JESS: Dean’s a jerk. Yelling at you like that, breaking up in front of everybody. . .the guy’s a total jerk.
RORY: No, he’s not. He’s right. Everything he said. All those things about you and me, all those things about me lying to him, and messing with his head. He was right. Well, wasn’t he? Fine, he was right about me, then. Now go away.
Jess and Rory meet at the bridge again, which is starting to seem like their special spot for emotional connection. It’s also a nod to They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, which ends with the main couple sitting on a pier together.
DEAN: You don’t wanna be with me, Rory … You’ve been into him since he got to town, and I have spent weeks – months, actually – trying to convince myself that it wasn’t true, that everything was fine between us. But now I know that I was an idiot. You’re into him and he’s into you, and Shane, who by the way, should be listening to this ’cause it’s so damn obvious … Everyone can see, Rory! Everyone. And I’m tired, but I’m over it, so go ahead, go. Be together. There’s nothing standing in your way now, ’cause I’m out.
[Dean grabs his jacket from the bleachers and leaves]
Dean finally gets to say everything that’s been on his mind since at least February, so a whole nine months coming. Even fans who don’t care for Dean can at least feel glad that he is allowed to speak his mind, because Rory really has treated him pretty badly.
Note that Dean ignores his own advice not to get into anything with a Gilmore girl late at night, because they get cranky when they’re tired. And boy was he right about that!
JESS: I’m gonna sit here as long as I like, and I’m gonna do whatever I like, and if you don’t like it, then just ignore me and pay attention to your boyfriend.
DEAN: Sorry, she can’t. I’m not her boyfriend anymore.
This is the second time that Rory and Dean break up. We never got to see the first time, but this one is very public. Most fans feel Rory had this public humiliation coming to her, since Dean has been publicly humiliated a few times in their relationship because of Jess.
RORY: There they go again! God, I swear, why can’t they just get a room? Or forget a room – get a park bench, or a doorway, or even a strategically placed telephone pole would probably suffice. I mean, girls like Shane – what is it with them? Don’t they see what they look like? I know they have mirrors.
Jess ups the ante by making out with Shane in the bleachers. This sends Rory into a veritable tailspin of bitchiness, with her line of “girls like Shane”. Girls like what? Girls who kiss their boyfriends in public, like Rory does? Girls who like Jess, like Rory does? And if Rory doesn’t approve of Shane, what’s her opinion of her own mother when she was a teenager?
You know what’s wrong with Shane? Absolutely nothing, except for getting involved with a boy who doesn’t treat her well.
After Jess and Shane start kissing, Rory pulls in closer to Dean, so both Jess and Rory are using their partners to make their crush jealous.
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: You don’t have to want kids, Luke. Or like kids. It’s not for everybody.
LUKE: I know, but . . . although I’m quite happy going an entire day without having to deal with somebody else’s bodily functions, if I ever happen to meet the right person . . . well, it would be a discussion.
Luke is letting Lorelai know that if he was in a relationship, he would be open to discussing having children. And Lorelai tells him that she would be open to having a second child if the right person came along. They both gaze at each other, and the subtext couldn’t be clearer for the viewer – Luke and Lorelai may one day have a child together. Unfortunately, the scriptwriters never allowed this to happen.
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).
JESS: Ooh, that was good. Now say ‘then get in there and make me my supper.’
Jess is doing his absolute best to needle Rory and Dean at the dance marathon, and with this comment, he gets in a very sharp criticism about the behaviour he’s seen from Dean in his treatment of Rory. This harks back to Dean’s praise for 1950s housewives, which brought about the first fight Rory and Dean ever had.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 