Footnotes to the TV series
MAX: I kind of picked something up there.
LORELAI: Okay. Well, drop it back on the ground and kick it under the couch, because there is no there there.
Lorelai’s comment is a famous quote from Everybody’s Autobiography, a 1937 memoir by American author Gertrude Stein which continues on from the 1933, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. The quote refers to Stein’s disappeared childhood home in Oakland, California.
PARIS: Too bad I already filled the spot for music coverage. You know, record reviewing and such. You’d have been perfect for it. I gave the job to Louise.
RORY: Louise owns two CDs.
PARIS: Yeah. Well, gotta go. Have a really good summer.
Paris makes it sound as if it is now the last day of the school year, which I guess it could be if the episode covered more than a month, but that doesn’t explain how Rory is back at school again later in the episode (and doesn’t fit with how this episode is dated in a future season). More likely she means the summer vacation is very soon, or perhaps that regular classes are about to end to make way for the final exams schedule.
As Rory looks back at Paris, Madeline, Louise, who began the school year as her enemies, became her friends, and are now suddenly enemies again at the end of the school year, they stand on the steps in a manner reminiscent of an iconic scene in the film Heathers, previously discussed. It’s a clear sign that they are back to being a gang of “mean girls” again.
PARIS: I just got the job [of school newspaper editor].
RORY: Oh. Congratulations.
PARIS: Thank you. And don’t worry, you’ll have some role. How’s covering the new parking lot landscaping sound?
Paris is not kidding – writing up the new parking lot is the first assignment that she sets Rory when school resumes the next semester.
To me it seems unbelievable that a junior would be given the job of editor over seniors, who would already have a year of experience under their belt. However, it’s not impossible The Franklin is a school newspaper specifically for juniors to work on, and Paris can be very forceful when she wants something. Rory certainly didn’t seem to make much effort to get chosen as editor, which she should have done as an aspiring journalist.
PARIS: You know, when we met at the beginning of the year, I didn’t like you because I thought you were some rube from the sticks, and I have no patience for rubes.
RORY: How very enlightening.
A rube is a unsophisticated, naive person, especially one from a rural area. It is a nickname for Reuben, which since the mid 19th century was applied as a generic name for people from the country.
RORY: But … what’s wrong with her [Madeline]?
LOUISE: Nothing’s wrong with her, Mary.
RORY: Mary? Oh no, not this Virgin Mary thing again.
LOUISE: Not Virgin. Typhoid.
Typhoid Mary was the name given to the Irish-born American Mary Mallon (1869-1938), the first identified person in the United States to be a carrier of typhoid fever without displaying any symptoms. She is believed to have infected an estimated 51 people, at least three of whom died, while working as a cook. As she used fake identities and was able to give authorities the slip several times, the numbers could be far higher, with some estimating that she may have killed over 50 people.
Mary spent the last 23 years of her life in forced quarantine, as she refused to stop working as a cook, even after being told she was a carrier of disease – she would not accept it. Typhoid Mary is a name given to anyone who unknowingly spreads disease or other undesirable traits.
Louise means that they intend to “quarantine” Rory by ignoring her, showing that she and Madeline are loyal to Paris, even when she is being unfair.
RACHEL: So don’t wait too long, okay?
LUKE: To what?
RACHEL: To tell her [Lorelai]. (Rachel leaves.)
This would be great advice – except that because Luke got back with his ex-girlfriend Rachel just as Lorelai was going mad with loneliness, Lorelai was pushed into the arms of her ex-boyfriend Max, and now Luke can’t tell her how he feels.
So this is advice that Luke would have really appreciated about seven weeks ago, except he blew that by getting back with Rachel. And he only really discovered how he felt about Lorelai because of getting back with Rachel, and Rachel telling him how he feels. It’s great, yet essentially useless, advice at the moment.
Goodbye Rachel, we hardly knew ye, and now you’re gone forever.
LUKE: It’s just like all the other times Rachel. You’re the anywhere but here girl, you’re restless, you’re bored, it is what it is.
