Returning home to Stars Hollow after a whirlwind European trip at the outset of
Gilmore Girls' fourth season, single mom Lorelai Gilmore (
Lauren Graham) is informed that her business partner, Sookie St. James (
Melissa McCarthy), is pregnant, while Lorelai's daughter, Rory (
Alexis Bledel), prepares for her freshman year at Yale University. Arriving on campus, Rory meets her new roommates: 15-year-old prodigy Tanna (
Olivia Hack), sports jock Janet (Katie Walder), and -- surprise, surprise -- Rory's former prep-school nemesis Paris Geller (Liza Weil). Perhaps inevitably, Rory will become so involved in her roomies' trials and tribulations that she will begin neglecting her schoolwork. Back at home, Lorelai and Sookie encounter a number of formidable roadblocks, legal and otherwise, in their efforts to open their new bed-and-breakfast, the Dragonfly Inn; and Rory's friend Lane Kim (Keiko Agena) has severed all ties with her uncompromisingly traditionalist Korean mother by launching a career as a rock singer. In other season-four developments, Lorelai's close friendship with café owner Luke (
Scott Patterson) is threatened by events that had occurred during his summer vacation; Sookie and her husband, Jackson (Jackson Douglas), nervously prepare for a "home birth"; Rory and Paris vie for the attentions of their professor, Asher Fleming (
Michael York); Rory's troublesome grandma, Trix Gilmore (
Marion Ross), suddenly dies; and as for Rory's high-school beaux, Jess (
Milo Ventimiglia) tries to rekindle their romance, while Dean (
Jared Padalecki) gets married to Lindsay Lister (
Arielle Kebbel) on the rebound. The season ends with the grand opening of the Dragonfly Inn, yet another breakup between Rory and Jess, a disturbing turn of events concerning Rory and Dean, a hint of divorce in the offing for Lorelei's parents -- and a distinct deepening of the relationship between Lorelai and the newly divorced Luke. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide