The Traffic Light

Taylor lets Luke know that he is getting a traffic light installed in Stars Hollow, even though there hasn’t been an accident in ten years (he apparently has powers to make decisions unilaterally in the town’s best interests when it comes to public safety).

As usual, Taylor is all about town progress, while Luke is all about keeping Stars Hollow exactly the way it has been – two different ways they show their love for the town. Their struggles and interactions end up giving Stars Hollow better outcomes; without Luke, the town would change too much and lose its character, while without Taylor it would stagnate and become a backwater.

This traffic light is the one alluded to in the episode’s title.

Max’s Breakfast Indecision

When Max joins Lorelai and Rory in the diner for breakfast, they immediately demand blueberry pancakes, while Max needs more time to think. The Gilmore girls delay their orders as well, and Luke takes this opportunity to unnecessarily make the whole exercise as stressful as possible, by threatening to “run out of pancakes”, and be “unable to make any more”, even though there is still an hour before breakfast is no longer served.

When Max orders poached eggs, Lorelai and Rory quickly ask if they can still have pancakes, to which Luke smugly says he already put their orders aside – something he earlier claimed was impossible as it was first come, first served.

It’s clear that Luke is going to act like a massive jerk if Lorelai remains with Max, and as this jeopardises her access to food and coffee (since obviously she can’t make her own food and drinks like any ordinary person), this will be a major problem if they get married, and live in Stars Hollow.

The Gilmore Girls and Max

Lorelai and Rory treat Max abominably while he is a guest in their house. He cooks dinner for them, they force him to watch a movie of their choice, talk all the way through it, and don’t allow him to participate, and he has to answer the phone, even though it’s their home, and they are sitting closer to it (Lorelai explains the coffee table is blocking her path, and Rory that her foot has gone to sleep).

You can see that Lorelai and Rory sit next to each other on the floor, leaving Max alone on the sofa – not exactly a great omen for their future marriage. Also note that they have once again left most of a meal uneaten on their plates, even though they are supposed to be big eaters. Maybe it’s all the vegetables Max put in the dish?

If this weekend is a trial run for their future lives together, Max must surely be having some misgivings about that. It does show that Rory has learned how to treat her boyfriend (horribly) by her mother’s (terrible) example.

“Billy Jack” Movie

This is the movie that Lorelai and Rory watch with Max. It is one of their favourites: they have it on home video, and have watched it more than ten times; Rory says you cannot watch a Billy Jack movie too many times.

The movie they are watching is The Born Losers, the first of the “Billy Jack” films. It is a 1967 action film which was directed and produced by Tom Laughlin, who also stars in the title role. The film introduces the character of Billy Jack, a mysterious Green Beret Vietnam veteran who is of partial Navajo Indian descent.

The plot involves Billy Jack coming down from his peaceful abode in the Californian mountains to a small town, where he gets into several violent confrontations with the Born Losers motorcycle gang, and must protect others. It is loosely based on a real incident in 1964, when members of the Hells Angels were arrested for raping five teenage girls in Monterey, California.

(Incidentally, this was also the impetus for Hell’s Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs by Hunter S. Thomson, his first book, published in 1966. Could this have been the book that the motorcycle-loving Dean lent to Rory?)

Made on a shoestring budget, the film was a commercial success, and led to several Billy Jack sequels being made. It received generally negative reviews, mostly because of the violence, of which the show gives us a little taste.

The way that Lorelai and Rory watch The Born Losers with Max is a callback to them watching The Donna Reed Show with Dean.

In both cases, the male guest had to provide the food (Max cooked, Dean brought pizza), doesn’t get any choice in what show or movie is watched, and isn’t allowed to comment or voice an opinion on it. He can’t even hear it properly because the Gilmore girls talk all the way through it, which drowns out what they are watching. Any attempt by the male guest to assert his opinions, or even ask what is happening onscreen, is roundly attacked by Lorelai and Rory.

Just as watching The Donna Reed Show led to Rory and Dean having a major argument, watching The Born Losers prefaces a fight between Lorelai and Max.

It demonstrates to us how Lorelai and Rory watch their favourite movies and TV shows – they have a love-hate relationship with the medium, are celebratory and critical at the same time, and both focused on what they are watching, and easily distracted from it. Their viewing style is deeply ironic, taking a pleasure in bad taste which is considered “camp”. They are also highly participatory, giving a running commentatory on the show while adding their own dialogue to it.

You can tell that Lorelai and Rory are used to watching things together, and their viewing habits seem to have been formed as a way to exclude others. They both seem to take a malicious pleasure in forcing Dean and Max into the role of clueless outsider.

Max in the Kitchen with the Gilmores

We are treated to a scene where Max cooks dinner for the Gilmores in Stars Hollow; he has already been shown to be an excellent cook earlier in the show. There are comic bits to demonstrate how quirkily undomesticated the Gilmore girls are – Lorelai cuts Max with a knife any time she tries to help cook, and neither Lorelai nor Rory can identify their own broiler (grill), even being alarmed to find it is “on fire”. Rory finds the smell of food cooking to be “weird”, in a good way.

