LORELAI: If you’d won, you could’ve rioted through town trashing storefronts and torching police cars like they do in L.A.
Lorelai is presumably thinking about the 1992 race riots in Los Angeles which began after a jury acquitted four officers of the Los Angeles Police Department charged with using excessive force in the arrest and beating of Rodney King. She makes it sound as if the riot was an excess of high spirits caused by winning a sporting match. Lorelai has a way of saying these uncomfortably racist-sounding things.
RICHARD: Oh, if only I could’ve seen Emily hiding in the bushes. It’s like a play by Moliere.
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (1622-1673), known by his stage name Molière, French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and world literature. His works include comedies, farces, tragicomedies, comédie-ballets, and more. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed at the Comédie-Française more often than those of any other playwright.
Richard may be thinking of his 1665 comedy Don Juan, where Don Juan’s servant hides in the bushes, claiming that he needed to relieve himself there.
RICHARD: Do you really think he was wearing a track suit? … Well, I wonder if he was wearing Nikes also. LORELAI:Just Do It takes on a whole new meaning, doesn’t it?
Nike, multinational corporation engaged in the design, development, manufacturing, and worldwide marketing and sales of footwear, apparel, equipment, accessories, and services. The company is headquartered in the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area. The company was founded in 964, as Blue Ribbon Sports by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight, and officially became Nike in 1971. The company takes its name from Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. It is the world’s largest supplier of athletic shoes and apparel.
Wieden+Kennedy is Nike’s primary ad agency. It was their co-founder Dan Wieden who coined the famous slogan “Just Do It” for a 1988 Nike ad campaign, which was chosen by Advertising Age as one of the top five ad slogans of the 20th century and enshrined in the Smithsonian Institution. Wieden credits the inspiration for the slogan to “Let’s do it”, the last words spoken by murderer Gary Gilmore before he was executed by firing squad.
GRAN: I believe a woman marries for life. If, after your husband is gone, you desperately desire some sort of permanent attachment, add an addition onto the house – a library or a solarium. I have a library and a solarium … However, in spite of all this, I found myself getting lonely. And I don’t care for being lonely, it’s quite annoying. So many years ago, I met a man, and he became my companion. Tonight, both he and I were both publicly humiliated and our relationship altered forever.
A solarium is a sun room, conservatory, patio room, sun porch, or winter garden. The word is Latin for “place of sunlight”, and a solarium is a room which allows the sunshine to enter. A solarium typically offers scenic views as well as a sunny spot, and features glass walls and a glass ceiling.
Trix explains to Emily that although she doesn’t believe in remarriage after the death of a spouse, seeing it as “dishonouring” the late spouse’s memory, she has been in a long-term relationship with someone for affection and companionship.
Trix lived in London for years after her husband died, and has only just moved back to Hartford. So did she meet this man in London, or did they see each other only on brief, infrequent visits to each other’s countries? Or did he follow her back to Hartford so they could continue their relationship, or did she follow him – is he the real reason she moved back?
We never learn anything more about Trix’s boyfriend. Is he married, for example? Has he ever pushed for a more permanent arrangement?
JESS: I got tickets to the Distillers … For tonight. I would’ve been here sooner, but I had to wait in line. So we should probably get going. I mean, we don’t wanna miss anything, right?
The Distillers, punk rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1998 by Australian-born vocalist and guitarist Brody Dalle. Their self-titled debut album came out in 2000, and their most recent album was 2002’s Sing Sing Death House, which reached #29 on the US indie charts. Its single “City of Angels” went to #13 on the UK rock charts.
In real life, the Distillers did not perform at a concert in Connecticut in February/March of 2003. They played The Big Day Out at the Green in Glasgow, Scotland on March 24 2003, which seems to be their first gig for that year. However, on February 14 2002, the Distillers played at Toad’s Place, a nightclub in New Haven, Connecticut, which may be part of the inspiration for this scene.
The timeline for this seems questionable. Jess went to Rory’s place at 7.30 pm, where Lorelai gave him a talking to. He then apparently drove to Hartford or New Haven, in order to line up and buy concert tickets. He somehow has time to then drive back to Stars Hollow, and catch Rory just as she is leaving the hockey game, which would have finished no later than 9 pm.
Now he and Rory are going to drive to Hartford or New Haven again, getting there around 10 pm to watch the concert. This doesn’t seem to be possible, especially as Rory is shown getting home when Lorelai is still up and having a late night meal in the kitchen.
I suppose if the Distillers were the last act on the bill, and played a very short set of 30-40 minutes or so, then perhaps Jess and Rory could have got out around midnight and made it back to Stars Hollow by 1 am, and Lorelai could still be awake and having a midnight snack then. It seems like a lot of driving around and a lot of money spent for such a short time, though.
