“He came back a changed man”

SHERRY: Yeah, I’ve been wanting to tell you, actually. Chris and I had a rocky stretch. I thought for sure he was out the door. I mean, he was so distant and hardly ever talked. I wasn’t even sure if I was gonna tell him about the baby. I thought I was gonna either go it alone, or not go through with it at all. I mean, I was kind of in the same position that you were in when you were pregnant, do you know what I mean? … I decided that I would tell him before I made any decisions, and that was the weekend he was with you and Rory, remember? There was a wedding or something . . . Well, I don’t know what happened or what you said, but whatever it was, it worked. He came back a changed man. All of a sudden, he was so attentive and devoted, and so willing to make it work. He said that he’d missed out before, and he didn’t want to miss it again. And I just credit a good portion of that to you.

Christopher said that he and Sherry had problems in their relationship, but from Sherry’s perspective, it was that Christopher was withdrawing from her and “quiet quitting” their relationship.

It doesn’t really make sense that Sherry credits Lorelai for changing Christopher’s attitude. Sherry decided to tell him about the baby, and Christopher returned to Boston, saying he was there for her and the baby, and didn’t want to miss out on fatherhood for a second time. Why would she think that Lorelai made the difference, rather than the knowledge he was going to be a father?

My hunch is that Sherry intuitively knew or suspected that Christopher and Lorelai shared something on their weekend together (if your boyfriend you’ve been having problems with spends a weekend with his ex, there’s a good chance you’re going to get suspicious about it).

I think she tells Lorelai that it’s because of her that Christopher returned to her as a way of warning Lorelai away from Christopher, or to let her know that she knows she and Christopher slept together, and that they don’t need to discuss it any further.

“It’s just minutes from here”

LORELAI: It’s gonna be Harvard [that Rory’s going to].

SHERRY: Well, I certainly hope so. It’s just minutes from here. Did you know that? …I’ve already clocked it – two point seven miles, which is nothing. I’ve already checked out the best late afternoon route for her to take to come over after classes.

Lorelai has already driven to Harvard University – how can she not be aware how close it is to Sherry and Christopher, that she also just drove to? The fact that Cambridge is right next to Boston must surely be a bit of a giveaway.

I’m not sure exactly where Sherry and Christopher live, but the Bunker Hill area in Charlestown is 2.7 miles from Harvard, which is a nine minute drive [pictured]. This is the oldest part of Boston, and Christopher did say he’d like to live somewhere historical. Any further west, north or south, and they wouldn’t be living in Boston, and any further east, they would be too far away.

If so, for Rory to visit them, she would need to take a bus, and would still have a walk of at least twenty minutes. The other way would be to take the subway, which would require a change in the middle, and there would then be a ten minute walk. A fifteen minute bike ride might be easier.

The knowledge that Rory going to Harvard means her spending a lot more time with Christopher and Sherry must surely be making it seem less attractive to Lorelai.

Aryan Breeding

GAIL: She’s going to be beautiful.

SUSAN: Yeah, you and Christopher are like a poster for Aryan breeding.

Susan refers to Lebensborn e.V. (meaning “Fount of Life” in German), an SS-initiated, state-supported, registered association in Nazi German with the stated goal of increasing the number of children born who met the Nazi standards of “racially pure” and “healthy” Aryans, based on Nazi eugenics.

The Aryan race is an obsolete historical race concept that emerged in the late-19th century to describe people of Proto-Indo-European heritage as a racial grouping. There is no evidence to support this. By the 1930s, this false concept was used to promote white supremacist ideology, portraying so-called “Aryans” as the “master race” – ideas which formed part of the ideology which led to the Holocaust.

Appallingly, Susan implies white “Aryan” babies are naturally beautiful (even before they are born!). To add to the discomfort, she says this in front of Gail, who is black. I think this is meant to tell us just how awful Sherry’s friends are, and by extension, Sherry herself.

“You are so not a baby person”

MAUREEN: Okay, I’m drunk, which is why I’m telling you that we were very shocked when you told us because you are so not a baby person.

SHERRY: Oh, I’m still not. I mean, she’s all mine when she’s got the legs to dance, but Christopher’s the baby person.

Previously, Sherry told Rory she wanted at least two children, and was considering becoming a single mother using a sperm donor, she wanted to be a mother so badly. Now she says she’s not a baby person, and later tells Lorelai she considered an abortion.

It’s possible she means that although she wants to be a mother, she doesn’t particularly care for babies, and considering having an abortion in a shaky relationship is normal. However, it does sound like Sherry simply misrepresented herself to Rory (and Christopher?).

Lorelai and Rory must be stunned to hear that Christopher is a “baby person”. Really? Either Christopher really does feel as if he missed out on Rory’s babyhood, or that’s the story he’s telling Sherry. Maybe both Sherry and Christopher have been dishonest with each other.

