Footnotes to the TV series
Mrs. Shales (Meagen Fay) tells Lorelai that her daughters, twins Jackie and Jessica (Kelly and Ashley Cohen), were spoiled by their father. As a result, she can barely stand the sight of them, and is sick and tired of their quarrelling.
This provides an example to Lorelai of what could go wrong with her relationship with Rory: she could become spoiled by her wealthy grandparents to the point that it affects her relationship with Lorelai. It helps feed Lorelai’s fears during the episode.
MRS. SHALES (to Jackie and Jessica): Now go away. My Advil is wearing off.
Advil is a brand name for Ibuprofen, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication used to treat pain, fever, and inflammation. In the US it is available over the counter.
LORELAI: I’d rather get my face surgically altered to look like that lunatic rich lady with the lion head than go to the club with you.
Lorelai is referring to Swiss-American billionaire socialite Jocelyn Wildenstein (born 1940). She is infamous for the extensive cosmetic surgery she has had on her face, giving her a very unnatural appearance.
The surgery first began in the 1970s, but Jocelyn’s appearance became cause for comment in the late 1990s, after the Wildensteins had a very public divorce, which involved a gun. Reporters were apparently banned from attending court proceedings in the belief that Jocelyn’s appearance would frighten them.
According to her ex-husband Alec Wildestein, the surgery was intended to give her a cat-like appearance, and was done to please him, as he loved big cats. Jocelyn has a pet lynx, but also claims that the surgery was done to enhance naturally cat-like features that run in her family. She is reportedly very happy with her appearance and feels beautiful. Jocelyn is rumored to have spent over $4 million on surgery.
(Jocelyn Wildenstein’s appearance has become far more extreme and unnatural since this photo was taken in 1999, but this is the lion-head lady that Lorelai was thinking of).
EMILY: If Rory goes and has a good time without you, then I win.
LORELAI: OK, Bob Barker.
Bob Barker (born 1923) is a former game show host, best known for hosting The Price is Right from 1972 to 2007.
When Rory says she has to learn a sport for school, with golf as one of the options available, Emily suggests that Richard teach her golf that weekend. Lorelai begs her mother privately not to manipulate Richard and Rory to go golfing together, as she believes Richard doesn’t want to teach her, and Rory doesn’t want to go.
At this point neither Richard nor Rory have displayed any enthusiasm for Emily’s plan, but neither have shown any real distaste for it either, so Lorelai’s views aren’t backed up by anything concrete. No wonder Emily calls her out on it, saying that Lorelai is frightened that Rory might enjoy herself with her grandfather.
Once again, we get the picture that Lorelai often doesn’t seek out Rory’s opinions because she believes she already knows how she will feel – she will feel just as Lorelai does. Emily’s pointed suggestion that Lorelai might actually try letting Rory decide for herself is a real slap in the face for Lorelai. She has always depicted her mother as controlling, but in this case it is she who is having trouble relinquishing control over her daughter.
Lorelai stops the conversation, unable to face the fact that she might be more like her mother than she realises.
RICHARD: Physical fitness is as important as intellectual fitness. So says Plato and so say I.
Plato (c428-c348 BC) was a philosopher of Classical Greece, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institute of higher education in the Western world. He is widely considered a key figure in the history of philopshy and science, one of those who laid the foundations of Western thought and culture.
Richard may be thinking of Plato’s philosophical and political dialogue The Republic, written around 380 BC, and his best known work. It depicts the philospopher Socrates speaking with a group of students about the perfect city-state, and how it might be achieved.
In Book 4, Socrates tells his students that education requires both the training of the body, and the training of the mind through what we would call the liberal arts. The type of exercise that Socrates has in mind is dancing, hunting, athletics, and horse racing.
Richard tells us that Lorelai the First was famous for her masquerade balls. These are formal dances where everyone attends wearing a costume and a mask to hide their identity. Originally they were entertainments for the aristocracy, and were traditionally held in the Carnival season before Lent.
Perhaps it is from Lorelai the First that Lorelai and Rory inherit their love of dressing up in costumes.
We learn that Richard’s mother is named Lorelai, so in fact it is a family name which has been passed down to Rory by her mother, and not the Demerol-inspired feminist statement which we were told about in the last two episodes.
Richard speaks about his mother as if she is dead, but she turns up alive and well later in the season.
Here begins the running gag that Emily Gilmore cannot retain staff for any extended period of time. We learn that the elder Gilmores have been through at least five cooks in the past few months, that Richard cannot tell the difference between a male and female cook (getting Anton and Sophia muddled), and Emily doesn’t know their names, addressing Sarah as Mira even after being corrected.
RICHARD: Dinner was lovely, Emily.
EMILY: Mira does make a perfect cassoulet.
Cassoulet is a rich slow-cooked casserole originating from the Languedoc in the South of France made with white beans, duck or goose, pork sauages, and sometimes other meats such as pork or mutton. It is named after the cassole it is cooked in – a deep round cooking pot.
In America, cassoulet is often used to mean any hearty bean-based meat casserole. It is unclear which type the Gilmores are eating, but I’d like to think the cosmopolitan Richard and Emily would insist upon an authentic cassoulet on their table.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 