Tag: Episode Insight

Dean Brings Back Rory’s Stuff

LORELAI: Not weirded out, even a little?

RORY: Why would I be weirded out?

LORELAI: Well, Dean coming over, bringing your stuff back.

RORY: No, I’m fine.

LORELAI: Okay. Although, you know, if you were weirded out a little, it would be okay. It wouldn’t mean that you don’t like Jess, or that you made a mistake. It would just mean the guy who was in your life for two years isn’t there anymore.

Dean drops off his “Rory box” of mementos, in order to return them to Rory. Although Rory brushes off Lorelai’s concerns that she might feel “weird” about it, when she takes the box to her room, she seems unable to open it and deal with the contents. She sits on the bed and eyes it with an unhappy, regretful (remorseful?), expression.

Note how Lorelai doesn’t miss a chance to mention not liking Jess, or making a mistake, even while trying to comfort Rory. We never see Rory return her “Dean box” to Dean – but then again, Lorelai told her that such memory boxes were to be kept as a lifetime reminder of a previous relationship.

Dave Kisses Lane

LANE: Really? After all this – the marathon hymns, the weak punch, the crabby Koreans, you still wanna go out on a date with me?

[Dave nods, then kisses her] DAVE: I’ve gotta go . . . but I’m gonna call you tomorrow.

Lane and Dave puts into place what I assume to be another step in their plan when Lane says she needs to run after Dave to return his Bible. Did Dave really bring a Bible with him, and purposefully leave it behind, or did Lane prepare and plant the Bible in advance?

Either way, one or the other had the genius idea of having Dave inscribe the Bible: This Bible belongs to God, but is being used by Dave Rygalski. Mrs Kim reads this, and it immediately convinces her that Dave is a solid young Christian man, and allows Lane to go after him.

This episode is the one where Dave and Lane kiss for the first time, and begin dating (Rory kissed and began dating both Dean and Jess around Thanksgiving, too, and it was when Lorelai went on her first date with Max – November, it’s dating month on Gilmore Girls!).

Lane is so excited by what happened that when she pages Rory to tell her all about it, she can only write bible kiss bible, which Rory says is a great band name.

Dave Rygalski at Thanksgiving

LANE: That is not Dave Rygalski … I mean, not the one that I’m in a band with. That is Dave Rygalski, local Christian guitar player that my mom and I met very briefly and innocently at the dance marathon, and that I coincidentally ran across again when I found his ad seeking Christian guitar accompaniment gigs up on our church bulletin board.

Lorelai and Rory notice that Dave is playing guitar at the Kim’s Thanksgiving dinner. Lane quickly explains that she has set up another zany scheme, whereby Dave came all the way to Stars Hollow at five in the morning in order to have a five minute conversation with Mrs Kim and eat faux egg sandwiches. Lane then put a fake ad up for Dave on their church bulletin board, and pretended to find it in front of her mother.

This is the kind of thing Henry couldn’t put up with (and who could blame him?), but Dave willingly goes along with it, in the faint hope that Mrs Kim might let them date some day. He obviously really likes Lane.

Four Thanksgiving Dinners

RORY: But how are we going to go to four Thanksgiving dinners?

LORELAI: It’s not four, is it?

RORY: Lane’s house, Sookie’s, and we always stop by Luke’s . . . that’s three, and Grandma and Grandpa is four.

This episode’s plot is laid out here – the Gilmore girls have to eat four Thanksgiving dinners. Rory’s statement makes it seem as if they usually have three Thanksgiving dinners each year, but somehow a fourth Thanksgiving dinner is a step too far!

Yale Brochures

[Later that night, Rory walks into her bedroom, turns out the light and tries to go to sleep. A moment later, she turns the light back on, grabs her Yale brochure from her night table and starts reading it. Upstairs, Lorelai is reading the same brochure in her bedroom.]

The episode ends with both the Gilmore girls reading a Yale brochure, so the viewer can tell that Rory is now seriously considering applying, and Lorelai is also trying to get used to the idea.

The application deadline for Yale is immediately after the New Year, in early January, so Rory has time still to put together a good application.

“I have to go”

RORY: I have to go.

JESS: What? Did I do something or –

RORY: No, no. This was . . . you were – are . . . it was wonderful, and I look forward to many similar occurrences in the future, but right now, I have to go. Understand?

JESS: Not at all.

RORY: It’s more fun that way, isn’t it?

Rory has to go straight after the kiss because she is going to see Dean. Jess may not have found that explanation quite so quirky and charming. It feels as if Rory is being emotionally dishonest with Jess right from their first kiss as a couple. Unfortunately, one of the things she may have learned from being with Dean is that it isn’t always safe to be honest with your boyfriend.

Although seriously, apart from plot drama, did Rory really have to see Dean right after her first kiss with her new boyfriend? This also feels like “the games beginning” between Rory and Jess.

Richard’s Invitation to Rory

RICHARD: You know, you might wanna come with me next week … To Yale … Oh, I don’t mean to the dinner, that would be boring for you, but you might enjoy seeing the school … Your mother could come too. It would be a fun little adventure … We could drive down, have a little roadside snack, get there about noon. Have a little tour, and then the two of you girls could go off and have fun, and the old folks can have a somber little dinner. I think you’d love to see it. I certainly would love to show it to you.

While in the kitchen together, Richard takes the opportunity to privately invite Rory to Yale University, to take a tour of the university. He couches this is in terms of them having a fun day out together, and him wanting to share his alma mater memories with Rory, but of course he’s hoping she might be persuaded to apply to Yale.