Category: S3Ep1: Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days

Christopher Shows Up

While Lorelai and Rory are having Friday Night Dinner with Emily, Christopher decides to show up – no doubt encouraged by Emily, who has had a cosy little chat with him over the phone, and tried to make Lorelai get back with him.

Christopher doesn’t actually have any ideas on how to change the situation – he just wants Lorelai (and to a lesser extent, Rory) back in his life. He makes it clear that he wants Lorelai, not Sherry, but isn’t willing to break up with Sherry. In fact, he tells Lorelai he plans to marry her. I feel as if Sherry deserves to know all this before she commits to marriage and motherhood with Christopher!

I’m not completely sure what Christopher hopes to gain by seeing Lorelai – presumably to make friends again, with the hopes of one day persuading Lorelai to become his mistress, bed buddy, or booty call.

A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays

Rory is holding this book when Lorelai comes home and they discuss Rory’s relationship with Dean.

A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays is by Mary McCarthy, who Rory seems to be a fan of. It is a selection of her essays spanning her career from the late 1930s to the late 1970s, and includes her theatre reviews and political writings, so it is another of Rory’s books on journalism. It was edited by A.O. Scott, and published in 2002. Mary McCarthy, like Dorothy Parker – another of Rory’s favourites – was known for her bitingly witty and malicious reviews. Later, Rory will emulate these literary heroines with her own cruel review.

The Pomeranian: An Owner’s Guide to a Happy Healthy Pet

This 1996 book by Happeth A. Jones is on the coffee table when Lorelai and Rory are talking. It is part of a series, and as its title suggests, is all about raising a happy, healthy Pomeranian dog.

The question is, why is Lorelai apparently reading it? Is she preparing to do some dog sitting for someone with a Pomeranian, or is she thinking of buying one, as she has been shown to be keen on getting a dog?

Rory Decides to Stay With Dean

RORY: All I did was think about what you said, that’s all. Then I analyzed the situation.

LORELAI: And then you made a pro and con list.

RORY: You’re mocking me, but yes, I did. And after all of this, I came to the conclusion that I want to make things good with Dean, and he deserves my undivided attention.

After spending the evening with her boyfriend, Rory does some hard thinking alone, and decides that she wants to stick with Dean, and give their relationship the best shot possible. The fact that she had to make a pro and con list doesn’t sound as if she’s exactly carried away with passion by this point.

The question is, would she have reached this decision without Lorelai’s input, knowing she would have earned her mother’s disapproval if she’d chosen to break up with Dean? More importantly, would she have reached this decision if Jess had still been available? My guess is, no, and hell no.

This leaves Rory’s relationship with Dean on a pretty precarious footing.

Lorelai and Luke Talk

After not speaking to each other for four months, Lorelai finally manages to get Luke to acknowledge her. Bouncing into the diner like nothing had happened didn’t work, and only made Luke colder. It was when she slipped in humbly, miserable, vulnerable, and needing Luke that he began to thaw. Although he does his best to comfort Lorelai, Luke still keeps his distance from her while they talk. Is their friendship back on track? Not quite, but it’s a beginning.

Wonder Woman

LORELAI: I just . . . I feel like I’m never gonna have it . . . the whole package, you know? That person, that couple life, and I swear, I hate admitting it because I fancy myself Wonder Woman, but . . . I really want it – the whole package.

Wonder Woman, previously discussed as one of Lorelai’s personal feminist icons.

Here Lorelai admits that she would actually like to be in a stable, established relationship, suggesting one of the reasons she may have agreed to get engaged to Max, even knowing he wasn’t right for her.

Dan Quayle

LORELAI: I always thought if he could just get it together, grow up – maybe we could do it. Maybe we could really be a family, in the stupid, traditional ‘Dan Quayle, golden retriever, grow old together, wear matching jogging suits’ kind of way.

James Danforth “Dan” Quayle (born 1947), the 44th US vice-president from 1989 to 1993 under President George H.W. Bush. He sought the Republican nomination for president in 2000, but was unsuccessful.

Dan Quayle was outspoken on “family values”, and was notorious for citing sitcom Murphy Brown, which had an intelligent, professional single mother as the protagonist, as an example of how popular culture was eroding those values, in 1993. Amy Sherman-Palladino, creator of her own show about a single mother, seems to be having a little dig at Quayle here.