Rory is confessing to Jess that she first read The Fountainhead when she was ten, but she didn't understand it until she was fifteen. I read it at seventeen, but I liked Atlas Shrugged much more. It was probably because I read it at nineteen. Jess says that he can't get through the book because "Ayn Rand is a political nut." Rory says that nobody could write a forty-page monologue better than she could. Is this supposed to make Jess endearing? He reads the same books as any other boy Rory's flirted with, including CuteDean, and they all hate Rory's taste in books. All of them. Rory should date her grandfather. Jess says he'll try again tomorrow if Rory gives Hemingway another chance. She agrees. ["Of course fucking Jess loves fucking Hemingway." -- Wing Chun] Jess says, "You know, Ernest Hemingway only has lov-er-ly things to say about you." I make a mental Old Man and the Sea joke here. Rory asks why Jess is only nice to her. Jess says that screwing with CuteDean is an important step in being able to sit there and be nice to her. Rory realizes that he had planned on outbidding CuteDean. Duh, Rory. Jess tries to change the subject and offers to buy her a pizza. It goes on for a while until Rory decides to get pizza with him. She walks away. Jess sees that Rory's bracelet from CuteDean has fallen off on the bridge. He picks it up and pockets it to the strummy impending breakup music.

Rory comes home late and gives Lorelai a copy of The Children's Hour that she picked up at the bookstore. Lorelai asks when she said she wanted to read that. They were watching Julia and she made the Hellman's Mayonnaise joke. Lorelai asks who Rory was with during her pizza and book buying. Rory gets awkward to say that she was with Jess. Lorelai is surprised. Rory leaves to go to her room.