Dean phones Rory, arranging to see her Friday evening when they both get home from their respective vacations. Rory’s plane gets in at 3 pm, while Dean won’t be getting in until 6 pm. Lorelai has lied to Emily, saying Rory won’t be home until Saturday, in order to allow Rory and Dean some couple time.
How blissful that the reunion will be is in some doubt already, because while Dean says goodbye by saying “I love you”, Rory just says she has to go, and hangs up on him. Are we back to the start, where Rory can’t tell Dean that she loves him? Or is this the end, where Rory realises that she no longer loves Dean?
EMILY: Thursday the third. And what was happening Thursday the third, Lorelai? … Your father and I were coming home from Martha’s Vineyard.
In real life, the 3rd of September 2002 was a Sunday, not a Thursday. Apparently Sookie’s wedding being on the right day based on the calendar was a glitch by the props department, and we’re back to an imaginary timeline again.
KIRK: One day it occurred to me, cows never wrinkle … So I decided to do a little research. I studied cows, I studied humans, and finally I discovered the secret – the secret of the cows. Hay, it’s hay – cows eat hay. And after some experimentation and a great deal of research, I developed what I believe to be the next great skin care product to sweep the nation.
LORELAI: [reads the label] Hay There.
KIRK: A complete line of creams, balms, toning lotions, and cleansing liquids.
This is the first (?) of Kirk’s attempts to start a business, in this case, selling his own line of beauty products (in huge bottles!). It fails almost immediately when the products he creates turn out to be dangerous.
RORY: Hm, not quite sure. Last time I saw her, she was beating the will to live out of our nation’s representatives.
JAMIE: She is a hammer, isn’t she?
RORY: Actually, she’s the entire toolbox.
In this episode we meet Jamie, who becomes Paris’ boyfriend. Paris thinks of herself as unappealing to the opposite sex, and her crush on former classmate Tristan was not reciprocated. But it is Jamie who pursues Paris, and on paper at least, he looks like her dream man. Attractive, intelligent, ambitious, and sharing her passion for aggressive debating techniques, Jamie isn’t scared off by Paris’ strength and outspokenness – in fact, that’s what draws him to her.
Paris is so unused to anyone being interested to her that she gets asked on her first date by Jamie (a victory dinner after their debate together) and accepts before realising what’s happened when Rory explains it to her. Paris predictably has a meltdown before the date, just like the one she had before her date with Tristan, and becomes so insecure that she makes Rory hide in the closet just in case a glimpse of Rory will make Jamie change his mind. Rory points out that Jamie has already seen her, and isn’t interested, but Paris is in no mood for logic.
Even though Paris only asks Rory to step into the closet for a moment while Jamie is there to pick Paris up, Rory gets in with a flashlight and a book, as if she’s planning to spend the whole evening there!
Jamie is at Princeton, meaning that the Young Leaders program is for college students as well as high school students (something which probably wouldn’t happen in real life). He is presumably two or three years older than Paris, because if he was one year older, he wouldn’t have started at Princeton yet.
Jamie is played by Brandon Barash, in his first television role. He has gone on to have roles in The West Wing, 24, NCIS, Bones, General Hospital, and Days of Our Lives.
JAMIE: So, in your opinion, how was our nation’s capital?
RORY: Well, I got to see Archie Bunker’s chair at the Smithsonian Museum, so it was a big thumbs up for me.
Archie Bunker, played by Carroll O’Connor, from the popular sitcom All in the Family, previously discussed.
The Smithsonian Institution, a group of museums and education and research centres, the largest such complex in the world. It was founded in 1846 by the US government, named after its founding donor, British scientist James Smithson. Known as “the nation’s attic”, it has 19 museums, 21 libraries, nine research centers, and a zoo, mostly located in the Washington DC area. It receives 30 million visitors each year, and entry is free.
Archie Bunker’s chair really is on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington DC, donated by the makers of the television show in 1978. It was originally bought by the show from a Goodwill thrift store in southern California for $8.
SENATOR BOXER: Uh, Paris, do you know Republican Congressman Doug Ose from California? You don’t? Great. You two will have so much to talk about.
Douglas “Doug” Ose (born 1955), businessman and politician who served as the US representative for California’s 3rd congressional district from 1999 to 2005. He is a member of the Republican Party. One of the wealthiest members of Congress, he was an enthusiastic supporter of tax cuts. Like Barbara Boxer, he is from California where Gilmore Girls was filmed, and likewise portrays himself in this episode.
PARIS: Or hey, hook up Freddie Prinze Jr. with Colin Powell next time he meets with NATO.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is an international military alliance and collective security system between 30 member state – 28 European and two North American. It was established in 1949 in the aftermath of World War II, and during the Cold War, NATO operated as a check on the perceived threat posed by the Soviet Union. Its main headquarters are in Brussels, Belgium, while its military headquarters are near Mons, Belgium.
PARIS: Or hey, hook up Freddie Prinze Jr. with Colin Powell …
Frederick “Freddie” Prinze Jr (born 1976), actor, television and film producer, and screenwriter. He has starred in films such as I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), She’s All That (1999), and Scooby-Doo (2002). He had a role in sitcomFriends in 2002, and later had his own sitcom called Freddie (2005-06). He is the son of comedian and actor Freddie Prinze, and is married to actress Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Colin Powell (1937-2021) [pictured], politician, statesman, diplomat, and army officer who served as the 65th US Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African-American Secretary of State. A popular figure, Powell was sometimes considered as a potential candidate for the presidency. In later life, he turned against the Republican Party, and supported Hillary Clinton‘s and President Biden’s presidential campaigns, disavowing himself from the party completely after the attacks on the Capitol in 2021.
PARIS: I mean, why not just send Carson Daly over to the Middle East next time Cheney goes, huh?
Carson Daly (born 1973), radio and television personality. He was a VJ on MTV’s Total Request Live, and a DJ for the southern Californian radio station 106.7 KROQ-FM. In 2002, he joined NBC as the host and producer of late night talk show Last Call With Carson Daly.
Richard “Dick” Cheney (born 1941) [pictured], politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the US from 2001 to 2009 under president George W. Bush. Cheney, often cited as the most powerful vice president in American history, ended his tenure as an unpopular figure in American politics, partly due to an incident where he accidentally shot an acquaintance while hunting. In 2007, the Taliban claimed an assassination attempt on Cheney while he was visiting Afghanistan. Dick Cheney, a Yale alumnus, is currently the oldest living former US vice president.
PARIS: I mean, come on, Senator Boxer, as one of our foremost Democratic leaders, I ask you – do you really think it looks good to have the American Secretary of the Treasury traveling around with Bono? I mean, I know apparently he’s a saint, he’s going to save the world, yada, yada, yada, but my God! He never even takes the sunglasses off.
Paris refers to Paul H. O’Neill (1935-2020) economist and government official who served as the 72nd US secretary of the treasury from January 2001 to December 2002. He was known for his outspoken manner, which would eventually see him sacked in December 2002 for his public disagreements with the Bush administration.
In May 2002, O’Neill visited Africa with Irish rock star Bono (born Paul Hewson in 1960), to draw attention to its poverty. Bono is the frontman for band U2, frequently mentioned as one of Lorelai and Rory’s favourite bands. Since 1984, Bono had been involved in efforts to raise funding in aid of Africa, and in 1999 became a lobbyist in Washington DC on behalf of non-profit campaigns to raise awareness of Africa’s plight. He is known as one of the world’s best-known philanthropic performers.
Bono is known for always wearing dark glasses. In 2005, he revealed that his eyes were extremely sensitive to light, and in 2014 that the sensitivity was caused by glaucoma.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 