Barry Manilow CD

LORELAI: All right, I confess, I was hiding Barry Manilow.
RORY: You confess!
LORELAI: But he was very big when I was very small and it’s the live version where he does a medley of all the commercial jingles he’s written.

Barry Manilow (born Barry Pincus in 1943) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and producer who’s had a career spanning more than fifty years. His biggest hits include Mandy (1971), I Write the Songs (1975), Can’t Smile Without You (1975), and the Grammy-winning Copacabana (1978). He has had 51 Top 40 hits, with 13 of them getting to #1, and has sold more than 85 million records worldwide.

Lorelai admits that she has been hiding a Barry Manilow CD under the seat of the car. The album she refers to is his 1977 Barry Manilow Live, recorded at the Uris Theatre in New York. It contains a track which is titled Very Strange Medley, and as Lorelai says, it’s a medley of commercial jingles that Manilow wrote before he became a star. Some of the products promoted are Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald’s, Dr Pepper, and Pepsi. Manilow says he included it against the values of his “artsy-fartsy” friends.

Rory teases Lorelai by singing a song which appears on this live album – Looks Like We Made It. It’s from his 1976 album, This One’s For You, released in 1977, and reached #1. People often take the song’s lyrics as being positive, but in fact they’re bittersweet – the narrator of the song and his ex-lover, have finally “made it”, but separately, not together. Only by breaking up have they found success. A possible reminder that, as a mother and daughter, Rory and Lorelai will have to go their separate ways at some point if Rory is to have a future.

Busy Diner

LORELAI: Wow, busy today. Has Luke been advertising or something?
RORY: He gets good word-of-mouth.
LORELAI: Well, we have to start spreading bad word-of-mouth so we can always have a table.
RORY: Well, that would be wrong, but sure.

The show opens with Lorelai and Rory having a weekend breakfast at Luke’s and finding it disturbingly busier than they anticipated. (It actually doesn’t look busier than any other time they’ve shown Luke’s diner on a weekend at breakfast time).

Even though there’s a free table right inside the door, they still joke about ruining Luke’s business to make sure they never, never, ever, run the risk of missing out on a table. Then they end up ordering coffee and muffins, which they … didn’t really need a table for, anyway? They could have taken those to go. But from the goofy way Lorelai gazes at Luke, it seems she’s here for more than food …

Lorelai is surprised to see Luke being polite and friendly to a customer, saying he’s usually so gruff. Luke is chatting to a middle-aged woman sitting alone – probably trying to make her feel welcome, as single, older women quite often get short shrift in cafes and restaurants. It’s not only a kind gesture, but good business sense (and quite believable behaviour for someone who lost their mother young and was brought up with traditional values). No wonder he gets good word-of-mouth!

Lorelai Reaches Out to Emily

LORELAI: You know, I’m really lucky.
RORY: Yeah, why?
LORELAI: I have someone to complain to when life sucks or work sucks or just everything sucks. I have someone I can talk to.

Lorelai realises that she is lucky that she can confide in Rory, but that Emily does not have a daughter she can talk to when life goes wrong for her. She has a moment of insight of how lonely Emily must be without that daughterly support that she takes for granted, and for once doesn’t immediately blame Emily for not fostering their relationship, the way she has with Rory. She’s willing to acknowledge how much Emily has missed out on.

At the end of the episode, she goes to her parents’ house before her business class, and finds Emily gardening on the patio. She lets Emily know that if she ever needs someone to talk to, Lorelai will be there for her. Although Emily does not avail herself of this offer, Lorelai remains to keep her mother company. Ironically, she has ignored her own advice to never go out on the patio!

Note the bright yellow lilies in this shot, as a hint of what happiness would be possible, and a slight callback to Lorelai’s thousand yellow daisies. Do Emily and Lorelai share a love of yellow flowers?

Shecky

LORELAI: Oh Shecky, you kill me.

