Jess Asks About Dean

Jess confronts Rory, and asks if she and Dean had agreed to meet up for the winter carnival behind his back. Rory truthfully says no, but admits that she and Dean did go out for coffee and talk, and decided they were going to be friends.

She points out that it’s a small town and they’re going to see each other around anyway, and Dean “never did anything bad to her”. There seems to be an immediate whitewashing Rory and Dean’s relationship after they break up, so that Dean becomes perfect in retrospect.

(Incidentally, I wonder how Rory would take it if Jess stayed friends with Shane, since Stars Hollow is a small town, and Shane never did anything bad to Jess? I have a feeling she would be furiously unreasonable about it).

Rory is worried that Jess will be angry with her (like “perfect” Dean would have been), but Jess says he isn’t. He does say that he would have liked to be told about it though, which Rory agrees to. This is the second time that Rory has seen Dean and kept it a secret from Jess.

She also doesn’t tell Jess that it was she who went to Dean first and asked to be friends. She says they talked “once”, which is pretty close to a lie – although Rory would say the first time they didn’t really talk, she spoke to Dean.

Unfortunately, Rory’s relationship with Jess begins with her keeping things from him and seeing her ex-boyfriend behind his back, so it’s not a very promising start.

Trix’s Dinner Requirements

TRIX: Now, please take this to your chef. These are the times I would like each course to appear at this table. [Emily rolls her eyes, Lorelai looks at her] I like a brisk pace, twelve minutes per course is best for my digestion. However, please tell your servers that they are not to clear until everyone has finished. Thank you.

Sookie has made twelve courses, so even at a “brisk pace” of twelve minutes per course, the dinner would last more than two hours. Emily makes it last even longer.

Jess Goes to the Winter Carnival

Jess and Rory have plans to meet up at 9 pm after the winter carnival, as Jess doesn’t want to go. However, Rory “coincidentally” runs into Dean on the way, who is taking his little sister Clara to the carnival. Clara asks if Rory can go to the carnival with she and Dean, and before she has a chance to give an answer, Jess suddenly decides he is going too. He possessively puts his hand on Rory’s back while they walk behind Dean and Clara.

Jess is not only irritated that Rory is being friendly with Dean and that he feels forced to accompany Rory to the carnival, but by Clara’s insistent questions and comments to him. Clara is ten or eleven by now, but behaves more like a child of five or six in this episode.

We’ve never seen her act like this before, she’s always been quiet and rather sweet, if a little young for her age, so I wonder if Clara is deliberately trying to annoy Jess. She may see him as the horrible boy who took Rory away from Dean, and therefore away from her as well. Between Dean and Clara, Jess has the awful time at the carnival he had been expecting.

Lorelai Gives Emily Advice

LORELAI: You need to develop a defense mechanism for dealing with Grandma.

EMILY: What are you talking about?

LORELAI: You just need a system, a new mindset.

Faced with Emily’s mounting hysteria at the prospect of Trix seeing Lorelai’s house and workplace, Lorelai gives Emily some advice in dealing with Trix. Instead of feeling hurt and upset by Trix’s criticisms and putdowns, she should find amusement in them – perhaps even encourage them. Lorelai is frank about the fact that it is how she copes with Emily’s criticism and hurtful comments. Although taken aback, Emily does actually take Lorelai’s advice on board, and puts it into practice that very night.

“Paris doesn’t have a brother”

FRANCIE: I saw her walking off with . . . who was that, her brother?

LOUISE: Paris doesn’t have a brother.

FRANCIE: Really? Well, she certainly seemed to know him.

Jamie is hanging around Chilton, being a distraction to Paris again and giving Francie an opportunity to take her down a peg. Princeton doesn’t go back after the Christmas break until mid-January, suggesting this episode takes place in the first half of the month.

However, it’s something of a mystery what he is doing in Hartford, which is a fair distance from Philadelphia. Is he staying with Paris, since she spent Christmas with his family? And why is Chilton letting him turn up during the school day? Don’t they have any security? Why are they letting Paris leave with him? What ever happened to Chilton being a really strict school?

