Tag: Character Insight

Christopher Leaves

When Christopher prepares to ride back to California on his bike, he makes the manipulative and irresponsible move to have Rory re-state his marriage proposal to Lorelai. This only serves to give Rory more false hope, and to place the blame for him not being in her life on Lorelai. Rory also asks him to phone more often in the future, further confirmation that the “weekly phone call” from Christopher was much less often in reality.

I’m not sure how Christopher can afford to drive home when his credit card is maxed out – the trip across America to California would take several days at least, and cost a lot in fuel, food, and accommodation. Maybe Richard and Emily gave him money, or his own parents.

This episode, and the previous one, make it abundantly clear that Christopher is a creep and a wastrel, and it’s a testament to David Sutcliffe’s acting that he also imbues him with such charm and boyish appeal. You can see that Lorelai and Christopher have great chemistry, and genuinely care for each other, but it’s not a relationship that could ever last the distance.

Lorelai and Christopher

We learn in their scene together on the balcony of Lorelai’s childhood bedroom that this is where Rory was conceived. As Rory was born in late October, it means that Lorelai and Christopher had sex outdoors in January, which seems ridiculously cold and uncomfortable. They then recreate it by having sex on the balcony again, this time at night in early March, when it is still very cold in Connecticut. I’m not sure the Californian writer, who had only visited Connecticut in the summer, really thought this one through.

From what we see of Christopher in later episodes, it seems to be one of his less endearing qualities that he is quick to make a move on Lorelai whenever they are together and she is in an emotionally vulnerable state – in this case, crying after a terrible argument with her father, and drinking tequila that he gave her. It makes you wonder if this is how they originally had sex as teenagers. Did Christopher wait until she was at a low point after a fight with her parents, then ply her with alcohol?

In any case, it’s a horrible thing for both of them to do to Rory, as they go off to be alone together just when she most needs their love and reassurance. (It’s done so that Rory can have a touching scene with Emily, but still makes Lorelai and Christopher look bad).  Rory is old enough to wonder where they went, and shrewd enough to make a guess as to what they were doing, as her questions to Lorelai show. For a child who obviously secretly longs to have her father in her life, it’s cruel to give her that kind of hope that her parents might be getting back together.

Underalls

LORELAI: And then when we were older, scanning the neighbors’ houses for naked people [with the telescope].
CHRISTOPHER: [laughing] Found a couple of those.
LORELAI: [laughing] Mrs. Dominski undulating in her big fat Underalls is forever carved into my brain.

Underalls were a brand of underwear made by Hanes; it was a combination of underpants and pantyhose which was meant to eliminate panty lines, and marketed with slightly risque commercials. They were made from 1976 until the 1990s.

It seems to be a feature of scripts by Daniel Palladino that Lorelai makes nasty comments and jokes aimed at overweight people, especially women. It doesn’t really make any sense, since Lorelai’s best friends in Stars Hollow are all plus-sized women.

Are we meant to assume that Lorelai dislikes overweight women, but seeks them out as friends in order to make herself look better, or because they don’t threaten her fragile sense of self-esteem, while still making fun of them behind their backs? Because that isn’t a fun quirk, or a relatable human flaw – it’s revolting, and a sign of some kind of personality disorder.

Straub, Richard, and Lorelai

Christopher’s father Straub (Peter Michael Goetz) could hardly be written as more hateful. He makes it clear that he sees Rory as nothing more than a terrible mistake, entirely Lorelai’s fault, which ruined his son’s life. He even suggests that as a sixteen-year-old, Rory is just about to get pregnant herself (“dangerous age for girls”). He looks down on Lorelai, and identifies her position as executive manager of an inn as a “blue collar” job. This is ridiculous, as Lorelai is in no way performing manual labour – I suspect he still thinks of her as a maid.

It is entirely satisfying when Richard throws Straub and the mousily ineffectual Francine (Cristine Rose) out of the house (with Francine, you can see where Christopher gets his weak character from, although Straub’s bullying also provides an explanation for his overly compliant wife and son). The fight between Straub and Richard explains why Rory never has any further contact with her paternal grandparents.

