“Four in four”

SOOKIE: All of a sudden, completely out of the blue, Jackson announces he wants four in four … Four kids in four years.

Sookie and Jackson, an adorable couple while they were dating, became immediately annoying once they were married. Now Jackson, formerly rather sweet and snuggly, gets some pretty creepy ideas. This icky one is that Sookie should give birth to four of his children within four years, and he takes Sookie’s dubious, “Oohh .. kaay” as consent.

As tends to be the case, mostly for script reasons, Sookie tells Lorelai about her problems with Jackson rather than discussing them with him. Lorelai rightly tells Sookie that she won’t have a good marriage unless she learns to communicate with Jackson, however, Sookie and Jackson continue having major communication problems throughout their marriage.

Coq au vin

SOOKIE: Last night, I made coq au vin for dinner, so of course the subject of children came up.

Coq au vin (“cock/rooster with wine”) is a French dish of chicken braised in wine with bacon/ham, mushrooms, herbs, onion, and garlic. The wine is usually a red Burgundy. The recipe was not documented until the 20^th century, but it is generally accepted that it was a rustic dish in existence long before that (according to legend as early as the days of the Roman Empire). The dish was popularised in the US in the early 1960s by Julia Child, and it was seen as one of her signature dishes.

Why serving coq au vin makes Sookie and Jackson discuss children is not as clear as Sookie seems to think. Something about cock and wine together, maybe?

“It makes me want to ration sugar”

SOOKIE: Wait ’til you see Jackson’s suit. It makes me want to ration sugar.

It seems to be a tradition, although not a rule, that contestants in the dance marathon dress in period costume from the 1930s and ’40s as part of the fun. Jackson is wearing a suit from the 1940s, which makes Sookie think of wartime sugar rationing. From 1942 to 1947, sugar was rationed in the US to half a pound (about 225 g) of sugar a week. This meant that Americans were allowed about 6 teaspoons of added sugar a day. Interestingly, this is about how much sugar nutritionists think we should be eating anyway!

“We have time-warped with the best of them”

LORELAI: I have to say, for a couple of modern girls, we have time-warped with the best of them.

“Time Warp”, a song from the musical The Rocky Horror Show and its film version, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, previously discussed. It’s also the name for the dance which accompanies the song, and the song lyrics provide dance instructions. It was most popular in Australia, reaching #3 in 1980, but has remained a popular song ever since. It’s already been demonstrated that Lorelai and Rory are fans of the film.

Trojan Man Commercial

PARIS: Don’t say anything to Madeline or Louise about this ….

RORY: But they’re your best friends.

PARIS: Theoretically, yes, but the second I mention a guy they’re gonna both start singing the theme from the Trojan Man commercial, and I just can’t take that, okay?

Trojan, a brand of condoms first manufactured in 1916. About 70% of condoms sold in the US are Trojan brand. Their commercials in the 1990s and 2000s had a rousing song with a chorus of, “Trojan Man, Trojan Man, Trojan Man”.

Ted Bundy

RORY: Well, Jamie must be special.

PARIS: Or Ted Bundy.

Theodore “Ted” Bundy, born Theodore Cowell (1946-1989), serial killer who kidnapped, raped, and murdered numerous young women and girls during the 1970s and possibly earlier. After more than a decade of denials, he confessed to 30 murders committed in seven states between 1974 and 1978. His true victim total is unknown, and is likely significantly higher.

Bundy was regarded as charismatic and handsome, and exploited this to win the trust of both his victims and society as a whole – hence Paris sardonic comment that a “nice guy” like Jamie may be too good to be true.

In 1975, Bundy was arrested and jailed for aggravated kidnapping and attempted criminal assault. He then became a suspect in a progressively longer list of unsolved homicides in several states. Bundy engineered two dramatic escapes and committed further assaults, including three murders, before his ultimate recapture in 1978. He received three death sentences in two trials and was executed at Florida State Prison.

Bundy has been described as “a sadistic sociopath”, and “the very definition of heartless evil.” He called himself, “the most cold-hearted son-of-a-bitch you’ll ever meet”.

Jamie and Paris

PARIS: Well, we went for coffee, and he talked about how he had a great time on our date, and how he finds me fascinating, and how he thought about me all the time.

In this episode, Paris gets her first boyfriend, Jamie. She is typically in disbelief as to why Jamie would choose her over “idiot” college girls who are prettier and more (sexually) experienced, but Jamie is never shown to be anything other than adoring of Paris.

Having a boyfriend seems to make Paris instantly more relaxed about her academic life. She turns up late to class the next morning after seeing Jamie, even though they supposedly only had coffee after school (must have been some coffee!), and is happy to postpone the work they were supposed to do on the weekend for the school newspaper. Because of this, Rory is able to be her mother’s partner for the dance marathon in this episode.

“I overslept”

PARIS: Sorry I’m late, Mrs. Savitt.

MRS SAVITT: Is everything okay?

PARIS: Yes. I overslept.

In “The Deer Hunters”, Rory turned up a few minutes late for class after being hit by a deer, and all hell broke loose. There was a serious suggestion made that Rory might not be suitable for such a strict school as Chilton. Now Paris wanders into class late without any reasonable excuse, and it’s no big deal. The show could never really decide if Chilton was a big, scary, super strict school, or just a normal prep school.

“Theme from Rocky”

RORY: And ooh, I told him about how when Kirk wins, he likes to take his victory lap around the floor to the theme from Rocky.

The theme from the film Rocky, previously discussed, is called “Gonna Fly Now”. It was composed by Bill Conti, with lyrics by Carol Connors and Ayn Robbins, and performed by DeEtta West and Nelson Pigford.

Released in 1976 with the movie, it became part of 1970s popular culture, after the film showed the main character Rocky Balboa running up the 72 steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art then raising his arms in a victory pose as this song plays. The song is often played at sporting events, especially in Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia Eagles NFL team play the song before the opening kick-off of every home game. The song is often used in film and TV when a character has to train hard for something.

The song went to #1 on the US charts, while a jazz version and two disco versions also charted. It was the #21 song of 1977.

“This is Dean’s first marathon”

LORELAI: Why not?

RORY: Because this is Dean’s first marathon. We were gonna go and watch and hang out, he’s totally looking forward to it. I told him about how Andrew gets in a fight with his date in the first fifteen minutes and storms off the floor. I told him about Taylor getting punch-drunk at hour fifteen and telling stories about how he always wanted to be a magician.

If Rory cares so much about Dean’s first marathon, why did she say she would work on the newspaper with Paris on that day? Possibly she and Dean were just going to go in the afternoon or evening to watch (although how will they see Andrew storm off in the first fifteen minutes, if so?).

It’s interesting to wonder why Dean didn’t go to the marathon the year before with Rory (in 2000, he and Rory only began dating in November, so it might have seemed too soon to drag him along). In the previous season around this time of year, Rory was doing the Shakespeare play with Tristan, and she and Dean weren’t getting along very well. It seems so much so that Rory didn’t invite her boyfriend to the marathon.