Tag: Episode Insight

Dean and Clara at the Town Meeting

Dean brings his little sister to the town meeting, even though he has never been to a meeting on his own, and town meetings don’t seem like something a little girl would enjoy as an outing (they probably aren’t suitable for little girls either, as Taylor tells us that the insults bandied around by disgruntled townsfolk can sometimes be pretty adult-oriented).

The only reason Dean has to attend the meeting is to see (stalk, spy on) Rory, and the only reason he has to bring Clara with him is so that she can confirm that the girl who came to door was definitely Rory – he already saw Rory running away, but only from the back. Clara already said she recognised Rory from photos Dean had in his room, so this is to make completely sure before he takes any action.

It all works out as Dean hoped: Rory is at the meeting with Lorelai and Max, and even stands up and makes a speech about how it’s hard to express your true feelings without looking like an idiot. The speech appears to be targeted specifically at him (it is), so that Dean knows that Rory did return his feelings, but was unable to tell him. To seal the deal, Clara identifies Rory as the girl who came to their house, so he knows that Rory has come looking for him, and she’s been stalking him too.

Miss Patty’s Ballet Class

MISS PATTY: Flutter flutter, quick quick, flutter flutter, quick quick. And your hearts are broken, your prince has betrayed you, you’ve been shot with an arrow, and now … you’re dead.

Miss Patty’s class is doing Swan Lake, a ballet composed by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, and premiered by the Bolshoi Ballet in 1877. The story, based on Russian and/or German folk tales, is about Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer’s curse. A handsome prince named Siegfried falls in love with her, but the sorcerer tricks him into agreeing to marry the sorcerer’s daughter, Odile.

Miss Patty seems to describe the ending of the ballet, where Odette is heartbroken over Siegfried’s betrayal, even as she forgives him for it. In most productions, both lovers die in order to break the curse, although by drowning, not getting hit by an arrow – it is early in the ballet where Siegfried nearly shoots Odette, thinking she is a swan.

Miss Patty may have created her own unique ending for her production (a rather grim one to teach children – children’s productions often substitute a “Disney style” happy ending). Then again, the music used in this scene is Lake in the Moonlight, which plays during the first scene of the ballet. She could be telescoping the ballet into a single scene for her class.

The use of Swan Lake expresses Rachel’s fear that Luke has feelings for Lorelai, demonstrating that she feels betrayed and heartbroken over it. In this episode, both Rory and Paris also fear that the boy they like has found a new girlfriend, only in those cases, the fear is unfounded. Swan Lake is yet another work referenced in which doomed love leads to suicide.

Rory and Max

After noticing Rory has seemed tired and distracted for a few days, Max says he’s concerned about her. He lets her know that he is sympathetic that she broke up with her boyfriend, and that he is available to talk if she wants to.

All this comes as the most terrible shock to Rory. She learns that her mother and Max got back together weeks ago, and have been talking regularly for at least three weeks – including discussing her personal life. Coming just after finding Lane and Dean studying together and talking about her, this seems like another betrayal – but even worse, because it is her mother.

Max behaves in a fairly inappropriate way here. He means well, but he approaches Rory more as a prospective stepfather than a teacher by wanting to talk about her breaking up with her boyfriend. Rory has really only been in a miserable mood for a few days, and it hasn’t impacted on her schoolwork yet, so there isn’t any need to do this.

Max shouldn’t be discussing her personal life at school, and should have checked with Lorelai before telling Rory that he and her mother are back together. He is being rather presumptuous by taking on a stepfather role at this stage – he and Lorelai haven’t even been on one date together since breaking up months ago!

Lane and Dean

When she was with Rory, Lane told her that she had to meet her science partner to work on an assignment; now we learn that Dean is her science partner. They are studying spores, moulds, and fungi, which suggests a Biology class.

It is notable that Lane is able to work with Dean, and is reasonably polite and even friendly with him. She doesn’t treat Dean badly because he broke up with Rory, as others have done, or seem to have any problem with him.

From her observations of both, she may have decided it is quite likely that Rory and Dean will eventually get back together and she prudently doesn’t want to be the person who made an enemy of her best friend’s boyfriend. (She even raises the possibility with Dean, suggesting it is something she has thought about).

Another possibility is that Rory has told her, or at least hinted to her, that it isn’t entirely Dean’s fault that they broke up, and that he didn’t dump her on a whim, or do anything horribly cruel to her. Lane does seem to understand that Dean is not a monster, and perhaps knows that Rory has trouble with commitment.

Rory walks in on Lane and Dean studying together, and having a conversation about her behind her back. She didn’t know that it was Dean who was Lane’s science partner, and doesn’t cope well when she finds out this way.

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.

“You look tired”

LORELAI: You look tired.
RORY: I just haven’t been sleeping very well lately.
LORELAI: How come?
RORY: Just have a lot on my mind.

It’s a few weeks since Rory and Dean ended their relationship, and she seemed to be coping pretty well. But perhaps that was just because she had a few distractions, such as a surprise visit from her great-grandmother, a group project to work on, spending an afternoon with her grandmother, and getting her own bedroom at her grandparents’ house.

Now that it’s back to normal life with nothing much happening, Rory is having trouble sleeping. When she sees Dean walk past the diner as she and Lorelai play a “who would you marry?” game with passers-by, Rory looks miserable.

PS I Lo…

The title suggests someone who is not quite able to bring themselves to say, “I love you”, and in this episode, both Lorelai and Rory will have to face up to their commitment issues.

The title may be reminiscent of the song PS I Love You, a 1934 popular song written by Johnny Mercer and first recorded by pop star Rudy Vallée. The Beatles had a 1962 song of the same name, the B-side to their debut single Love Me Do, and included on their 1963 album Please Please Me.

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.

Emily in Wonderland

The title is a reference to the children’s book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, commonly shortened to Alice in Wonderland; both book and author have been previously discussed.

Just as Alice finds herself transported to a strange world where nothing makes sense, Emily’s visit to Stars Hollow will likewise be a voyage into the unknown, the strange, and the frankly disturbing. Down the rabbit hole, indeed!