Rory’s Car

DEAN: Your car.
RORY: No!
DEAN: Finished it yesterday.

The car that Dean rebuilds and gives to Rory is a pale blue 1961 Dodge Lancer sedan. A rebuilt Dodge Lancer would cost around $10 000 today, so it’s a significant gift, quite apart from all the work he’s put into it.

We now discover that even though they broke up on the night he told Rory he was giving her a car, Dean has continued to work on it. It seems that Rory and Lorelai have been kept informed about his progress, because they seem excited, but not surprised about it, and Lorelai seems to have already given permission for it to go ahead.

Richard’s unease with Dean giving Rory the car is probably not only the safety issue (and no car from 1961 is going to be as safe as a modern one), but because it is inappropriate as a gift from a teenage boyfriend that Rory has only been seeing for about a year (and was broken up with for three months). He may have handled it badly, but Richard has a point.

The day with Richard now becomes an unmitigated disaster, and it’s all thanks to Dean. He just shows up with the car, rather than call ahead and make sure that it’s alright. He also ignores the fact that when he arrives, Richard’s car is out the front, so he knows that they have a guest, and can probably guess who it is. Does Dean actually deliver the car that night on purpose, as a way to show Richard that he isn’t a useless waste of space, and to rub it in how special he is to Rory and Lorelai?

It’s a real slap in the face to Richard and Emily, who wanted to buy Rory a new car, but were not given permission to do so by Lorelai. It must hurt Richard that she instead gave permission for an unsafe old car, built by a teenage boy, and this no doubt informs a lot of his behaviour.

Reese Witherspoon

RICHARD: Who’s going to help her get into Harvard?
LORELAI: Reese Witherspoon.

Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon (born 1976), multi-award winning actress and producer. She has an Academy Award, two Golden Globes, a BAFTA, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and an Emmy. One of the highest-paid actresses in the world, she has been named one of the most powerful women in the world, and one of the most influential.

Lorelai refers to Witherspoon’s 2001 comedy, Legally Blonde, directed by Robert Luketic, and based on the 2001 novel of the same name by Amanda Brown. Witherspoon plays Elle Woods, a sorority girl who attempts to win back her ex-boyfriend by becoming a Doctor of Law at Harvard University. In the process, she overcomes stereotypes about pretty blondes, and triumphs as a successful lawyer through unflappable self-confidence and fashion/beauty know-how.

Legally Blonde was a box-office hit which led to a sequel, a direct to DVD spin-off, and a stage musical. It received generally favourable reviews, and Reese Witherspoon received the 2002 MTV Award for Best Female Performance. Another film in the series is scheduled for 2022.

Harvard vs Yale

LORELAI: Dad, she wants to go to Harvard.
RICHARD: Well yes, because she thinks you want her to go to Harvard.

Richard hits it right on the head – where did Rory’s obsession with going to Harvard come from, except from Lorelai? Lorelai bought Rory a Harvard sweater when she was only four: not the usual clothing a toddler asks for on their own.

Richard is also correct that she’s too young to have set her heart on one specific college to attend. There are other good options available, and as Gilmores traditionally go to Yale, he would be able to help Rory get in as a legacy student. He does know more about the Ivy League system than Lorelai, who, despite being determined to have her daughter fulfil her dream of going to Harvard, has seemingly done little to educate herself about the process of being accepted there.

Harvard and Yale are traditional rivals, and it can’t have escaped Richard’s attention that Lorelai has rebelled against him by choosing his own alma mater’s main competition as her preferred university. He is tactful enough not to say that to her, though.

Richard is actually giving Lorelai good advice here. He probably shouldn’t have brought it up while he’s a guest, but at least he makes sure he doesn’t do it in front of Rory.

“We order way too much”

RICHARD: Lorelai, you cannot order all of that food. You’re teaching your daughter wastefulness and gluttony.
LORELAI: Um Dad, we do this all the time. We order way too much and then we eat like a third of it and live off the leftovers for a week and a half. It’s a finely honed system.

More evidence that Lorelai and Rory don’t really eat that much. They order a huge amount of food, but then only eat 30% of it. The leftovers take them another ten days to get through, suggesting they’re only picking at them. That doesn’t sound like people with big appetites.

They’re also not worried about food poisoning – you’re meant to eat leftovers within two days (four at the absolute most), not ten! How they never get sick is a miracle. Unless constant vomiting and diarrhoea is their secret to staying slim.

Obsession Board

RORY: We started the obsession board a few years ago. And then when we took that trip to Harvard, the student store was having a two for one flag sale, so that kind of sent us into the final stage of the psychosis. Hospitals were called, medications were prescribed, there is no cure.

Richard takes note of the cork board Rory has in her room, completely covered in Harvard memorabilia. Note that she says, “We started the obsession board a few years ago”. It was Lorelai who began the board, perhaps when Rory was about fourteen, and on the verge of starting high school.

Richard is taken aback that Rory is already so set on going to Harvard, when his alma mater is Yale University. He already knew it was Rory’s preference, now he discovers it is her absolute obsession and the only university she is interested in. That Rory says, “There is no cure”, probably suggests to Richard that she can’t see herself changing her mind.

