Jess slots into the role of white knight, and comes to Rory’s rescue by switching off the sprinklers for her, getting soaked himself in the process. Again, how fortunate Stars Hollow is having this mini-summer in late October!
This gives Jess and Rory a chance to talk for a minute, and Jess asks her about school and her plans for Harvard – unlike Dean, Jess seems genuinely interested in Rory’s education. However, Rory’s pager goes off, and it’s Dean on his way to help, having just received Rory’s pager message.
Without hesitation, Jess turns the sprinklers back on for Rory, and they share a romantic “moment” together in the water spray before he walks away, Rory gazing after him. Jess knows that Rory is afraid of upsetting Dean, and that Dean will react very badly to Jess having “just happened” to be on her street, and available to help. Rather than cause trouble between them or make things harder for Rory, he chooses to take himself out of the picture – a sign of his growing maturity, and that he cares for Rory.
It is the best moment of a fairly lacklustre episode, although it doesn’t make that much sense that the sprinklers had to be turned back on again. Couldn’t Rory have just told Dean she managed to get the sprinklers off herself? Also, Jess said the spigot had become loose, and needed a harder turn to switch the water off. Now that Jess has tightened the spigot, won’t Dean switch the water off easily, and wonder how on earth Rory had any trouble with it? Or will he just put it down to “girl’s can’t turn off sprinklers, that’s a man’s job?”?
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 