Mind Meld

[Jess stands next to a gas pump holding an unlit cigarette as Rory walks up to him]

RORY: You going to smoke that or mind meld with it?

Mind meld, a Vulcan telepathic technique from Star Trek, previously mentioned.

It’s lucky that Jess decided to kiss Rory rather than light his cigarette, because it is dangerous to smoke near gas pumps, because of the flammable gasoline fumes in the air. The risk is low, but most gas stations have a policy not to allow smoking, in order to reduce the risk even further. (Does this underline what a “bad boy” Jess is, or suggest that he never intended to light the cigarette?).

Note that Jess is still carrying cigarettes around, even though Luke told him to give up smoking more than a year ago, at the start of Season 2. This scene strongly implies that he never gave up – he pats his pockets as if searching for a lighter.

It is also possible to read the scene as Jess using the cigarettes as props to look cool when Rory shows up, or as Jess being a reformed smoker who is tempted to begin again, or testing his own resolve.

Rory Confronts her Grandfather

RORY: Why did you make this appointment without telling me about it? … I know it was an important opportunity. That’s why I can’t believe you didn’t prepare me for it. I didn’t have my transcripts, my letters of recommendation. I couldn’t even remember what I wanted to major in when he asked … I didn’t have to be that nervous. I could’ve been calm. I could’ve brushed my hair. I never would’ve worn this … It matters to me. I like to be prepared. This has nothing to do with Mom. If you had really wanted me to take this meeting, I would’ve done it just because you asked me to. And I would’ve done it right.

Rory is also very unhappy with Richard because of the way he sprung the interview on her. Rory hates feeling unprepared, needed to have all her records with her, and would have made more effort with her appearance if she’d known the interview was coming up. She lets Richard know that if he’d only asked her, she would have willingly attended the interview if he’d asked her to, it wouldn’t have mattered what Lorelai thought. But she disliked being tricked into it, and the fact that Richard didn’t trust her enough to be honest. Rory leaves with Lorelai in the taxi as a sign of her displeasure.

“You never went to college”

RICHARD: You never went to college, let alone an Ivy League college.

Lorelai did go to college. She studied Business part-time at the community college in Hartford as a mature student. Presumably Richard means that she never went to college straight from school. It does sound as though he is saying Lorelai’s education just doesn’t count, which is pretty hurtful, considering how much work it took for her to graduate while working full time.

Richard Arranges an Interview for Rory

RICHARD: Oh, I told him all about you and your grades and how well you were doing at Chilton. Well, of course, he insisted on seeing you. He wouldn’t let me off the hook.

RORY: But I haven’t applied to Yale.

RICHARD: Oh, I told him that you weren’t finished deciding, that you were being very picky. I think that made him want you even more. They can be very competitive, these Ivy League schools. He’s expecting you at three. Oh, look, it’s three now. Well, we timed this perfectly now, didn’t we?

While showing them the Administration Building, it transpires that Richard’s real reason for bringing Rory to Yale is to get her an interview with the Dean of Admissions, who turns out to be a good friend of Richard’s (shades of Chilton, where Headmaster Charleston was a good friend of Richard and Emily’s).

Lorelai is outraged by Richard’s manipulation, but he has a point. Lorelai has got a bee in her bonnet about Rory going to Harvard and nowhere else, and this was the only way that Richard believed he could give his granddaughter a chance to go to Yale if she wanted to. As he points out, Ivy League colleges are very competitive, and it would be easier for Rory to get into Yale as a legacy, because her grandfather went to Yale.

Although Emily didn’t know what Richard planned to do, she does try to defend him from Lorelai. She points out that if Rory got accepted by Yale, it might make her more attractive to Harvard, which I don’t think Lorelai would have thought of by herself.

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.

Timothy Dwight Dining Hall

RICHARD: See that? That is my favorite building in the whole school … Because that’s where the Timothy Dwight Dining Hall is.

This is the dining hall of Timothy Dwight College, a residential college at Yale University which opened in 1935. Presumably it was Richard’s old college. The dining room at the college is a replica of a New England town hall with maple tables and captain’s chairs. According to Richard, they serve a delicious pot roast (one of Rory’s favourite meals), although that no longer seems to be on the menu.

