Tag: Character Insight

“That girl’s a freak”

[Jess and Shane walk past Rory]

SHANE: That girl’s a freak.

Shane manages to give Rory the same insult Lorelai said about Shane, which is either quite a coincidence, or Shane heard Lorelai and has been waiting for a chance to get her own back.

Jess has presumably just met Shane as she got off work at the beauty store. They are both wearing matching outfits – brown jackets over brown shirts – as if to underline that they go together. However, note that Jess doesn’t walk alongside Shane, he walks ahead of her. He couldn’t be making it clearer that he doesn’t see Shane as his equal, but as someone who’s “tagging along” with him. He is the leader and the dominant person in the relationship.

Also note that Jess only has eyes for Rory, and although they are currently on bad terms, he cannot stop himself from giving a faint smile as he walks past. Shane turns around to look at Rory, and I think her intuition is telling her that she is someone that Jess likes, or someone that could be a threat.

The show, like Lorelai, Rory and Jess, is not very kind to Shane, a girl who actually doesn’t do anything wrong except be pretty, blonde, and go out with Jess. Although the title of this episode is ostensibly about the two different plots – Lorelai has to give a talk to a “class” while Lane “dyes” her hair – it can be read another way. Rory is the girl with “class”, while Shane is the one who dyes her hair platinum blonde, meaning that she can’t be “classy” like Rory.

Golden Retriever

JESS: I’m not playing Golden Retriever, hoping one day she’ll turn around and fall in my arms. If she doesn’t wanna be with me, then fine.

The Golden Retriever is a dog breed which originated in Scotland in the late 19th century. They are known for their thick, golden coat, and their gentle, affectionate nature. They are extremely popular pets, because of their calm, biddable temperament, which makes them easy to train and eager to please. Jess must see Luke as being like a sweet, snuggly Golden Retriever, adoringly waiting for Lorelai to give him tasks to perform.

“I’m not gonna sit around”

JESS: Hey, the girls that I like don’t give a damn about me! And unlike some other people I know, I’m not gonna sit around hoping that they change their minds and suddenly notice me.

LUKE: What’s that supposed to mean?

JESS: You fixed any neighbor’s porches lately? Or you go on a picnic or you get rooked into giving a ridiculous speech at a high school?

Jess tells Luke that his cynical view of relationships has partly been formed by watching Luke pine for Lorelai. He seems to have become indignant at the way Lorelai talks Luke into things, and the way Luke offers her free handyman work around the house. Jess seems to have decided that whatever else he might be, he’s not some sap who’s going to make a fool of himself over a girl.

Jess mentions Luke fixing Lorelai’s porch, which happened before Jess moved to Stars Hollow. Either he’s fixed it again recently, or someone told Jess about Luke fixing the porch. I presume that it was Luke himself, because Rory didn’t seem to know about it – it was early in the morning, and she blamed Lorelai for the noise that Luke made, before going back to bed. I suppose Rory might have accepted Lorelai’s explanation afterwards, and later told Jess about Luke fixing the porch – she may have thought it was a funny story.

Luke Talks to Jess About Girls

Luke tries to give some Jess some guidance in regard to girls, and how they should be treated if you care about them. His lecture is thrown off the rails almost at once when Jess bluntly says that he doesn’t care about Shane. In fact, he can’t even remember her last name! If we needed any confirmation that Jess is just using Shane for physical pleasure and to make Rory jealous, here it is.

Hopefully Luke would have gone on to say that girls still deserve to be treated with decency and respect even when you don’t care about them, but he seems to be too shocked to continue further.

Ward Cleaver

LUKE: Uh, you and I have got to have a little talk.

JESS: Hey, if you’re gonna get all Ward Cleaver on me, I gotta go call Eddie and Lumpy and tell them I’m gonna be late.

Jess refers to the sitcom, Leave It to Beaver, previously discussed. Ward Cleaver was the father of Wally Cleaver and his little brother, Theodore “The Beaver” Cleaver. Ward’s role was to guide his sons with moral lectures. Eddie Haskell and “Lumpy” Rutherford were Wally’s friends. Eddie was sneaky and two-faced, and Lumpy was a bully. Even in a fictional scenario, Jess can seemingly only imagine himself with problematic friends.

“Like I was Poland”

DEBBIE: Fend them off, change the subject!

LORELAI: I tried, Debbie, but they kept coming at me like I was Poland and they were Nazis.

Lorelai refers to the 1939 invasion of Poland by Germany, previously discussed.

Lorelai always calls anyone who stands in her way a Nazi or a Fascist – first Taylor and Headmaster Charleston, now it’s actual children. Lorelai has a disturbing tendency to verbally attack or insult teenagers, as if she was one of them.

Lorelai Gets Accosted by the Stars Hollow Moms

As Lorelai and Luke leave the school after their talks, Debbie Fincher leads a posse of concerned mothers, presumably other members of the PTA, who are appalled to hear what happened during Lorelai’s talk. Not appalled enough to put a stop to it or anything, but appalled nonetheless. It’s all to drive home the point, yet again, that Lorelai is a “cool mom” and not like any other mother around.

I am not sure how Debbie managed to get all these women together at once so quickly – were they all hiding around the corner, just waiting for Debbie to come fetch them? Did Debbie leave early in order to round the other mothers up? I suppose we are meant to presume that their lives are so empty that they have literally nothing better to do.

Note that the Stars Hollow moms all dress alike in the same kind of brown patterned cardigan, and all wear blonde bobbed wigs. It’s the episode for bad wigs, this one.

According to the credits, the other two mothers besides Debbie who speak to Lorelai are called Jan and Lois, played by Julie Wittner and Merry Simkins.