Tag: Oh Really?

Shrapnel

LUKE: What was going on up here?

JESS: Nothing.

LUKE: Nothing? I walk in here and the two of you are like shrapnel.

Shrapnel, the common term for fragments of an artillery explosion (technically not quite correct, but good enough for our purposes). Luke means that Rory and Jess sprung apart when he came in like a bomb exploding in several directions at once.

Luke was so keen to see Jess and Rory together, but the minute he actually finds them just about to kiss, he freaks out. What did he think two eighteen-year-olds were going to do alone together?

Rory Goes Up to the Apartment

RORY: Yup, here we are. Wow, I haven’t seen it since you guys redid it … It’s bigger.

JESS: Ripping a wall down can have that effect on a room.

As you may recall, Luke renovated the apartment back in March, after buying the flower shop next door. They knocked down the wall between the apartment and the upper floor of the flower shop. It feels as if that should have made the apartment twice as big, but it only looks slightly more roomy than before. For some reason, Jess still doesn’t have his own room, which was supposed to be the initial reason for the renovation. The whole renovation (which is of course quite fictional, they didn’t renovate the set) thus seems like a lot of wasted opportunity and money on Luke’s part.

This seems to be Rory and Jess’ first opportunity to be alone together since the dance, more than a week ago. They haven’t rushed into this, and are naturally extremely nervous with one another.

“You’ve been up twenty-four hours straight”

RORY: I feel jet-lagged.

LORELAI: You’ve been up twenty-four hours straight.

Um, no. The dance marathon began at 6 am on Saturday and finished at 6 am Sunday (earlier actually, as Kirk won some time before 6). It’s now Monday morning, so where did Sunday go? Everyone acts as if the marathon just finished an hour or so ago, but an entire day is missing from the timeline here. Maybe the whole town went into a collective coma after the marathon and they all lost a day.

Lorelai Comforts Rory

[Lorelai sees Rory across the gym, and she walks over to her]

LORELAI: Rory, what happened? Where did you go? [sees that Rory is crying] Oh, Rory, honey! Oh.

[Lorelai and Rory hug while Kirk runs around the gym with the trophy]

Despite ruining Lorelai’s chances of winning, Lorelai only thinks of comforting her daughter when she sees how upset Rory is. Nothing stops Kirk’s victory lap – he has no problems celebrating as a teenage girl sobs in her mother’s arms!

Kirk’s dance partner is Donna Delain, who he has danced with for the past five years. She is presumably a good friend, or possibly a relative, but we never hear of her again. Kirk does not include Donna in the celebrations, and he keeps the trophy, even though her dancing has helped him to win! Also note that Kirk is wearing a Doose’s Market logo on his back – perhaps Taylor is sponsoring him?

“Where’s Rory?”

KIRK: I win, I win! I win, I win, I win, I win!

LORELAI: You didn’t win! I’m still here! Patty, where’s Rory?

MISS PATTY: Oh, she ran off the floor a little while ago, honey.

LORELAI: What? No!

How did Lorelai not see what happened? She was just sitting in the bleachers with Luke. And she was only supposed to have a ten minute break, but it seems as if she was gone much longer than that. I’m not convinced that Lorelai wasn’t disqualified anyway.

“I have to go take care of something”

JESS: You’re definitely broken up with Dean?

RORY: Yeah, I’m definitely broken up with Dean.

JESS: Okay. I have to go take care of something then.

Before anything happens between Rory and Jess, he leaves to break up with Shane. It’s six in the morning and she’s been stuck watching a dance marathon for eighteen hours – let the poor girl get some sleep, Jess! However, it does show that Jess has a responsible side, and is not going to cheat on Shane, no matter how badly he treated her otherwise.

“Girls like Shane”

RORY: There they go again! God, I swear, why can’t they just get a room? Or forget a room – get a park bench, or a doorway, or even a strategically placed telephone pole would probably suffice. I mean, girls like Shane – what is it with them? Don’t they see what they look like? I know they have mirrors.

Jess ups the ante by making out with Shane in the bleachers. This sends Rory into a veritable tailspin of bitchiness, with her line of “girls like Shane”. Girls like what? Girls who kiss their boyfriends in public, like Rory does? Girls who like Jess, like Rory does? And if Rory doesn’t approve of Shane, what’s her opinion of her own mother when she was a teenager?

You know what’s wrong with Shane? Absolutely nothing, except for getting involved with a boy who doesn’t treat her well.

After Jess and Shane start kissing, Rory pulls in closer to Dean, so both Jess and Rory are using their partners to make their crush jealous.

“You’re not supposed to sit and watch”

RORY: You know, this is a dance marathon. You’re not supposed to come and sit and watch, you’re supposed to dance. He’s just trying to bug me, sitting there right in front of me, staring. Jerk.

People are supposed to watch the dance marathon – Rory was even saying that she couldn’t dance with Lorelai because she had to watch with Dean. Until recently, Dean was also watching. Rory is sick with jealousy and hasn’t slept for more than a day, so she’s not exactly being rational here.