“Jess happened”

LUKE: But why, what happened?

LORELAI: Jess happened.

Lorelai completely blames Jess for Rory’s break-up with Dean. Although in a sense she’s correct, in that Jess’ appearance precipitated the break-up, Lorelai ignores the fact that her daughter hadn’t been happy with Dean for a long time. Rory and Dean didn’t share many interests or similar values, and it seemed as if when Rory wasn’t frightened of Dean’s temper, she was bored with him. Lorelai was happy for Rory to continue in an unsatisfying relationship rather than go out with Jess.

Unlike Lorelai, Luke is thrilled by this news. He has been shipping Rory and Jess since the beginning, and this is another instance where Luke and Lorelai are not on the same page.

Rory and Jess: The Early Years

LUKE: What the hell was that?

LORELAI: That was episode one of Rory and Jess: The Early Years.

Compare to Lorelai saying a potential situation with her father was like Who’s The Boss, the later years.

This is Rory and Jess’ first encounter since Dean dumped Rory at the dance marathon. They are both too shy to say more than a few words to each other in front of Lorelai and Luke, which feels true to life.

Heather Mills

LORELAI: Hey, unh, Luke, uh, we need a couple of donuts, and, uh, some of those extra legs Heather Mills is sending over to Croatia.

Heather Mills (born 1968), English former model, businesswoman, and activist. She came to public attention in 1993 when her left leg had to be amputated below the knee after a motorcycle accident. However, she continued to model while wearing a prosthetic limb.

Mills set up a trust which sent prosthetic limbs to people (mostly children) who had lost limbs stepping on landmines. Because she went through several prosthetic legs while her stump healed, she also had the idea of delivering discarded prosthetic limbs to amputees in Croatia, the first ones arriving in 1994. They weren’t really “extra legs”, and they weren’t always legs either.

She married rock star Paul McCartney in 2000. They divorced acrimoniously in 2008.

Alpha Male

LORELAI: Because I’m the leader of the clan, the provider of the household, the alpha male, and the one whose feet just fell asleep so there’s absolutely no chance of movement.

In biology, a dominant high-ranking member of an animal social group is known as an alpha. Alpha male is used as a pseudoscientific slang term for a dominant male. It is has been sharply criticised by scientists as incorrect, and by others for perpetuating damaging stereotypes about masculinity. It has been in use since the early 1990s.

The Donner Party

RORY: I never realized Luke’s was a hundred miles away.
LORELAI: We’re lucky it wasn’t snowing. It would’ve been The Donner Party all over again, but with slightly better hair.

The Donner Party, sometimes called The Donner-Reed Party (!!!!!), was a group of American pioneers who migrated to California from the Midwest in a wagon train. Delayed by a multitude of mishaps, they spent the winter of 1846–1847 snowbound in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Some of the migrants resorted to cannibalism to survive, eating the bodies of those who had succumbed to starvation, sickness, and extreme cold.

Rescuers from California attempted to reach the migrants, but the first relief party did not arrive until the middle of February 1847, almost four months after the wagon train became trapped. Of the 87 members of the party, 48 survived the ordeal. Historians have described the episode as one of the most fascinating tragedies in California history and in the entire record of American westward migration.

This is the second reference the show makes to cannibalism during extreme survival in snowy mountains.

“You’ve been up twenty-four hours straight”

RORY: I feel jet-lagged.

LORELAI: You’ve been up twenty-four hours straight.

Um, no. The dance marathon began at 6 am on Saturday and finished at 6 am Sunday (earlier actually, as Kirk won some time before 6). It’s now Monday morning, so where did Sunday go? Everyone acts as if the marathon just finished an hour or so ago, but an entire day is missing from the timeline here. Maybe the whole town went into a collective coma after the marathon and they all lost a day.

Lorelai Comforts Rory

[Lorelai sees Rory across the gym, and she walks over to her]

LORELAI: Rory, what happened? Where did you go? [sees that Rory is crying] Oh, Rory, honey! Oh.

[Lorelai and Rory hug while Kirk runs around the gym with the trophy]

Despite ruining Lorelai’s chances of winning, Lorelai only thinks of comforting her daughter when she sees how upset Rory is. Nothing stops Kirk’s victory lap – he has no problems celebrating as a teenage girl sobs in her mother’s arms!

Kirk’s dance partner is Donna Delain, who he has danced with for the past five years. She is presumably a good friend, or possibly a relative, but we never hear of her again. Kirk does not include Donna in the celebrations, and he keeps the trophy, even though her dancing has helped him to win! Also note that Kirk is wearing a Doose’s Market logo on his back – perhaps Taylor is sponsoring him?

“Where’s Rory?”

KIRK: I win, I win! I win, I win, I win, I win!

LORELAI: You didn’t win! I’m still here! Patty, where’s Rory?

MISS PATTY: Oh, she ran off the floor a little while ago, honey.

LORELAI: What? No!

How did Lorelai not see what happened? She was just sitting in the bleachers with Luke. And she was only supposed to have a ten minute break, but it seems as if she was gone much longer than that. I’m not convinced that Lorelai wasn’t disqualified anyway.