Category: S2Ep6: Presenting Lorelai Gilmore

Homecoming Court

CHRISTOPHER: I saw the look. Same one you had that time you ended up on homecoming court.

LORELAI: Ugh, someone’s idea of a sick, sick joke.

Homecoming is an annual tradition in US towns, high schools, and colleges, to welcome back former members of the community. It’s usually held in late September or early October, and revolves around a central event, such as a banquet or dance, following a major sporting event, often American football.

The homecoming court is a group of students chosen to represent the school, consisting of a homecoming king and queen who are senior students, and sometimes a court of royalty, escorts, princes and princesses, or dukes and duchesses, from lower grades. Lorelai didn’t do her senior year at school, so she must have been one of the younger students in the homecoming court – an experience she obviously didn’t enjoy, although it shows she was a popular student.

Fat Farm

LADY 2: Janet just got out of Rainbow Hills two days ago.
LORELAI: Rehab?
LADY 1: Fat farm.

Even though a “fat farm” sounds like a place you go to in order to gain weight, it’s actually an old fashioned word for a residential weight loss program. It seems like a word they would use on a sit-com from the 1970s – Oscar and Felix from The Odd Couple went to a fat farm in one episode. Why is everything so dated in the world of Gilmore Girls?

The Hartford debutantes seem to be going to extremes for their debut, enrolling in weight loss programs, like Janet, and getting nose jobs, like Libby. Lucky Rory already looks perfect, so she doesn’t need to do anything except show up.

Trident

LIBBY: You know, they say four out of five debs marry their escorts.
RORY: Kind of like the dentists with Trident.

Trident is a brand of sugar-free chewing gum. For many years it was advertised with the slogan, “Four out of five dentists surveyed recommend sugarless gum for their patients who chew gum.” This is believed to have been based on a survey of practising dentists in the early 1960s, the results of which were approximately 80% in favour of sugarless gum.

In real life, it’s not true that 80% of debutantes marry their escorts. That’s preposterous, especially as most debutantes are matched up with some random guy. I’m not sure whether it’s meant to show Libby is a gullible fool, or whether the show actually expects us to believe this nonsense.

Midori Sour

Libby offers Rory a Midori sour, which she politely refuses. Rory is reading instead of boozing, no surprises there.

Midori is a bright green extremely sweet melon-flavoured liqueur made by the Japanese brewing company, Suntory, but manufactured in several countries. Made since 1964, since 1978 it has borne the name Midori, which is the Japanese word for “green”. A Midori sour is a cocktail which combines Midori, grenadine, and lemon juice.

Shakey’s

EMILY: Cotton tablecloths, folding chairs. It’s not supposed to be like this. In my day, people sat in real chairs … I wanted my granddaughter to be presented to society in a beautiful elegant ballroom, not a Shakey’s.

Shakey’s Pizza is a restaurant chain founded in 1954 which was extremely popular by the 1970s, but went into a decline during the 1990s. They are based in California, with restaurants on the west coast and overseas, and I find it hard to believe the genteel Emily has even heard of Shakey’s, let alone bandies its name about so casually.

Baby’s Breath and County General

EMILY: Look at these flowers. Baby’s breath. What is this, County General?

Baby’s breath (Gypsophila paniculata) is a popular ornamental flower native to Central and Eastern Europe with clouds of tiny white blooms in the summer. It’s often used in floristry to provide a backdrop for larger flowers.

“County General” is a common name for hospitals in the US eg Roebuck County General Hospital. In real life, there isn’t a hospital with this name in Connecticut.

Emily seems to think baby’s breath is only suitable as part of a flower arrangement you’d give to someone in hospital, lacking the elegance required in a formal setting. You can see how standards have dropped in Hartford society without Emily’s capable hand on the tiller.

Cirque de Soleil

LIBBY: The two minutes you are standing on those stairs tonight will determine the social status for the rest of your life.
RORY: Wow, what if you trip? I mean, not that you would. You wouldn’t. I might. Probably will, actually. Could be a real Cirque du Soleil kind of night.

Cirque de Soleil (“Circus of the Sun”) is a Montreal-based entertainment group, and the largest modern circus in the world. Founded in 1984 by former street-performers Guy Laliberté and Gilles Ste-Croix, it is known for its spectacular theme-based performances, and has won many awards.

Rory is presumably thinking of acrobats and tumblers when she talks about tripping on the stairs as a Cirque de Soleil moment. This is another of many circus references in the show.

“Move to California”

LORELAI: She’s been acting so weird lately. They’re fighting. Openly fighting. I don’t think they’ve ever done that before. I’m not sure what to do about it.
CHRISTOPHER: Move to California. That’s what I do when my parents fight.

This apparently explains why Christopher moved to California, to get away from his parents’ fighting. From what we saw of Francine, she was far too cowed to look as if she ever fought with her husband, but perhaps she’s been thoroughly brow-beaten into submission by now. Most likely, this is another of Christopher’s lies, used to justify his behaviour.

Lorelai has supposedly never seen her parents fight before – if so, they must have been very careful to keep serious conflict hidden from their daughter while she was growing up to give her a stable home environment. However, this is the same Lorelai who claimed she and Rory never had a fight until Rory was nearly sixteen. She’s possibly just forgetting all the previous fights her parents had.