Rory Invites Richard and Emily to Lorelai’s Graduation

RORY: As you know, Mom’s been going to business school at the community college out here for three years now … Actually, she’s graduating Thursday, and there’s going to be a ceremony and I think it would mean a lot to her if you guys were there.

Concerned that Lorelai is making a mistake by not inviting her parents to her graduation ceremony, Rory takes it upon herself to give them tickets herself on an after school visit for afternoon tea. She makes a very mature, calm and rational submission to them, and you can tell that her days on the debating team haven’t been wasted.

At the end, she addresses her grandparents as “Richard” and “Emily” when tea is served, to indicate both how objective she was trying to be, and that she was speaking to them as a friend and equal, not as a beloved granddaughter pleading with them for a favour.

She wishes them to attend Lorelai’s graduation ceremony because they want to, not because they feel manipulated into it, and I think Rory’s sincere attempt to make things right is the main reason Richard and Emily go to the graduation ceremony with such a good attitude.

Lorelai and Luke Meet at the Market

LORELAI: Hey Luke, do you think we could –

LUKE: I gotta get back.

After awkwardly running into each other at Doose’s Market, Lorelai attempts a reconciliation, but Luke evades her overture by saying he has to get back to work. He is not ready to forgive her yet, and it’s another sign to Lorelai that Jess being gone has not really solved any of her problems.

I’m not sure what Luke came into the market for, but he’s just left without buying anything, so whatever it was, he didn’t get it!

Note that Frosted Flakes breakfast cereal is shown in the background, which was so prominent in the scene where Lorelai discovers Jess will be moving to Stars Hollow.

Skeet Shooting

While all three walk through the town square, Dean explains his new hobby of skeet shooting to Rory and Lorelai. He has taken it up at the urging of his father, who is a big fan of the sport.

Skeet shooting, elsewhere known as clay pigeon shooting or clay target shooting, is using a shotgun to try to break clay targets mechanically flung into the air at high speed from a variety of angles.

The show keeps giving Dean more and more interests that couldn’t be less compatible with Rory. Monster trucks, robot battles, shooting … we get it now. He and Rory don’t belong together! The fact that Rory can’t wait to make fun of her own boyfriend for daring to have hobbies she doesn’t share seems like another red flag Dean should have paid attention to.

Jessica Hahn

LORELAI: Instead, I got pregnant. I didn’t finish high school, I didn’t marry your father and I ended up in a career that apparently Jessica Hahn would think was beneath her.

Jessica Hahn (born 1959), model and actress. She accused televangelist Jim Bakker of rape while employed as a church secretary. After the 1987 scandal, Hahn posed nude for Playboy, appeared in several television shows, including Married … with Children, and was a frequent guest on The Howard Stern Show on radio in the 1980s through to the 2000s.

Shih Tzu

LORELAI: Rory, I was supposed to graduate from high school. Go to Vassar. Marry a Yale man and get myself a proper nickname like Babe or Bunny or Shih Tzu.

A shih tzu is a breed of toy dog originating from Tibet. They have a short snout, large round eyes, long coat, floppy ears, and a playful, friendly disposition. Their name translates to “lion” in Mandarin, and the breed is considered sacred in Buddhist mythology.

Vassar

LORELAI: Rory, I was supposed to graduate from high school. Go to Vassar. Marry a Yale man.

Vassar, previously discussed.

We now discover that Richard and Emily wanted Lorelai to attend Vassar, a private liberal arts college. The beautiful campus, flexible curriculum, small class sizes, and strong encouragement to study abroad sound like things Lorelai would have actually enjoyed.

Vassar and Yale have a historic relationship, making marriage to someone from Yale seem an obvious choice (for people of Richard and Emily’s generation, when Vassar was a women’s college only, and when women had fewer career options).

“My stupid conservative high school”

RORY: You’ve never been a part of an actual graduation ceremony.

LORELAI: I know. That’s because my stupid conservative high school wouldn’t let me be in the ceremony and nurse you at the same time.

We discover here that Lorelai did not graduate from her private high school. Although she jokes they wouldn’t let her graduate while nursing a baby, most likely she was actually asked to leave once her pregnancy became obvious. Her former classmate Mitzi said she hadn’t seen Lorelai since “her seventh month”, suggesting that she didn’t return to school after the summer vacation of 1984.

“Community colleges have ceremonies”

RORY: Well, community colleges have ceremonies.

LORELAI: My community college doesn’t even have a lawn, they won’t necessarily have a ceremony.

Rory is correct: community colleges have graduation ceremonies, like any other college. You don’t need a lawn – they can be held in an auditorium, theatre, gym or even a separate hired venue.

The fact that Lorelai’s college isn’t having one, only her business class as a separate event, is obviously just to fit in with the restrictions of filming the episode.

John Nash

RORY: That diploma hanging on the wall is going to make this all worthwhile, trust me.

LORELAI: I guess, unless I turn into John Nash and start drooling on people.

John Nash (1928-2015), mathematician who made fundamental contributions to game theory, differential geometry, and the study of partial differential equations. His theories are widely used in economics. Nash is the only person to win both the Abel Prize and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics Sciences.

In 1958, Nash began showing clear signs of mental illness and spent several years in psychiatric hospitals being treated for schizophrenia. His condition slowly improved in the 1970s, allowing him a return to academic work by the mid 1980s.

John Nash’s struggles with mental illness and his recovery were highlighted in the 2001 biographical film, A Beautiful Mind, directed by Ron Howard and based on the 1997 best-selling Pulitzer-winning biography of the same name by Sylvia Naser, with Russell Crowe starring as Nash. A Beautiful Mind was a commercial and critical success, winning four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.

Shea Stadium When the Beatles Played

LORELAI: Ugh, Rory, my brain is full. It has reached capacity. It’s Shea Stadium when the Beatles played. It’s cramped and girls are screaming and I think George is fighting with Ringo.

Shea Stadium, officially the William A. Shea Municipal Stadium, was a a sports stadium in Flushing Meadows, Queens, New York, which opened in 1964. It was the home of the New York Mets baseball team and the New York Jets football team, and was demolished in 2009.

The Beatles opened their 1965 North American tour there to a record crowd of 56 000, one of the peaks of Beatlemania. It was the first concert held at a major stadium, and after that, Shea Stadium hosted many other big name music artists. The last concert there was Billy Joel in 2009, which closed with Paul McCartney performing “Let It Be”. Improbably, the same groundskeeper drove Paul McCartney to the first and last concerts at the stadium.