Deck The Hallmark

We're back with some more Gilmore Girls! Join us in this journey on social media - @gilmorethemerrierpod.

ABOUT: GILMORE GIRLS (SEASON 2 EPISODE 8)

Longtime friends Lorelai and Sookie have their first fight when Lorelai decides that their shared dream of opening an inn is doomed to failure.

AIR DATE & NETWORK FOR: GILMORE GIRLS (SEASON 2 EPISODE 8)

November 20, 2001 | The WB

CAST & CREW OF: GILMORE GIRLS (SEASON 2 EPISODE 8)

Lauren Graham as Lorelai Gilmore

Alexis Bledel as Rory Gilmore

BRAN’S GILMORE GIRLS (SEASON 2 EPISODE 8) SYNOPSIS

It’s Friday night dinner, and Rory agrees to pose for a painting. Apparently it’s a family tradition, despite the fact that Lorelai’s portrait was never finished.

The next day, Lorelai is chatting with Luke about business. Apparently he’s a big business boy. She and Sookie want to make the leap and open their own inn. They’re still early in the process, trying to figure out how to buy that property she found with Luke’s ex, Rachel.

Taylor is shocked when he walks up to Luke’s and sees police tape and a chalk outline on the ground. WTF is that about?!

Lorelai and Sookie find out that the owner of the property is the sweet old lady who runs the bakery, Fran. They go talk to her, but she says she can’t sell it. It’s the last thing she has left, and she just can’t let it go.

Taylor calls the police, and they come down and are like, “We have no idea what this is.” Taylor says, “I’ve got a dead body outside my store!” The cop replies, “No, everyone is accounted for. It must just be a prank.”

That’s when Rory, who has just walked up to the growing crowd, sees Jess looking on with a smirk. That darn prankster.

The owner of the Independence Inn is in town! Mia lovessss Lorelai and Rory, and they spend the day together. After hanging out with Mia, Lorelai begins to feel bad about potentially leaving both Mia and the inn.

Taylor figures out that Jess was behind the prank, so they throw an emergency town meeting to discuss what to do about him. They conveniently forget to tell Luke, but he walks in anyway and gives the whole town a piece of his mind.

After the meeting, Lorelai finally tells Mia about her plans, and Mia handles it great. So great, in fact, that Mia reveals she wants to sell the inn.

This causes one of Lorelai’s classic overthinking freakouts. She tells Sookie they should just press pause on the inn idea. It’s never going to work out. Then she really lays into Sookie: you’re too disorganized, you’re not ready, this is a mess. Sookie storms off.

Rory bumps into Jess and tells him that he’s making Luke’s life harder. The whole town is coming down on Luke because of him, and it’s not fair. Jess is like, “Yeah, but did you think it was funny?” They start getting a little flirty when Dean suddenly appears. Jess is like, “Oh... boyfriend? You didn’t mention that.” Awkwarddddd.

Lorelai and Rory show up for Friday night dinner, and Emily proudly unveils the new painting. But Lorelai is still in a bad mood. She tells her mom what’s going on—how Mia came back into town and completely threw her off. And, surprisingly, that throws Emily off too.

Lorelai starts to feel really bad about her freakout. She realizes she was just overwhelmed by everything they were trying to do. After talking it over with Luke, she goes to apologize to Sookie.

Emily shows up at the inn to meet Mia. She tells her she wishes she had encouraged Lorelai to come home. But also... “Do you happen to have any pictures?”

The episode ends at Luke’s. Rory watches as Luke realizes that Jess secretly fixed the toaster. The two of them share a smile. Uh oh.

Watch the show on Youtube - www.deckthehallmark.com/youtube
Interested in advertising on the show? Email bran@deckthehallmark.com

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We're thrilled to be joined by Lyndsy Fonseca to chat about everything from How I Met Your Mother to her newest Hallmark movie, The Love Heist!

Watch the show on Youtube - www.deckthehallmark.com/youtube
Interested in advertising on the show? Email bran@deckthehallmark.com

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It's Festive Friday with a heartwarming dive bar tale!

ABOUT DRINK AND BE MERRY

In a New York dive bar before Christmas 2019, Chet, an immature bartender, struggles to care for his lonely regulars while trying to find his own holiday spirit.

AIR DATE & NETWORK FOR DRINK AND BE MERRY

June 2, 2025 | Festivals

CAST & CREW OF DRINK AND BE MERRY

Director: Adam Volerich

Writer: Leo Winters

Cast:

Jefferson White as Chet

BRAN'S MOVIE SYNOPSIS

Chet is busy working at his bar talking with a couple regulars who are complaining about kids these days. Chet is flipping the channels on the TV when an episode of a TV show that was filmed there comes on, talking about how cool it was. The regulars aren't impressed. A couple of women come walking in and are like oh it's a slow night. We'll take a mojito. He's like I don't do that. So they land on vodka sodas. Chet is pumped because he wants to turn this bar around. He wants to get some younger people in. But the regulars aren't making it easy. The ladies are named Maeve & Miranda and while Miranda is in the restroom, Chet shoots his shot, talks about Hallmark Christmas movies, and gets Maeve's number. They leave and Chet ends up having quite the night with some of the regulars. After shutting down for the night, Maeve ends up coming back. She tells him that she gave him a fake number but wants to keep talking. They go back to his place and the next morning, she starts looking around his room and is concerned. It reminds her of her high school boyfriend's room. She's like I don't care, but most women would leave when they see your room. He goes to sleep and has a weird dream, wakes up and she's gone. Turns out, she was engaged. Whoopsies. To make matters worse, the other guy tracks him down and they chat for a while. He ends up being pretty chill about it and just gets drunk.

