MADELINE: Jeremy didn’t call? LOUISE: Not in a timely manner, no. MADELINE: Well, good riddance to bad luggage.
Madeline makes a play on the English idiom, “Good riddance to bad rubbish”, meaning that you are better off without that bothersome person or situation. “Good riddance” has been in use since the 16th century, while the “bad rubbish” part was added around the 18th century.
Note that Rory is still reading alone at lunchtime, although she is at least eating at the same table as Madeline and Louise. No sign of Lisa!
LORELAI: I am Magenta, Rory usually opts for Janet, and I … was thinking that you could put on some fishnet stockings, a leather teddy, some platform boots, and go with us as Dr. Frank-N-Furter.
Magenta (played by Patricia Quinn) [pictured] is the maid at the castle inThe Rocky Horror Picture Show. A popular choice for dress-ups, she has wild frizzy reddish-brown hair, heavy Goth make-up, and a maid’s uniform. Apart from referencing Lorelai starting at the inn as a maid (she possibly still has her old uniform to wear as a costume), she really would look great as Magenta.
Janet Weiss (played by Susan Sarandon) is the innocent young woman who comes to the castle. She has a girl-next-door look with pink dress, white cardigan, and white handbag. Rory would make a convincing Janet as the seemingly wholesome girl with a deeply repressed sexual side just waiting to be unleashed. Note that Janet is unfaithful to her fiance, Brad – the show keeps linking Rory with infidelity.
Dr Frank-n-Furter (played by Tim Curry), previously discussed, and described by Lorelai.
RICHARD: Oh Emily, I know I’ve done nothing but disappoint you these past few months, what with how isolated I’ve become and all the social engagements I’ve made you cancel, and all the friendships I’ve jeopardized. And you like order, you like lists, you like to know where you’re going or what’s coming. You like all things planned. And then suddenly I impulsively unplan our entire future in one fell swoop. Well, I couldn’t face disappointing you again. I couldn’t face telling you that I’d spoiled the plan. Not now, not at this time of year.
Richard explains to Emily that he couldn’t stand the thought of disappointing her with news of his retirement, especially not at Christmas. Presumably he was going to tell Emily his news by the end of the Christmas holidays, to explain why he was not returning to work.
Note that Emily loves order and lists, just like Rory.
PARIS: I just have to let Nanny know. [takes out cell phone and dials] Nanny? É Paris. Vou jantar com Rory hoje à noite. Eu telefono no caminho de casa. Tchau.
Paris says: Nanny? It’s Paris. I’m having dinner with Rory tonight. I’ll call on the way home. Goodbye.
It’s notable that Paris is now seventeen and still has a nanny, as if she was a small child. Presumably her nanny has been kept on as a loyal retainer and become part of the family, now acting as more of a companion to Paris. Because of Nanny, Paris has become fluent in Portuguese (it is perhaps slightly surprising that Nanny hasn’t become fluent in English after all these years).
Also note that Paris must have spoken about Rory to Nanny often enough that she doesn’t need any explanation or reminders of who Rory is.
DEAN: You saw it was me, Jess. Why’d you keep punching? JESS: Had momentum.
Mm, good story. I think we can guess the real reason.
Note the snowman competition is still on display outside the high school. This seems naively trusting – even without deliberate sabotage, kids run around (or fight, like Jess is doing), and it seems as if they could easily become damaged. Perhaps a bit of foreshadowing?
RORY: Oh, well yeah, it can be really nice just to stay at home sometimes because you can do fun things that you normally wouldn’t have time for. LORELAI: Yeah, like play Running Charades, and get out that Slip ‘N Slide.
Running Charades is a charades game played in teams. Each team has a list of titles (of books, movies etc) that must be acted out to a team member, who is then meant to guess what it is, before another team member runs in to guess the next charade. Whichever team finishes all their charades by guessing correctly the fastest wins the game. It was brought out as a board game in 2000, suggesting that Lorelai bought a copy.
Slip ‘N Slide is a children’s toy brought out in 1961. It’s a long strip of plastic, which when sprayed with water, becomes incredibly slippery so that a child can slide right down to the end of it. Safety warning: they are only suitable for children, there have been several cases of teenagers and adults hurting their backs or necks, or even becoming paralysed, while playing on a Slip ‘N Slide. Lorelai’s joke seems slightly cruel in that context.
Christopher is listening to the harps playing in the background, although teasingly, it could also be understood as Christopher addressing Lorelai as Heaven.
Note the bowl of ripe, rich red pomegranates on the table. They are potent symbols of fertility, as a possible foreshadowing of what is to come. Red often seems to be a danger signal of love triangles in Gilmore Girls, and there could be two such triangles here – Lorelai, Christopher and Sherrie, and Lorelai, Christopher and Rory.
More pertinently, they are a reminder of the Greek myth of the fertility goddess Demeter, who lost her beloved daughter Persephone to the god of the Underworld, Hades. It was decreed that Persephone should be returned to her mother – but only if she hadn’t eaten or drunk anything in the Underworld. She had eaten six pomegranate seeds, so spent six months of every year with her husband, and the other six with her mother (thus explaining the cycles of the seasons, for nothing will bloom or grow while Demeter mourns the annual loss of her daughter).
Likewise, Christopher’s phone call brings up Lorelai’s fear of losing Rory. Already worried that her parents might lure her away into their life of luxury, she now grows afraid that she could lose Rory to her father. This seems unlikely, as Christopher is far less interested in Rory than Richard and Emily are. But as Harvard University is near Boston, it must be causing Lorelai a little anxiety for the future. The six month pomegranate deal sounds an awful lot like a shared custody arrangement.
CHRISTOPHER: Now it’s totally your call and I don’t want to step on any plans you’ve already made, but I know Rory has a break in school coming up, and I was wondering if you’d be cool with her coming to visit for a couple of days.
Christopher finally shows some interest in his daughter, inviting her to spend a couple of days of her Christmas break with him in Boston. The fact that he mentions Sherrie had fixed up the spare room for her suggests that it might be his girlfriend encouraging him to make contact with Rory.
Although Lorelai said she’d always left the door to Rory open for Christopher, she doesn’t sound thrilled with this plan. She never seems to have considered it might mean leaving the door to Rory open for another woman as well.
Note the picture on the wall of the ominous all-seeing eye and the word OBEY on it – does Christopher feel as if he is under Sherrie’s surveillance, that he is doing her bidding? Is the phone call something she instructed him to do? It’s a hint that Christopher may be finding his first committed domestic relationship rather confining.
(I’m not sure, but I think the artwork might be by Shepard Fairey, a graphic artist and founder of OBEY Clothing who emerged from the skateboarding scene in the mid-1980s. He would later become well known for his picture of Barack Obama together with the word HOPE).
DEAN: So, did you and Paris actually kiss or was that like a stage thing? RORY: A lady never kisses and tells.
Very clever, because Rory is not telling Dean about her kiss with Tristan. (A slight callback to Kiss and Tell, the episode where Rory and Dean first kiss, and everyone knows about it).
It was quite obvious that Paris and Rory didn’t kiss, Paris didn’t even pretend to kiss Rory. I’m actually not convinced they could have got a good mark for the project. Two members of their group dropped out at the last minute, they didn’t offer a unique perspective on the play, Paris as Romeo sounds irritated more than anything else, and there’s no tragically romantic kiss. As it was fifty percent of their grade, that doesn’t sound good for their overall result.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 