Bleeding Bowl

MICHEL: An eighteenth century bleeding bowl … When doctors bled patients, the blood had to go somewhere, no?

Michel refers to bloodletting, taking blood from a patient in order to prevent or cure illness. It is said to have been the most common medical treatment performed from antiquity until the late 19^th century, for more than 2000 years. The main reason for its long-lived popularity is that it was very affordable, and almost anyone could perform it. Bloodletting is almost never used in modern medicine, and in the past, was almost overwhelmingly harmful to the patient.

A bleeding bowl is simply the bowl used to collect the blood during bloodletting, and this is what Michel bought at the auction. Notice in the picture that there is crescent piece missing from the bowl, to give the physician something to hold onto.

The Oasis

DWIGHT: Welcome to The Oasis! That’s what I named this place, The Oasis, my oasis, a little slice of heaven right here on Earth.

An oasis is a piece of fertile land within a desert or semi-arid environment, often featuring a spring of fresh water surrounded by vegetation. Figuratively, it can refer to a quiet, peaceful place or situation separated from the noise and bustle that surrounds it. Dwight clearly sees his new home as a place of refuge from the stress of life.

Note that Dwight is wearing a shirt with cocktails on it, as if he is already relaxing into vacation mode in Stars Hollow.

Dwight’s house, The Oasis, is the Warner Bros Ranch at the studio lot. It was also the Griswold family home in the 1989 comedy film, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.

Lorelai Gets Accosted by the Stars Hollow Moms

As Lorelai and Luke leave the school after their talks, Debbie Fincher leads a posse of concerned mothers, presumably other members of the PTA, who are appalled to hear what happened during Lorelai’s talk. Not appalled enough to put a stop to it or anything, but appalled nonetheless. It’s all to drive home the point, yet again, that Lorelai is a “cool mom” and not like any other mother around.

I am not sure how Debbie managed to get all these women together at once so quickly – were they all hiding around the corner, just waiting for Debbie to come fetch them? Did Debbie leave early in order to round the other mothers up? I suppose we are meant to presume that their lives are so empty that they have literally nothing better to do.

Note that the Stars Hollow moms all dress alike in the same kind of brown patterned cardigan, and all wear blonde bobbed wigs. It’s the episode for bad wigs, this one.

According to the credits, the other two mothers besides Debbie who speak to Lorelai are called Jan and Lois, played by Julie Wittner and Merry Simkins.

Snoopy

RORY: [starts applying the purple dye] So have you mentioned dyeing your hair to the band yet? LANE: No, but they’ll be cool with it. They’ve all got tattoos. Dave and Zach have musical themes and Brian’s got Snoopy.

RORY: Poor guy.

LANE: Yeah, but he’s a slamming bass player.

Snoopy, Charlie Brown’s dog in the Peanuts comic strip, previously discussed and frequently mentioned. He is a black and white beagle. Comic strip creator Charles M. Schulz based him on his childhood dog Spike, who was a pointer crossed with an unknown hound – presumed to be a beagle, as Spike looked very beagle-like. The name came from Schulz’s mother, who had said if they ever got another dog, she would have named him Snoopy. In the comic strip, Snoopy has an older brother named Spike who lives in the Californian desert. Snoopy has his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and is a mascot of the NASA space program.

Note how quick Lane is to defend Brian when Rory says something pitying about him. Lane may have only been in the band for a week or so, but she already feels protective of her band mates.

Sissy

LORELAI: What was your girlfriend’s name, Sissy?

LUKE: As a matter of fact, no.

Lorelai teasingly suggests a girlfriend whose name is the opposite of “butch” – a “sissy”, slang for an effeminate man. There’s probably a bit of homophobic humour to Lorelai’s joke.

Lorelai had a friend in high school of this name – “Crazy Sissy”, who talked to her stuffed animals. Sissy has already been on the show as a high school girlfriend – she’s the girl Tristan took to the winter dance at Chilton, because Rory turned him down.

Note that Luke lets Lorelai know that he did have a girlfriend in high school, but he’s not saying her name. As they both went to Stars Hollow High, there’s a good chance she still lives in town.