The alternative explanation is that Jess had in fact already bought the tickets and arrived at Rory’s house ready to surprise her when Lorelai jumped down his throat. In that case, his story about waiting in line is just that – a story. However, that doesn’t explain where he went afterwards, unless he just sat in the car park and waited for Rory to come out. I find this whole plotline pretty confusing.
When Rory comes home from the concert, she doesn’t tell Lorelai where she has been, or anything much about her night. Can Lorelai not smell smoke on her, or notice any other sign that she has been at a concert? (Cigarette bans in clubs and places of entertainment would not be passed in Connecticut until May 2003).
There is no sign that Rory enjoyed her night out with Jess. When we see her alone in her room, she lies on her bed with a pensive and enigmatic look on her face which gradually becomes sadder and sadder. Her expression doesn’t say “I’ve had a great night out at a cool concert with my boyfriend”, it says, “My ex-boyfriend has found someone new and my boyfriend isn’t living up to my expectations”.
In fact, all the signs point to Rory not being over her break up with Dean, and not being exactly happy with Jess.
RORY: It’s me. I just wanted to let you know that this is the last weekend I spend sitting around like an idiot hoping you’ll call, okay? I’m not going to be that girl. From now on, I want a plan. I mean, a real plan with a time and a place, and I’m tired of hearing ‘Let’s hook up later.’ What does that mean anyway? What’s later? How do I set my watch to later? Later doesn’t cut it anymore, got it? And, yeah, you know, maybe I am spoiled. But guess what? I like being spoiled. I plan to go on being spoiled. And if that doesn’t sound like something that you can or want to do, then fine. I’m sure you’ll find another girl who doesn’t mind sitting around cleaning her keyboard on a Friday night hoping you’ll call, but it’s not going to be me. Oh, yeah, this is a message for Jess.
Having seen Dean with a new girlfriend, one who he is just about to take out on a date after the hockey game, Rory seriously loses it with Jess and leaves him a long ranting message. Finally, she is being honest with him! (Albeit by phone message).
Unfortunately, when Jess turns up with concert tickets, Rory asks him to please erase his phone messages without listening to them. (Er, hey, some of those messages could’ve been for Luke, or something really important …). In other words, she caved in as soon as he made that grand gesture, the one Lorelai warned her not to instantly cave in to the moment Jess made it.
And Rory made the call on a pay phone, even though she’s been seen using a cell phone in this season. Does Rory have a cell phone or not?
RORY: Like once, in fourth grade, we went on a field trip to Mark Twain’s house, and I really wanted this refrigerator magnet in the shape of Mark Twain’s head, but I didn’t have any money, so she bought it for me, and she wouldn’t even let me pay her back.
Mark Twain’s house, previously discussed. This minor incident which occurred when Rory was about nine seems to be the only interaction with Lindsay she can remember.
KIRK: So it’s back to the desert for the Minutemen, perhaps for another forty years. Of course, by then, I’ll be seventy years old. A lot of the rest of you will probably be dead. Taylor, you’ll be dead. Babette, Miss Patty . . . that man there in the hat.
From this we learn that Kirk is thirty years old, and born in either 1972 or 1973, depending on whether he has already had his birthday for 2003, or will be turning 31 later in the year. Sean Gunn who plays Kirk was born in 1974.
Kirk’s prediction that many of the older people of Stars Hollow will probably by dead in forty years seems like a slight echo of the story of the Israelites, where an entire generation had to pass away before they could reach the Promised Land.
KIRK: Well, ladies and gentlemen, much like the Israelites of yore, the Stars Hollow Minutemen languished in the desert for forty years. But tonight, there was no Promised Land, no New Canaan, only a humiliating five to one defeat at the merciless hands of the West Hartford Wildcats.
After escaping from servitude in Egypt under the leadership of Moses, the Israelites wandered the wilderness for forty years – a punishment from God for not believing they would be able to take the land promised to them by God from the Canaanites, who were gigantic of stature and had fortified cities.
Only after the entire generation who left Egypt had passed away, except Joshua and Caleb, who had maintained faith in God, were the Israelites able to cease wandering. Eventually they were led into the Promised Land by Joshua, the successor of Moses. Note that Kirk mixes up the land of Canaan with New Canaan, a town in Connecticut.
In real life, the West Hartford Wildcats is actually a women’s softball team.
LORELAI: You’re seriously telling me that you’re gonna be the one to go out there and humiliate Gran in front of her friends, in front of her family. Just think about it, Mom. What would Miss Manners do?
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 