Candide

RORY: And I finished Candide …

Candide is a 1759 satirical picaresque novella by the French philosopher Voltaire. It is about a young man named Candide, living a sheltered life in an Eden-like paradise, taught to live a life of optimism by his mentor, Professor Pangloss, who teaches that we live in “the best of all possible worlds”. This life abruptly ceases, and the story details the slow disillusionment of the simple Candide as he witnesses and experienced terrible hardships. By the end, if he has not exactly rejected optimism, he has cautiously adopted a more pragmatic approach to life.

Sharply witty, insightful, fantastical, bitter, and matter-of-fact, Candide parodies the adventure and romance genres, as well as the coming-of-age novel. It is considered Voltaire’s greatest work, and has been often mimicked and parodied. Considered part of the Western canon, it is often taught in high schools and colleges.

You can see Rory as a parallel to Candide – raised in the sheltered Eden-like paradise of Stars Hollow, with the vivacious Lorelai raising her to believe she can do anything with enough self-belief, hard work, and Gilmore ability to argue that the usual rules don’t apply to her. Will Rory become increasingly disillusioned with the difficulties of the outside world once she leaves Stars Hollow?

Coup d’état

PARIS: Well, she’s all we’ve got so you need to do whatever it takes to make it happen, otherwise maybe you shouldn’t be the group leader.

LOUISE: A coup d’état, how exciting.

A coup d’état (French for “blow of state”), is the sudden violent overthrow of an existing government by a rival faction in an illegal seizure of power.

Hartford Natural History Museum

BRAD: My mom works. She’s a curator at the Hartford Natural History Museum.

In real life, Hartford doesn’t have a natural history museum. The Connecticut State Museum of Natural History was at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, about half an hour’s drive east of Hartford; it closed in 2016. A more famous collection is the Peabody Museum of Natural History, at Yale University [pictured].

No Parent Available to Mentor the Group

Their group has to find a parent with experience in business to act as an adviser and mentor for the business fair. Chip’s father has scheduling issues. Paris’ father is in Hong Kong for a month, but could possibly video conference – an idea Rory says no to. Madeline says her father is travelling; she doesn’t mention her stepfather, so I’m not sure if she still has one, or if she now refers to him as her dad? Her stepfather was in Japan last time he was mentioned.

Louise’s father is in court for the next six weeks on a mysterious charge. Oddly enough, when Paris’ dad was involved in some shady activity, it was a major, major scandal, she was a laughing stock at school, and her parents separated for a time. But now Louise’s father is in legal trouble, and nobody cares at all. Louise hasn’t even bothered finding out what he did!

Intra-school Business Fair

RORY: There’s going to be an intra-school business fair in three weeks. Each group has to come up with a consumer product that’s geared toward high school kids … So we pick our product and we make a prototype of it, then we use our imaginary million dollar budget to mass produce, market, and distribute it, and we’ll present all of this at the fair.

Rory quickly tells their group, and the viewer, what’s happening in this episode. Their Economics class has put them into groups to compete against the other Economics classes at Chilton at a business fair. They have to think of a product that high school students will buy, make a prototype that can be displayed, then use a fictional million dollar budget to manufacture, market, and distribute it, presenting it at the fair to be judged.

And the business fair is only three weeks away, so they need to get started immediately, yet somehow, they don’t seem to do that. A lot must happen behind the scenes.

Brad Returns to Chilton

RORY: So you’re back at Chilton now?

BRAD: Oh, yeah. My psychiatrist convinced my parents that I should face my fears instead of running away from them and my rabbi agreed, so here I am.

Brad is now back at Chilton, after transferring to Hillside Academy five months ago, due to being bullied by Paris. He told Rory that Hillside Academy was much more relaxed than Chilton, and he’d made tons of friends there.

If that’s true, what kind of sick psychiatrist would tell a teenager they should return to a stressful school environment where they were bullied, rather than one where they supposedly have friends, and are thriving enough to be on the debate team? And what kind of rabbi would back that decision up? And what kind of parents would agree to it, rather than sacking the psychiatrist at once and moving to another synagogue? Poor Brad. I don’t think Paris is his only problem in life.

Napoleon and Elba

LOUISE: Someone’s not taking to Elba too kindly.

PARIS: What does that mean?

LOUISE: Just that Rory’s the leader of this group, Napoleon, and you’re not.

Napoleon Bonaparte, born Napoleone di Buonaparte (1769-1821), French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution, becoming Emperor of France in the early 19th century. He was one of the greatest military commanders in history, and his wars and campaigns are studied in military schools worldwide.

After Napoleon was forced to abdicate in 1814 he was exiled to the island of Elba, between Corsica and Italy. Louise is saying that now that Rory is leader of their group, Paris is like a great leader forced into the political wilderness.

In fact, Napoleon didn’t waste his time on Elba, improving the island with his usual energy and vision. He escaped from it nine months later and briefly took control of France again before being defeated at Waterloo. Like Napoleon, Paris is unlikely to languish in the background for too long.

[Picture shows Napoleon Crossing the Alps by Jacques-Louis David (1800)]

Bhagavad Gita

MADELINE: I read slow so I don’t miss anything.

PARIS: It’s not the Bhagavad Gita, Madeline. It’s simple instructions for the business fair.

The Shrimad Bhagavad Gita, literally meaning “the song by God” in Sanskrit, often referred to as Bhagavad Gita, or just the Gita. It’s a 700-verse Hindu scripture that is part of the epic The Mahābhārata, dated to the first millennium BC.

It is the best known of the holy scriptures of Hinduism, presenting a synthesis of Hindu philosophy and yogic ideals. It was a personal inspiration to Mahatma Ghandi, and has been often read, studied, and appreciated by westerners and non-Hindus. Many Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, and atheists have read the Bhagavad Gita for spiritual advice and life lessons.

Madeline’s comment suggests that she isn’t stupid – just slow, thorough, and careful in how she absorbs information.

“I thought it was, like, prayer time or something”

LOUISE: Oh, were we reading these now?

RORY: Yeah, that’s why we’ve all been kind of quiet for the past ten minutes.

LOUISE: I thought it was, like, prayer time or something.

Louise was originally the brighter of the two out of she and Madeline, and quite a good student. She seems to have been getting steadily dimmer, until she now doesn’t seem to understand that she’s meant to read educational materials when they’re handed to her. Chilton isn’t a religious school, so why she thought they’d be opening with a ten-minute private prayer session, I don’t know. Maybe she’s playing dumb so successfully it’s actually turned her brain.