Incidentally, we seem to have somehow skipped a day, Gilmore Girls style. Rory and Dean planned to watch The Holy Grail together that night, but instead she is having dinner and a movie with Lorelai and Max. We know it is the same day, because Rory is still wearing the exact same clothes.

We might also wonder what happened to Friday Night Dinner with the elder Gilmores, as it’s a Friday. The same thing happened in Christopher Returns (also written by Daniel Palladino) – when Christopher stayed over with Lorelai and Rory, Friday Night Dinner just disappeared without comment.

At least this time there’s a possible explanation: it’s summer, and Richard and Emily may be spending their vacation in the house they rented on Martha’s Vineyard.

“A double date, with adults?”

DEAN: So a double date, with adults?
RORY: No, just with Mom and Max.
DEAN: What’ll it be, like dinner and dancing?
RORY: Yes, and then we’ll enjoy brandy and cigars. No, we’ll probably just grab a bite.

We can see from their exchange that Rory and Dean see adults differently. For Dean, the idea of going on a double date with two adults is strange, and not particularly appealing. For Rory, a double date with her mother and her teacher is normal and potentially enjoyable – she doesn’t see them as “adults”, but as friends, with similar tastes and interests to herself.

Rory often socialises with her mother and other adult friends, so this is what she is used to. It helps to explain why adults seem to adore Rory, and why Rory often behaves more like an adult than a teenager.

Kirk the Photographer

LORELAI: Wow Kirk, I didn’t know you were into photography.
KIRK: It’s my passion.

We learn here that Kirk is passionate about (and apparently fairly talented at) photography, which will later culminate in his project as a short film director/producer/actor. Lorelai hires Kirk as their wedding photographer for virtually nothing, making this another job for Kirk on Gilmore Girls – although he never actually gets to do it, and wouldn’t have been paid for it.

“If eating cake is wrong, I don’t want to be right”

RORY: Is it right to be sampling wedding cakes when Sookie’s making ours for free?
LORELAI: What is right anyway, you know? Who defines right? And if eating cake is wrong, I don’t want to be right. … So, ethics?
RORY: Highly subjective and completely overrated.
LORELAI: That’s my girl.

Lorelai refers to the 1972 song “(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don’t Want to Be Right”, written by Homer Banks, Carl Hampton, and Raymond Jackson. Originally written for The Emotions, it has been performed by several singers, most notably Luther Ingram, whose original recording from his album of the same name went to #3 in the US, and #1 on the R&B charts. It was the #16 song of 1972.

Lorelai and Rory decide that committing fraud to rip off a little old lady is alright because they are Gilmores and therefore special. Note that Rory, “the sweetest kid in the world”, is perfectly okay with this, and has already scarfed down a large amount of cake before even raising the question of whether it might possibly be wrong.

“Every gift so far has been for you”

MAX: I don’t know if you’ve realised, but every gift so far has been for you.
LORELAI: Yes, well, in this town, I am the queen. You are simply my jester.
MAX: A position I happily accept.

For reasons which are not made entirely clear, Lorelai Gilmore is the queen bee of Stars Hollow, and has an almost celebrity status in the town. You can see that all the gifts are extremely girly, such as a matching Hello Kitty waffle iron, toaster, kettle, and lamp, floral chinaware, and lavender lamps. They are the kind of gifts you might give a young girl, rather than a mature woman who is already a mother, and about to be married. Max is almost superfluous at his own engagement party.

Lorelai does not say that Max will be her king, or stand beside her as her equal. She is making it clear that she is the boss in this relationship, and that Max is just there for her amusement. It doesn’t sound like a good basis for a marriage, and for Max to “happily accept” it is a warning that he’s either delusional or doesn’t take her seriously. Big mistake.

Fireflies

RORY: I called the Fireflies. Do they need troop leaders? Yes. Good, I’ll be a troop leader. Great. The only catch is, it’s summer. Camping season. I need wilderness skills. Why did you never take me camping?
LORELAI: Camping? Are you kidding? I couldn’t get you to step on wet grass until you were three.

The Fireflies are a fictional organisation, perhaps based on the Camp Fire Girls, founded in 1910 as a sister organisation to the Boy Scouts of America. In 1975 it became for both boys and girls, and is now just called Camp Fire. It teaches camping and wilderness skills, just like the Fireflies, and Lauren Graham was a member when she was young. In real life, there are no Camp Fire groups in Connecticut.

The 1997 black comedy film Wag the Dog , with screenplay by Amy Sherman-Palladino’s favourite playwright, David Mamet, uses The Firefly Girls as a replacement for the Camp Fire Girls. This could be an homage (and a slightly naughty one, as in the film the young Firefly Girl receives inappropriate advances from the President in the Oval Office).

If Rory would not step on wet grass until she was three, no doubt that’s from Lorelai’s example – she notoriously hates nature and the great outdoors..