Footnotes to the TV series
RORY: What guy?
LORELAI: I don’t know – maybe the guy who hangs out in our trees all day waiting for you to come home?
RORY: Dean does not hang out in trees.
LORELAI: He bashed his head on a branch last week when I came out of the house too quickly.
The first hint from Lorelai that Dean has obsessive or even stalker-ish tendencies toward Rory.
When Max goes to Lorelai’s house, she tells him that she has always kept her dating life completely separate from her life with Rory, and that although she has dated men, and had a sex life, none of the men have ever been to her house.
From this we know that Lorelai has tried to put Rory’s needs before her own, and that she has to some extent used Rory as an excuse to keep men at a distance and avoid commitment.
The logistics of how she kept the men completely away from her house are something of a puzzle – I’m guessing she never dated men who lived in Stars Hollow, the relationships never progressed very far, and that she must have had reliable babysitters who could care for Rory while she was out on a date (Babette, Sookie, and Miss Patty seem like good candidates).
RICHARD (to Emily): You also knew that you wanted to marry Errol Flynn.
RORY: Really? Grandma had a thing for the pirate guy?
Errol Flynn (1909-1959) was an Australian-born American actor. First appearing in the 1933 Australian film In The Wake of the Bounty as mutineer Fletcher Christian, he got his first leading role in Hollywood in the 1935 film Captain Blood, where he played the rebellious buccaneer Peter Blood. After this he tended to be cast in romantic swashbucklers, often opposite Olivia de Havilland.
Flynn had a reputation as a womaniser and a voyeur, and in 1942 he was accused of statutory rape. Even though he was acquitted, his reputation was damaged. (Flynn actually picked up a teenage girl at the trial, and ended by marrying her; later he had a serious relationship with a 15 year old girl, adding some weight to the statutory rape accusations).
Emily’s attraction to a star seen as a hell-raiser and a rogue, dangerous for girls to be around, hints at a rather steamy side to her own sexual nature.
LORELAI: When I was five, I had a really bad ear infection and I had been home in bed for a week and I was very sad. So I wished really hard that something wonderful would happen to me, and I woke up the next morning and it had snowed. And I was sure that some fairy godmother had done it just for me. It was my little present.
Little Lorelai was thinking of the fairy godmother in fairy tales such as Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. This story explains Lorelai’s love of snow. It also lets us know that when she unexpectedly sees Max in her town, she is thinking that this is another miraculous gift from her “fairy snowmother”.
Emily tells Lorelai that she just sent Lance to pick Rory up from school, so we know it’s now around 4 pm. Lance must be the elder Gilmores’ chauffeur or manservant of some kind, although we don’t hear much about him after this.
RORY: Aha! You liked it, you liked Jane Austen. I knew you would. Lane, Dean likes Jane Austen.
Emma is a 1815 novel by English author Jane Austen. Unlike other of her books, the heroine Emma Woodhouse, blessed with youth, beauty, and intelligence, is independently wealthy and has no need to marry a rich man. In fact, rather than being under any pressure to marry, her elderly father would much prefer she remain as his companion. This is quite similar to Rory’s situation with Lorelai, who certainly isn’t pressuring her into a relationship, and that she has freely chosen Dean.
Emma, who believes she always knows what’s best, has a habit of meddling in her friends’ love lives, and is much more interested in doing so than thinking about romance for herself. Ironically, Rory can’t be bothered listening to her best friend’s love problems, as she is so wrapped up in her new relationship with Dean.
Rory’s choice of book might also remind us of Emma Bovary from Madame Bovary, which Rory was reading when Dean first noticed her: both Emma Woodhouse and Emma Bovary are great readers. It’s a reminder of the two “Emmas” in Rory’s character – the detached, intelligent Emma Woodhouse, and the romantic Emma Bovary who makes foolish choices.
NB: I have more often seen this book identified as Northanger Abbey, but I cannot locate an edition of that novel which resembles the book Dean hands over to Rory. To me it looks as if it might be the 1996 Signet edition of Emma, with an introduction by British author and critic, Margaret Drabble. However, I welcome input on this question, and will edit this entry if the correct edition of Northanger Abbey is shown to me.
LUKE: Have any of you ever considered the fact that you’re glorifying a war we fought so we could keep land that we stole?
Luke is referring to the land that was taken from the Native Americans by European settlement. As Lorelai raised this issue in the last episode, we can see can see another example of their compatible ideas.
We learn in this episode that every year the town re-enacts The Battle of Stars Hollow, which took place during the Revolutionary War on either November 10 or November 17 in 1776 (depending on whether this episode is one or two weeks after the previous one). This contradicts the sign in town, which says that Stars Hollow was founded in 1779.
