Outside, Rory says that Luke knew she was lying and only gave her one. Lorelai accuses Rory of doing the "blinking thing" which gives away that she's lying. Rory tells Lorelai to go in the diner and make up. Lorelai asks for half of Rory's coffee and Danish. Rory gives the Danish but keeps the coffee. Lorelai says there's no point in that. The Danish is lonely and sad. Rory leaves for the bus. Some kid walks by and Lorelai gets all weird. "Hey, kid! Come here!"

Inside the diner, Luke sees the kid pry his sleeve out of Lorelai's grip and haul ass down the street. She looks inside the diner and pouts. Luke shakes his head and then answers his ringing phone. It's Taylor. He's upset about something. Luke asks how he knows it was Jess. He says he'll talk to Jess, but if he says he didn't do it, then he's off the hook.

Chilton. Rory pauses before walking into Mustang Max's office. They get awkward, and she asks if she's too early and if she should come back tomorrow. They agree that it's weird and they don't know how to act. They sit. Rory says that Barbara Walters sits, but walks if the person she's interviewing has a horse or farm or big back yard, but she usually sits. Rory sits and takes out a tape player. She says she should just dive right in. She asks his full name. "Max Arturo Medina." Not "Maxwell"? He says his father's butcher was named Arturo and when his mother was pregnant with him, she wanted lamb chops all the time, so Arturo would give his mother the biggest lamb chops but only charge her for the regular ones, which made him a saint in the Medina home. Rory reminds Max that he's been voted the favorite teacher at Chilton. He says that he's glad the students like him as much as he likes them. Rory goes all James Lipton on Max and asks what he'd like to be if he weren't a teacher. He says his father wanted him to be a doctor and his mother wanted him to be the President and he wanted to be a clown. He says that when he was a kid, he went to the circus and saw a juggling clown and saw how everyone loved him and he wanted to be a clown until junior high because when you tell people you want to be a clown they get very nervous. Tell me about it. I stopped talking to this guy I know once he started taking classes to be a clown. He got married to a girl he met at the circus and they had a clown wedding. I didn't go because I knew I'd have nightmares. Rory tells a story about how Lorelai took her to the circus once and a clown accidentally knocked over her cotton candy. They didn't have a lot of money so they couldn't get another cotton candy, so Rory started crying and Lorelai chased the clown onstage, ripped off his wig, and said he couldn't have it back until he bought Rory another cotton candy. The clown bought one twice as big as the original and Rory puked the whole way home. Max smiles and says that sounds like Rory's mother. Rory asks whether he regrets not becoming a clown. Max says he doesn't really believe in regrets. He says everything that happens, even the stuff that doesn't happen the way he wanted it to turn out, is worth it. Rory turns off her tape recorder and says she wanted him to be her stepfather. He sighs and says he really wanted to be her stepfather. They smile and sigh and Rory turns the tape back on. She asks what kinds of challenges face high school students today. Max starts talking as we fade out of the scene. Y'all, I liked Max in that scene. It must be the Lorelai/Max thing that I don't like.