Shecky Greene (born Fred Sheldon Greenfield in 1926) is an American comedian, known for his headline performances in Las Vegas during the 1950s and ’60s. He also appeared in films and on TV, and made appearances at Carnegie Hall and on The Ed Sullivan Show.

Amy Sherman-Palladino became a fan of classic Jewish comedians as a young teenager from listening to her father’s old records. How Lorelai has also gained such knowledge of them is left to the viewer’s imagination.

Jess Wears a New Work Uniform

A bookends-style joke for the episode. At the beginning, Jess was in trouble for wearing his “inappropriate” Metallica tee-shirt to work at the diner. Now he comes out dressed as a Luke clone, in his own checked flannel shirt and backwards baseball cap, claiming he assumed that it was the uniform for the job.

While Luke berates him, Rory and Lorelai look on in amusement. Jess can feel gratified that once again he has managed to get Rory’s attention through his clothing choices.

It is also another “mirroring” scene, where Luke and Jess are presented as mirror images of each other, just as when Jess first stepped off the bus into Stars Hollow.

Glass Slipper

LUKE: So, back from the ball, huh?
LORELAI: Yes, I left behind a glass slipper and a business card in case the prince is really dumb.

Yet another Cinderella reference. In the fairy tale, Cinderella loses the glass slipper at the ball by which the prince, through a laborious and long-winded process, eventually manages to track her down. Lorelai suggests leaving a business card might have led to quicker results.

Is Lorelai’s response supposed to be a hint to Luke, or just a comment on the stupidity of Christopher? Either way, it feels as if Luke’s opening gambit is his way of testing to see if Christopher is going to be sticking around or not.

“Named after a Journey song”

LORELAI: Poor girl’s named after a Journey song, that’s gotta be rough.

Lorelai refers to the 1984 song, Oh Sherrie. It’s technically a Steve Perry song rather than one by his band, Journey, taken from his solo album, Street Talk. However, it’s often regarded as an “honorary” Journey song, being credited to the band on compilations of their hits, and played by the band on their 1986 Raised on Radio tour.

Oh Sherrie was Steve Perry’s biggest hit as a solo artist, going to #3 in the charts. It was written about his girlfriend at the time, Sherrie Swafford, who also appeared in the music video. Steve and Sherrie broke up around 1986, after several years of dating, but reportedly remain good friends.

Christopher’s girlfriend can’t really be named after the song – if that was the case, she would be Rory’s age or younger!

Christopher’s New Girlfriend

CHRISTOPHER: That is a tempting offer, but I really have to get back.
LORELAI: To work?
CHRISTOPHER: To work … and to someone.

Lorelai suggests that now Christopher is living as close as Boston, he might like to stay with them on weekends sometimes (and to stay for the rest of this weekend specifically). Rory would love it, and … Lorelai says she wouldn’t mind either. This new, responsible Volvo-driving Christopher is obviously far more appealing.

Unfortunately for happy families, Christopher says that he has a girlfriend called Sherrie now. In fact, as a real slap in the face, he didn’t move to Boston to be closer to Rory, but because it’s where Sherrie lives. Not only has he not bothered to tell them about Sherrie before, not only has he led Lorelai on by not revealing his relationship status, but he ignores the fact that having a girlfriend shouldn’t stop him from visiting his daughter. (If it would be too weird to stay over, couldn’t he get a room at a hotel or something?). Once again, Christopher is only thinking of Lorelai.

When Lorelai joins Rory at the diner, it transpires that Christopher did tell his daughter about Sherrie, presumably at the ball, since there’s been no opportunity for Rory to tell Lorelai about it before this.

“Buy yourself a sofa”

LORELAI: I just wanted to tell you how amazing you were tonight. Really, you completely came through for her.
CHRISTOPHER: She deserves it.
LORELAI: I haven’t always given you a lot of credit in the past, but I’m giving you credit now. Big credit. Major credit. Buy yourself a sofa.

Lorelai is referring to store promotions, common for big ticket items such as furniture, where credit is extended to approved customers so they can take their purchase home immediately.