This is the song which Rory listens to while she reads in the dining hall at lunchtime.
Know Your Onion! is a 2002 single by American indie rock band The Shins, a release from their critically-acclaimed 2001 debut album, Oh, Inverted World.
The lyrics are from the perspective of a suitably angry and frustrated loner who’s been shut out of a society they can see through with devastating clarity – a comment on the theme of this episode. It suggests Rory isn’t as content with her lonely position at Chilton as she might appear.
These lines seem especially pertinent:
The songs that I heard
The occasional book
Were the only fun I ever took
And I got on with making myself
Rory spends her lunchtime reading and listening to music because it’s her only authentic choice for doing something she enjoys.
