Tag: Character Insight

Rory and Donna Reed Night

It isn’t obvious what Rory hoped to achieve by holding a Donna Reed Night with Dean, or what she thought she had proved by doing so. If she wanted to confront him with the reality of being an ideal 1950s housewife to show him how unrealistic it is, she is only partially successful.

Dean clearly adores the idea of her cooking for him while dressed in high heels and pearls, and even likes the rather terrible food she has prepared from packets and cans. Rory receives reassurance from Dean that he doesn’t really want her to be Donna Reed, but when she says she would do it all again, he is very quick to show interest in the idea. If anything, she may have awoken a desire in him he didn’t know he had.

If Rory planned to seduce Dean with cuteness to resolve their argument, she succeeded – but at what cost? And why? Was she simply scared of losing Dean, and made a grand gesture to win him back? If so, it’s sad, but probably not unrealistic for a teenager, that a single disagreement over an old TV show could make her so frightened and desperate.

There seems to be an element of wanting to demonstrate to Dean that she can have opinions and an identity that differ from Lorelai. Her choice of teenage rebellion is a bit strange, but she seems to have decided that she will set herself apart from from her mother by being far more willing to change herself and her ideas to please her boyfriend. Little wonder the uncompromising Lorelai thinks a blow to the head might have been involved.

Pretty Boy Rock

Lane classifies some music as “pretty boy rock” in her CD filing system, including Bon Jovi, Duran Duran, The Wallflowers, and Bush.

Bon Jovi [pictured] is an American rock formed in 1983, with its lead singer and songwriter being John Bon Jovi. Their 1986 album Slippery When Wet gained them international recognition. They will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018.

Duran Duran are an English rock band, earlier discussed as one of Lorelai’s favourite bands as a teenager. Maybe she contributed to Lane’s music collection, or introduced Lane to their music.

The Wallflowers are an American rock band formed in 1989 by Jakob Dylan and Tobi Miller. Their self-titled debut album came out in 1992, and their most successful album was the 1996 Bringing Down the Horse.

Bush are a British rock band formed in 1992, founded by Gavin Rossdale and Nigel Pulsford. They found immediate success in 1994 with the release of their debut album Sixteen Stone, and went on to become one of the most commercially successful bands of the 1990s. They were always far more popular in the US than in their home country.

The glimpse into Lane’s music collection in this episode is fascinating, and demonstrates the eclectic nature of her musical tastes and interests.

Lane’s School Results

RORY: Hey how’s it going?
LANE: Very well. I have discovered that in addition to my lameness in geometry I also will not become a biologist, French translator, or Civil War buff.

Apparently Lane didn’t get great results in her mid-term exams – at least not in Geometry, Biology, French, and American History. A reminder that Lane has a school life too with homework and exams, and that unlike Rory she isn’t an academic whiz-kid.

You can see that Lane has a sheet of music up, so she is apparently teaching herself to read music, as well as familiarising herself with multiple genres of popular music. This helps explain her lacklustre school results – she is bright, focused, and hard working, but is simply far more interested in music than school. If only her parents had sent her to a music school, she would have aced everything, but only Rory gets educational opportunities and a chance to shine at what she’s good at.

Nosy Townsfolk

Luke and Lorelai discuss painting the diner, and bond as Luke reveals some of his family’s history with the diner, which used to be his father’s hardware store. Taylor leads a group of interested townies to spy on them, although there’s nothing to actually see as they haven’t started painting yet.

This will become a well-worn running gag that the inhabitants of Stars Hollow will turn out en masse to stick their nose into anyone’s business, even if it isn’t very interesting. They have a special fascination with Luke and Lorelai, demonstrating that they are the “power couple” of the show.

Dean and Rory’s Argument

Dean might have kept his mouth shut in front of Lorelai, but now he and Rory are alone they end up arguing about The Donna Reed Show. He basically can’t see anything wrong with a woman cooking dinner for her husband and family, and points out that’s exactly what his mother did for years, and now that she works, she still does it on the weekends.

Their different family backgrounds have helped shape their differing values, and Rory cannot really find a way to respect Dean’s experiences and views without feeling that she is betraying Lorelai, and the way she was raised. In fact, she sounds as if she’s beginning to have doubts about whether Lorelai is completely in the right.

