Footnotes to the TV series
In an episode where everyone seems to end up having a bad time – Emily, Rory, Paris, Sookie, Jackson – Lorelai’s love life provides a bright spot when Alex, the friend of Sookie’s friend, asks her on a coffee date, and she accepts. Her relationship with Max also began with a coffee date, and look how that turned out. Come to think of it, Alex and Max both end with an X!
JACKSON: You cheated on me!
SOOKIE: No.
JACKSON: Oh my God.
SOOKIE: I just flirted accidentally!
Sookie makes Jackson’s favourite meal and puts his favourite album on, so of course he reaches the obvious conclusion – she’s been unfaithful to him. Sookie doesn’t help matters by acting as guilty as if she had been, and says that she “flirted accidentally”, even though Lorelai told her she didn’t. The episode ends miserably for the temporarily feuding couple.
This is the song that Sookie puts on for Jackson, because it’s one of his favourites, although she is not a fan.
“Bad Moon Rising” is a 1969 song written by John Fogerty, and performed by his band, Creedence Clearwater Revival, often known as CCR. Fogerty was inspired by scenes of a hurricane in the 1941 fantasy film, The Devil and Daniel Webster, and the apocalypse that Fogery claimed was going to be visited upon us.
It was the lead single from their Green River album, received glowing reviews, and went to #2 in the US and #1 in the UK, Ireland, New Zealand, and South Africa. It is considered one of the greatest rock songs of all time.
Lamb chops with Sicilian olives, rosemary, and garlic
Warm potato and chorizo salad (chorizo is a type of spicy Spanish pork sausage)
Cornbread (a quickbread made with cornmeal with origins in Native American cuisine)
Home made beef jerky (lean meat cut into strips and then dried)
Fried marshmallow pie (this only seems to exist as a Gilmore Girls-inspired recipe, suggesting Sookie invented it! It has been created as small hand-held pies with fried marshmallow filling inside flaky pastry, covered in glaze)
Note the specification of Sicilian olives, in line with the themes of the Mafia and betrayal in this episode, suggesting that Jackson feels really wounded.
[Rory sits alone in the cafeteria. A paper airplane that says “Leper” lands on her table. She tosses it aside and puts on her headphones.]
Once again, Rory is left to have lunch by herself, listening to music, because of her fight with Paris. Although she tells Lorelai that she doesn’t mind eating by herself, she goes to bed extremely early, because she says that having nobody to talk to all day is “tiring”. I think that Rory really means is that it is “depressing”, and she ends this episode feeling lonely and unhappy.
Notice that the Blood Drive is taking place in the cafeteria behind her – the one which Rory tried to have held elsewhere to get back at Francie. Just another little slap in the face for her, as she has truly given “’til it hurts”.
RORY: Well, I do wanna go to Italy.
LORELAI: Two birds with one stone, my friend.
To kill two birds with one stone is an idiom meaning to solve two problems with a single action. The phrase dates to the 1600s, and probably references using a slingshot to kill two birds at once.
LORELAI: Do you want me to talk to her? You know, arrange a sit-down? … Come on. We’ll have it in an Italian restaurant. You’ll get up, go to the bathroom – thanks – and come out shooting, and then I’ll send you to Italy.
RORY: Well, I do wanna go to Italy.
A reference to a famous scene in The Godfather, previously discussed. After Michael Corleone takes out a corrupt chief of police at the restaurant, his family send him to Sicily for his protection.
Later on, Rory does get to fulfil her dream of going to Italy, travelling there with Lorelai, and then again with Emily.
RORY: I can’t believe I was her best friend. I feel awful.
LORELAI: Look, I’ll tell you what. If you wanna make things right, just go back to school tomorrow and let her stab you.
It’s Friday Night Dinner, so why would Rory and Paris go to school the next day, Saturday?
Rory is surprised to discover that Paris considered her her best friend, which seems somewhat oblivious, considering that Paris already told Rory several times that she feels able to ask Rory for help in a way that she can’t with Louise and Madeline. Paris has made it fairly clear that she considers Rory her equal, and relies on her – Rory fulfils a role in her life that nobody else can.
I think Rory is meant to come across as sweet and humble here, but she actually seems too self-absorbed to understand how important she is to Paris.
RORY: I was trying to help you.
PARIS: You were? You mean, in between betraying me and selling me out, you were trying to help me? Gee, you are quite the Renaissance woman, aren’t you?
Embodying a basic tenet of Renaissance humanism that humans are limitless in their capacity for development, the concept led to the notion that people should embrace all knowledge and develop their capacities as fully as possible. This is expressed in the term Renaissance man, often applied to the gifted people of that age who sought to develop their abilities in all areas of accomplishment: intellectual, artistic, social, physical, and spiritual.
Rory is therefore a Renaissance woman.
The thing that Paris finds most unforgiveable is that Rory told Francie about Jamie, but in fact Francie had already noticed for herself that Paris had a boyfriend and brought it up with Rory (no matter how implausibly Paris is wandering around her school with her college-aged boyfriend! Anything to keep Rory innocent).
PARIS: Aha, you admit it.
RORY: Yes, but it wasn’t what you think.
PARIS: Brutus!
Marcus Junius Brutus (c 85BC-42BC), often referred to simply as Brutus, was a Roman politician, orator, and the most famous of the assassins of Julius Caesar. Brutus had been a close friend of Julius Caesar before opposing him, and eventually taking a leading role in his assassination, in 44 BC. Brutus eventually committed suicide rather than face trial for murder.
His name has been condemned for betrayal of his friend and benefactor Caesar. He also has been praised in various narratives, both ancient and modern, as a virtuous and committed republican who fought – however futilely – for freedom and against tyranny.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 