Category: S3Ep11: I Solemnly Swear

Rory Meets Francie in a Parking Garage

[Rory walks through an empty parking garage. She hears a noise, and turns to find Francie]
FRANCIE: Good, you’re here. We need to talk.

This scene is based on the Watergate investigation by Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward, who secretly met a contact known as “Deep Throat” in a parking garage between 1972 and 1973. Their information would help lead to the uncovering of the greatets scandal in US history, and the eventual resignation of President Richard Nixon.

In 2005, attorney Mark Felt would out himself as Deep Throat, after which Bob Woodward told everyone exactly where they had met – Space D3 in The Quotidian Underground Parking Garage beneath the Oakhill Office Building in Rosslyn, Virginia [pictured]. It has since become a tourist attraction.

Leavenworth

RORY: Paris, the cafeteria workers serve hundreds of students a day. A little gravy spillage is natural.
PARIS: I see. So I should just sit quietly and shovel in whatever slop they throw my way like some inmate in the chow line at Leavenworth doing twenty to life? I don’t think so.

The United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth (USP Leavenworth) is a federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas that was the biggest maximum security prison in the US from 1903 to 2005, after which it became a medium security prison.

Deer Hill Lodge in the Berkshires

JOE: It’s Joe . . . Joe Mastoni from the Deer Hill Lodge …
SOOKIE: Joe and I worked together one summer up in the Berkshires.


The Berkshires, previously discussed.

Deer Hill Lodge is probably inspired by historic Deer Hill House in West Cummington, Massachusetts, a small town in the foothills of the Berkshires. First built as a hotel in 1832, it has since been an inn, a dance, and a café. It is now an Airbnb property, made into four separate apartments for rent.

Joe Mastoni and Alex Lesman

Just as Lorelai and Sookie are leaving their night class and at the cookie table, they run into Joe, an old friend of Sookie’s, and his business partner Alex, who are there to learn about starting their own chain of coffee shops.

Joe is played by Joe Fria. He may be recalled by some viewers as the actor who played the waiter at the French restaurant on the double date Sookie and Lorelai had with Jackson and Rune. Joe Fria has more recently done voice work, including for the Goosebumps series, and for Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir.

Alex is played by Billy Burke. He had several small roles in film and television before this, and has become best known for playing Charlie Swan, the father of Bella Swan, in the Twilight film series.

“I’m crushing your head, I’m crushing your head”

LORELAI: I’m crushing your head, I’m crushing your head. Let’s go.
[Lorelai and Sookie get up and leave]

A reference to The Kids in the Hall, an award-winning Canadian sketch comedy TV series that aired from 1988 to 1995, and a revival season in 2022, starring the comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall. The troupe, consisting of comedians Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, Bruce McCulloch, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thompson, appeared as almost all the characters throughout the series, both male and female, and also wrote most of the sketches.

The show had a similar surreal vibe to Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and it tended to be highly censored for American broadcasts, especially in regard to religion or nudity. It has been cited as an influence by several comedians.

One of their recurring sketches was “Headcrusher”. Mr. Tyzik (Mark McKinney) is a lonely man who despises virtually everyone, especially those he considers businessmen and trendy people. He calls them “flatheads” because in his mind, their heads deserve to be crushed. He is more than willing to help by pretending to crush their heads from a distance with his fingers, using forced perspective, while enthusiastically declaring “I’m crushing your head! I’m crushing your head!” in a high-pitched nasal voice with a slight eastern European accent, followed by making a crushing noise. Lorelai does this movement to one of the people shown on the real estate slide.

Litchfield

JOHN: Now this is a lovely property that has just become available right outside of Litchfield.
SOOKIE: It’s a sales pitch?
LORELAI: They spend two hours telling us nothing, then try to sell us lame property?
SOOKIE: We already know the place we’re buying.
LORELAI: I know.

Litchfield, previously discussed.

Lorelai and Sookie say they already know the property they will buy (the Dragonfly Inn), but the owner (Fran Weston) has refused to sell it to them. Is it really such an insane idea that they might look at some available real estate that somebody actually wants to sell, if only to give them some idea of the market? Maybe they could actually use a couple of business classes.

Also, the one day seminar that Lorelai talked about seems to have ended up being the two hour class Michel derided after all. I guess Lorelai meant “one day” as in the entire course takes place on only one day, rather than over several weeks.

Shaun and David Cassidy

LORELAI: [opens the flap] You will marry Shaun Cassidy and cheat with David.
SOOKIE: Well, good for me.

Shaun Cassidy, previously discussed as Lorelai’s preteen crush.

David Cassidy (1950-2017), actor, singer, and guitarist, and Shaun’s older half-brother. He played Keith Partridge on the 1970s musical sitcom, The Partridge Family.

Deciding whether you preferred Shaun or David Cassidy was a common pastime in the 1970s. The option to “marry” Shaun and er, “cheat” with David may have been a common solution to this dilemma.

[Picture shows David on the left and Shaun on the right]

Cootie Catcher

[Lorelai displays the cootie catcher she’s just made]
LORELAI: Pick a color.

A cootie catcher is a folded paper fortune teller used in children’s games. Parts of the fortune teller are labelled with colors or numbers that serve as options for a player to choose from, and on the inside are eight flaps, each concealing a message.

The person operating the fortune teller manipulates the device based on the choices made by the player, and finally one of the hidden messages is revealed. These messages may purport to answer questions or they may be activities that the player must perform.

Used throughout Europe, some say since the 17th century, these paper fortune tellers have been popular in the US since the 1950s, especially with girls.

Teutonic

EMILY: So you’re just going to let this lead-footed Teutonic chambermaid drag your mother into a public forum and humiliate her, is that it?

Teutonic, literally meaning pertaining to the Teutons, a Germanic or Celtic tribe mentioned by classical authors. Even though the evidence that they were Germanic is rather shaky, the word is more often used as a poetic way to refer to German and Austrian people.