Her argument that it’s okay for Dean’s mother to cook if she wants to because women have choices now doesn’t really make sense. If women (like Mrs. Forester) are free to do as they wish now, then why is Rory getting upset about how things were in a previous era? Why is it even an issue? And how exactly does it affect her?

Rory’s read books on feminism, but isn’t able to explain her feminist ideals to Dean. Perhaps she’s afraid that if she did so, the difference in their opinions and values would become too starkly obvious. Or maybe she wonders if Simone de Beauvoir can really help in this situation.

When Dean says that Rory only thinks the way she does because of her mother, it raises the question, yet again, as to whether Rory even has an identity of her own apart from Lorelai. Perhaps because of this comment, she doesn’t confide in Lorelai as to what’s bothering her, or what she plans to do.

Village Vanguard

BABETTE: Well, see, Morey just got a call to play a gig at the Village Vanguard tonight so we got to go to New York.

Village Vanguard is a jazz club on Seventh Avenue South in Greenwich Village. It opened in 1935 and at first featured many forms of music, such as folk and beat poetry. It became focused solely on jazz in 1957. Some of the big stars who have played at the Village Vanguard include Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, and Sonny Rollins.

It’s an internationally renowned club, so it’s a demonstration of Morey’s recognised talent that he was chosen to play here (even though it seems a bit last minute).

“Not in the budget”

RICHARD: It costs a fortune to travel first class in Europe. We only do it every two years
EMILY: In the fall.
RICHARD: It’s just not in the budget this year.

Richard and Emily didn’t go to Europe the previous fall, so they would normally have gone this fall, except that it’s not in the budget. Most likely that’s because they are paying for Rory’s schooling – a year’s tuition at Chilton would be enough money for two first-class vacations in Europe. (Of course the idea they could have a cheaper holiday is one they can’t get their heads around, and they wouldn’t enjoy it anyway).

Richard and Emily are extremely tactful about this shortfall of money, even after Lorelai and Rory keep cluelessly pushing them on the issue. Think how easy it would have been for them to snap (or even state calmly), “We’re not going to Paris because we need the money for Rory’s education!”. It’s to their credit they never make Rory feel like a financial burden, and are quick to reassure her if someone else tries to imply that she is.

Paris

While suggesting that Richard and Emily go to Paris instead of Martha’s Vineyard, Lorelai and Rory mention some of the things associated with this city.

Impressionism: A 19th century art movement associated with small, thin brushstrokes; an emphasis on light and movement; unusual angles; and ordinary subject matters. The movement arose in Paris during the 1870s and 1880s with a number of independent art exhibitions. Famous impressionist artists include Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Camille Pissarro.

Poodles: A stereotypical image of Paris is an elegant middle-class woman taking her poodle for a walk. Although poodles were very fashionable in France some decades ago, they have fallen out of favour and are no longer chic. (The photo used was taken by American photographer Louise Dahl-Wolfe, and first published in 1940).

Crème brûlée: A rich, creamy custard dessert with a hard caramel topping. It originated in Spain, and was first given its French name (which means “burnt cream”) in the 17th century. It wasn’t common until the 1980s, and was popularised by Italian chef Sirio Maccioni at his New York restaurant Le Cirque. It isn’t particularly Parisian, although you can certainly eat it while in Paris.

It’s in keeping with their lack of travel experience that Lorelai’s and Rory’s visions of Paris are distinctly dated and second-hand.

Dean and Donna Reed

Dean makes himself unpopular with Lorelai and Rory when he says it seems nice that Donna Reed likes cooking for her family and that she seems happy to do so. Even the most ardent Dean fan must feel at this point that he and Rory are not perfectly suited to each other. He receives short shrift from the two Gilmores, and in the end is stifled into silence, with a “Hey, I’m not saying anything”.

Apart from showing a serious discrepancy in the values of Rory and Dean, it also demonstrates how Lorelai and Rory don’t allow the men in their lives to have any say in things. When Dean first came to a movie night at their house, he was basically told he wasn’t allowed to choose the movie, and had to run any suggestion past Lorelai (as he picked an inappropriate movie, it didn’t seem unjustified at the time).

But now he isn’t even allowed to voice an opinion on what the Gilmores are watching. It raises the question of what role Dean has in Rory’s life: is he just there to bring pizza, look handsome, kiss her, tell her she’s pretty, phone her fifty times a day, and agree with everything she says? Even Donna Stone got to do a lot more than that!