Victor Hugo

RICHARD: Wonderfully. They’re spoiling me rotten. [takes Emily’s hand] Emily got me the most beautiful humidor. It’s from 1917, and was owned by a lieutenant in World War I.

TRIX: You know, your father had a humidor that was owned by Victor Hugo. I still have it if you’d like it.

RICHARD: Well, I’d love it [drops Emily’s hand]

Victor-Marie Hugo (1802-1885), French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career spanning more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the greatest French writers of all time. His most famous works are The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831) and Les Misérables (1862).

Victor Hugo was a keen smoker, even saying that “Tobacco … converts thoughts into dreams”. I presume he smoked cigars, although it seems pertinent to mention that Victor Hugo is a famous brand of cigars. Is it possible that Richard’s father actually owned a humidor that was made by the company, I wonder? It seems much more likely.

Richard always seems to choose his mother over Emily. Even after he tries to show Trix what a thoughtful gift Emily has chosen for him, he drops her hand and says he’d prefer to have his father’s humidor instead. He can be very hurtful to Emily, and shows her no loyalty when it comes to Trix.

The Return of Trix

Richard’s mother Trix unexpectedly arrives on Richard’s birthday, both to visit her son and take care of some business. Emily is horrified and begins having a meltdown, but Lorelai decides to support her mother through this crisis. Previously she took a slightly malicious pleasure in watching her grandmother torture her mother – on the last visit, which took place in “The Third Lorelai”, Trix also ended up disgusted with Lorelai, so it seems that she now sees her mother’s point of view a little better.

“Slow and steady wins the race”

DEAN: Let’s take this one day at a time.

RORY: Slow and steady wins the race.

“Slow and steady wins the race” is a proverb from “The Tortoise and the Hare”, a story from Aesop’s Fables – a collection of tales from ancient Greece, attributed to a legendary slave named Aesop.

In the fable, the tortoise challenges the hare to a race, but the arrogant hare takes a nap midway through the race, sure that he has plenty of time to do so and still win the race. He wakes to find the tortoise has already crossed the finish line.

The moral of the story is that flashy overconfidence may be overtaken by conscientious plodding. In the same way, Dean hopes to win Rory back with his steady, reliable ways, while the “flashy” Jess misses out.

Dean Asks Rory to be Friends

DEAN: I don’t know, Rory. Maybe . . . maybe, um . . . is there a way we could be friends? … If you want to.

RORY: Oh, I want to. I really want to. But –

DEAN: Don’t ask me how I’m gonna deal with him. I have no idea.

Although Rory was initially reluctant to have coffee with Dean, and refused to eat anything, by the end of this scene they are chatting easily, and she is smiling and sharing his custard pie. When Dean asks if they can be friends, she says she really wants to, with Jess being relegated to a “But – “.

Rory was friends with Jess, which gradually damaged her relationship with Dean until they broke up (again). Now she agrees to be friends with Dean while going out with Jess – what could go wrong? Of course, Dean is very much wanting it to go wrong, in order to cause Jess the same sort of problems he believes Jess caused him.

It does feel typically unfair that just as Rory is starting to feel more relaxed and confident with Jess, Dean worms his way back into the picture. Because drama.

Dean Asks Rory for Coffee

DEAN: Hey, you wanna get a cup of coffee? … Maybe talk a little? Of course, if you prefer, we can both just head over to Weston’s and randomly bump into each other.

RORY: No, uh, that’s okay. I can get coffee.

While Rory is browsing in the window of Stars Hollow Books, she runs into Dean. Apparently, they have been “randomly” bumping into each other for some time now. And if you believe that, then I’ve got a mighty nice bridge for sale!

The upshot of all this creepy stalking (I mean innocent random encounters) is that Dean asks Rory to have coffee with him at Weston’s Bakery – Luke’s Diner being out of the question for obvious reasons.