Lorelai needing her rain gutters cleaned was mentioned in “A-Tisket, A-Tasket” – she was hoping that the “Collins kid” might clean them for her. Luke remembers this, and suggests Jess could clean her gutters instead. Lorelai puts him off by saying she’s already got people lined up for the job.
Rory puts her head down sadly or sullenly when Lorelai balks at Jess coming to their house. Note that Rory is holding the ice creams hugged close to her chest, so her body heat will melt them even faster. I’m pretty sure that’s not ice cream in those cups marked “ice cream”.
LORELAI: Hey, will you go get the ice cream and make sure they give us a ton of maraschino cherries?
A maraschino cherry is one that has been sweetened and preserved, They are preserved in a brine solution containing sulphur dioxide and calcium chloride to bleach them, then soaked in a mixture of red food colouring and sugar syrup.
The name comes from the Marasca cherry from Croatia, a type of Morello cherry; cherries preserved in marasca liqueur were known as “maraschino cherries”. They became popular in Europe in the 19th century, but because the supply of cherries was limited, they were a delicacy reserved for royalty and the very wealthy.
Maraschino cherries were introduced to the US in the late 19th century, where they were served in fine bars and restaurants. Because they were scarce and expensive, by the turn of the century other cherries such as the Royal Anne were substituted, and flavours like almond extract added. Alcohol was already becoming rare as a preserving agent, and when Prohibition arrived, became illegal.
Maraschino cherries are used in certain cocktails, and are used to decorate foods such as cakes, pastries, fruit salad, and baked ham. In the US, they are an essential addition to ice cream sundaes, leading to the expression, “the cherry on top” to mean the finishing touch which makes a good thing perfect.
Another mention of Lorelai’s love of cherries, this is at least the third one. Note that Rory is going to get rocky road ice cream sundaes to take home and eat with the movie, and they are walking. Even on a chilly night, how are the sundaes not going to melt on the way home? Do they live only thirty seconds walk from the centre of town?
A possible slight contradiction – in Season 1, Lorelai says Rory doesn’t like rocky road cookies, but now she’s happily ordering rocky road sundaes. I suppose it’s plausible she doesn’t like rocky road in cookies, but enjoys it in ice cream, although it sounds unlikely to me. She might have changed her mind, also.
When Jess comes out of the bathroom, we can see it is now in a different direction. After being located just beyond the kitchen area from the first season until now, the bathroom in Luke’s place has moved to the other side of the apartment near the bedroom area. It remains there for the remainder of the show’s run.
LORELAI: I’ve never seen so much stuff. It looks like a white trash Hearst Castle in here.
Hearst Castle, estate of media magnate William Randolph Hearst, previously discussed.
Note Lorelai’s shocking implication to Luke that his nephew is “white trash”, said while Jess is just in the other room. Lorelai has said some truly awful things about Jess, a troubled teenager who is the nephew of a close friend. This isn’t even the worst one.
LORELAI: So should it have been me? RORY: Huh? Oops, sorry! Zero hour – I have to go. I’ll be right back. [leaves]
A possible allusion to Elton John’s 1972 song, “Rocket Man (I Think It’s Gonna Be a Long, Long Time)”, composed by Elton John and Bernie Taupin.
It might seem a bit of a stretch, but the song begins:
She packed my bags last night pre-flight Zero hour 9 am
Rory packed Lane’s CD ready for the drop-off the night before, and it was originally timed for 9 am, before being changed to 10 am to accommodate the reverend’s handball. The song was inspired by the 1951 Ray Bradbury story, “Rocket Man” from The Illustrated Man, which seems on-brand for Rory, and science-fiction is constantly alluded to on the show. It was also one of the songs recorded by William Shatner on his spoken-word album, previously discussed. Rory planned to buy the album for Lorelai’s birthday.
“Rocket Man” was the lead single from Elton John’s album Honky Château. The song went to #2 in the UK, and #6 in the US, becoming one of Elton John’s biggest hits, and a staple at his concerts. John played the song at the 1998 launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery. Rolling Stone has it listed as one of the greatest songs of all time.
Note that Lorelai never receives an answer from Rory as to whether Lorelai and Christopher should be together.
EMILY: Christopher gets his life together with that woman. LORELAI: So, that’s good. EMILY: It should’ve been you!
Emily is extremely upset when Rory doesn’t come to Friday Night Dinner because she’s having a night out with Sherry. She immediately fears that Sherry will “take Rory away” from them, and is terrified that Christopher and Sherry will obtain weekend custody of Rory. She’s slightly on the old side to be a tug-of-love child at seventeen, and I’m pretty sure you have to pay child support to get even part-time custody of your child, which Christopher has never done.
