[A teacher is passing back papers] TEACHER: Well, I must say I’m glad to see that simply because the SATs are over, most of you are still taking your classwork seriously.
The teachers comment doesn’t really make any sense, because the senior class would have taken their SATs a year before, in their junior year. There would be no point in taking a college-admissions exam when college acceptances are just about to come out.
The SATs are held in March, as a confirmation of when this episode takes place.
RORY: These [allergy tablets] expired in ’98. LORELAI: So, what, I should take four?
Even though the allergy medication expired five years ago, a 2012 study found that antihistamines actually last decades after their expiry date, and can still be safe and effective ten years after expiration. Lorelai should probably just take them as normal.
In the first scene, Lorelai is reading this 1987 memoir by Pamela Des Barres. During the late 1960s and ’70s, Pamela found fame by leading a wild party life with some of the biggest rock stars of the day. It became a New York Times Best Seller.
The book was republished in 2003, but a little later than this episode aired, and Lorelai is reading the original edition, suggesting that she has owned it since the 1980s. Rory called Lorelai “Pamela Des Barres” a few episodes previously, as if the author and the book are well known subjects for both of them. This is another example of Lorelai reading a quirky memoir.
JESS: I got tickets to the Distillers … For tonight. I would’ve been here sooner, but I had to wait in line. So we should probably get going. I mean, we don’t wanna miss anything, right?
The Distillers, punk rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1998 by Australian-born vocalist and guitarist Brody Dalle. Their self-titled debut album came out in 2000, and their most recent album was 2002’s Sing Sing Death House, which reached #29 on the US indie charts. Its single “City of Angels” went to #13 on the UK rock charts.
In real life, the Distillers did not perform at a concert in Connecticut in February/March of 2003. They played The Big Day Out at the Green in Glasgow, Scotland on March 24 2003, which seems to be their first gig for that year. However, on February 14 2002, the Distillers played at Toad’s Place, a nightclub in New Haven, Connecticut, which may be part of the inspiration for this scene.
The timeline for this seems questionable. Jess went to Rory’s place at 7.30 pm, where Lorelai gave him a talking to. He then apparently drove to Hartford or New Haven, in order to line up and buy concert tickets. He somehow has time to then drive back to Stars Hollow, and catch Rory just as she is leaving the hockey game, which would have finished no later than 9 pm.
Now he and Rory are going to drive to Hartford or New Haven again, getting there around 10 pm to watch the concert. This doesn’t seem to be possible, especially as Rory is shown getting home when Lorelai is still up and having a late night meal in the kitchen.
I suppose if the Distillers were the last act on the bill, and played a very short set of 30-40 minutes or so, then perhaps Jess and Rory could have got out around midnight and made it back to Stars Hollow by 1 am, and Lorelai could still be awake and having a midnight snack then. It seems like a lot of driving around and a lot of money spent for such a short time, though.
The alternative explanation is that Jess had in fact already bought the tickets and arrived at Rory’s house ready to surprise her when Lorelai jumped down his throat. In that case, his story about waiting in line is just that – a story. However, that doesn’t explain where he went afterwards, unless he just sat in the car park and waited for Rory to come out. I find this whole plotline pretty confusing.
When Rory comes home from the concert, she doesn’t tell Lorelai where she has been, or anything much about her night. Can Lorelai not smell smoke on her, or notice any other sign that she has been at a concert? (Cigarette bans in clubs and places of entertainment would not be passed in Connecticut until May 2003).
There is no sign that Rory enjoyed her night out with Jess. When we see her alone in her room, she lies on her bed with a pensive and enigmatic look on her face which gradually becomes sadder and sadder. Her expression doesn’t say “I’ve had a great night out at a cool concert with my boyfriend”, it says, “My ex-boyfriend has found someone new and my boyfriend isn’t living up to my expectations”.
In fact, all the signs point to Rory not being over her break up with Dean, and not being exactly happy with Jess.
KIRK: Well, ladies and gentlemen, much like the Israelites of yore, the Stars Hollow Minutemen languished in the desert for forty years. But tonight, there was no Promised Land, no New Canaan, only a humiliating five to one defeat at the merciless hands of the West Hartford Wildcats.
After escaping from servitude in Egypt under the leadership of Moses, the Israelites wandered the wilderness for forty years – a punishment from God for not believing they would be able to take the land promised to them by God from the Canaanites, who were gigantic of stature and had fortified cities.
Only after the entire generation who left Egypt had passed away, except Joshua and Caleb, who had maintained faith in God, were the Israelites able to cease wandering. Eventually they were led into the Promised Land by Joshua, the successor of Moses. Note that Kirk mixes up the land of Canaan with New Canaan, a town in Connecticut.
In real life, the West Hartford Wildcats is actually a women’s softball team.
TRIX: Now, talk to some old women, tell us what it’s like to be young. LORELAI: Not nearly as much fun since the mandatory sunscreen rule, I’ll tell ya.
In the US, sunscreen began to be regulated in 1978, when Lorelai was ten years old. Apparently she hasn’t had as much fun since that age.
MRS. VAN WYCK: Then Picasso is obscene … It has six breasts. TRIX: You cannot be sure if those are breasts. They could be cannons. He was quite obsessed with the Spanish Civil War for awhile.
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore.
Picasso painted a number of female nudes that Mrs Van Wyck might be looking at. Nude Woman With Necklace is one possibility, as at my first glance, I also was unsure how many breasts the figure has. On closer examination, some of them are her stomach and thighs. Remember that Mrs Van Wyck is peering at a tiny piece of transparent celluloid to view the painting.
One of Picasso’s most famous works is Guernica, a dramatic portrayal of the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica by German forces during the Spanish Civil War.
EMILY: I sound like a spoiled high school girl. LORELAI: Not quite. You still haven’t asked for the Gloria Vanderbilt jeans and the convertible Rabbit.
Heiress Gloria Vanderbilt, previously discussed, brought out her own line of designer jeans in the 1970s. More tightly fitted than other jeans of the time, they were an immediate success with customers.
The Volkswagen Golf Mark 1 [pictured] was marketed in North America as the Rabbit (the name was brought back for the Mark 5 model in 2006). It stayed on the market from 1974 to 1983, but it seems that for many Americans, the original name stuck.
It seems very likely that Gloria Vanderbilt designer jeans and a VW convertible were things that the spoiled teenage Lorelai asked for herself.
Dave is trying to pronounce the word abideth (said ah-BY-deth), an archaic form of the word abides. The fourth stanza of “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” begins:
That Word above all earthly powers no thanks to them abideth
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 