Footnotes to the TV series
This song by Sam Phillips plays as Lorelai and Rory drive through Stars Hollow on their way to Chilton. It is from Phillips’ 1988 album The Indescribable Wow, which was her first album after switching from Christian pop to mainstream alternative rock, and changing her name from Leslie to Sam. The album was well-received by critics, but did not chart.
LORELAI: [sees Rory looking at her outfit] What?
RORY: Nothing. I just didn’t know the rodeo was in town.
A rodeo is a competitive sporting event based on cattle herding, testing skills in horse riding and handling livestock. The word rodeo (Spanish for “round up”) comes from Latin America, and was adopted by North American cowboys in the 19th century. Rodeos are particularly popular in the American west, as well as in Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand.
Being woken up at 7:10 am instead of 5:45 am sends Lorelai intoa panic. We learn that all her nice clothes are at the drycleaners, and she was planning to pick them up and get dressed in her blue suit with the flippy skirt before she took Rory to school. She fumbles through a drawer, then in the next scene she is hurrying downstairs dressed in cut off denim shorts, a pink tie-dyed tee-shirt, and cowboy boots – apparently the only clean clothes she has to wear.
The trouble is that she opens the closet and we see clothes hanging up in there. Maybe they’re not great clothes, but most of them would be better than going to Rory’s school dressed in denim cut-offs and boots. For that matter, why does she need to wear boots? You don’t send shoes to a dry-cleaner, so she should still have normal shoes to wear. And what time did she plan on going to the dry-cleaner anyway – Rory’s school day starts at around 8 am and it’s a half hour drive, so does the dry-cleaner in Stars Hollow open around 6.30 am?
It’s hard not to reach the conclusion that Lorelai had a very specific outfit in mind – the blue suit with the flippy skirt – and since she isn’t able to wear it due to her own poor time-management skills, is determined to wear something completely unsuitable in a fit of pique.
Lorelai and Rory are on the porch when Lane runs up shouting that she has XTC’s new CD, Apple Venus Volume 2. This refers to Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2) by English band XTC, the follow-up or companion to their critically-acclaimed 1999 album Apple Venus Volume 1 – originally conceptualised as a double album. Apple Venus Volume 2 went to #40 in the UK, but did not reach the Top 100 in the US.
Apple Venus Volume 2 was released in May 2000, so it was not really a new CD in September/October 2000. It seems to have been Lane’s first opportunity to buy it, however.
As the scene ends, we hear them playing I’m the Man Who Murdered Love, which is the sixth track on the album, and the only single XTC released from it. They seem to have gone straight to the only song they know from the album.
This love song plays at the end of the pilot while Lorelai and Rory drink coffee together. With music by Lee Pockriss and lyrics by Bob Hilliard, it was first recorded by Anita Bryant in 1960.
The version used on Gilmore Girls was recorded by indie rock band Yo La Tengo for their 1997 album, I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One. The song inspired the title of the 2002 compilation album Our Little Corner of the World: Music from Gilmore Girls.
LORELAI (referring to Dean): Is he dreamy?
RORY: Oh, that’s so Nick at Nite.
Nick at Nite is the programming block that broadcasts every night on the Nickelodeon channel, appealing to a crossover audience of teens and adults. It is notable for showing reruns of old television programs, several of which are later revealed to be ones that Lorelai and Rory (the target demographic) watch regularly. This may be why Rory connects the 1940s teen slang “dreamy” with Nick at Nite: she may have heard it on old TV shows.
Rory orders chili fries to go with her coffee at Luke’s Diner. Chili fries are French fries covered in chili con carne sauce – a spicy stew usually consisting of chili, beef, tomato, and beans. Chili fries may be served with toppings such as cheese or sour cream.
LUKE: You look nice, too.
LORELAI: I had a flagellation to go to.
A flagellation is a severe whipping given as corporal punishment, usually to the point of bleeding, and often performed in public to increase the humiliation and provide a spectacle. Such punishments were common in the past, and although long abolished in Western nations as a legal punishment, are still routinely handed out by the justice system in other countries around the world.
The word has a specifically religious meaning in Christianity, with The Flagellation of Christ (pictured above) being the scourging administered to Jesus Christ prior to his crucifixion by the Romans – a standard pre-crucifixion punishment at the time.
RORY: How many meals is it gonna take ’til we’re off the hook?
LORELAI: I think the deli spread at my funeral will be the last one.
A deli spread is a buffet of cold cuts and other delicatessen foodstuffs. Presumably this is standard fare at American funerals (more correctly, the refreshments that are served after a funeral service). Lorelai is predicting gloomily that she will be obligated to her parents for the rest of her life.
LORELAI (on learning that Rory overheard her secret): Well, the best laid plans.
A paraphrase from Robert Burns’ Scottish poem, To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest With the Plough, November, 1785. The original lines are The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men/Gang aft agley, commonly translated into English as The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.
The idiom means that the most carefully detailed plan can go wrong when put into practice.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 