Tag: Character Insight

“I’ve grown fond of my cage”

RORY: So I’m guessing that you’re not any closer to telling your parents about Henry.
LANE: I mean, what are the options if I tell them? They hate him, and it’s over. They love him, and he therefore becomes odious to me and it’s over. Things are working out fine the way they are.
RORY: You mean calling him Rory on the phone in case your mom’s listening?
LANE: I’ve grown fond of my cage, Rory.

Caught in between the choice to either be forced to break up with Henry, or have her parents approve him so that she loses all interest, Lane has made the choice to maintain a tenuous connection with Henry based on phone calls. The little that Rory has been asked to do to help Lane and Henry is already irritating her, most likely because she can’t see any end in sight.

Lane is aware that she has created the situation out of fear – not so much that she’s fond of her cage, as that she’s scared of going outside it. Rory knows Lane’s background and situation, and could be a bit more understanding, but her patience has clearly run out.

Destiny’s Child

SOOKIE: Swear. Raise your right hand and say, ‘May Destiny’s Child break up if I count these blueberries.’
MICHEL: Pick another group.

Destiny’s Child, a girl group founded in Texas in 1990 under the name Girl’s Tyme, with a final and best-known line-up of Beyoncé Knowles, Kelly Rowland, and Michelle Williams. They signed to Columbia in 1997 under the name Destiny’s Child, and gained mainstream recognition with the release of their hit song, No, No, No, and their 1999 best-selling album, The Writing’s On the Wall. Their most recent album at this stage was Survivor, which came out in April 2001, apart from their Christmas album in October of that year.

The reason Michel might be particularly concerned that Destiny’s Child could break up is because the band announced they were going on hiatus to pursue solo careers in 2001. They reunited in 2004 for their fourth and final album, Destiny Fulfilled. After their 2005 tour, the group did indeed break up.

Somehow Michel is more worried about eating one or two extra blueberries on his pancakes because of the calories than he is with eating actual pancakes! Michel’s relationship with food is even unhealthier that Lorelai and Rory’s, and is certainly weirder.

Brad Langford (Adam Wylie)

BRAD: I’m Brad. From the third period Shakespeare.
LOUISE: He’s the answer to our lack of boys problem. Isn’t that swell?

This is the first time we meet Rory’s schoolmate Brad Langford, played by Adam Wylie. Although uncredited for this episode, Wylie was already an experienced actor with a lengthy CV. Brad was a gentle soul who lived in terror of Paris, and seemed to get along fairly well with Rory.

Brad is roped in to provide a male character for their group project, even though he tends to throw up from nerves when speaking in public. This leaves the role of Romeo open for Tristan.

Jess Fixes Luke’s Toaster

Luke unexpectedly finds his broken toaster at the diner has been fixed. (He was shown trying to mend it himself when Mia arrived, so it was out of action for nearly a week). Jess denies that he had anything to do with it, but Rory gives him an approving smile as he leaves for school.

Jess’ actions symbolise that he is capable of working to fix his relationship with Luke, just as Luke mended and waterproofed Lorelai’s chuppah. It’s yet another scene where Jess is depicted as the mirror image of Luke, and shows he is also good at practical things – he’s not just book smart.

There’s nothing like the thrill of reforming a bad boy, so no wonder Rory looked so pleased with herself. Jess is very careful to look back at her to watch her reaction as well. It’s something else he’s done to make an impression on Rory, and it feels like another piece of his plan falling into place.

Lorelai and Rory’s List of “Enemies”

People who eat crunchy food with their mouths open

People who dog-ear library books

People who spit when they talk (Lorelai spits in Rory’s eye while she’s saying this)

Note that Lorelai, who supposedly never eats fresh fruit unless she feels like she’s coming down with an illness of some kind, is eating a bowl of fruit salad for breakfast. Maybe she’s a bit under the weather?

Emily Confronts Mia

MIA: When Lorelai showed up on my porch that day with a tiny baby in her arms, I thought to myself, what if this were my daughter, and she was cold and scared and needed a place to live? What would I want for her? And then I thought, I’d want her to find somebody to take her in and make her safe and help her find her way.
EMILY: That’s funny. I would’ve wanted her to find someone who would send her home.