Lorelai thanks her father for defending her, but instead of a sweet father-daughter moment, Richard coldly tells her that he wasn’t defending her, but “the Gilmore name”. He lets Lorelai know in no uncertain terms that she brought shame to the family by getting pregnant, and that after she ran away from home Emily was confined to her bed for a month with grief – something Lorelai did not know until this moment.

Richard lets Lorelai know that he hated Christopher for getting her pregnant, but that Christopher at least was willing to marry Lorelai and work in the insurance business to support her and Rory (Christopher would agree to anything to avoid conflict, although we can feel fairly confident he would have found a way to weasel out of it at some point).

Richard continues to blame Lorelai for not marrying Christopher, her personal feelings being irrelevant to him. This seems to be further evidence that the whole plan to reunite the Gilmores and the Haydens was something cooked up by Richard and Emily, who really want Lorelai to marry someone suitable, with Rory’s father being the best candidate in their eyes.

Princeton

STRAUB: Our son was bound for Princeton. Every Hayden male attended Princeton including myself, but it all stopped with Christopher. It’s a humiliation we’ve had to live with every day, all because you seduced him into ruining his life. She had that baby and ended his future.

Princeton University is a private Ivy League university which was founded in 1746, making it one of the oldest universities in the United States. It is located in Princeton, New Jersey.

We learn from Straub that several generations of his family have attended Princeton. He specifically says the males, as Princeton only became co-educational in 1969 – if Christopher had a sister, she might have gone to Princeton.

I’m pretty sure you can still go to Princeton if you have a child with your high school girlfriend, so Straub is clutching at straws in his efforts to blame Lorelai and Rory for Christopher not being accepted into Princeton (or any other university).

Straub doesn’t make Christopher face the consequences of his actions, and blames others for any failure in his life, which is one reason why Christopher is such a weak and unreliable person. It’s notable that Christopher privately tells Lorelai it isn’t her fault her didn’t go to Princeton, but doesn’t have the guts to defend her openly, and tell his father that.

President Bush

LORELAI: I hate President Bush … He’s stupid and his face is too tiny for his head and I just want to toss him out.

Lorelai is talking about George W. Bush (born 1946), who had been elected President of the United States in November 2000, and sworn in on January 20 2001, less than two months previously from Lorelai’s perspective. He is the son of George H.W. Bush, who was US President from 1989 to 1993. Like so many famous people referenced in the show, George W. Bush has a Connecticut connection, being born in New Haven: he also attended both Yale and Harvard.

Lorelai’s perception of George W. Bush as “stupid” was one shared by many people, due to his frequent lapses of grammar, mangled sentences, and baffling statements. Polls showed that American voters saw him as having a low intelligence. Historians rate his presidency quite poorly, although his popularity has picked up since he left office in 2009.

It was rare for Gilmore Girls to stray far into politics, so this was an unusual moment which identified Lorelai as a Democrat. She was clearly desperate to get attention away from Rory, and her plan worked. Impulsive as ever, Lorelai didn’t stop to think whether her comment was going to make the evening easier. It didn’t help things.

Compact Oxford English Dictionary

CHRISTOPHER: Come on, what’s the book of your dreams right now?
RORY: Well, that would definitely be the Compact Oxford English Dictionary, but Dad –

Rory is referring to the Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, which reduces the print size of the Oxford English Dictionary so that the entire dictionary can fit into a single volume instead of multiple volumes. The print size is so small that a magnifying glass comes with it so you can read it, and it is necessarily a very large and heavy book, with its own slipcase.

It costs about $400 today, which is why it is just a dream to Rory (and why Christopher can’t afford it). As Christopher’s credit card is rejected, Rory must realise that his boasts of financial success are all empty.

Last Christmas

LORELAI: Yeah. I mean, I have not seen this man since last Christmas, right. We hear from him maybe once a week – maybe.

Lorelai confirms that she and Rory saw Christopher last Christmas, raising the question of where they met. Christopher has never been to Stars Hollow before, and Richard and Emily usually spend Christmas out of town.

Lorelai also confirms our suspicions that Christopher’s “weekly phone call” isn’t very regular and it’s now “maybe once a week”.