Category: S1Ep17: The Break Up Part 2

Toaster Pizza and Beefaroni

LORELAI: I can’t wait to try the toaster pizza. It looks so gross which is usually the mark for a great junk food.
RORY: Beefaroni.

Toaster pizza is a frozen mini pizza that can be cooked in a toaster. It has a thick pastry crust, and only a little bit of sauce and cheese so it doesn’t melt inside the toaster, or is fully enclosed in pastry, like a savoury Pop-Tart. They were first made by Nabisco in 1969, but several brands make them now. (Incidentally, this shows that the Gilmore girls got their toaster fixed – it was broken when Christopher came to stay with them).

Beefaroni is a popular tinned food made by Chef Boyardee which is macaroni mixed with beef mince, tomato sauce, and (some) cheese. We later learn it is Rory’s favourite meal.

“So where’s that list?”

LORELAI: So where’s that list?
RORY: What?
LORELAI: The list, we’ve got a lot to do Missy, otherwise I’m gonna be dragging your butt outta bed at 6 again tomorrow morning. So, where do we start?

I’m not sure how they can start at all yet. Rory woke Lorelai up at 6 am, and they would have been at the diner by around 6.30 am (Lorelei got dressed, they talked, and they walked there by a slightly longer route than usual). It can’t be any later than 7 am by now, and the shops and recycling centre surely won’t be open for another hour at least.

When Rory asks Dean if he is okay after his fight with Luke, the clock shows that it is still only 6.25 am, so somehow the speedy Rory and Lorelai were able to get ready, walk to the diner, and eat breakfast all within less than half an hour.

I’m not sure when Luke had a chance to cook their breakfast while he was fighting Dean, but perhaps someone else did it, or the Gilmores just decided to leave without eating breakfast – yet another case of them storming out of a meal without eating anything. If so, it makes the visit to the diner seem pretty pointless: they could have not eaten at home.

Even if they skipped breakfast it barely seems possible they could do everything in 25 minutes, but if that’s what happened then they still have around two hours before the shops open.

“If you tell Miss Patty …”

RORY: If you tell Miss Patty, everybody in town is gonna know.
LORELAI: Honey, people have their own lives and their own problems. I hardly think you and Dean breaking up is the main thing on their minds.

What Rory is worried about Lorelai telling Miss Patty is unclear. It has already been established that Miss Patty knew about Rory and Dean breaking up without being told, from the “numerous sources” to which Lorelai vaguely attributes her knowledge. Lorelai’s reasonable response has already been proven dead wrong, so I don’t know why she is persisting with it. It looks as if this is a scripting error which made it through rewrites and editing, as it seems to belong to their much earlier conversation.

Luke’s Fight with Dean

When Dean tries to enter the diner (maybe he’s one of the mysterious 6 am crowd who get up early on Saturdays?), Luke forbids him, and they end up in a physical altercation in the street. It is obvious that Luke has never liked Dean – if you look back at all their earlier interactions, Luke always had an air of underlying hostility just waiting to bubble over. He is protective of Rory, and genuinely doesn’t believe Dean is good enough for her.

The fight between them proves that Lorelai was right when she warned Dean from the beginning that he would not be safe in Stars Hollow if he ever hurt Rory, as the whole town loves her.

Getting Over Max

RORY: I am fine.
LORELAI: But if you could see the look on your face.
RORY: It’s the same look you had on your face when you broke up with Max. Did wallowing help you get over him?
LORELAI: I’m not saying wallowing will help you get over Dean. It’s part of the process. It’s the mourning period. It’s a step, an important step. The only thing that will get you over somebody is time.
RORY: How much time did it take you to get over Max?

It was just yesterday afternoon from their perspective that Lorelai told Rory that she still missed Max, so Rory should already know that she isn’t over him. Maybe she is being disingenuous, although it’s strange that Lorelai doesn’t recall their conversation either.

Small World Ride

LUKE: Oh God, he’s [Dean’s] got a nerve. I mean, what does he think, he’s gonna do better than Rory? Is he crazy? Jeez. Alright, well forget it, okay. Good riddance, adios, bienvenidos, hasta la vista.
LORELAI: Could we get off the Small World ride and start cooking please?

It’s a Small World is a ride at the Fantasyland section of Disneyland, Walt Disney World, and other Walt Disney theme parks and resorts. The ride consists of travelling in small boats through a tunnel, watching animatronic dolls in national costumes of countries around the world, all singing the song, It’s a Small World After All, each in their native languages.

It’s a Small World After All was written by Robert and Richard Sherman, previously mentioned. It is said to be the most-performed and most-translated piece of music in the world, having been played more than 50 million times.

Luke says, “Goodbye, welcome, see you later”, in Spanish, for no very obvious reason. Apparently when he’s upset he babbles in Spanish.

“It’s probably all around town by now”

RORY: They know.
LORELAI: They don’t know.
RORY: It’s probably all around town by now.
LORELAI: Honey it just happened last night, it’s like six in the morning.

Rory sounds completely paranoid – she and Dean broke up the night before in a private place, and it’s now early the next morning. Lorelai is being quite reasonable to say it’s not possible for everyone to know yet.

Yet Rory is correct. Miss Patty already knows – but how? Literally, how is it even possible? Is Miss Patty psychic, or so intuitive that Rory’s sad face suggests just one possibility to her? Kirk also knows somehow, although we never see the beginning of his conversation with Rory, and it’s possible she told him herself, if Miss Patty hasn’t already. (If so, when did Miss Patty tell him?)

Stars Hollow is a very gossipy place where everyone knows your business, but the method by which they do so is really most mysterious.

Exedrin PM

LORELAI: Sleep in? Luke?
RACHEL: Oh believe me, it wasn’t easy to get him to agree to it, but in the end, a little sweet talk, a couple of Excedrin PM he finally caved.

Excedrin is a brand of painkillers suitable for headaches, sold over the counter; it contains a mixture of paracetamol, aspirin, and caffeine. It is one of the most popular OTC pain medications in the US. Excedrin PM is paracetamol combined with an antihistamine that makes you drowsy. It’s been produced since 1969.

The fact that the diner opens for business at 6 am, that Luke lives over the diner, and for Luke, sleeping in means he stays in bed until past 6 (only possible because Rachel is there), means that it would never have been possible for him to stay up all night painting with Lorelai as they planned in That Damned Donna Reed, nor would it have been possible for Lorelai to paint the diner alone in the early hours of the morning without waking him.

“The 6 am crowd”

LORELAI: Who are all these people?
RORY: It’s the 6 am crowd.
LORELAI: I officially recognise nobody in this place.

There’s a whole section of Stars Hollow society that only comes in at 6 am on Saturday, so people like Lorelai who get up later on weekends never see them. (They like standing up to talk to each other while other people are sitting down, too). Weirdly, these people never get up early on weekdays, as Lorelai does – she and Rory routinely have early breakfast at the diner on weekdays before Rory goes to school. Despite saying she doesn’t know anybody there, she soon encounters Miss Patty and Kirk.