The Reverend and the Rabbi

RABBI BARANS: Reverend Skinner and I share the church for services, Taylor, so if there’s gonna be a protest, it’ll be a joint decision.

Reverend Skinner and Rabbi David Barans are introduced in this episode, and we also learn that the church is shared between the (vaguely unnamed) Protestant and Jewish congregations, while the reverend and the rabbi are firm friends.

The town has apparently gone through Reverend Nicholls, and the reverend who buried Louie Danes, and Reverend Melmin (who is Seventh Day Adventist), and now here’s Reverend Archie Skinner. I’m not sure if Stars Hollow has a lot of reverends, or a high turnover of them.

Reverend Skinner is played by Jim Jansen, who had roles on numerous TV shows. He has played a reverend several times, including on Nikki, Melrose Place, and Step by Step. He previously played someone named Skinner in Just the Ten of Us.

Rabbit Barans is played by Alan Blumenfeld, who has a similarly extensive CV. He played a rabbi again in the 2017 film Pinsky. Like Jim Jansen, he has appeared in Matlock, Hangin’ With Mr Cooper, Murphy Brown, Saved by the Bell: The New Class, Diagnosis Murder, and Felicity.

Rory in Contact with Christopher

When Rory and Lorelai discuss the invitation to attend Sherry’s baby shower, Rory reveals she has been in contact with her dad for about a month, possibly around the time she got her application for Harvard. They’ve emailed each other and occasionally spoken on the phone.

Lorelai is surprised to learn this, and more surprised that Rory felt that she needed to hide that information from her mother. She is quick to reassure Rory that she has every right to talk to her father, and doesn’t have to hide that from her.

However, when Rory tries to pass on well wishes from Christopher, Lorelai is quick to shut it down. Just because Rory is in contact with Christopher, doesn’t mean she has to be. A healthy boundary! Enjoy, they’re rare.

Jess Gets a Car

In this episode, Jess gets an old car, which has been kindly identified for me by blog reader John Donaldson as a 1970s AMC Rebel or AMC Ambassador. I like the idea of Jess owning a Rebel, but having examined a few photos, I think it may look more like an Ambassador, as they seemed to more often have a two-toned colour??? Perhaps a 1973 model? More opinions welcomed.

Lorelai is not happy to discover Jess has a car, and refers to him needing to be stopped “before he kills again”. Apparently Rory getting even the tiniest injury needing medical attention is the equivalent of her being killed. However, Lorelai has learned her lesson, because she immediately offers to butt out, leaving Luke to handle the issue for himself.

Lorelai Apologises to Emily

LORELAI: Sorry about the whole Peyton thing. When I asked you for his number, I didn’t think … Think about what would happen if things didn’t work out with us. I mean, I know his mom is your friend, and I shouldn’t have even gotten mixed up in this whole thing if I wasn’t prepared to remember that what I do will affect you, and to me it’s just a Bowie concert, but to you, it’s not. I was a little thoughtless and I’m sorry, but you have to understand that I was not lying when I said we had a bad time.

Lorelai has listened to her father, and decides she needs to apologise to Emily for putting her social life in jeopardy. She acknowledges that she didn’t think about the consequences might be if she and Peyton didn’t get along, or consider how that might affect Emily. She goes to some lengths to explain to Emily how awful the date with Peyton was, and then says that, even so, she will still go on the date with Peyton if Emily wants her to.

Lorelai is clearly hoping her mother will take mercy on her plight … I ask again, has she actually met her mother before? Naturally, Emily graciously thanks Lorelai for her apology, and tells her to wear blue on her date with Peyton. There’s a real theme of women wearing blue in order to look pretty on this show.

This is another scene where Lorelai and Emily go off to have a private chat in the kitchen, where the maid is mysteriously absent.

Jess to the Rescue

Jess slots into the role of white knight, and comes to Rory’s rescue by switching off the sprinklers for her, getting soaked himself in the process. Again, how fortunate Stars Hollow is having this mini-summer in late October!

This gives Jess and Rory a chance to talk for a minute, and Jess asks her about school and her plans for Harvard – unlike Dean, Jess seems genuinely interested in Rory’s education. However, Rory’s pager goes off, and it’s Dean on his way to help, having just received Rory’s pager message.

Without hesitation, Jess turns the sprinklers back on for Rory, and they share a romantic “moment” together in the water spray before he walks away, Rory gazing after him. Jess knows that Rory is afraid of upsetting Dean, and that Dean will react very badly to Jess having “just happened” to be on her street, and available to help. Rather than cause trouble between them or make things harder for Rory, he chooses to take himself out of the picture – a sign of his growing maturity, and that he cares for Rory.

It is the best moment of a fairly lacklustre episode, although it doesn’t make that much sense that the sprinklers had to be turned back on again. Couldn’t Rory have just told Dean she managed to get the sprinklers off herself? Also, Jess said the spigot had become loose, and needed a harder turn to switch the water off. Now that Jess has tightened the spigot, won’t Dean switch the water off easily, and wonder how on earth Rory had any trouble with it? Or will he just put it down to “girl’s can’t turn off sprinklers, that’s a man’s job?”?

Blue Crush

[Rory, soaked from the sprinklers, runs down the street and bumps into Jess]

RORY: Get out of my way.

JESS: I like the new look. It’s very Blue Crush.