Pete Best

DAVE: There’s no way you’re gonna become our Pete Best. There’s no way.

LANE: You’re sweet.

Randolph Peter “Pete” Best (born 1941), English musician known for being the drummer for The Beatles, dismissed immediately before The Beatles found worldwide fame. Fired in 1962 in favour of Ringo Starr, he started his own group, The Pete Best Four, and later joined other bands. He is sometimes referred to as “the fifth Beatle”.

Note how quickly Lane finds a way to tell Dave he is sweet … Maybe Dave touching her arm supportively in this scene had an effect on her.

Trust God

[Lane takes off her Dead Kennedys shirt; underneath is a shirt that says Trust God]

DAVE: Trust God – is that a band?

LANE: No. My life.

Right from the start Dave knows that Lane is a Christian, and that she has to hide her love of rock music from her family. She makes no attempt to laugh off the shirt or pretend that it’s a band name, or some kind of ironic joke. Whatever Dave feels about Lane, he will have to accept who she is if they are to have a chance together.

Note in the background a plaque reading Stars Hollow – 1779 – Stellae Caverna. It gives a Latin translation of Stars Hollow, and confirms the town’s foundation date as 1779 (even though that’s contradicted by other information).

Old Fashioned Drinks

While Luke is serving customers at the diner, Kirk and two young boys come in, ordering old fashioned soda shop drinks. It soon transpires they were sent by Taylor, making a point how necessary such a soda shop is, which Taylor wants to install in the space next to the diner, owned by Luke. Kirk already works for Taylor, and the two boys are presumably in his Boy Scout troop.

Egg Cream: Previously discussed.

Black Cow: Traditional name for a root beer float, which is root beer with vanilla ice cream. In some areas, the ice cream has to be chocolate in order to be called a black cow, and others say brown cow instead. (Root beer is a North American soft drink made using the root bark of the sassafras tree, or the sarsaparilla vine, Smilas ornata). Frank J. Wisner, owner of Colorado’s Cripple Creek Brewing, is credited with creating the first root beer float in 1893. The North American fast food chain A&W Restaurants are well known for their root beer floats.

Chocolate Phosphate: Traditional soda fountain drink, which is chocolate syrup and acid phosphate added to club soda. Acid phosphate is a mixture added to drinks which gives it a slightly tart flavour, and aids carbonation – a partially neutralised solution of diluted phosphoric acid made with salts of calcium, magnesium, and potassium. It’s recently come back into fashion as a mixer for soft drinks and cocktails.

Note also in this scene, references to ham on rye sandwiches and Coney island, previously discussed.

Bananarama

LORELAI: Hey, maybe instead of going to college, you should drop out and I could quit my job and we can form an all-girl band with Lane, you know, like Bananarama.

Bananarama, English pop group, formed in 1980 by Sara Dallin, Siobhan Fahey, and Keren Woodward. Their success on both pop and dance charts saw them listed in the Guinness World Book of Records for achieving the world’s highest number of chart entries by an all-female group. Between 1982 and 2009, they had 30 singles reach the Top 50 of the UK Singles Chart, including “Shy Boy” (1982), “Cruel Summer” (1983), and “Robert de Niro’s Waiting” (1984). They performed on the 1984 charity record, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”. They had eleven singles reach the top 10 in the US, including their #1 hit, a cover of “Venus”, (1986).

Note that this is yet another reference to Lorelai forming an all-girl band.

Paris Freaks Out

PARIS: What the hell did Romaine mean when he was going on about weeding out the hyper-intense in the interview process? He stopped just short of calling me by name, I’m losing it!

Paris also freaks out over the college panel, even having to run home and throw up out of anxiety. She’s especially upset that Mr Romaine mentioned weeding out “the hyper-intense” during college interviews. In a future episode, Paris will indeed miss out on a place in her first choice of college because of her hyper-intense interview.

Note that Rory has a cell phone for the first time in this scene – previously, she always used a pager. Don’t get attached to the cell phone, she will revert to using a pager in the very next episode. It’s possible that Paris called Lorelai’s phone, and Rory was borrowing it; Lorelai has lent Rory her phone before.