This is the book Jess reads at the dance marathon while sitting in the bleachers with Shane. (Yes, Jess isn’t a great boyfriend to Shane – forcing her to go to a dance marathon for seventeen hours so he can gaze at his crush and read a book!).
The Magic Mountain is a 1924 novel by German author Thomas Mann. Set in the decade before World War I, it is about a young man who spends seven years in a sanatorium for tuberculosis in the Swiss Alps. Vast, symbolic, and ambiguous, it is widely considered one of the most influential works of 20th century German literature.
Thomas Mann was one Jack Kerouac’s favourite authors, and an influence on Visions of Cody, so it makes sense that Jess would choose to read it.
DAVE: You know, my parents would love these sandwiches. I wish I could bring them by but unfortunately they’re in private Bible study right now.
Dave shows Lane how interested he is in her, and how keen he is to impress her rather scary mother, by coming over to eat her fake egg sandwiches. Just in case you’ve forgotten, it is now past five in the morning! Who even wants sandwiches at this hour? Why is Mrs Kim still serving them? The filling would have gone off by now, and she freely admits herself the bread is stale.
He also pretends that he is a Christian, as a way to inveigle himself into Mrs Kim’s good books. He claims that his parents would be joining in the stale fake egg sandwich celebration, except that they are in a private Bible study session. At five in the morning??? It would be far more believable to say they were asleep!
Later he says his parents are at church (at five in the morning!), which means the fictional Bible study session wasn’t private at all. Dave’s story has more holes than Swiss cheese, but Mrs Kim, always shown to be pretty switched-on previously, is swallowing this farrago of lies like a gullible fool. She must be very, very tired. Or she really likes Dave.
DAVE: Uh, well, you mentioned this thing last time we talked and it sounded very Blue Velvet so I figured I would come by and check it out.
Blue Velvet, 1986 neo-noir mystery thriller directed by David Lynch. Blending psychological horror with film noir, the film stars Kyle McLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper, and Laura Dern, and is named after the 1951 song of the same name. The film is about a college student who returns home to visit his ill father, and makes a grisly discovery in a field. This leads him to uncover a vast criminal conspiracy, and into a relationship with a troubled lounge singer.
The film initially received a divided response from critics, with many stating that its explicit content served little artistic purpose. However, David Lynch won Best Film and Best Director at that year’s National Society of Film Critics Awards. It came to achieve cult status, and is now widely regarded as one of Lynch’s major works, and one of the greatest films of the 1980s. It has been ranked as one of the best films of all time, and one of the greatest mystery films ever made.
Dave has come to see Lane just because he missed her, a clear sign to her that he returns her feelings. Strangely, he decides to arrive at the marathon around 5 am, when the marathon is just about to end! This episode doesn’t have a confusing timeline (it’s all made very clear), it’s simply an unbelievable one.
LORELAI: My heel just broke off. Damn, these are brand new shoes, too.
RORY: They were made in 1943.
In the final hour of the marathon, the heel breaks off one of Lorelai’s vintage shoes. The rules of the contest didn’t require participants to wear shoes, and as they have less than an hour to go, Lorelai and Rory could have kicked their shoes off and finished the marathon in bare feet.
Instead Lorelai uses her yellow emergency card, which allows her a ten minute break to get her shoe repaired. During this time, her partner must stay on the floor and keep moving. However, Rory has been dancing for twenty-three hours, and is far too exhausted to stand upright and keep moving on her own.
Lorelai gets Dean to hold onto Rory and keep her moving until Lorelai returns. We know that Dean doesn’t care for dancing, but this is the third time in three seasons he dances with Rory – the other two times were at her school dance, and for her debutante ball (including the dance practice before the ball). There isn’t much involved this time, all he has to do is keep her upright, and he soon says he’s quite enjoying the experience.
When Taylor announced the rules, he never said it was possible to get someone else to dance with your partner during their break if they were physically incapable of standing without assistance. However, he never says it is actually forbidden, either. As usual, Lorelai is very ready to exploit a loophole in the rules if it is to her advantage. (And Kirk has been shown to be playing dirty as it is).
Bobby Brady, portrayed by Mike Lookinland on the TV show, the youngest boy on The Brady Bunch, previously discussed.
Also, how ridiculous is it that the refreshments are only for the dance contestants, and not the spectators? They have to sit in the bleachers for sixteen hours or more with nothing to eat or drink? I’m with Shane – butt out, Rory!
Jess is the town bad boy with a smart mouth for everyone. Only Mrs Kim can bring him instantly into line and force him to speak respectfully, and she does it with three words and a stern look. You can’t help thinking that if Jess had had a grandmother or aunt like Mrs Kim, he would be a very different kid.
It seems as if the fake egg sandwiches are the only food provided at the 24 hour dance marathon, which is pretty terrible. And there’s no refrigeration, so this seems like another salmonella outbreak waiting to happen on the show.
LORELAI: I don’t know. I just know that every year I block this part out.
After already dancing for more than fourteen hours, the dancers are then forced to race each other around the gym for an undetermined period, with the last five couples to complete the lap when the music stops being eliminated from the competition. The “runaround”, as it is known, is taken directly from the filmThey Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, in which “elimination derbies” are held to maintain the spectators flagging interest. The consequences are fatal for one of the characters in the film.
Lorelai says she blocks this part out every year. Apparently Rory has blocked it out too, even though she’s only ever watched, as she has no knowledge of it. It seems they’ve only ever had a runaround after Rory has either gone home or fallen asleep in the bleachers.
ANDREW: Why would you ever tell me that you went out with Liam Neeson? Why would you do that?
Rory said that Andrew always ended up having a fight with his dance partner in the first fifteen minutes of the marathon, but he doesn’t have a fight until the six hour mark. Yet Lorelai still says it’s “right on time”.
RORY: Kirk has very little in his life … He has no career, no girlfriend, no pet, no car. He lives with his mother, she won’t even let him have his own key. The only thing he does have in his whole lonely pathetic existence is this marathon. If we win, if we take him down, if we take away that last little piece of dignity, then we leave him with nothing.
Kirk has dozens of jobs, and lots of personal projects, such as photography and film-making. He seems to actually lead a pretty full life.
NURSE: You’re also supposed to have buck teeth, a clubfoot, and alopecia.
Buck Teeth [pictured]
More correctly, malocclusion, misalignment or incorrect relation between the teeth of the upper and lower dental arches when they approach each other as the jaws close. It may be caused by a variety of factors, both genetic and environmental eg thumb sucking, nail biting. The treatment is usually orthodontic braces.
Clubfoot
A birth defect where one or both feet are rotated inward and downward. It is the most common congenital malformation of the foot. Without treatment it will lead to pain and an impaired ability to walk. It may be treated with surgery or physical therapies.
Alopecia
Hair loss or baldness. The causes in women remain obscure, and are probably multiple.
Stanley has told his jealous wife that even though Lorelai looked pretty in her photo, she has since had her face smashed to pieces in an accident and her hair has fallen out, and the photo apparently didn’t reveal that she has a clubfoot and buck teeth. It’s a small town, so how he thought his wife would never discover he was lying I don’t know. We never hear of this couple again, so maybe they had to move.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 