Blue Crush, a 2002 sports film directed by John Stockwell, based on Susan Orlean’s 1998 article “Life’s Swell” in Outside magazine. It stars Kate Bosworth, Michelle Rodriguez, and Sanoe Lake as three friends in Hawaii who share a passion for surfing. The film was a commercial success, and received modestly positive reviews.

Blue Crush came out in August 2002, so Jess may have seen it over the summer (it feels like it could have been Shane’s choice of film?). Note this is another mention of Lauren Graham’s home state of Hawaii! The film’s soundtrack includes a song by Jamaican DJ Beenie Man (stage name of Anthony Davis) – a possible inspiration for the name Beenie Morrison?

Jess is saying that Rory is so wet she looks as if she has been surfing (and she’s wearing a blue uniform). The choice of the title is provocative – “blue” like erotica, a “blue movie”, plus the word “crush”. It sounds as if he is saying Rory looks like his “sexy crush”!

Visions of Cody

This is the book that Jess is reading when Rory runs into him while she’s panicking about the water issue.

Visions of Cody is an experimental novel by Jack Kerouac, previously discussed and frequently mentioned. It was written in 1951-52, with excerpts from it published in 1959, but not published in its entirety until 1972 – by then, it already had an underground reputation.

Visions of Cody is derived from experimental spontaneous prose inserts that Kerouac added to the original manuscript of On the Road in 1951–52. Although the narrative of the novel is meandering, consisting of short stream-of-conscious essays, transcriptions of taped conversations, and writing exercises, it focuses on the friendship between Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady (named Jack Duloz and Cody Pomeroy in the text). The book has been described as an early example of New Journalism.

Jess loves Kerouac, the Beat writers, and writing which contains journalism and fiction, so this book is a natural fit for him. Like Rory, he likes to delve deeper into novels he likes, and it makes sense that he would want to read this as a companion to On the Road.

Jess is able to read a book while walking. It’s interesting to speculate why he is wandering along Rory’s street, reading a Kerouac book. Is he mildly stalking Rory, or hoping he’ll run into her? How often does Jess do this “casual stroll near Rory’s house reading an underground classic” routine?

Trivial Pursuit

DORIS: I would’ve found you sooner if I had bothered to look, but now I have, I found you, and all I can say is this – I want my board games back! I want them back and I want them back now! And I will hunt you down to the ends of the Earth until I get them back – especially the Trivial Pursuit!

Trivial Pursuit, a board game in which winning is determined by a player’s ability to answer general knowledge and popular culture questions in different categories, collecting wedges for each category until the playing piece is full. It was created in 1979 by Chris Haney and Scott Abbott in Montreal, Canada, and released in 1981. It was one of the most popular games of the 1980s.

Incidentally, the fact that Doris has tracked Dwight down may explain why we never see him again. Doris may have forced him to return home, or demanded that he sell the house in Stars Hollow as it is a joint asset. Or maybe he just went on the run again to escape from her. Either way, there’s nothing to say that he remained living in Stars Hollow, although no real proof that he ever left.

Dwight’s Wife

DORIS: [on answering machine] Dwight, hi it’s Doris. Doris, your wife, remember me? The woman who was asleep in bed when you snuck out the window like a spineless little worm!

It turns out that Dwight isn’t in fact separated or divorced from his wife, but climbed out of the window while she was asleep. As he moved to Stars Hollow and bought a house, that’s a very serious escape attempt!

This does raise more questions, such as where did Dwight get the money to buy the house without Doris noticing, how did he manage to get to Stars Hollow to go house hunting without Doris noticing, where did he live during the settlement period (unless he just murdered Beenie Morrison, of course), how did he manage to take all the board games with him when he got out the window, and how has Doris managed to find his phone number? I guess his number is listed, for the last one, which seems stupid if he’s on the run from his wife.

The formidable Doris is voiced by Alex Borstein, who played Drella in Season 1.

Richard Tells Lorelai She Has to Date Peyton

RICHARD: Before this unfortunate incident, Sally Wallington always received the first cup of tea. When she was suddenly demoted, your mother moved up to the prime tea spot, and she’s held that spot ever since. Now, she’s very proud of that spot, and now she’s afraid that this little incident may jeopardize it.

When Richard phones Lorelai, it is to tell her that she has to go to the concert with Peyton, because otherwise she may jeopardise Emily’s social standing in the Hartford community ie receiving the first cup of tea at DAR meetings.

Lorelai thinks this sounds ridiculous, and Richard agrees – but he doesn’t care. No matter how silly it may sound, it’s important to Emily to have that first cup of tea, and Richard will do anything he can to help her get it.

This provides Lorelai with another viewpoint on the subject, that Emily’s feelings are more important because a dispute with Peyton’s mother will have long-term effects on Emily’s social standing and happiness. On the other hand, for Lorelai to go on one boring date with Peyton is only a few hours out of her life – and it’s at a David Bowie concert, which Lorelai wants to see anyway, with less chance for listening to Peyton drone on than at dinner.

As Lorelai said Peyton was equally bored and unhappy on their date, I can think of an obvious solution – Peyton and Lorelai could just pretend to go on a date with each other in order to keep everyone happy. Or Lorelai could cancel the date with some polite fiction, such as a sudden illness or urgent situation. Apparently this is too simple a fix.