RACHEL: That’s not it.
A possible reference to the 1999 comedy-drama film Anywhere But Here, directed by Wayne Wang, and based on the prize-winning novel of the same name by Mona Simpson. The story is about an eccentric mother and her practical teenage daughter, with Susan Sarandon and Natalie Portman in the main roles. The film was successful and received good reviews.
It seems a bit unlikely as a film that Luke would go to see, but fits in with the timeline and themes of Gilmore Girls. If would certainly be very interesting if Luke had made an effort to see a film about a mother and teenage daughter.
(Rachel picks up her luggage and walks out from behind the counter.)
LUKE: So you’re leaving, huh?
RACHEL: Yeah.
After waltzing into town on a whim in March, Rachel is now out of there after putting in a full seven weeks or so as Luke’s live-in girlfriend and diner assistant. (You can see that she is taking the leather camera case that Luke bought her and Lorelai chose). It’s amazing how little we actually learn about her (not even her surname, or how she came to Stars Hollow in the first place to become Luke’s girlfriend).
Rachel was never a real character, just a plot device. She came to Stars Hollow to remind Lorelai about the Dragonfly, an old inn that now becomes part of Lorelai and Sookie’s goals for the future. She also arrived to help Luke understand that he has feelings for Lorelai, and that he is definitely over Rachel, who he had long held a torch for (in fact, he more or less admitted to Lorelai that he has been in love with a fantasy all these years).
Amazingly, one thing Rachel didn’t come to do was to help Rory with her journalism career. It’s almost unbelievable that Rory got to meet a real-life photojournalist, and one who is also young, cool, and travels the world for her job, covering important political stories, just as Rory longs to do, and not once do we see Rory ask her for advice, or any interaction between them at all, apart from Rachel bringing them food and drinks in the diner.
This would have been the most incredible opportunity for Rory to talk to a freelance journalist, ask about the perks and downsides of the job, managing the day-to-day aspects of such work, the difficulties of travelling to distant and even dangerous locales, the need for being independent and organised, or even the publications that Rachel has sold stories to. It shows a lack of keenness for her future career that is truly disappointing.
Dean brings his little sister to the town meeting, even though he has never been to a meeting on his own, and town meetings don’t seem like something a little girl would enjoy as an outing (they probably aren’t suitable for little girls either, as Taylor tells us that the insults bandied around by disgruntled townsfolk can sometimes be pretty adult-oriented).
The only reason Dean has to attend the meeting is to see (stalk, spy on) Rory, and the only reason he has to bring Clara with him is so that she can confirm that the girl who came to door was definitely Rory – he already saw Rory running away, but only from the back. Clara already said she recognised Rory from photos Dean had in his room, so this is to make completely sure before he takes any action.
It all works out as Dean hoped: Rory is at the meeting with Lorelai and Max, and even stands up and makes a speech about how it’s hard to express your true feelings without looking like an idiot. The speech appears to be targeted specifically at him (it is), so that Dean knows that Rory did return his feelings, but was unable to tell him. To seal the deal, Clara identifies Rory as the girl who came to their house, so he knows that Rory has come looking for him, and she’s been stalking him too.
TAYLOR: Oh, this is absolutely ridiculous. Do you subscribe to this troubadour mystique?
RIVAL TROUBADOUR: I run a Kinko’s in Groton.
Kinko’s was an earlier trademarked name for FedEx Office Print & Ship Services, a retail chain providing an outlet for FedEx Express and FedEx Ground Shipping, as well as printing, copying, and binding services. It is the main competitor to UPS Stores. Founded in 1970, the name was changed in 2004, although the older name is still advertised.
The town of Groton in Connecticut was discussed earlier, as the former home of Lorelai’s deceased relative, Claudia. It is about an hour’s drive from the area where Stars Hollow appears to be located. In real life, it doesn’t have a FedEx Office today, and may not have had a Kinko’s in 2001. Does this cast doubt on the rival troubadour’s story? Perhaps he has mystique too, but just has a different way of going about it.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 