RORY: Thanks again for going with me. DEAN: Tomorrow you start paying. Bye. [leaves]
Dean makes it sound as if Rory will start watching BattleBots the next day, a Sunday, but in real life, the show was broadcast on Wednesdays at this time. Maybe he taped it to watch later – all that ball preparation (tee hee) must have really cut into his television-watching schedule.
It’s a chilly and rather threatening way to end a night out with his girlfriend, and fans could well feel that Dean is also in preparation for being “phased out”.
LIBBY: You know, they say four out of five debs marry their escorts. RORY: Kind of like the dentists with Trident.
Trident is a brand of sugar-free chewing gum. For many years it was advertised with the slogan, “Four out of five dentists surveyed recommend sugarless gum for their patients who chew gum.” This is believed to have been based on a survey of practising dentists in the early 1960s, the results of which were approximately 80% in favour of sugarless gum.
In real life, it’s not true that 80% of debutantes marry their escorts. That’s preposterous, especially as most debutantes are matched up with some random guy. I’m not sure whether it’s meant to show Libby is a gullible fool, or whether the show actually expects us to believe this nonsense.
EMILY: Look at these flowers. Baby’s breath. What is this, County General?
Baby’s breath (Gypsophila paniculata) is a popular ornamental flower native to Central and Eastern Europe with clouds of tiny white blooms in the summer. It’s often used in floristry to provide a backdrop for larger flowers.
“County General” is a common name for hospitals in the US eg Roebuck County General Hospital. In real life, there isn’t a hospital with this name in Connecticut.
Emily seems to think baby’s breath is only suitable as part of a flower arrangement you’d give to someone in hospital, lacking the elegance required in a formal setting. You can see how standards have dropped in Hartford society without Emily’s capable hand on the tiller.
EMILY: There’s the presentation, the circle, the curtsy, the fan dance.
Presentation
Debutantes are presented to a guest of honour during their debut, as a sign that they are being welcomed into good society. Originally, debutantes were presented to a reigning monarch at the English court. These days, it’s usually to someone prominent in the community.
Circle
All the debutantes and their escorts form a large circle, and take a slow, leisurely walk around it together. It’s designed to show off the girls, much like models on a catwalk, and is probably the part Lorelai was thinking of when she said it was like a “county fair”. Once upon a time, the idea was to let eligible bachelors get a good long look at some marital prospects, but these days it’s mostly so parents can see their little girl all dressed up and take pictures for Facebook etc.
Curtsy
The debutantes receive many lessons on how to perform the perfect deep curtsy at the ball. Sometimes the curtsy is during the presentation, while at other balls, the curtsy will be part of a complicated dance or performance. Rory seems to be missing out on all those weeks of curtsy practice, but presumably is getting intensive training from her parents and grandmother that we don’t see onscreen.
Fan Dance
Often at debutante balls, the debutantes perform some kind of highly choreographed dance routine. Amusingly, at Rory’s ball, the debutantes are preparing a “fan dance”, which is literally an erotic dance, usually performed in the nude or a skimpy costume as part of a burlesque show. Of course this would never happen at a real debutante ball, and the girls will all be wearing formal dresses anyway. (Picture shows burlesque dancer Michelle L’Amour performing).
LORELAI: Oh yeah. A Volvo sedan, are you kidding? CHRISTOPHER: This is a great car. LORELAI: For driving to bingo.
CHRISTOPHER: I’ve got Alpine head units, two subs, and two twelves. In exchange, no passenger-side airbag.
Volvo is a Swedish brand of luxury cars founded in 1927; the name is Latin for “I roll”. It was founded upon the concept of safety, and their cars have long been marketed as safe and reliable; many of the Volvo’s safety innovations have now become standard or even compulsory. Lorelai sees it as an old person’s car, because of its staid and rather boring image.
I think Christopher’s car is a 2001 Volvo S80, an executive sedan. He describes the car’s sound system as Alpine brand head units, with two sub woofers, and two twelve-inch sub woofers (maybe he means two amplifiers and two twelve-inch sub woofers?), which means he had to give up passenger-side airbags, a major feature of the S80. So he’s bought a safe car, and made it less safe (for the person who’s not him), so he can enjoy music.
As Lorelai notes, Christopher has given up his cool motorcycle for a sensible car, but the old (selfish) Christopher still lives. Take warning!
(There is an immediate shot of the Massachusetts license plate, to remind us Christopher has moved to Boston. It begins with 169, which seems like a naughty joke, although it’s not a vanity plate, so not deliberate on Christopher’s part).
RORY: The Compact Oxford English Dictionary! CHRISTOPHER: I promised you I’d get it. I’m just sorry it took so long. RORY: That’s okay. CHRISTOPHER: On the bright side, this is the new edition. If I’d gotten you the old one, you wouldn’t have the word ‘jiggy’ in it. RORY: Thank you. I love it, I’m gonna go look things up right now. CHRISTOPHER: Wait, wait. [hands her magnifying glass]
The Compact Oxford English Dictionary, previously discussed as Rory’s dream book, which Christopher couldn’t buy her six months ago because his credit card was declined.
This time he is able to buy her the 2001 edition, which contains the American slang word “jiggy”. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as “Excitedly energetic or uninhibited, often in a sexual manner; to get jiggy: to engage in sexual activity”.
