Category: S2Ep6: Presenting Lorelai Gilmore

Lorelai Reaches Out to Emily

LORELAI: You know, I’m really lucky.
RORY: Yeah, why?
LORELAI: I have someone to complain to when life sucks or work sucks or just everything sucks. I have someone I can talk to.

Lorelai realises that she is lucky that she can confide in Rory, but that Emily does not have a daughter she can talk to when life goes wrong for her. She has a moment of insight of how lonely Emily must be without that daughterly support that she takes for granted, and for once doesn’t immediately blame Emily for not fostering their relationship, the way she has with Rory. She’s willing to acknowledge how much Emily has missed out on.

At the end of the episode, she goes to her parents’ house before her business class, and finds Emily gardening on the patio. She lets Emily know that if she ever needs someone to talk to, Lorelai will be there for her. Although Emily does not avail herself of this offer, Lorelai remains to keep her mother company. Ironically, she has ignored her own advice to never go out on the patio!

Note the bright yellow lilies in this shot, as a hint of what happiness would be possible, and a slight callback to Lorelai’s thousand yellow daisies. Do Emily and Lorelai share a love of yellow flowers?

Shecky

LORELAI: Oh Shecky, you kill me.

Shecky Greene (born Fred Sheldon Greenfield in 1926) is an American comedian, known for his headline performances in Las Vegas during the 1950s and ’60s. He also appeared in films and on TV, and made appearances at Carnegie Hall and on The Ed Sullivan Show.

Amy Sherman-Palladino became a fan of classic Jewish comedians as a young teenager from listening to her father’s old records. How Lorelai has also gained such knowledge of them is left to the viewer’s imagination.

Jess Wears a New Work Uniform

A bookends-style joke for the episode. At the beginning, Jess was in trouble for wearing his “inappropriate” Metallica tee-shirt to work at the diner. Now he comes out dressed as a Luke clone, in his own checked flannel shirt and backwards baseball cap, claiming he assumed that it was the uniform for the job.

While Luke berates him, Rory and Lorelai look on in amusement. Jess can feel gratified that once again he has managed to get Rory’s attention through his clothing choices.

It is also another “mirroring” scene, where Luke and Jess are presented as mirror images of each other, just as when Jess first stepped off the bus into Stars Hollow.

Glass Slipper

LUKE: So, back from the ball, huh?
LORELAI: Yes, I left behind a glass slipper and a business card in case the prince is really dumb.

Yet another Cinderella reference. In the fairy tale, Cinderella loses the glass slipper at the ball by which the prince, through a laborious and long-winded process, eventually manages to track her down. Lorelai suggests leaving a business card might have led to quicker results.

Is Lorelai’s response supposed to be a hint to Luke, or just a comment on the stupidity of Christopher? Either way, it feels as if Luke’s opening gambit is his way of testing to see if Christopher is going to be sticking around or not.

“Named after a Journey song”

LORELAI: Poor girl’s named after a Journey song, that’s gotta be rough.

Lorelai refers to the 1984 song, Oh Sherrie. It’s technically a Steve Perry song rather than one by his band, Journey, taken from his solo album, Street Talk. However, it’s often regarded as an “honorary” Journey song, being credited to the band on compilations of their hits, and played by the band on their 1986 Raised on Radio tour.

Oh Sherrie was Steve Perry’s biggest hit as a solo artist, going to #3 in the charts. It was written about his girlfriend at the time, Sherrie Swafford, who also appeared in the music video. Steve and Sherrie broke up around 1986, after several years of dating, but reportedly remain good friends.

Christopher’s girlfriend can’t really be named after the song – if that was the case, she would be Rory’s age or younger!

Christopher’s New Girlfriend

CHRISTOPHER: That is a tempting offer, but I really have to get back.
LORELAI: To work?
CHRISTOPHER: To work … and to someone.

Lorelai suggests that now Christopher is living as close as Boston, he might like to stay with them on weekends sometimes (and to stay for the rest of this weekend specifically). Rory would love it, and … Lorelai says she wouldn’t mind either. This new, responsible Volvo-driving Christopher is obviously far more appealing.

Unfortunately for happy families, Christopher says that he has a girlfriend called Sherrie now. In fact, as a real slap in the face, he didn’t move to Boston to be closer to Rory, but because it’s where Sherrie lives. Not only has he not bothered to tell them about Sherrie before, not only has he led Lorelai on by not revealing his relationship status, but he ignores the fact that having a girlfriend shouldn’t stop him from visiting his daughter. (If it would be too weird to stay over, couldn’t he get a room at a hotel or something?). Once again, Christopher is only thinking of Lorelai.

When Lorelai joins Rory at the diner, it transpires that Christopher did tell his daughter about Sherrie, presumably at the ball, since there’s been no opportunity for Rory to tell Lorelai about it before this.

“Buy yourself a sofa”

LORELAI: I just wanted to tell you how amazing you were tonight. Really, you completely came through for her.
CHRISTOPHER: She deserves it.
LORELAI: I haven’t always given you a lot of credit in the past, but I’m giving you credit now. Big credit. Major credit. Buy yourself a sofa.

Lorelai is referring to store promotions, common for big ticket items such as furniture, where credit is extended to approved customers so they can take their purchase home immediately.

I-84

LORELAI: You know, um, I happened to be looking through some old maps this afternoon and I couldn’t help but notice that Boston is not that far away.
CHRISTOPHER: Aw, you needed a map to tell you that?
LORELAI: I also noticed that that, um, I-84 is a very good road. Solid, paved.

The Interstate 84, or I-84, is a highway which travels from Dunmore in Pennsylvania to Sturbridge in Massachusetts. The Connecticut section of it passes through Danbury, Waterbury, and Hartford, making it the most obvious choice when driving from Hartford to Boston, and suggesting Stars Hollow is just off this highway.

(Slightly confusingly, there is another I-84 in Oregon. For this reason, the I-84 in Connecticut is often identified as the I-84 East).

“And then there were three”

DEAN: Tomorrow you start paying. Bye. [leaves]
LORELAI: Bye. And then there were three.

A reference to the American counting game, originally called “Ten Little N*iggers”, and later “Ten Little Indians”, and now “Ten Little Soldiers”. A standard of black and white minstrel shows, the original title was used for a 1939 mystery novel by Agatha Christie, now less controversially called And Then There Were None. In the novel, a series of ten murders are planned to fit with the structure of the original black and white minstrel rhyme; the pertinent line is, “Four little n*gger boys going out to sea, a red herring swallowed one, and then there were three”.

Lorelai may be thinking of the 1978 album … And Then There Were Three, by English rock band Genesis. The title was chosen because it was the first one they released as a trio, following the departure of their guitarist. It reached #3 in the UK and #14 in the US. Its most successful single was Follow You Follow Me, which coincidentally or not, is a title vaguely reminiscent of Where You Lead (I Will Follow), the theme song of Gilmore Girls.