Emily says she is heartbroken, because she always pictured Lorelai and Christopher being together, so that Rory could finally have two parents. Christopher was never ready to commit and was no kind of provider, but now it looks as if he was capable of settling down and working at a steady job, he just needed to find the right woman.
Completely and cruelly unfairly, Emily now blames Christopher’s general uselessness on Lorelai, saying that if she’d really tried, she could have influenced him to become a better man. Really? At the age of only sixteen, frightened, pregnant, and alone, she should have been responsible for Christopher’s life as well? Lorelai had a baby to care for and support, she didn’t need to take care of Christopher as well (and Rory would have suffered horribly if she did).
Emily is no better than Straub, laying all the responsibility for Christopher’s failure at Lorelai’s feet. It’s a horrible thing to say to her daughter.
Lorelai does admit that she has feelings for Christopher and isn’t happy about Sherry either, but she is trying to focus on doing what’s right, and being happy for Christopher. This unselfishness is roundly condemned by Emily, who goes upstairs to cry on her bed. (Later we find out she did eventually come down to dinner, but sulked all the way through it).
The episode’s title comes from Emily’s outburst to Lorelai, that, “It should’ve been you!”. Note that Emily’s outfit is mostly sad black, with touches of angry red. Lorelai is in grey, trying to remain neutral.
CHRISTOPHER: Well, it’s actually gonna come down to whatever we can afford. It might just be a newly built place. EMILY: With their shoddy craftsmanship? Oh, you don’t want that. LORELAI: What does that leave them with, Mom – a teepee?
Spelled either tepee, teepee, or tipi. A conical tent, traditionally made from animal skins on wooden poles, with a smoke flap at the top. Historically used by some indigenous peoples of the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies of North America, as well as by some tribes in the Pacific North West. The word itself is from the Lakota language, and means “dwelling”. They are still used by such communities, although more often for ceremonial purposes.
In English, the word teepee was often translated as “lodge”. This is a reminder of the Black Lodge and White Lodge from Twin Peaks, set in the Pacific North West, giving yet another connection to the television show in this episode.
SHERRY: Except that our colors were white and bright red. I looked hideous. CHRISTOPHER: Oh, she’s being self-deprecating. You looked cute in that outfit. SHERRY: No no, I looked like a peppermint stick. I swear, that’s where my addiction to clothes comes from. Trying to make up for all the years of having to wear the same thing every day.
A peppermint stick is a long stick of hard candy with peppermint flavouring, traditionally coloured with red and white stripes. They were developed in the US, and are often marketed as an “old fashioned” or traditional candy. They have been sold since at least 1837, when they were shown at an exhibition in Massachusetts, and were popular by the 1860s. By the early 1900s, they were already viewed nostalgically.
I don’t know of any private school in the US which has a bright red and white uniform. Note Sherry’s implication that she was very slim as a schoolgirl, when she compares herself to a skinny peppermint stick.
Rory got a pager message from Dean while she was at dinner, but instead of phoning him back right away, she called Lane’s house (Lane didn’t come to the phone). When she gets home, Lorelai goes for a shower, telling Rory to find a movie for them to watch. It was after 9 pm when they were at dinner, and they talked more and had a half hour drive home, so it must be around 10 pm by now, yet they’re planning to watch a movie as well!
Instead of getting a movie, or phoning Dean back, Rory calls Jess. When we see him, he is readingThe Fountainhead, as instructed by Rory. He is also playing with Rory’s bracelet, gazing at it softly with a misty smile. The phone call, ostensibly about literature, is very playful, and this episode marks the beginning of Jess and Rory’s mutual flirtation.
And Rory is still clearly very annoyed by Dean going to Lorelai when they had an issue in their relationship, because she isn’t returning his calls.
EMILY: It’s not nothing. You’ve both been sitting here all night, not saying a word and not even looking at each other. Are you in a fight? LORELAI: I’m not. RORY: Please. LORELAI: Please what? You are the one who’s been freezing me out all week. RORY: I just haven’t had anything to say.
At Friday Night Dinner, we learn that Lorelai and Rory haven’t been speaking since they argued about Rory’s relationship with Jess. It’s a pattern they tend to get into when they are angry with each other, freezing each other out and refusing to talk things over.
It’s notable that in the scenes we see of them arguing together, Rory never once says what you expect from a girl in her situation: that Jess is only a friend who shares one of her hobbies, and that him buying her basket was just one of his pranks. She reminds Lorelai that she didn’t like Dean at first either, as if she is already thinking of Jess as a replacement for Dean.
Note that Rory is in angry red, and Lorelai in sad black for this scene, a common costume choice for fight scenes on the show.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 