Footnotes to the TV series
RORY: I’m not staring at you.
JESS: Then how do you know I’m staring at you?
RORY: I am dancing. I cannot control where my glance goes. And the few moments that I can control it, my glance goes to Dean, not to you.
JESS: So you can’t control when you look at me, but you have to force yourself to look at him? Sorry, man. That’s cold.
This rates as one of Jess Mariano’s best comebacks. And it’s all true!
MRS. KIM: Who are you?
JESS: Jess . . . ma’am.
Jess is the town bad boy with a smart mouth for everyone. Only Mrs Kim can bring him instantly into line and force him to speak respectfully, and she does it with three words and a stern look. You can’t help thinking that if Jess had had a grandmother or aunt like Mrs Kim, he would be a very different kid.
It seems as if the fake egg sandwiches are the only food provided at the 24 hour dance marathon, which is pretty terrible. And there’s no refrigeration, so this seems like another salmonella outbreak waiting to happen on the show.
LANE: Go away, Jess. No one asked for a Tony Manero wannabe to drop by.
Tony Manero, the lead character in the film Saturday Night Fever, previously discussed.
Lane really doesn’t like Jess at all, which may be another reason why it’s been hard for Rory to admit her feelings for him. It’s a shame, because Lane and Jess both love music and punk rock in particular, so you’d think they’d have at least one thing in common as a basis for friendship.
Apart from not being impressed by Jess’ behaviour in school, I think Lane has always romanticised Rory’s relationship with Dean, and she can’t imagine Rory with anyone else.
JACKSON: Oh, I’m not mad. I just didn’t realize that when I married Sookie, I also married you. I didn’t realize I was a Mormon, my mistake.
Mormonism, the religious tradition and theology of the Latter Day Saint movement of Restorationist Christianity started by Joseph Smith in Western New York in the 1820s and 1830s.
Polygamy (plural marriage) was practised by the church during the 19th century, and although the practice was officially ended in the early 20th century, some sects continue the tradition today.
Predictably, Jackson is not happy to learn Sookie has discussed their private marital problems with Lorelai. Although he has a valid point, he immediately throws an immature tantrum instead of discussing it with Sookie, so his communication is as poor as hers (or worse).
LORELAI: Right on time!
ANDREW: Why would you ever tell me that you went out with Liam Neeson? Why would you do that?
Rory said that Andrew always ended up having a fight with his dance partner in the first fifteen minutes of the marathon, but he doesn’t have a fight until the six hour mark. Yet Lorelai still says it’s “right on time”.
ANDREW: [in background] You went out with Liam Neeson! Are you kidding me?
William “Liam” Neeson (born 1952), actor from Northern Ireland. He began his career in the Belfast theatre scene, and his first film role was in Excalibur (1981). He rose to prominence playing the title role in Schindler’s List (1993), starred in dramas such as Nell (1994) and provided the narration for Everest (1998). In November 2002, his most recent films were Stars Wars: Attack of the Clones and K-19: The Widowmaker, although Gangs of New York was just about to come out. He has received numerous honours, including an OBE in 2000.
Liam Neeson was married to actress Natasha Richardson in 1994, a marriage which lasted until her death in 2009. Presumably, Andrew’s dance partner went out with Liam Neeson prior to his marriage (or prior to him meeting Richardson, which took place in 1993).
SOOKIE: All of a sudden, completely out of the blue, Jackson announces he wants four in four … Four kids in four years.
Sookie and Jackson, an adorable couple while they were dating, became immediately annoying once they were married. Now Jackson, formerly rather sweet and snuggly, gets some pretty creepy ideas. This icky one is that Sookie should give birth to four of his children within four years, and he takes Sookie’s dubious, “Oohh .. kaay” as consent.
As tends to be the case, mostly for script reasons, Sookie tells Lorelai about her problems with Jackson rather than discussing them with him. Lorelai rightly tells Sookie that she won’t have a good marriage unless she learns to communicate with Jackson, however, Sookie and Jackson continue having major communication problems throughout their marriage.
PARIS: Well, we went for coffee, and he talked about how he had a great time on our date, and how he finds me fascinating, and how he thought about me all the time.
In this episode, Paris gets her first boyfriend, Jamie. She is typically in disbelief as to why Jamie would choose her over “idiot” college girls who are prettier and more (sexually) experienced, but Jamie is never shown to be anything other than adoring of Paris.
Having a boyfriend seems to make Paris instantly more relaxed about her academic life. She turns up late to class the next morning after seeing Jamie, even though they supposedly only had coffee after school (must have been some coffee!), and is happy to postpone the work they were supposed to do on the weekend for the school newspaper. Because of this, Rory is able to be her mother’s partner for the dance marathon in this episode.
LORELAI: Why not?
RORY: Because this is Dean’s first marathon. We were gonna go and watch and hang out, he’s totally looking forward to it. I told him about how Andrew gets in a fight with his date in the first fifteen minutes and storms off the floor. I told him about Taylor getting punch-drunk at hour fifteen and telling stories about how he always wanted to be a magician.
If Rory cares so much about Dean’s first marathon, why did she say she would work on the newspaper with Paris on that day? Possibly she and Dean were just going to go in the afternoon or evening to watch (although how will they see Andrew storm off in the first fifteen minutes, if so?).
It’s interesting to wonder why Dean didn’t go to the marathon the year before with Rory (in 2000, he and Rory only began dating in November, so it might have seemed too soon to drag him along). In the previous season around this time of year, Rory was doing the Shakespeare play with Tristan, and she and Dean weren’t getting along very well. It seems so much so that Rory didn’t invite her boyfriend to the marathon.
DEAN: I know this is a stupid question, but why can’t you just talk to him?
LANE: Because yesterday he called to say that they were still looking for a rehearsal space and, uh, that he’d call when he had more news. So now I have to wait until he calls about the band – and in between, I call and hang up on him. Pathetic.
Lane has been calling Dave and hanging up when he answers, just so she can hear his voice. She and Dave are in regular contact even though the band has apparently gone on a break while they look for a suitable rehearsal space (he phoned her just the day before). However, lovesick Lane is still calling him multiple times a day.
Dean finds this behaviour ridiculous, and then he discovers Rory used to hang up on him before they were dating. I’m not sure how she got his number when they’d only spoken a few times, maybe Dean gave her his number straight away (which would surely be a clue he liked her?). Also, why doesn’t Dean remember someone ringing him all the time and then hanging up two years ago?
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 