, with Lorelai feeling increasingly trapped and suffocated.

The arrival of Christopher only adds to the tension, as Lorelai and Christopher's relationship becomes increasingly strained due to his girlfriend Sherry's pregnancy. Rory is caught in the middle, trying to navigate her parents' relationship while simultaneously dealing with boyfriend Logan and her seemingly stalled career.

The dollhouse continues to be a source of discomfort throughout the episode, with Rory and Lorelai lobbing passive-aggressive comments back and forth. Things finally come to a head when Zack accidentally destroys the dollhouse with his guitar.

Overall, "Welcome to the Doll House" is a tense, uncomfortable episode of Gilmore Girls that highlights the precarious relationships between Lorelai and Emily, Lorelai and Christopher, and even Lane and Mrs. Kim. The dollhouse serves as a physical representation of all the tension and baggage between the Gilmore women, underscoring just how difficult it can be to navigate familial relationships.