Footnotes to the TV series
The episode’s title is a play on the phrase, “All’s fair in love and war”, a proverb which can be found as early as the 16th century. The episode title adds the words “and snow”, to suggest that the usual rules do not apply whenever it snows. As the title suggests, Lorelai will be changing the rules in this episode due to a snowfall.
RORY: So right now under your skirt you’re wearing …?
LORELAI: Not underwear.
The episode opens with Lorelai and Rory bickering about laundry, as Lorelai confesses she’s solved the problem of not having any clean underwear by not wearing any. It’s just the start of the many sexual quips and teases which occur in this episode which centres on kissing. From Rory and her thickening needs to Taylor pulling Pilgrims out of his pocket, have fun spotting them all.
As the episode comes to an end, Emily is stricken to realise that Lorelai is right – she doesn’t really know her daughter very well at all. She leaves the party so devastated that we begin to realise just how much Emily and Richard have missed out on because Lorelai left home.
In turn, Lorelai is seen looking through the window while Dean gives his birthday gift to Rory – a leather bracelet that he made himself – as Rory smiles adoringly at him. Rory has never talked to Lorelai about her blossoming romance with Dean, and Lorelai looks sad because she is being left out of her daughter’s life, as a parallel to Emily’s unhappiness and loss. Like Emily, she has to admit that she doesn’t know everything about her daughter’s life, although like Emily, she can recognise when a guy is attracted to her little girl.
RORY: I’m sorry I snapped at Grandma.
LORELAI: Yeah, huh? That was a pretty Freaky Friday moment we had back there.
Freaky Friday is a 1976 fantasy-comedy Walt Disney film about a mother and teenage daughter who switch bodies after wishing that they could trade places; the mother and daughter are played by Barbara Harris and Jodie Foster respectively. The film is based on the 1972 novel of the same name by Mary Rodgers, who wrote the screenplay for the movie.
In the movie, the daughter Annabel gains a new understanding of her mother’s life which brings them closer together, just as in this episode Rory gets an insight into Lorelai’s life growing up with Emily, and how difficult that must have been at times.
Lorelai would have been eight years old when Freaky Friday came out. Walt Disney did a made-for-television remake of the film in 1995 when Rory was eleven, so the movie could easily have been part of both their childhoods.
This 1981 song by Scottish new wave band Altered Images plays when Rory is at Chilton, discovering that her grandmother has sent out invitations to all her classmates. It was released as a single from their album of the same name, and went to #2 in the UK.
Although it didn’t chart in the US, it would be familiar to many from being included on the soundtrack to the 1984 teen movie, Sixteen Candles. The movie about a girl’s 16th birthday seemingly gone wrong mirrors Rory’s feelings when she discovers that Emily has sent out the invitations without asking her. The difference is that in the film, everyone has forgotten the girl’s birthday, while in Rory’s case too many people have been reminded of her birthday.
For the first time ever, Lorelai apologises to Rory for keeping her away from her grandparents for so many years, explaining that it suited her, and she never thought Rory might feel differently. Rory doesn’t outright say that she forgives her, but when she sees a little girl in a fancy dress at the wedding who must remain still and ladylike as the dress is so expensive, she does get a slight inkling of what her life might have been like if Emily had been more involved in it from a young age. She quietly thanks Lorelai for saving her from that, indicating that she does understand and appreciate her mother’s point of view.
MRS. SHALES: They just told me they’re going to share a condo in Tuscon. Arizona! That’s hundreds of miles away!
In the US and many parts of Canada, condo is short for condominium, real estate in which residential units are separately owned, but surrounded by areas which are jointly owned, such as hallways, laundry rooms, swimming pools, and gardens. In other countries this may be known as strata title or commonhold.
It doesn’t seem like a good idea for the quarrelling twins to share a unit together with their new husbands, but Mrs. Shales is just happy they’re a long way from her.
The twins moving away from their mother is an object lesson to Lorelai – if she keeps fighting with Rory, she may end up losing her daughter. Worse, it may come as a relief to her.
We get to see Rory bond with her grandfather in this episode, as they discover that they share an interest in reading and travel, and find it easy to talk to each other. More than that, Rory seems to respect Richard’s successful career in insurance, which Lorelai has always rather looked down on.
Richard likewise feels proud of Rory when he realises that his peers admire Rory for being pretty and polite, and attending a prestigious school. He does end up “showing her off at the club”, just as Emily instructed.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 