The fact that Sherry doesn’t see herself as a baby person is a foreshadowing of what occurs after she becomes a mother.

“When I finally went to the doctor”

SHERRY: Well, Christopher and I didn’t exactly plan for this to happen. I thought I had the flu or something. When I finally went to the doctor and he told me, he had to pick me up off the floor.

Christopher told Lorelai that Sherry announced her pregnancy to him over the phone at Sookie’s wedding. That was on a Sunday, so she can’t have been to the doctor that day. Sherry later says she waited some time before telling Christopher she was pregnant. Christopher’s story that Sherry had only just discovered she was pregnant when she phoned him turns out not to be true after all.

Quincy

SHERRY: Didn’t you schedule yours?

LORELAI: Not quite. A half hour before I had Rory, I was eating a pepper sandwich and watching TV. [to Rory] You were almost named Quincy.

Quincy ME, mystery medical drama series which aired from 1976 to 1983 (Lorelai must have been watching a repeat). Jack Klugman stars in the title role as a LA medical examiner who routinely engages in police investigations. The show was inspired by the book Where Death Delights, by Marshall Houts, a former FBI agent. Quincy’s character is loosely modelled on LA “Coroner to the Stars” Thomas Noguchi.

Lorelai said that she spent several hours in labour before having Rory. I presume that when she says she was watching TV half an hour before having Rory, she means that’s what she was doing half an hour before labour started.

Music at the Baby Shower

Everybody Have Fun Tonight

A 1986 song by Wang Chung, previously discussed, from their album Mosaic. It reached #2 in the US, #76 in the UK, and was most popular in Canada, at #1. The song has been included on numerous compilation records, and still gets radio airplay in the US.

Who’s That Girl?

One of the “generic jazz” songs. It’s performed by Chris White and Danny Schogger. Chris White is an English saxophonist who has performed with Dire Straits, Robbie Williams, Tom Jones, Bryan Ferry, Paul McCartney, and Mick Jagger. Danny Schogger was the producer on his only solo album.

Baby Face

Previously discussed. Rory sings karaoke to the song. Every time she gets to the word “baby,” the women gesture for her to leave it out so she doesn’t lose her diaper pin. Rory manages to sing every note wrong.

Finger Snap

One of the “generic jazz” songs. It’s by Chucho Merchán, the professional name of Colombian jazz and rock bassist and guitarist Jesús Merchán, from his album Jazz. He has performed with artists such as The Eurhythmics, The Pretenders, Thomas Dolby, George Harrison, Peter Townsend, Dave Gilmour, and Everything But the Girl.

“If you say the word baby …”

MAUREEN: It’s a little game. Everyone gets a diaper pin, and if you say the word “baby,” the person catching you saying it gets to keep your pin.

At the baby shower, no one is supposed to say the word “baby”. Yet, during the game where they are shoving cotton balls into the bag, Sherry continually says the word baby and no one takes her pin or corrects her. Either the “baby pin” game only lasted a short time, or Sherry got a free pass because it’s her baby shower.

For Keeps

SHERRY: Well, then where’d you get your information on child raising? Your mom?

LORELAI: No, For Keeps. Uh, Molly Ringwald, Randall Bantikoff, really underrated little post-John Hughes flick. She went to the prom fat. I found it really inspirational.

For Keeps, a 1988 coming of age comedy drama directed by John G. Avildsen and starring Molly Ringwald and Randall Bantikoff as Darcy and Stan, two high school seniors who are in love. Darcy gets pregnant just before graduation and decides to keep the baby. It was Ringwald’s final teen movie, and is considered one of her most mature performances, especially in the scene where Darcy develops postpartum depression. (Like Rory, Darcy works on the school paper and plans to study journalism at college). The film was a box office success, and received mixed reviews, with the positive ones mostly for Ringwald’s performance.

As the film came out in January 1988, when Rory had already turned three, it’s hard to see how it could have “inspired” Lorelai during her pregnancy.

Note that this is another occasion when pregnancy and being “fat” are conflated, which is becoming a rather disturbing trend, and no surprise, this is another Daniel Palladino script.

Deenie

SHERRY: You have to give me your list of books, okay? … The ones that you read when you had Rory.

LORELAI: Oh, I see. Um, I think I was reading Deenie at the time . . .

Deenie, a 1973 young adult novel by Judy Blume, previously discussed. It is about a teenage girl named Willmadene “Deenie” Fenner who has to wear a back brace due to scoliosis. Although initially upset about the brace, Deenie eventually becomes resigned to her fate, and decides to give up the dream of being a model that her mother pushed on her. There is possibly a little parallel here with Rory eventually giving up the dream Lorelai pushed on her.