Tag: Did You Notice?

Clara

RORY: What’s your name?
CLARA: Clara.

Clara (Scout Taylor-Compton) is Dean’s younger sister. Dean earlier alluded to having “sisters”, and Clara is one of them, although we never directly hear of any other. She seems to be around eight or nine years old, since she is still in the Brownies.

It is very strange that Rory has apparently never been to Dean’s house before, or met his family, even though they live in a small town and dated for several months. It’s even odder because Dean knows her mother very well, and visits her house often.

It makes her look like a detached and rather selfish girlfriend, that she expects Dean to always come to her, and to fit in with her life, rather than both of them making an effort. Or perhaps Dean has rather weirdly kept her away from his family, in which case she seems to have passively accepted it rather than argued against it.

Notice that the Forester’s front door has a friendly “Welcome” sign on the front door decorated with a red rose – a sure sign that Dean would welcome Rory’s visit, and her love, if only she knew.

“We were supposed to meet for lunch”

RACHEL: We were supposed to meet for lunch, but he didn’t show.
LORELAI: Oh.
RACHEL: Again.

First Luke leaves the diner just as it opens, and now he’s skipping coming home for lunch with Rachel in order to do work on Lorelai’s house. No wonder Rachel is suspicious and resentful, and seems hurt and upset. Notice that this is a slight echo of Madeline being “out to lunch” – by skipping lunch, it shows Luke is losing contact with his life with Rachel.

Notice that in the background the Stars Hollow Fire Department is holding a fundraiser – a sign that problems have reached emergency levels in Rachel and Luke’s relationship. Lorelai is wearing red to match the fire engines, showing the source of the emergency.

“Is Lane there?”

LORELAI (on phone): Mrs. Kim? It’s Lorelai. Is Lane there? Well, do you know where she is? Huh. That’s unbelievable, you always know where she is.

Neither Lorelai nor Mrs. Kim knows where Lane is, but the viewer can hazard a pretty good guess that she is studying with Dean for their science project, either at school or at Dean’s house. Lane told Rory that she and Dean had to get the project finished by Monday, and they didn’t do very well at Lane’s as her mother made things difficult, and then Rory wandered in unannounced. It makes sense that they would have picked somewhere else to study together.

Fabio

(Lorelai gets Luke to try on the clothes she bought for him with his credit card)
LORELAI: I just wanna make sure it all fits. Turn around. (Luke turns around.) Uh huh, uh huh.
MAN AT COUNTER: Hey Fabio, I need the ketchup.

Fabio (born Fabio Lanzoni in 1952) is an Italian-born American model and actor. He has appeared in several commercials, television shows, and movies, and became recognised as a model of the cover of multiple romance novels in the 1980s and ’90s. He was also famous for appearing in “I can’t believe it’s not butter” commercials. He was once known as “the most beautiful man in the cosmos”, and often considered very vain about his appearance (his catchphrase was, “Don’t hate me for being Fabio!”)

No prizes for guessing why Lorelai is so pleased to see Luke turn around …

The man at the counter is Joe (Brian Berke), who is also the pizza delivery guy in Stars Hollow.

Le Chat Club

LORELAI: You’ve got a little bag there.
LUKE: I know that.
LORELAI: It’s got a cat paw stamped on it and a little catnip bow.

Le Chat Club (pronounced Le Cat Club) is one of Stars Hollow impossibly twee gift stores. Luke buys Rachel some potholders that make a meowing noise for her birthday, which demonstrates how little he knows her (and that he isn’t so great at choosing gifts). Interestingly, both Lorelai and Rachel have their birthday in April.

Wild Kingdom

LORELAI: Ooh, hey, make a gorilla sound.
MAX: Why?
LORELAI: I want to play Wild Kingdom.

Lorelai is referring to the television program, previously discussed. It’s interesting that Lorelai links sex with Wild Kingdom, because last time this work was referenced, it was in connection with Luke (hypothetically) having sex with her. Becoming sexually aroused seems to have subconsciously reminded her of Luke.

Lorelai Shows Rory and Sookie the Dragonfly

In an episode filled with women showing each other various living spaces, it ends with Lorelai taking Rory and Sookie to see the old inn The Dragonfly, as something she and Sookie might be able to buy and renovate.

Notably, Sookie speaks of opening a bed and breakfast, even though in the next series, it turns out that Lorelai loathes bed and breakfasts.

Lorelai says it will be a long time before she and Sookie can buy The Dragonfly, and in the meantime the whole thing might fall down (the front door falls off just in the time they are viewing it). It will be more than two years before Lorelai and Sookie buy The Dragonfly, opening a new chapter in their lives.

The set used for The Dragonfly at Warner Brothers studio is the same one used for the family house on The Waltons, previously discussed.

Balthazar’s

LANE: Then he [Henry] said, “It was fun meeting you the other night.”
RORY: What?
LANE: He didn’t say which night. Like he didn’t remember which night. Like he’s mixing me up with another girl from another night. For all I know, he thought he was calling the hot blonde he met at a hopped up night at Balthazar’s.

Balthazar is a French restaurant in SoHo, Manhattan which opened in 1997 and is owned by Keith McNally. Famed for both its food and atmosphere, it is a favourite place for celebrity-spotting. It is notable that Lane gets the name wrong, not being familiar with trendy New York eateries.

Rory points out the obvious implausibility of Henry, a sixteen-year-old private school student from Hartford, being hopped up (on drugs) at Balthazar and meeting hot blondes, but Lane is not in a logical mood.

Boo Radley

LORELAI: You want him [Rune] to live here?
SOOKIE: No! Well, what about the old potting shed?
LORELAI: The old potting shed? That’s where Rory and I lived when she was a baby. It has memories and little rosebud wallpaper. I don’t want Boo Radley touching my rosebud wallpaper.

Arthur “Boo” Radley is a character in To Kill a Mockingbird, the 1960 novel by American author Harper Lee. He is a recluse who has been isolated from the townspeople since he was a teenager, and many rumours surround him. Boo Radley was apparently based on a real life neighbour of Harper Lee when she was a child. In the 1962 film version, he is portrayed by Robert Duvall [pictured].

Lorelai is saying that Rune is the town weirdo, like Boo Radley. The fact that she sees him this way shows that on some level, she is starting to accept him as a resident of Stars Hollow. (She can’t help it – she loves Stars Hollow, and on some level, everyone who lives there, even Rune).

It’s notable that after this Lorelai appears kind and friendly to Rune, a man she dislikes, who has been nothing but insulting to her, and is spreading rumours that imply she is his ex-girlfriend. Is she just being loyal to Sookie, or is there some fellow feeling with Rune, the black sheep of his family who has come to Stars Hollow with almost nothing? She gives Rune the same start she was given – an entry-level job at the inn, and some very basic free accommodation.

This is also the first we hear of Lorelai and Rory living in the potting shed at the Independence Inn, which will be important later in the episode.