Tag: Character Insight

The Elaborate Snowman is Vandalised

On their way home, Lorelai and Rory notice that the elaborate snowman from the contest has been destroyed, presumably by Jess, who criticised it to Rory as “overdone”, and who wanted Rory’s entry to win. Rory, aka Miss Honesty, claims that she has no idea what happened to the snowman. Really, Rory? No idea at all?

For some reason, Lorelai believes that means she and Rory will win by default, even though there are many other snowmen still in the contest. This seems arrogant to the point of delusion. Their snow-woman was a good entry, but I don’t know if it’s automatically the winner now. The judges could very well take exception to her stroke mouth or even be literal enough to say it’s a snowman contest, not a snow-woman contest. We never do find out if they won the competition or not.

“Did you get lucky?”

LORELAI: Hey Mom. You didn’t make it back to the room last night. Did you get lucky?
EMILY: Could you be any cruder?
LORELAI: Yeah, I can be cruder. Hey mom, did you get la- …

Lorelai chooses to take her mother literally and demonstrate that she can indeed be cruder, by beginning to say, “Did you get laid?”. This confirms that Emily and Richard did make up their fight and spent the night in the same room.

“You like order, you like lists”

RICHARD: Oh Emily, I know I’ve done nothing but disappoint you these past few months, what with how isolated I’ve become and all the social engagements I’ve made you cancel, and all the friendships I’ve jeopardized. And you like order, you like lists, you like to know where you’re going or what’s coming. You like all things planned. And then suddenly I impulsively unplan our entire future in one fell swoop. Well, I couldn’t face disappointing you again. I couldn’t face telling you that I’d spoiled the plan. Not now, not at this time of year.

Richard explains to Emily that he couldn’t stand the thought of disappointing her with news of his retirement, especially not at Christmas. Presumably he was going to tell Emily his news by the end of the Christmas holidays, to explain why he was not returning to work.

Note that Emily loves order and lists, just like Rory.

Lorelai Tells Rory About Christopher

LORELAI: Because I have dibs on this time of year with you, not him! Me! And yes, he acknowledged that, and that was cool and all, but still – it stinks! Because he put me in a very difficult position because we were supposed to watch a lot of movies and make fun of Godfather 3, and the thing that I really, really hate about this is … is the idea of you not hanging out with me because you’re hanging out there with your stupid stepmother.

It is now revealed that Lorelai never told Rory that Christopher rang, inviting her to stay in Boston for a couple of days during the Christmas holidays. As is often the case with Lorelai, she’s being quite unreasonable by insisting that she has dibs on Christmas, when Lorelai has dibs on Rory every day of every year! It’s quite normal for children of separated parents to spend major holidays with the parent they don’t live with, and Christopher was only asking for a couple of days out of a school holiday break that lasts for weeks.

The real reason is that she is jealous of Sherrie, and hates the idea of Rory having another mother figure in her life. Rory quite rightly calls her out on it, and teases her about her attitude. It is not revealed at this point whether Rory does spend time with Christopher and Sherrie in her Christmas break, but it is later strongly implied that she didn’t. Knowing of Lorelai’s insecurities, it seems likely that Rory decided not to visit Christopher after all (with homework and the newspaper providing a plausible excuse, as usual).

Richard Announces His Retirement

RICHARD: No, what you meant was that people in the insurance industry are drones. Well I agree. They are a dull, dull lot, and I am glad to be rid of them …

TAYLOR: Oh, are you retired Richard?
RICHARD: Well, uh …
EMILY: Of course he’s not. Richard? Richard?
RICHARD: Actually, I am.

After at least three months of unhappiness in his job, with the knowledge it was only going to get worse, Richard has unexpectedly retired, explaining his abnormally cheerful mood. Without planning to, he announces it at the Bracebridge Dinner, so that Rory’s plan of cheering up Richard and Emily doesn’t quite work out. They arrived cheerful, and wind up in a bitter row when Emily discovers that Richard has announced his retirement publicly without ever mentioning it to her.

“Your pod Grandpa is still happy as a clam”

LORELAI: Your pod Grandpa is still happy as a clam.

Pod Grandpa: A reference to the film Invasion of the Body Snatchers [pictured], previously discussed. Once again, Luke and Lorelai are shown using the same reference points.

Happy as a clam: American phrase meaning “happy and content”. It’s a shortened form of the 19th century simile, happy as a clam at high tide. It’s only at low tide that clams can be gathered for a meal, so at high tide they should be happy and safe.

Björk

JESS: It [their snow-woman] definitely has the most personality. Kind of looks like Björk.

RORY: That’s what we were going for.

Björk Guðmundsdóttir (born 1965), is an Icelandic singer and songwriter, known for her eclectic musical style that draws on a range of genres. Björk began her career at the age of 11 and gained international recognition as lead singer of the alternative rock band The Sugarcubes. After the band broke up in 1992, she embarked on a solo career; she was always more popular in the UK and Europe than in the US.

Her most recent album at this stage was Vespertine (2001), and she had attended the 2001 Oscars wearing a white dress designed to resemble a swan, which along with being from Iceland, might have been factors which inspired Rory and Lorelai to turn her into a snow-woman. That Jess could recognise the snow-woman as being based on Björk shows that he is on a similar wavelength.

(We can see during these scenes that Lorelai and Rory obviously fixed up their snow-woman and gave her a new head, so that she looks like a pretty credible entry for the contest).

Luke Lies to Jess

LUKE: Okay, well that means Jess has some time off from school. His mom knew that and she never called.
LORELAI: Ugh, it makes me sick
LUKE: So I decided just to keep Jess with me, and I told him that his mom wanted him to come home but I thought since he just got there and was still adjusting that I thought he should stay, and his mom was really upset but I insisted. He bought it hook, line and sinker. Saved him a lot of hurt.

Liz has neglected Jess to the point that she doesn’t phone him for the Christmas holidays. Even Lorelai, not exactly Jess’ biggest fan, is disgusted that Liz doesn’t want to see her son when he has a break from school.

With the best of intentions, Luke made up a story that Liz did want him, but Luke decided it would be better for him to remain in Stars Hollow, even though that upset Liz. Lorelai knows that Jess would never have believed this story, but seems unable to completely convince Luke of this. Shortly afterwards Jess confirms that he knows Luke wasn’t truthful with him.

Dr Dolittle

LORELAI: Giddy up. [the sleigh starts moving] Uh! The horses heard me, I speak horse language! I’m Dr. Dolittle!

Dr Dolittle is the protagonist of the Dr Dolittle children’s book series by British author Hugh Lofting, a doctor who only treats animal patients, and is able to speak all their various languages. The first book was The Story of Dr Dolittle (1920), and it has several times been adapted into other media. The 1967 film version starred Rex Harrison, and most recently at this stage, Eddie Murphy had starred in Dr Dolittle (1998) and its sequel Dr Dolittle 2 (2001) – possibly one of the “disgusting cow” films that Rory mentions seeing that year.

This is the first mention we have of Lorelai liking horses, which we hear more of throughout the show.