“You’re officially a part of this town now”

RORY: You facilitated it, you made it happen, so I guess that means that you’re officially a part of our town now.

JESS: Hey, wait a minute.

Having pestered, nagged, and occasionally dragged Jess into helping Luke by working at the diner, just as she gave him a scolding and inspired him to fix Luke’s toaster, Rory now tells him that he is a part of the town. As well as helping Luke, it feels as if Rory was also trying to rehabilitate Jess, or improve his reputation. Jess seems slightly alarmed by this, and rejects the idea that he’s part of Stars Hollow – he’s always seen himself as “on the road”, a freewheeling drifter who’s just on his way through.

Luke worries that he and his uncle Louie were parallel to each other, but in fact it is Jess who is most like his great-uncle, Louie Danes. Both are unpopular in town, and considered to be rude, antisocial pains in the backside, given the cold shoulder by the good folk of Stars Hollow. Maybe like Louie, the town would soon turn forgiving should Jess actually die – a plot line Milo Ventimiglia urged upon the writers of Gilmore Girls, to no avail.

Of course, by roping Jess into helping out, Rory has ensured that she and Jess have spent most of the week (was it a week?) together, and working together respectably in public as well, so that everyone can see they are friends. Notice has exaggeratedly Rory addresses Jess as “friend” and “buddy” while she teases him, letting everyone know that she and Jess are just good friends.

What Dean thought about this volunteer work, we don’t know – he isn’t seen or mentioned in this episode. Since the Bid-on-a-Basket Festival, Dean only shows up in order to play the jealous boyfriend, never to just spend time with Rory or to help her out.

“Why did you put me through all that?”

TAYLOR: Why did you put me through all that hoohah at the town meeting if your vegetable business was just temporary?

TROUBADOUR #2: Actually, you put yourself through it, Taylor. You put yourself through it.

The vegetable stall sub-plot comes breezily to a close with Second Troubadour telling Taylor that he was only doing it on a very temporary basis, selling off all the excess produce from his garden in a few days to make a bit of extra money. How he managed to grow such a large amount of vegetables and fruit all at once is something of a headscratcher, although its superior quality is plausible, since home grown produce is nearly always better than that sold in supermarkets.

It seems that apart from making money, his motivation was to get revenge on Taylor for not allowing him to become a Town Troubadour in Stars Hollow. By setting up a rival fruit and vegetable business across the street from Doose’s Market, he took business away from Taylor and made him panic. And as he says, Taylor “put himself through it”, he knew enough of Taylor to understand how to push his buttons. Why he originally wanted to be a Troubadour in Stars Hollow remains a mystery.

The sub-plot of the bountiful spring harvest is to underscore the death of Louie Danes, who is “harvested” by the Reaper, and buried in the soil, part of the natural cycles of time and the earth.

Israel

TROUBADOUR #2: Sold it all, made enough money to do some traveling. Have you ever been to Israel? Turbulent, I know, but I thought I’d go down and try to plant some peace down there, know what I mean? See if it grows and see if it spreads.

Israel, earlier alluded to as a place of discord. This is the second person to travel between Israel and Connecticut in the show, the other being Rachel. The Second Troubadour must have made a lot of money from his vegetables if it was enough for him to visit Israel.

“One if by Land”

TROUBADOUR #2: Hey Taylor, cool threads. Very “One if by Land.”

A phrase from the poem Paul Revere’s Ride, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, previously mentioned. It was a reference to the secret signal orchestrated by Revere during his historic ride from Boston to Concord on the verge of American Revolutionary War.

The signal was meant to alert patriots about the route the British troops chose to advance to Concord, with one lantern on a church steeple to signify they were coming the longer way, over land, while two lanterns meant they were coming the shorter way, by sea.

Despite its importance in the cultural landscape, the lantern signals were only a back-up plan if the messenger was not able to get through, but Paul Revere did manage to leave Boston safely to make his historic ride. The popular myth was that the lanterns, now redundant, were intended for Revere, waiting for the signal across the river.

Louie’s Wake

LUKE: What’s going on?

RORY: It’s kind of like a wake.

When Luke and Lorelei get back from the funeral, they find a wake for Louie in full swing at the diner. No matter how they felt about Louie while he was alive, we see how Stars Hollow comes together to honour the death of one of their own. He may have retired to Florida (and the town threw a party in celebration), but now the town reclaims him as a citizen.

In life Louie was a disgusting rude old man, in death he becomes a “colourful character” that his former victims can now view with humour and affection. More than anything, you can’t help think that people in Stars Hollow just can’t permit an opportunity for a party to slide by. These are the people who threw a wake for a cat, after all!

Notice how many fresh vegetables and salads there are at the wake – the temporary market stall in the park has been a major contributor to the celebration of Louie’s life.

The Stars Hollow Re-Enactors Come to Louie’s Funeral

LORELAI: It’s what your dad wanted.

LUKE: Yeah. Oh, I know Louie would’ve hated this.