Clearly shaken by the news that Mia is visiting Stars Hollow, Emily goes to see her at the Independence. Somehow, in all the years Lorelai and Rory lived at the inn, Emily and Richard never crossed paths with Mia. Perhaps they didn’t visit very often, or perhaps Mia tactfully made herself scarce whenever they came to see their daughter.

To Emily, Mia is the woman who stole her family and stuck them in a potting shed. It’s hard not to have some sympathy for her feelings, but by the time Lorelai left, she was eighteen and a half, and an adult. A young adult, for sure, but still legally capable of making her own decisions and living where she pleased.

Mia would have had no authority to send her back to Emily, and if she had refused to take Lorelai in, she would have gone somewhere else – perhaps somewhere far more hazardous. The truth is, Emily owes Mia for keeping her daughter and granddaughter safe, but she is too angry and proud to ever thank her.

Mia promises to send Emily a box of photos from when Rory was young, but never asks for her address (nor does Emily offer it). Perhaps Lorelai already gave Mia her parents’ address at some time?

Note that Emily wears deep red, with an artificial black rose on her lapel, as a symbol of her rage and mourning. Mia wears funereal black with a circle of pearls in the same position, as if in sympathy with Emily’s feelings (pearls are often a symbol of tears). Mia wears the colours of bereavement that Emily is not quite ready to admit to; she understands the depth of her loss.

Luke Protects and Mends the Chuppah

LORELAI: Thanks for doing this. I didn’t want the rain to destroy your beautiful chuppah. And I looked and looked in the yellow pages and I didn’t see a chuppah waterproofer listing anywhere.

Luke comes over because Lorelai is worried the chuppah Luke made for her wedding to Max might get damaged by rain – apparently this is the first time heavy rain has been expected since August? Or else there’s been so much successive rain that Lorelai is worried about its cumulative effect.

I’m not sure how Luke saved the chuppah from getting wet, possibly some sort of oil or coating to protect it from the elements (there’s a bottle of something in his bucket, but you can’t see the label). He also has to superglue the head of a wooden goat decorating the chuppah back on. It’s a nice symbol of how Luke is willing to maintain and protect his relationship with Lorelai.

As part of that, he asks Lorelai about her fight with Sookie, and listens to her fears about starting her own business, and her grief at losing her connection to the Independence. She speaks of the inn as her “memory home”, where both she and Rory took their first steps, saying it means more to her than her parents’ home (what a kick in the teeth for Emily and Richard!).

To Kill a Mockingbird

RORY: You did it [the chalk outline]. The whole town knows you did it. They had a meeting about it.
JESS: You actually went to that bizarro town meeting? Those things are so To Kill a Mockingbird.

To Kill a Mockingbird, the 1960 novel by American author Harper Lee, previously mentioned. The novel is set in the fictional Alabama town of Maycomb during the Great Depression, and focuses on small town prejudices, traditions, and taboos. The book made an immediate sensation on publication, won the Pulitzer Prize, and became a bestseller. One of America’s most beloved novels (and a great favourite worldwide), it is often set as a text in high schools.

Note that Jess uses the word “bizarro”, just as Lorelai has done.

Rory Confronts Jess

RORY: And now Luke’s a pariah and it’s all because of you! What a shock, you don’t care about any of this.
JESS: I didn’t say that.
RORY: Go. I’m tired of talking to you.

The day after the town meeting which seems to have arranged specifically for everyone to dump on Jess, Rory talks to Jess about it. But instead of expressing sympathy for how unfairly the town has treated Jess, she attacks Jess for making Luke’s life more difficult.

Jess does seem to listen to her, but appears mostly interested in whether Rory was secretly amused by his pranks. If his plan was to get attention, then it worked spectacularly. The town had a meeting about him, and Rory has been forced to take notice of his behaviour. His plan is working!

Rory’s advice to Jess is basically the same as Lorelai’s on the evening of the dinner party: he’s got a good thing going with Luke, and he shouldn’t mess it up. Somehow, Jess is far more receptive to hearing it from Rory.

Rory’s “Go. I’m tired of talking to you”, is pure Emily Gilmore. It’s the usual way she ends an argument with Lorelai.