Chet goes home to spend Christmas with his mom. She gives him a book about acting and encourages him to go for it.

He goes back to the bar to talk to the regulars and decides he's not going to live his life afraid anymore. The movie ends with him pouring another beer and walking away.

Watch the show on Youtube - www.deckthehallmark.com/youtube
Interested in advertising on the show? Email bran@deckthehallmark.com

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Patrick is back with another Lifetime movie! 

Read his review of the movie at Lifetime Uncorked. 

Watch the show on Youtube - www.deckthehallmark.com/youtube
Interested in advertising on the show? Email bran@deckthehallmark.com

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Ryan joins us this week to head back to the pond for another episode of The Way Home.

ABOUT: THE WAY HOME (SEASON 4 EPISODE 9)

New Year's Eve in 1925 brings into focus the Landry and Augustine families' destiny, and Elliot and Kat witness it; in another time, Alice does the same.

AIR DATE & NETWORK FOR: THE WAY HOME (SEASON 4 EPISODE 9)

June 14, 2026 | Hallmark Channel

CAST & CREW OF: THE WAY HOME (SEASON 4 EPISODE 9)

Chyler Leigh as Kat Landry

Evan Williams as Elliot Augustine

Sadie Laflamme as Alice Dhawan

Andie MacDowell as Del Landry

BRAN’S THE WAY HOME (SEASON 4 EPISODE 9) SYNOPSIS

So Elliot and Kat jump but they don't end up in the '20s. They end up in the '80s and see the day that Colton and Del come home with baby Kat. Old Fern is like ohhhh my Kitty Kat.

Meanwhile at home, Jacob finds the scary notes hidden in a drawer. So I guess those are coming back. Elliot and Kat come back and say hey we're jumping again, gotta stop Tessa from dying. Del is like or you could not jump?

Guess what. They jump. They go and find Fern doing her screen test and we see the clip that they saw of Kat coming on screen and telling Fern something. Well that something is we gotta go, Tessa is going to die. That's when Grayson calls cut and says yes we know that. It's all fake. And that's when Grayson, Fern, and Tessa tell Kat and Elliot the plan - we're getting out of the hooch business by having Tessa fake her own death. Fern says 1926 is a year of new beginnings - a fresh start for all of us.

We then see that Alice also jumped, hoping to help Elliot and Kat. Of course she pops out in the '80s and Griff is there and takes a picture of her. And he says I knew it, the pond is magic. Tessa then shows up and is like what's going on here. Griff takes a picture of the two of them together.

Back in the '20s, Tessa and Elliot go to look at their house. She says she's going to buy it and bring it back to the family.

Abby is planning on telling her dad about her and Jacob. Jacob is freaking out so he goes to talk to his ol' pal Danny. He tells Danny he wants to run Landry farms with him - equal partners. But then he sees that Danny has a typewriter and figures out that Danny is the one who was sending the notes and runs out.

Back in the '20s, Cliff proposes to Fern even though he was planning on waiting until New Year's. She says yes.

Back in the '80s, Tessa is babysitting Evelyn's kid but Tessa is really tired because baby. So she ends up falling asleep. When she wakes up, she can't find Evelyn's kid. So she runs out, leaving her baby behind and the baby starts crying. When she gets back, Alice is there to help the baby. Evelyn shows up and is pissed at Tessa. You lost my son and left your baby? What kind of mom is this!

Danny shows up and tells Del and Jacob that he did send the notes because he was mad after overhearing Kat and Alice one day talking about how Jacob was still alive. When he showed back up, they never cleared Danny's name for being responsible for the disappearance so he was mad. They make up though.

In the '20s at the party, Elliot realizes that while the fake explosion isn't supposed to happen tonight, his mom is actually doing one last real job to make enough money to get out. So he goes to stop her but Cliff shows up and arrests the big tuna, Elliot. But he tells Elliot that he knows he's Tessa's son and needs to stop her so they all go. Grayson gives Kat a gun and tells her to be careful.

At Abby's wine event, Jacob shows up even though he's scared of the shaft and he asks her dad if he can marry her and he's like you've been trying to blackmail me and Abby is like you what and he's like oh yea sorry.

Back in the '80s, Alice watches on as the friend group hangs out and Griff gets in a shouting match with Vic and it all comes out what happened with Tessa that day, and Colton tells Griff to scram. He's not welcome here!

The episode ends with the countdown of 10 to New Year's, and Cliff showing up to arrest everyone, everyone draws their gun, Cliff shoots at Tessa but Elliot jumps in front. Kat pulls him out just before the gas reaches the gunpowder, causing a large explosion that even those at the party can feel.

Watch the show on Youtube - www.deckthehallmark.com/youtube
Interested in advertising on the show? Email bran@deckthehallmark.com

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.