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.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 
One thought on “Know Your Onion!”