LORELAI: That’s just a fringe benefit.

Despite their dislike of Louie Danes, the re-enactors do end up coming to his funeral. It’s not only a tribute to their former fellow member, William Danes, but what Louie is due as a returned war veteran. No matter his many flaws as a human being, he did serve his country, and has earned at least this modicum of respect.

“You are not your uncle”

LUKE: What Taylor said about me being like Louie, a loner, never being married and stuff. I mean, I am getting crankier as I get older, he’s not so far off.

LORELAI: You are not your uncle. I mean, would Louie ever build someone a chuppah, or help fix things around someone’s house without being asked, or make a special coffee cake with balloons for a girl’s sixteenth birthday?

The point of the episode is for Luke to begin questioning whether he is on the same path as Louie – a bit of a cranky loner, unmarried and childless, with only a lonely death ahead of him that will come as a welcome relief to those around him.

Lorelai, who has always been one of the first to criticise him for his loner tendencies, reassures Luke that he is not Louie. Unlike Louie, Luke has a kind heart, and has done many things to help Lorelai and Rory, as well as taking in Jess without asking for anything in return. I think it’s fair to say that Louie would never have bothered so much over an uncle’s funeral as Luke dutifully does for him, either.

Lorelai and Luke have this conversation in front of a wreath of spring flowers, Lorelai wearing a jacket with a pattern of deep red roses, symbolising love, and a pink tee-shirt under it. There’s something slightly romantic or even wedding-like about the look of the scene. It’s certainly not funereal.

Louie’s Funeral

Luke brought Louie home to be buried in Stars Hollow, next to his brother William, and this scene is set in Stars Hollow cemetery (it may be behind the church, and only seems to be a short walk from the centre of town, which is unusual for a cemetery, although not unheard of).

The minister conducting the ceremony is identified as Reverend Hackett in the credits (played by Brian McDonald). I’m not sure whether he and Reverend Nichols are both ministers in Stars Hollow, but of different religions, or if Rev. Hackett is a junior minister of some kind. Nor can I tell you if Rev. Hackett is the church minister who plays handball, although he looks young and fit enough for that to be believable. It’s all quite confusing.

The Romanovs

EMILY: I’ll see you for dinner tonight, Lorelai. And Luke, I’m sure I’ll see you again soon. What do you think of the Romanovs?

LUKE: They probably had it coming.

EMILY: A match made in heaven.

The House of Romanov, the reigning imperial family of Russia from 1613 to 1917. They became prominent after the first Tsar of Russia, Ivan the Terrible, married Anastasia Romanova, the first Tsarina. It is from Anastasia’s name that the family became known as the Romanovs.

The abdication of Tsar Nicholas II during the Russian Revolution on 15 March 1917 ended 304 years of Romanov rule and paved the way for the formation of the Russian Republic. In July 1918, Bolshevik officials executed Nicholas and his family.

Although Lorelai refers to their murder as “the firing squad”, they were shot and bayoneted, then the bodies taken to the forest to be stripped, buried, then mutilated with grenades to prevent identification. This is what Luke thinks they “probably had coming”.

The Romanov burial site was discovered in 1979 by an amateur sleuth, but not officially confirmed by Russia until 1989. The remains were identified by forensic and DNA analysis, assisted by British experts, and in 1998 the remains were re-interred in a state funeral in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St Petersburg. In 2000, Nicholas II was canonised as a saint by the Russian Orthodox Church.

After the assassination of Nicholas and his family, the remaining 47 members of the Romanov family went into exile abroad, still claiming the former Russian throne. Since 1991, the line of succession has been in dispute.

[Picture shows Nicholas II of Russia with his wife Alexandra (Alix of Hesse), his son Alexei, and four daughters Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia].

EDIT: A date edited with the kind assistance of reader Omar.

Emily’s Wedding Plans for Lorelai

Imperial Russian Winter theme

Snow white roses

Trees with white lights and candles

Snow everywhere

Lorelai arrives in a silver sleigh pulled by white horses

This actually doesn’t seem like a totally crazy idea for Lorelai’s wedding. Lorelai loves the snow, and she adores horses. She organised a horse-drawn sleigh ride for the Bracebridge Dinner, sharing a ride with Luke. It does sound very beautiful and romantic, and I think Emily has picked up on a least a couple of things her daughter would like.

Emily’s Russian-themed winter wedding may have been influenced by the 1965 historical romance film, Dr Zhivago, directed by David Lean, set in Russia during World War I and the Russian Civil War, and based on Boris Pasternak’s autobiographical novel of the same name. The film is beautifully shot and features a sleigh ride through the snow, as well as an “ice palace”.

Dr Zhivago was highly popular, especially with female audiences, the #2 film of the year, and a big influence on mid-1960s fashion. It may have even been Emily’s dream for her own wedding, which she hoped to one day create for her daughter.

In this episode, Emily becomes the first person to predict that Lorelai and Luke will be married one day, showing that she knows her daughter better than Lorelai believes.