Footnotes to the TV series
EMILY: She was your father’s grandmother’s sister’s girl. So to you, that would make her …
LORELAI: Nothing?
The Gilmore clan had many members, the majority of whom were discussed but never appeared on screen. The deceased Claudia was Lorelai’s first cousin twice removed.
LORELAI: Germany. Is Dad’s firm insuring Nazis now?
EMILY: Your father doesn’t know any Nazis.
The National Socialist German Worker’s Party was a far-right political party active in Germany between 1923 and 1945, notorious for their belief in an “Aryan Master Race”, and the hideous consequences of that when they came to power.
They were abolished at the end of World War II, and there are strict laws in Germany about displaying Nazi symbols and using hate speech. Despite Lorelai’s (not very funny or clever) joke, there are far more Nazis in the United States, where laws exist to protect them, than in Germany.
The episode opens with Lorelai and Rory having Friday Night Dinner with Emily; Richard is on a business trip to Germany. It is actually the evening of the same Friday that Rory missed the Shakespeare test in the previous episode, The Deer Hunters.
Later episodes will show Emily having a direct hotline to Chilton gossip through her friendship with Bitty Charleston, the headmaster’s wife. Yet Emily never brings up the fact that both Rory and Lorelai have thrown massive fits in the headmaster’s office that very day, and Rory was even sent home from school because of her behaviour.
Maybe her friendship with Bitty is not yet as close as it will be later, or Headmaster Charleston was unusually discreet about being yelled at by two Gilmores. For whatever reason, Lorelai seems to get away with it completely, and she has a rare escape from being chastised severely by her mother.
The episode title is a play on Finnegan’s Wake, the 1939 comic avant-garde novel by Irish author James Joyce. Experimental in style, it is considered one of the most difficult works of fiction in the English language. Upon publication, critics were baffled and hostile, but it is now thought to be Joyce’s literary masterpiece.
The title of the novel comes from a 19th century comical Irish ballad, about a man named Finnegan who falls from a ladder and is thought to be dead, but comes back to life at his own wake. Death and resurrection is a central theme of the novel as well. No such luck for Cinnamon, however.
RORY: I do however reserve the right to change my mind.
LORELAI: That’s your prerogative as long as you remain a woman.
Lorelai is referring to the saying that “It is a woman’s prerogative to change her mind”. The proverb may come from law: from the Middle Ages onward, if a man broke off an engagement, he could be sued for breach of promise since he had broken a contract. But a woman was allowed to back out of an engagement with no legal repercussions, although there might be significant social ones.
Even though today both men and women are legally allowed to change their minds when it comes to marriage, the old saying remains.
LORELAI: I’m talking about – did it start with me? Or did it start with you? Was it my dream that you go to Harvard? … Because I never got to do the big fancy college thing? Maybe all this time I’m thinking it’s all for Rory, when really it wasn’t.
Lorelai is being disingenuous – she knew perfectly well that Harvard was her dream for Rory when she discussed this with Mr. Medina. However, she does tell Rory that she doesn’t want her to go to Chilton and Harvard if it makes her unhappy. Rory says that however it started, Harvard is her dream now, and she won’t give up on it.
LORELAI: So what does the deer look like? Huh? Does it have any distinguishing marks – besides the word Jeep imprinted on it’s forehead?
Jeep is a brand of American automobile, made by Chrysler; their range is in sport utility vehicles and off-road vehicles. The original Jeep was made in 1941 for the military, and was the primary four-wheel drive vehicle used by the Allies; after the war they were produced for civilian use. Lorelai’s car is a 2000 Jeep Wrangler (although in the show it is said to be a 1999 model).
A couple of episodes ago, a connection was made between Lorelai and Daisy Duke from The Dukes of Hazzard when Lorelai chose to wear denim shorts to Chilton. Another thing they have in common is that they both drive Jeeps – but Daisy’s was white, while Lorelai’s is tan. Gilmore Girls was filmed on several of the same sets at Warner Brothers as The Dukes of Hazzard – Stars Hollow High School was previously the Hazzard County Courthouse, for example.
After Gilmore Girls run ended, Lorelai’s Jeep was auctioned off in 2011, and sold to the highest bidder. It was bought by someone from Deep River, Connecticut – a small town with a selectman, a strong sense of community, a day devoted to colonial history, a quaint main street, and a town square with a gazebo. In fact, it’s gone to somewhere rather like Stars Hollow!
RORY: Well stay in the car.
LORELAI: It’s dangerous in the car with all the kamikaze deer running around [getting out of car]
During World War II, Japanese kamikaze pilots were those who took part in suicide attacks against Allied forces in the Pacific campaign. The word kamikaze means “divine wind, spirit wind”.
LORELAI: Rules can change, you can change them.
Time and again on the show, Lorelai demonstrated that she believed that rules were for other people, not for Gilmores. She was usually successful in her attempts to get special treatment – just as she is here: Rory isn’t given a zero on the Shakespeare test, but is allowed to make it up with other work.
Flashdance is a 1983 romantic drama film directed by Adrian Lyne, about a working class teenage girl (Jennifer Beals) who dreams of being a professional dancer. Flashdance was panned by critics, but a commercial success and the #3 movie of 1983.
The “Flashdance phase” is another time Lorelai believes she was wrong. In the movie, Jennifer Beals wears 1980s dancewear, such as a leotard and leg warmers topped with an oversized sweatshirt falling off her shoulders; her other iconic outfit is jeans with ripped knees and a white singlet top falling off her shoulders. These were popular fashion choices in 1983 (when Lorelai was 15) because of the film. For a while there, nobody could keep clothes on their shoulders or knees.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 