The Compact Oxford English Dictionary has such fine print that it comes with its own reading glass.
DEAN: It’s the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. RORY: And doesn’t Neil Young look cool? … If you’ll notice, he’s wearing a tux. DEAN: Neil Young looks cool because he’s Neil Young, not because he’s wearing a tux.
Neil Young (born 1945) is a Canadian-American singer-songwriter, musician, and activist. His career started in the 1960s, and includes membership of critically-acclaimed rock band Buffalo Springfield, folk-rock supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, and solo work backed by his band Crazy Horse. His distorted electric guitar playing has earned him the nickname “Grandfather of Grunge”. He has won several Grammy and Juno Awards, and been named one of the great musical artists in history, defined by his guitar work, deeply personal lyrics, and signature high tenor vocals.
Neil Young has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – in 1995 as a solo artist, and in 1997 as a member of Buffalo Springfield. He has served to induct others into the Hall of Fame six times: The Everly Brothers (1986), Woody Guthrie (1988), Jimi Hendrix (1992), Paul McCartney (1999), The Pretenders (2005), and Tom Waits (2011).
However, Neil Young doesn’t seem to have worn a tuxedo for any of his appearances at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, preferring a more casual (and occasionally more cowboy) look. When he was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1982, he did dress in evening wear: not a tuxedo, but tailcoat, ruffled shirt, waistcoat and bow-tie [pictured].
It seems awfully unlikely, but just possibly they are watching an old video of this somehow (or it appears in a documentary or clip show???), and Dean mistakes it for the Rock and Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. It feels as if Rory and Lane might have put it on expressly to persuade Dean that men can still look cool in formal wear.
We never see Rory ask Dean to be her escort for the ball, but we can safely assume he agreed with the greatest reluctance, because the first time we see him in this episode, he seems bewildered, dismayed and rather sulky as he discovers just what escorting Rory to her debut entails.
In real life, it is not recommended debutantes ask their boyfriends to be their escorts. Not only would a break-up put everything in jeopardy, but relationship dramas can create an unwelcome distraction. Some debutante committees even ban them outright, and it’s common for the committee to pair girls up with a suitable escort of their choosing – usually a boy or young man who has experience of cotillions and debutante balls. The DAR would have probably chosen someone rather like Tristan to be Rory’s escort (which could have been an interesting take on the episode).
As Rory is a very late entry, perhaps she has organised her own escort, along with her own dancing lessons and so on.
CHRISTOPHER: Well, did you tell her about Barbara Hutton, Doris Duke, Gloria Vanderbilt? LORELAI: Yes, and she’s perfectly willing to marry Cary Grant, get offed by her crazy butler, and start designing blue jeans as soon as the ball ends.
Barbara Hutton, previously discussed. She was first dubbed the “Poor Little Rich Girl” at her lavish debutante ball in 1930. She married seven times. Her third marriage was to Hollywood actor Cary Grant in 1942; although he genuinely seemed to care for Hutton, they divorced in 1945. Grant did not seek or receive money from her in the divorce settlement. He was probably her best husband.
Doris Duke (1912-1993), billionaire tobacco heiress and socialite, dubbed the “Richest Girl in the World”. She was presented as a debutante in 1930, at a ball at the family home in Newport, Rhode Island. She was widely travelled, with an interest in the arts and horticulture. She was the first non-Hawaiian woman to take up the sport of surfing. A keen philanthropist, she donated money to AIDS research, medicine, and child welfare, including supporting the education of black students in the South. Duke died from a stroke, but rumours persist that she was murdered by her Irish butler, Bernard Lafferty (1945-1996). No charges were ever laid, and Lafferty died in his sleep only three years later. He wasn’t “crazy” so much as an alcoholic.
Gloria Vanderbilt (1924-2019), heiress, socialite, artist, actress, and fashion designer. During the 1930s she was the focus of a scandalous child custody case between her mother and her paternal aunt, Gertrude Whitney, which Gertrude won after Gloria’s mother was declared an unfit parent. Gloria made her debut in 1940. Vanderbilt studied both acting and art, managing to have successful careers in both, as well as becoming an author. A model at 15, she ventured into the fashion industry in the 1970s, and in 1976 launched a line of blue jeans which were an immediate success.
(The picture is Gloria Vanderbilt as a sixteen-year-old debutante).
CHRISTOPHER: Where are you? LORELAI: Helsinki. CHRISTOPHER: Really. LORELAI: Yeah, I finally got the girl band together and after a week opening stateside, we headed across the Atlantic and now we’re huge with the Nordic set.
Helsinki is the capital of Finland with a population of over 600 000, although the greater Helsinki urban area is over 1.5 million. It is the most northerly metropolitan area with more than a million people, and the most northerly EU capital city. It has one of the world’s highest standards of living, and has been rated among the world’s most livable cities.
Lorelai told Max that her dream was join The Bangles, and this is another reference to Lorelai forming a girl band. The Bangles did tour Scandinavia in 1986, but never played Helsinki.
“The Nordic set” is a media phrase, more common in the early 2000s, for the fashionable Scandinavian crowd (such as Danish supermodel Helena Christensen).
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 