Tag: Oh Really?

We’re All Light

This 2000 song by English rock band XTC is the song which is playing when Rory and Dean first arrive at the dance and survey the room, lasting all the way through Louise flirting with Dean.

It is another track from their album Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2), earlier discussed. It is at this point that you realise the DJ at the Chilton school dance is, by an astounding coincidence, playing the sort of alternative rock that Rory, schooled in Lorelai’s tastes, most wants to hear. Let’s face it, her earlier guess of 98° was much more realistic.

Prague

EMILY: Your grandfather called last night and told me to let you know he’s bringing you back something very special from Prague.
RORY: Wow, Prague. How amazing is it that he’s going to Prague?
EMILY: It’s supposed to be lovely, very dramatic, castles everywhere.

Prague is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and is also the historic capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia. Rich in history and culture, the original settlement grew out from the 9th century Prague Castle, the largest ancient castle in the world, which is now the official residence of the President of the Czech Republic. The other main castle in the city is the 10th century Vyšehrad (“upper castle”), which contains the Basilica of St Peter and St Paul, and the Vyšehrad Cemetery, where lie the remains of many famous people from Czech history.

Emily speaks as if she has never been to Prague, but in the next season we learn that she went there with Richard in 1998.

Hopie

Rory, Richard and Emily look at photos. Among them is one of Emily’s younger sister “Hopie”, presumably a pet name for Hope. She lives in Paris, so Rory has never met her; what she does in Paris remains a mystery. She is described as the family’s “great expatriate”, although we later find Richard mother lives in London.

Hopie is never mentioned again; even though Richard and Emily travel to Europe later, and so does Emily and Rory, nobody ever talks about visiting Hopie. The photo of Hopie shown is Kelly Bishop, who plays Emily.

Florence the Cook

Emily is annoyed to discover that their cook du jour, Florence, won’t be able to come to work because of the storm. At the start of the show Emily seemed to have both a cook and a maid (and couldn’t hang on to either for long), but later episodes show the maid doing the cooking as well as her other duties. For some reason this cook-maid is never referred to as a housekeeper.

Stamford

We learn from his phone message that as well as teaching at Chilton, Max teaches a night class twice a week in Stamford, a city in Connecticut about an hour and a half drive south from Hartford, on the coast.

The fact that Max sees the sign to Stars Hollow on the way suggests again that it around the Wallingford area, as you would drive past Wallingford going from Hartford to Stamford using Interstate 91. It isn’t actually a turnpike though as it is toll-free at that point: the Connecticut Turnpike (I-95) goes further on from Stamford toward New Haven.

Max possibly teaches in the English department at the Stamford campus of the University of Connecticut, a public university. We learn a bit later that one of the nights he teaches class is on Fridays, so with Lorelai attending classes twice a week and Max teaching classes twice a week, it’s going to be hard for them to find a free day in the week to date.

Emily Dickinson

MAX: [on answering machine] Lorelai, it’s Max … Medina. Maaaax Medina. And once again we miss each other. It’s now 2 o’clock in the afternoon on Thursday and I’m in my office grading a paper titled Emily Dickinson: Get a Life.

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was an American poet. She lived most of her life in reclusive isolation, and was considered an eccentric. By the end of her life she was reluctant to even leave her bedroom. This probably explains the title of the paper on Emily Dickinson that Max is grading – which seems most unlikely as the work of a Chilton student.

Dickinson was a prolific poet, but less than a dozen of her poems were published during her lifetime, and were usually altered to fit the poetic conventions of the day. Dickinson’s work was unique for her time, with short lines, slant rhymes, and unconventional capitalisation and punctuation. They are rarely titled, and many are on the themes of death and immortality.

Her poems were first published in 1890, but it wasn’t until 1955 that the complete unedited collection was published.

Battle of Stars Hollow

We learn in this episode that every year the town re-enacts The Battle of Stars Hollow, which took place during the Revolutionary War on either November 10 or November 17 in 1776 (depending on whether this episode is one or two weeks after the previous one). This contradicts the sign in town, which says that Stars Hollow was founded in 1779.

In the “battle” a dozen militia men from Stars Hollow waited for the redcoats in the cold, however the British never showed up. Despite this lack of anything happening, Stars Hollow is very proud of its role in the American Revolutionary War.

We also learn that Luke’s father William Danes was an enthusiastic battle re-enactor, and even owned his own musket, which he had buried with him. Although Luke doesn’t follow in his father’s footsteps, he does serve free hot drinks to the re-enactors who have to have to spend all night freezing in the cold.

In real life, there were only three battles sites in Connecticut in the American Revolutionary War, and they were all British victories. Nonetheless, Revolutionary War history is a big deal in New England. Many Connecticut towns have annual commemorations of the American Revolutionary War, just like Stars Hollow.

Mayor Harry Porter (David Huddleston)

During the town meeting we encounter the mayor of Stars Hollow, Harry Porter, who has been mayor for many years He was gradually phased out leaving Taylor Doose in sole charge of the town. Perhaps Harry entered a sort of semi-retirement or became a figurehead: he didn’t retire as nobody else was elected mayor and in fact the role of mayor apparently became more or less redundant.