Rory’s Bookshelf

When Rory shows Richard her bedroom, he checks out her bookshelf. Here are some of the books we can see:

Summer of Fear

A 1993 serial killer novel by T. Jefferson Parker, who writes bestselling police procedural novels set in California. Parker is a journalist who turned novelist – perhaps a tiny hint of where Rory’s career is eventually headed.

The Scarecrow of Oz

A 1915 children’s book by L. Frank Baum, the ninth in his series of Oz books. The Wizard of Oz is a touchstone for Gilmore Girls, and this seems to be a little nod to the land of Oz. The Scarecrow from the original story is the magical helper (the one who didn’t have a brain, but was actually quite smart), and the human protagonists are a man and a little girl from California.

Contact

A 1985 science novel by scientist Carl Sagan. The heroine is a scientist named Ellie who showed a strong aptitude for science and mathematics from a young age, and has been left emotionally bereft by the loss of her father, with a problematic relationship with her mother. Contact with an alien civilisation allows Ellie a strange chance to reconnect with her memories of her father. It feels like something that would resonate with Rory. Ellie is also from California. The novel was a bestseller, and made into a film in 1997, starring Jodie Foster. The film might have given Rory an interest in reading the novel.

The Apocalyptics: Cancer and the Big Lie

Edith Efron was a journalist who began her career at the New York Times Magazine, became a member of Ayn Rand’s circle and wrote for her magazine, and then became editor of TV Guide at the height of its popularity. She was critical of what she perceived as “liberal bias in the media”, but provided a strong voice on race relations (Efron had a biracial son during 1950s segregation). She later wrote for the libertarian publication, Reason. The Apocalyptics is a 1984 exposé of the cancer industry and a criticism of environmental policy which Efron saw as being based on “bad science” (basically saying Rachel Carson etc were all a bunch of doom-merchants). It’s an obscure, controversial, and extremely heavy-going work. An intriguing insight into Rory’s interests.

Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do

A 1974 non-fiction book by oral historian and radio broadcaster Louis “Studs” Terkel. An exploration of what makes work meaningful for people, based on interviews with people from all walks of life. It was a bestseller, and turned into a Broadway musical in 1977, and a graphic novel in 2009.

A book by “Tobias Allcot”

This seems to be a fictional book which would have been created by the props department as a slightly odd joke. Tobias Allcot is the name of a Pulitzer Prize-winning author in the film The Man from Elysian Fields, directed by George Hinkenlooper; James Coburn portrays Allcot. The film wasn’t released until September 2002, but had been shown at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2001.

Chinese Food

Lorelai orders a lot of Chinese food from Al’s Pancake World (too much, in Richard’s view). We don’t know everything she orders, but apart from egg rolls, we know she orders:

Egg foo young [pictured]: an omelette dish found in Chinese American cuisine. Its Chinese name fúróngdàn literally means “hibiscus egg” in Cantonese, and it derives from fu yung egg slices, a recipe from Guangdong (various vegetables cooked in beaten egg). In Western countries, it is usually a folded omelette with meat and vegetables embedded in the egg. In North American, it is often served with sauce or gravy.

Garlic chicken: a Chinese American chicken dish, where the chicken is stir-fried in a thick garlic, honey and soy sauce. Often topped with sesame seeds and green onions. Rory asks for this to be added to the menu.

Moo shu pork: a dish from northern China which has been a staple of Chinese American cuisine since the 1960s. It consists of marinated pork stir-fried with mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and scrambled egg, in a rice wine sauce. Usually served with rice or pancakes, and hoi sin sauce.

Love Hurts

LORELAI: I don’t think I’ve ever loved you quite as much as I love you right now.
RORY: Ah, ribs cracking, organs crushing.
LORELAI: Yeah, well, love hurts.

Probably a reference to the song Love Hurts, written by Boudloux Bryant, and originally recorded by the Everly Brothers in 1960. It is best known from the 1974 version by Scottish band Nazareth, who turned it from a country song into a hard rock power ballad. It became an international hit, and reached #8 in the US in 1976. It went to #1 in Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, and South Africa. It was less successful in their own country, reaching #46 in the UK.

It has been covered numerous times, including by Cher, and often used in advertisements, films, and television. It is on the soundtrack to Sid and Nancy.

Censorship in a Small Town

PARIS: Our story. Censorship in a small town, it’s perfect.
RORY: Paris, stop it. You know I don’t believe in censorship.
PARIS: Even better, small town minds run amok.

Paris is right – this is actually an interesting story, showing how in small towns, a tiny minority of people (Kirk and Taylor) can wield enough power to crush free speech entirely. Rory says she doesn’t believe in censorship, but she literally asked for an R-rated DVD to be put in a different section of the video store. That’s censorship!

The Rory Curtain

RORY: No! I don’t want a Rory Curtain, I never asked for a Rory Curtain!

Thanks to Rory’s meddling, Kirk and Taylor have placed nearly all the DVDs behind a red velvet curtain which they have named in honour of Rory. The curtain is highly reminiscent of the red velvet curtain in the mysterious Red Room/Black Lodge in the television show, Twin Peaks, by Amy Sherman-Palladino’s favourite director, David Lynch. Like Twin Peaks, Stars Hollow is a quirky little town with a secret dark side, although it skews much more sweet and wholesome than the twisted Twin Peaks.