Kim Family Weddings

The Kim family are planning a wedding for Lane’s cousin James, said to be “quiet and skulky”, so the family arranged a marriage for him with a girl from Korea who “doesn’t speak a word of English”.

This sounds absolutely awful for the young woman, coming to a country where she doesn’t speak or understand the language, to marry someone she’s never met. Amazingly, Rory and Lane express zero sympathy or concern for her, Rory even quipping that she hopes they make air holes in the box she’s shipped out in, as if she’s an animal.

Dave will be playing at the wedding, and during the conversation, it turns out that Rory has attended many weddings at the Kim household – so many that Lane says she is accepted as an honorary member of the family. We don’t see Rory and Lane together that much, so this is a nice way to tell us that in fact they are very close and have shared many important times that aren’t shown onscreen. It doesn’t really gel with the way Mrs Kim treats Rory in the show – certainly not like a family member (mind you, she’s not very warm to her actual family members).

Notice that the book Rory is carrying in this scene is Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman. Rory is shown reading this book all the way back in “Red Light on the Wedding Night”, so eighteen months later she is either still reading it, or is re-reading it. Although re-reading books is common, is re-reading biographies all that common, I wonder? I feel as if they are getting a bit lazy in finding new books for Rory to read (or be shown reading).

Michel’s Deposition

MICHEL: My neighbor had this dog, a frisky little scamp that used to love to yap to his friends all night long. It was so cute. Then one day he disappeared. I told the police what I knew, but sadly the adorable little chatterbox was never found. It was tragic.
LORELAI: You got rid of a dog? …
MICHEL: I will gladly show you the transcript from the lawyer and the results of the lie detector test.
LORELAI: You’re heinous.
MICHEL: And very well rested.

Compare with Richard’s retort that at least he and Emily will be well rested, after Lorelai says they are both going to hell for snapping up a dead man’s property so quickly.

Michel, the (unproven) dog killer! It is actually possible to beat a lie detector test, although quite difficult. Michel is obviously a very cool customer. It’s much easier to fail one while being innocent, due to anxiety. These false positives are why evidence from one is not admissible in a court of law in the US.

Ecole Hôtelière de Genève

LORELAI: Why are you being such a snob about this? You went to hotel school.
MICHEL: I attended the Ecole Hôtelière de Genève.

The Ecole Hôtelière de Genève is a Swiss tertiary-level school in a 18th century mansion in Geneva, dedicated to hotel and restaurant management. It was originally the Ecole Cafetiers-Restaurants, founded in Neuchâtel, Switzerland in 1914. It moved to the Geneva property in 1951, and its current name dates to 1996. It is ranked in the top ten of the best hotel schools in the world.

Michel said that he left France at the age of 18, and presumably it was to study here in Switzerland. The diploma course lasts for three years, so Michel would have graduated when he was around 21.

Belgium

SOOKIE: Mm, about a half-hour ago they set the lawn on fire … But Phil says it’s okay and everything ’cause it’ll grow back twice as lush. Though that’s what he said when he broke my salad bowl that I brought back from Belgium. That’ll maybe grow back, too, huh?

Sookie travelled to Belgium at some point, bringing back a salad bowl with her as a souvenir. Possibly she went there to study some particular culinary art – Belgium is famous for its chocolate-making, for example. It’s just as likely it was a foodie’s tour, allowing her to sample the local produce. It may also have been as part of a trip to Europe. It’s just possible that Sookie and Jackson went to Europe for their honeymoon, although Sookie doesn’t say that we brought the salad bowl back from Belgium. Mind you, she’s pretty drunk by now.

Orlando

CLAUDE: I have a grandson who lives with his mother in Orlando, you know, he’s going through a very similar thing, poor boy.

EMILY: How do they like Orlando, Claude?

CLAUDE: Well, it’s all Mickey Mouse this and Mickey Mouse that, you know. They want to die.

Orlando, Florida, previously discussed. Claude refers to the fact that Walt Disney World is in the city, which apparently ruins it for Claude’s family (surely they knew this before they moved there?).

Because Claude says my grandson, rather than ours, I assume Monique is his second wife. I’m also assuming that his grandson’s mother is Claude’s daughter-in-law or former daughter-in-law, rather than his daughter, because otherwise he would say so. And I’m further assuming that Claude’s son is separated or divorced, because he doesn’t mention him as also living in Florida.

Lots of assumptions! But it’s letting us fill in quite a bit of back story for ourselves. We might also note that Claude is not spending Thanksgiving with his grandson, and never has – he says he has only seen Thanksgiving in American movies.

Four Thanksgiving Dinners

RORY: But how are we going to go to four Thanksgiving dinners?

LORELAI: It’s not four, is it?

RORY: Lane’s house, Sookie’s, and we always stop by Luke’s . . . that’s three, and Grandma and Grandpa is four.

This episode’s plot is laid out here – the Gilmore girls have to eat four Thanksgiving dinners. Rory’s statement makes it seem as if they usually have three Thanksgiving dinners each year, but somehow a fourth Thanksgiving dinner is a step too far!

Lorelai’s Dreams of Yale

RICHARD: You know, one day, when your mother was ten years old, she ran into my office and she said, “I’m going to go to Yale, just like you.” She actually took my diploma out of my office and put it in her room. She wouldn’t give it back to me for about six months.

Rory learns from Richard that Lorelai’s original dream for college, was not Harvard, but Yale. This was when she was ten years old, and presumably before her teenage years drove a wedge between father and daughter.

Richard’s point could not be clearer – if Rory is hanging onto a dream of going to Harvard to fulfil what Lorelai wanted, then that wasn’t even Lorelai’s original plan. And if Lorelai changed her mind, then Rory can too.

Richard’s Engagement

RICHARD: Oh, that mouse and I were engaged.

EMILY: Oh, you were not.

RICHARD: I’d given her my pin, I’d introduced her to my parents … The date was set, invitations mailed out.

Although Emily denies that Richard was ever actually engaged to Linny Lott, he claims that a wedding date had been set and invitations mailed out, which sounds pretty solidly engaged to me.

In a former episode, Richard said he almost married a woman named Lucinda Lester, until Emily set her sights on him, due to his prowess at fencing reminding her of her celebrity crush, Errol Flynn.

Although it’s possible that Richard almost married two women with the initials LL he met in college, this does feel like a retcon, with Lucinda becoming Linny. Emily claimed Lucinda had a moustache, something she never says about Linny or Pennilynn.