Seeing how upset Lorelai is over Sherry’s pregnancy, Rory suggests that they egg Jess’ car in order to make themselves feel better. This suggests that although Rory acted as if she was okay with Jess, the person who totalled her car, getting a car, she is in fact quite resentful over it. Finding Shane’s bra in the vehicle was no doubt quite a twist of the knife.
This is a callback to the conversation Rory had with Christopher in “I Can’t Get Started” where she said, “We take disappointment extremely hard. I mean it. Property damage is often involved”.
LORELAI: We had a really, really, really, really, really bad time. I swear, it was one of the worst times I’ve ever had, it was awful. Do you remember skiing with the Danners and their Dobermans? … This was worse.
The Doberman, often called a Doberman Pinscher in North America, is a large breed of dog originally bred in Germany in the late 19th century. They have long muzzles, often have a muscular and intimidating appearance, but are quite graceful as well. They make excellent guard dogs, and are often thought of as aggressive and fierce, even though there are less attacks by Dobermans than other breeds.
You may remember that Chase Bradford, the Gilmores’ former neighbour in Hartford that Emily fixed Lorelai up with on a surprise date, had parents who owned Dobermans. They must have been a popular dog to own in the Gilmores’ social set at the time. Maybe because they were wealthy people who had property that needed guarding.
When Luke gets home, he finds Jess reading this book.
We Owe You Nothing: Punk Planet – The Collected Interviews is edited by Daniel Sinker, and was published in 2001. It’s a collection of interviews from Punk Planet zine, which we already know Jess is a fan of, and a nice bit of continuity. There are interviews with people such as Jello Biafra, Kathleen Hanna, Henry Rollins, Ian MacKaye from Fugazi, and Noam Chomsky.
Lorelai says, “Lucas, the school!” in Spanish, to remind him they are meant to be giving their talk at Stars Hollow High that afternoon. You probably recall that Luke’s full name is Lucas, which Lorelai learned of from Mia.
MRS. KIM: College applications … Every one in this pile approved by me and Reverend Melmin.
Last season Lane mentioned “the reverend” who takes them for Bible study class on Saturday morning plays handball. Now we discover his name is Reverend Melmin, who must be the pastor of the Seventh Day Adventist congregation in Stars Hollow. In real life, Seventh Day Adventist pastors aren’t actually addressed as “Reverend”, I think he would be “Pastor Melmin”.
This episode is the first time we see Lane’s bandmates, Zack and Brian.
Zack is the lead guitarist and vocalist for the group, shown almost immediately to be a typical frontman, good looking and confident. He later becomes Lane’s boyfriend, then husband. Zack is played by Todd Lowe, who at this stage had had small roles in a few films, such as Where the Heart Is, and The Princess Diaries, and appeared in two episodes of Walker, Texas Ranger (once as a character named Zack!). Amy Sherman-Palladino used him again later in Bunheads, and he became best known for his role on vampire drama True Blood.
Brian is the bassist for the group, a little awkward and nerdy. He is played by John Carbrera, who is a friend of Sean Gunn who plays Kirk on Gilmore Girls; they attended the same theatre school in Chicago. At this stage Carbrera had had a few minor roles in TV shows such as CSI and NCIS. The previous year, he had won an award for his work in theatre. Recently, he has increasingly concentrated on screenwriting.
There have already been characters with these names on Gilmore Girls – Zach was Lorelai’s classmate at community college in Season 2, and Brian was one of the waiters at the Independence Inn in Season 1.
Lane was given permission by Sophie to use the music store to practice drumming two evenings a week, on Wednesdays and Fridays at 6 pm (evenings when she knew her mother would be out doing church activities). Lane is now really pushing that generous offer by finding a band that needs a drummer and letting them use Sophie’s music store as a free rehearsal space! It sounds like a pretty awful way to repay Sophie, but maybe Lane already fixed this up with Sophie offscreen. I hope so.
You may be wondering whether this episode starts on a Wednesday evening – it can’t be Friday, because Lorelai and Rory are having dinner at the diner, instead of heading off to Hartford for Friday Night Dinner with Richard and Emily. It appears to be a Saturday, oddly enough, so perhaps Lane also got Sophie to agree to a third evening of band practice per week. How Sophie would have agreed to all these changes to the orginal agreement, I don’t know.
This scene shows how happy Lane is to finally be in a band and playing music, she is absolutely radiating joy as she bounces into the diner and starts eating Rory’s dinner. Lane isn’t making any effort to keep her activities a secret, and even though Stars Hollow is super gossipy, she doesn’t seem worried about Mrs Kim finding out. Maybe that’s how confident she feels now she’s actually living her dream.
DARREN: [on answering machine] I just wanted to let you know that I just finished going over Rory’s records here, and no shock, they’re perfect. Rory, you are tailor-made for Harvard. They’re lucky to have you. As far as I’m concerned, you should pack your bags. I’m gonna tell all this to the people in admissions and I’ll give your headmaster a call as well, so take care and we’ll talk again.
There is no way that the alumnus who interviewed a prospective student would tell them to “pack their bags” – there are many, many excellent students who aren’t accepted into Harvard, nobody can guarantee anyone a spot, unless something very corrupt is going on. This goes right up there with Headmaster Charleston telling Rory she deserves to go to Harvard, just after she’s discovered breaking into his office, no less.
However, this is a way to neatly tie up the episode and let the viewers know that Rory will almost certainly be accepted into Harvard, and all her application anxieties are at an end. Although Rory has work for the newspaper to complete, and Lorelai needs to do tasks for the inn, they elect to spend their Sunday hanging out together instead, as if aware that their time together is running short, and therefore more precious.
Jennifer says that the Springsteens love the Kennedys, indicating that they are Democrat voters – Connecticut is a Democrat state, and Westport is the most Democrat city of the state. Lorelai is quick to let them know that she is a Democrat voter as well.
RORY: But [Mom] took night classes and graduated last year. She has an AA degree in Business.
An AA degree is an associate degree, an undergraduate degree awarded after a course of post-secondary study lasting two to three years. It is a level of qualification above a high school diploma, and below a bachelor’s degree.
Associate degrees first began in the US in 1898, and there, completing an associate degree can allow the graduate to transfer to the third year of a bachelor’s degree – you’ll remember that Lorelai’s former classmates Liza and Zach were going to continue their studies at universities after graduating from business class at community college.
Lorelai’s degree is most likely an Associate of Applied Business (AAB).
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 