Footnotes to the TV series
JESS: You’re definitely broken up with Dean?
RORY: Yeah, I’m definitely broken up with Dean.
JESS: Okay. I have to go take care of something then.
Before anything happens between Rory and Jess, he leaves to break up with Shane. It’s six in the morning and she’s been stuck watching a dance marathon for eighteen hours – let the poor girl get some sleep, Jess! However, it does show that Jess has a responsible side, and is not going to cheat on Shane, no matter how badly he treated her otherwise.
JESS: Dean’s a jerk. Yelling at you like that, breaking up in front of everybody. . .the guy’s a total jerk.
RORY: No, he’s not. He’s right. Everything he said. All those things about you and me, all those things about me lying to him, and messing with his head. He was right. Well, wasn’t he? Fine, he was right about me, then. Now go away.
Jess and Rory meet at the bridge again, which is starting to seem like their special spot for emotional connection. It’s also a nod to They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, which ends with the main couple sitting on a pier together.
DEAN: You don’t wanna be with me, Rory … You’ve been into him since he got to town, and I have spent weeks – months, actually – trying to convince myself that it wasn’t true, that everything was fine between us. But now I know that I was an idiot. You’re into him and he’s into you, and Shane, who by the way, should be listening to this ’cause it’s so damn obvious … Everyone can see, Rory! Everyone. And I’m tired, but I’m over it, so go ahead, go. Be together. There’s nothing standing in your way now, ’cause I’m out.
[Dean grabs his jacket from the bleachers and leaves]
Dean finally gets to say everything that’s been on his mind since at least February, so a whole nine months coming. Even fans who don’t care for Dean can at least feel glad that he is allowed to speak his mind, because Rory really has treated him pretty badly.
Note that Dean ignores his own advice not to get into anything with a Gilmore girl late at night, because they get cranky when they’re tired. And boy was he right about that!
JESS: I’m gonna sit here as long as I like, and I’m gonna do whatever I like, and if you don’t like it, then just ignore me and pay attention to your boyfriend.
DEAN: Sorry, she can’t. I’m not her boyfriend anymore.
This is the second time that Rory and Dean break up. We never got to see the first time, but this one is very public. Most fans feel Rory had this public humiliation coming to her, since Dean has been publicly humiliated a few times in their relationship because of Jess.
RORY: There they go again! God, I swear, why can’t they just get a room? Or forget a room – get a park bench, or a doorway, or even a strategically placed telephone pole would probably suffice. I mean, girls like Shane – what is it with them? Don’t they see what they look like? I know they have mirrors.
Jess ups the ante by making out with Shane in the bleachers. This sends Rory into a veritable tailspin of bitchiness, with her line of “girls like Shane”. Girls like what? Girls who kiss their boyfriends in public, like Rory does? Girls who like Jess, like Rory does? And if Rory doesn’t approve of Shane, what’s her opinion of her own mother when she was a teenager?
You know what’s wrong with Shane? Absolutely nothing, except for getting involved with a boy who doesn’t treat her well.
After Jess and Shane start kissing, Rory pulls in closer to Dean, so both Jess and Rory are using their partners to make their crush jealous.
RORY: You know, this is a dance marathon. You’re not supposed to come and sit and watch, you’re supposed to dance. He’s just trying to bug me, sitting there right in front of me, staring. Jerk.
People are supposed to watch the dance marathon – Rory was even saying that she couldn’t dance with Lorelai because she had to watch with Dean. Until recently, Dean was also watching. Rory is sick with jealousy and hasn’t slept for more than a day, so she’s not exactly being rational here.
This is the book Jess reads at the dance marathon while sitting in the bleachers with Shane. (Yes, Jess isn’t a great boyfriend to Shane – forcing her to go to a dance marathon for seventeen hours so he can gaze at his crush and read a book!).
The Magic Mountain is a 1924 novel by German author Thomas Mann. Set in the decade before World War I, it is about a young man who spends seven years in a sanatorium for tuberculosis in the Swiss Alps. Vast, symbolic, and ambiguous, it is widely considered one of the most influential works of 20th century German literature.
Thomas Mann was one Jack Kerouac’s favourite authors, and an influence on Visions of Cody, so it makes sense that Jess would choose to read it.
DAVE: You know, my parents would love these sandwiches. I wish I could bring them by but unfortunately they’re in private Bible study right now.
Dave shows Lane how interested he is in her, and how keen he is to impress her rather scary mother, by coming over to eat her fake egg sandwiches. Just in case you’ve forgotten, it is now past five in the morning! Who even wants sandwiches at this hour? Why is Mrs Kim still serving them? The filling would have gone off by now, and she freely admits herself the bread is stale.
He also pretends that he is a Christian, as a way to inveigle himself into Mrs Kim’s good books. He claims that his parents would be joining in the stale fake egg sandwich celebration, except that they are in a private Bible study session. At five in the morning??? It would be far more believable to say they were asleep!
Later he says his parents are at church (at five in the morning!), which means the fictional Bible study session wasn’t private at all. Dave’s story has more holes than Swiss cheese, but Mrs Kim, always shown to be pretty switched-on previously, is swallowing this farrago of lies like a gullible fool. She must be very, very tired. Or she really likes Dave.
LANE: What are you doing here?
DAVE: Uh, well, you mentioned this thing last time we talked and it sounded very Blue Velvet so I figured I would come by and check it out.
Blue Velvet, 1986 neo-noir mystery thriller directed by David Lynch. Blending psychological horror with film noir, the film stars Kyle McLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper, and Laura Dern, and is named after the 1951 song of the same name. The film is about a college student who returns home to visit his ill father, and makes a grisly discovery in a field. This leads him to uncover a vast criminal conspiracy, and into a relationship with a troubled lounge singer.
The film initially received a divided response from critics, with many stating that its explicit content served little artistic purpose. However, David Lynch won Best Film and Best Director at that year’s National Society of Film Critics Awards. It came to achieve cult status, and is now widely regarded as one of Lynch’s major works, and one of the greatest films of the 1980s. It has been ranked as one of the best films of all time, and one of the greatest mystery films ever made.
Dave has come to see Lane just because he missed her, a clear sign to her that he returns her feelings. Strangely, he decides to arrive at the marathon around 5 am, when the marathon is just about to end! This episode doesn’t have a confusing timeline (it’s all made very clear), it’s simply an unbelievable one.
LORELAI: You don’t have to want kids, Luke. Or like kids. It’s not for everybody.
LUKE: I know, but . . . although I’m quite happy going an entire day without having to deal with somebody else’s bodily functions, if I ever happen to meet the right person . . . well, it would be a discussion.
Luke is letting Lorelai know that if he was in a relationship, he would be open to discussing having children. And Lorelai tells him that she would be open to having a second child if the right person came along. They both gaze at each other, and the subtext couldn’t be clearer for the viewer – Luke and Lorelai may one day have a child together. Unfortunately, the scriptwriters never allowed this to happen.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 