Out in the safety of the hallway, Rory beams and tells Lorelai she's getting her inn. She tells Lorelai to go put in the bid. She says that Richard and Emily are paying for Yale. Lorelai isn't happy about this at all, but Rory is determined. Rory says that they didn't approach her, but she approached them: "It's a done deal." Lorelai tells Rory that the Gilmores do nothing altruistically, and that strings are always attached. Rory says there are no strings this time, except she's got to go to Friday-night dinners forever. Lorelai: "Um, hello. Pinocchio, those are strings!" Rory says this was her idea and she only obligated herself, not Lorelai. Sure. It's because of Lorelai that Emily and Richard are paying for Yale. She should be thankful, or at least grateful, and again, she should have to come to at least some of the dinners. Rory says she doesn't want Lorelai to defer her dream. Lorelai says that Rory shouldn't have done this behind her back. Rory says that Yale is her thing, and that she got the money she needed. Lorelai calls the Gilmores "master manipulators." Rory says this was her idea, and that she was the one doing the manipulating. Lorelai says her parents will certainly make Lorelai attend the Friday-night dinners too, so that she can be with Rory. If she wants to see her daughter on the weekends, she'll have to go: "They're getting exactly what they want!" How is Rory ever going to have a boyfriend, a life, or any semblance of self if she has to come home every weekend and have exactly the same life she had in high school? Rory says that everybody's getting what they want, and that it's a "win-win-win" situation. Lorelai says that even if it is, she wishes that just once she got what she wanted, Rory got what she wanted, and the Gilmores got nothing at all. There's the Lorelai we know, right? Evil, spiteful and hateful. Ah, the Daniel Palladino Lorelai: a woman none of us would want to know. Rory says she's got to go start the ceremony, but that Lorelai should go buy the inn.

Outside Chilton, Lorelai finds Emily and Richard sitting by themselves. She asks why they haven't joined Sookie. Emily wasn't sure if the seating issue was resolved. There is much discussion here about whether Lorelai changed her mind about sitting together. Lorelai doesn't bring up the loan, and neither do the Gilmores, but clearly everyone knows that nobody's happy with what just happened. Eventually, Lorelai just walks away, and the Gilmores follow her. A woman in the back is dressed in the most hideous white turtleneck.