Richard and Emily’s Engagement

EMILY: We were going to meet my girlfriends who were going to drive me back to school.

RICHARD: And you were angry with me.

EMILY: Because you wouldn’t commit to plans for the holidays.

RICHARD: Because I was going to invite you to the house to meet my parents after I proposed.

EMILY: Which I didn’t know because you gave me no indication whatsoever.

RICHARD: Anyway, you had just finished calling me a spineless jellyfish.

EMILY: And you got very annoyed, reached in your pocket, pulled out a box and said, “Here.”

RICHARD: And you opened the box, showed no emotion, slammed it close and said, “Fine.”

Richard and Emily describe the circumstances of their engagement at Yale University, which happens during a fight while sitting next to a trash can, with the engagement ring being offered and accepted in a fit of temper. It’s somehow reminiscent of screwball romantic comedies of the 1930s and ’40s.

They were both in collage at the time – when Emily says she was going back to “school”, she means her own college. They must have got engaged at the end of the year, because they were arguing about their “holiday” (ie Christmas) plans at the time. Yet they were still able to sit outside, so it can’t have been freezing or snowing – surely they would have mentioned that if it had been the case? They may have got engaged in November, before Thanksgiving – around this time of year, in fact, although neither of them mentions that the date is close.

Linny Lott

RICHARD: Linny Lott.

EMILY: That mouse?

Richard’s ex is called “Linny Lott” in this episode. Later she is called Pennilynn Lott. Linny sounds like a reasonable nickname for Pennilynn, but mysteriously, she is never again referred to as “Linny”.

Emily criticises Linny as too meek and mousy, with a rambling, discursive style of speech. Later, Richard’s mother has a quite different assessment of her, and this does not seem like a very good description of the woman we later meet.

Collection of British Art

RORY: Grandpa, that art gallery was amazing. Thank you.

RICHARD: Yale has one of the finest collections of British art in the world.

Richard refers to the Yale Center for British Art, which houses the largest and most comprehensive collection of British art outside the UK. The collection of paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, rare books, and manuscripts reflects the development of British art and culture from the Elizabethan period onward.

It was established in 1966 by a gift from philanthropist and Yale alumnus Paul Mellon, together with an endowment for operations of the centre, and funds for a building to house the works of art. It is across the street from the Yale University Art Gallery [pictured], and no doubt Richard has taken Rory there as well – this could well be the amazing art gallery she speaks of.

The Yale University Art Gallery is the oldest university art museum in the Western Hemisphere. It houses an encyclopedic collection of art in several interconnected buildings on Yale’s campus. It was founded in 1832, after patriot artist John Trumbull donated more than 100 paintings of the American Revolutionary War.

It turns out that the art gallery at Yale was one of Richard’s favourite places to bring girls on dates, in order to impress them with his knowledge of art.

Rory Takes Off Her Bracelet

[Lorelai finds the bracelet that Dean made for Rory on the dresser]

LORELAI: Oh wow. I guess this means there really isn’t a Dean any more, huh?

RORY: Yeah, that and it broke in the shower this morning. Though I probably would’ve taken it off anyway.

When Lorelai finds Rory’s bracelet made for her by Dean on the dresser, she realises that Rory and Dean really have broken up and aren’t getting back together this time. Even though Rory says that it broke in the shower that morning, she says that she probably would have removed it herself anyway. In fact, she wasn’t wearing it at Friday night dinner the previous week, so it seems as if she had actually stopped wearing it almost immediately after breaking up with Dean.

This leads to a discussion between them about Jess, with Lorelai snarking about him, and Rory asking if Jess is always going to be demonised by Lorelai. Lorelai does not pretend to be thrilled about Jess, and admits she felt Rory was safer with Dean (I don’t think Rory always felt perfectly safe, but Lorelai never seems to think about that). However, she is willing to endure Jess for Rory’s sake, and says Rory and Jess won’t be forever, anyway.