Georgia

During the scene at the nursery, we get a very good shot of Georgia in her crib at the nursery. The baby portraying Georgia is unlisted in the credits, and as usual with TV and film infants, they are clearly at least three months old.

The card on her crib says she is named Georgia, and her mother is S. Tinsdale (no father on the card, presumably because he isn’t a patient).

It gives her date of birth as 31st January 2003, although she was born at 1.17 am – which means she can’t have been born on the 31st January! Sherry went into labour on the night of the 31st January, meaning that if Georgia was born at 1.17 am the next morning, it would be the 1st of February. Can nobody gets babies’ birthdays correct on this show?

Her weight at birth was 6 pounds and 20 ounces, just a little under the average for a baby girl, and she is 18.9 inches long – again, just a smidge under the average. One of her doctors was Schreiber, and I’m afraid I can’t read the second name or what their role was. It looks something like Sasaberi.

Christopher Shows Lorelai His Baby Daughter

Christopher takes Lorelai to see the newborn Georgia in the nursery (Rory is understandably asleep). He is still on a high from watching the birth of his second daughter, saying that it was amazing, and he’d never seen anything like it.

Lorelai, with devastatingly understatement, agrees that she does know how amazing it is, and that Christopher hasn’t seen anything like it before. Her expression says that she is reliving her own nursery moment, which we see in the upcoming flashback.

Due to the fact that we don’t know what happened, it isn’t possible to know for sure whether Lorelai feels resentful that Christopher wasn’t there for Rory’s birth, or whether she feels a b it guilty for shutting him out and denying him the chance to see his daughter being born.

Luke and Nicole Get Back From Their Date

They were gone for four hours, from 7.30-11.30 pm, and they both had a good time, even though both of them hated the restaurant that Luke picked out. In other words, it was a successful date. Jess none-too-subtly asks Luke if he’d like the apartment to himself for an hour so he and Nicole can have sex, which results in a comic argument which the viewer can see through the window, but not hear. You can’t help getting the feeling Jess is only too pleased for Luke to pursue any woman who isn’t Lorelai.

Epilady

NURSE: No, you cannot hit me.
LORELAI: Can I bite you or pull your hair or use the Epilady on you, ’cause I really need to do something?

Epilady was the brand name of the first epilator, an electrical device used to remove hair by mechanically grasping multiple hairs simultaneously and pulling them out. It was released in Israel in 1986, manufactured by Mepro on a kibbutz.

They were notoriously painful to use, sometimes likened to torture devices, so Lorelai thinks of it as something painful she can use on the nurse to take her mind off her labour pains, like biting her or pulling her hair.

Obviously this flashback can’t have actually happened, because it is October 1984, and the Epilady hadn’t been invented yet. Perhaps it is a false memory. (If so, can we really trust any of the flashbacks?).

99 Luftballoons

The song Lorelai is listening to while waiting to give birth at the hospital.

“99 Luftballons” (in German, “99 Balloons”) is a 1983 song by the German band Nena from their self-titled album. It is an anti-war song, telling the story of a devastating war without victors which was originally sparked by the release of 99 balloons, believed to be UFOs. Written by guitarist Carlos Karges, he was inspired by balloons released at a Rolling Stones concert in West Berlin, noticing that they looked like spacecraft as they changed shape in the air. He wondered what might happen if they floated over the Berlin Wall into the Soviet-controlled East Berlin.

“99 Luftballons” went to #1 in West Germany, and many other countries around the world, including Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. It reached #2 in the US.

An English-language version called “99 Red Balloons” was written by Irish musician Kevin McAlea, and recorded by Nena. It went to #1 in the UK, Ireland, Canada, and Australia, but wasn’t a hit in either West Germany or the US. Australia is the only country where both versions went to #1. The band did not care for the English-language version, and thought the lyrics were “silly”.

Not only was this song popular the year before Lorelai had Rory, it also provides a little callback to the scene in this episode where Lorelai and Rory talk about visiting the Berlin Wall.

Flashback 5

We see a nurse wheeling Lorelai into the delivery room to give birth, when Emily and Richard arrive. Emily is furious that Lorelai simply left for the hospital (in a taxi?), leaving a note reading: “Dear Mom and Dad, I’m in labor. See you later, Lorelai”. Richard is only annoyed that he is wearing the “wrong shoes” for the occasion, which are apparently uncomfortable.

Emily begins scolding Lorelai, even as she is being wheeled into the delivery room, for not asking them for a lift to the hospital. Lorelai receives no comfort, no support, not even a kind word from her parents as she prepares to give birth.

The contrast with Sherry is clear – Sherry is a woman in her thirties, accompanied into the delivery room by Christopher, her fiancé and the father of her baby. She also has Lorelai and Rory to give support, waiting outside. Lorelai was a sixteen-year-old girl who got herself to hospital and gave birth alone, without Christopher, and with two angry and uncomfortable parents waiting for her.

Sherry Prepares to Give Birth

SHERRY: Christopher, you’re here! I can’t believe you’re here. I didn’t think you’d make it.
CHRISTOPHER: Are you kidding? You think I’d miss this?

Sherry is being wheeled into the delivery room when Christopher rushes to join her at the last moment. Christopher says he wouldn ‘t miss this, but of course, he already did – he missed Rory’s birth. It must be difficult for Lorelai to witness Christopher showing up for his second daughter’s birth when he wasn’t there for the first. She’s certainly looking rather pouty about it.

Then again, we never see Christopher’s point of view. Did Lorelai tell him she was going into labour and needed to go to hospital, or did she just leave without telling him? Was he given the opportunity to accompany her, or did he simply not know? This is never made clear.

Christopher Arrives at the Hospital

At the eleventh hour, Christopher arrives at the hospital, after being out of town for some mysterious reason, in an area where he couldn’t get cell phone reception for some mysterious reason. Where was he, the middle of the woods? Maybe cell phone coverage was a lot more patchy in the US during the early 2000s?

It is a relief for Rory and Lorelai to see him, because otherwise it would have been them going in with Sherry to watch the birth. It seems almost superhuman of Lorelai to offer to accompany Sherry into the delivery room, when she doesn’t like Sherry, and resents her for being the reason things didn’t work out between she and Christopher.

But as Lorelai told Emily – she wasn’t going to do it for Sherry, but for Rory. Luckily, she never has to do it, but it must bring Rory comfort to know her mother was ready to be there for her is she wanted her.

Howard Stern

LORELAI: And the second thing is, you need to tell me why you’re sitting like that.
SHERRY: Maureen told me that Howard Stern said that if you squat, it makes the baby come out faster.
LORELAI: Okay, as long as you have a sane reason from a reliable source.

Howard Stern (born 1954), radio and television personality, comedian, and author. He is best known for his radio show, The Howard Stern Show, which gained popularity when it was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2005. His show attracted a lot of controversy and was considered vulgar and outrageous.

Despite this, and Lorelai’s understandable disdain for Stern as an authority on medical issues, squatting is actually recommended as a safe and effective position to give birth in.