In the “battle” a dozen militia men from Stars Hollow waited for the redcoats in the cold, however the British never showed up. Despite this lack of anything happening, Stars Hollow is very proud of its role in the American Revolutionary War.
We also learn that Luke’s father William Danes was an enthusiastic battle re-enactor, and even owned his own musket, which he had buried with him. Although Luke doesn’t follow in his father’s footsteps, he does serve free hot drinks to the re-enactors who have to have to spend all night freezing in the cold.
In real life, there were only three battles sites in Connecticut in the American Revolutionary War, and they were all British victories. Nonetheless, Revolutionary War history is a big deal in New England. Many Connecticut towns have annual commemorations of the American Revolutionary War, just like Stars Hollow.
Rory teases Dean that one of his embarrassing secrets must be that the theme music to Ice Castles makes him cry. In turn, Lorelai counters that at the end of The Way We Were, he wanted Robert Redford to dump his wife and kid for Barbra Streisand.
Ice Castles is a 1978 romantic drama film directed by Donald Wrye, and with Lynne-Holly Johnson and Robby Benson in the lead roles. Highly sentimental, it’s about a young figure skater named Lexie who rises to stardom before a tragic accident robs her of her eyesight. With the help of her former boyfriend Nick, she learns to skate competitively even without normal eyesight, as they re-kindle their relationship. The theme song is Through the Eyes of Love, performed by Melissa Manchester.
The Way We Were is a 1973 romantic drama film directed by Sydney Pollack, and with Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford in the lead roles. The story takes place from the 1930s to the 1950s, and is about the relationship between two very different people: Katie is a Marxist Jew with strong anti-war convictions, while Hubbell is a handsome WASP with writing talent, but no strong work ethic or political opinions. Katie and Hubbell fall in love, marry, and have a daughter together, but they are too different for their relationship to last.
At the end of the movie they meet by chance some years after their divorce; Katie has remarried to a Jewish man, and Hubbell has a beautiful girlfriend (despite Lorelai’s recollection, it is Katie who is married with a child, not Hubbell). They share a tender moment together, but too much time has passed, and it is is apparent that love alone is not enough to make their relationship ever work. The Way We Were was the #5 movie of 1973 and won Academy Awards for its musical score and theme song. It is considered to be one of the greatest romantic films of all time.
I think it is not going too far to say that Rory and Lorelai have actually named their own favourite romantic tearjerkers. The films they have chosen reveal quite a bit about their attitude to romance and relationships.
Ice Castles is about a talented sixteen-year-old girl from a small town who is determined to make it to the top of her field, and works hard to get there. Even when fate hands Lexie a cruel blow, she is able to rise above it and overcome her problems. Her boyfriend Nick basically exists in the plot just to encourage her, and to push her to succeed in reaching her goals. Lexie is unfaithful to Nick with an older man, but he is able to forgive her and begin their relationship anew.
I suspect Rory sees Lexie as something to aspire to, and that she understands her sense of driving ambition (Rory starts late at Chilton, just as Lexie comes into the world of competitive skating at a later age than usual). Both are working hard to catch up, and determined to succeed. Not having any relationship experience, her romantic fantasy is one where she can sexually experiment and be forgiven for it, and have a partner who is her support system and makes her dreams his own. The film’s setting in the snow and ice of winter suggests Rory’s virgin status.
The Way We Were has major parallels with Lorelai’s own life. Like Katie, she is a quirky and opinionated character, and Katie’s attraction to the handsome, privileged Hubbell reminds us of Lorelai’s relationship with Christopher – like Katie and Hubbell, Lorelai and Christopher were friends before they were lovers.
Katie and Hubbell separated when their daughter Rachel was born, as a parallel to Lorelai and Christopher breaking up after the birth of Rory. Like Hubbell, Christopher has gone to live in California and is not part of his daughter’s life. Just like Katie with Hubbell, Lorelai still has feelings for Christopher, but recognises that he is weak and lazy, and that their relationship could not work long term. She will not compromise herself to be with a man, even one she cares for.
That this movie has such a deep fascination for Lorelai is a reminder that her teenage relationship with Christopher is not just the great romance of her life, but her only real romance. Unlike Katie, she has not been able to move on and find someone else, so that she is emotionally stuck.
Lorelai is stunned to discover that Dean has never seen The Way We Were (because most teenage boys love Barbra Streisand movies), and decides that they will watch it for their next pizza-and-movie night. Dean is obviously completely smitten with Rory, because he agrees to this.
Dean indicates in this episode that he has more than one sister. We meet his younger sister later this season, but never see another sister or hear her mentioned. However, much later we find out that he has a young nephew, and it seems plausible that the nephew’s mother is Dean’s older sister. This older sister quite possibly remained in the Chicago area with her own family when the Foresters moved to Stars Hollow.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 