Overseas Correspondent

JESS: You’re gonna be an overseas correspondent? … You’re gonna crawl around in trenches and stand on top of buildings and have bombs going off in the background and some wars raging all around you?

RORY: What, you don’t think I can do it?

JESS: No, I do. Just sounds a little too …. Just sounds a little too rough for you.

Jess is the first person to suggest that Rory doesn’t have what it takes to be a foreign correspondent or war correspondent, like her hero, Christiane Amanpour. He’s not trying to put Rory down, and he specifically says that she is capable of it, he genuinely doesn’t think it’s a good fit for her, or be something she’d enjoy.

Of course, he’s right – Rory has led a very sheltered life in the safe haven of Stars Hollow, and according to Lorelai, hates the outdoors so much she wouldn’t walk on wet grass until she was three. And Rory actually met a journalist who travelled to dangerous international locations, Rachel, and she doesn’t seem to have bothered even talking to Rachel about it.

Kurt Cobain and Courtney

RORY: Do not give me that whole ‘I’m so misunderstood, Kurt Cobainy’ thing. You are way stronger than that and I don’t even wanna hear it. You have to go to college …

JESS: So, Courtney, what about you?

Kurt Cobain (1967-1994), singer, songwriter, and musician, frontman of the grunge rock band Nirvana, serving as the band’s lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter. Through his angst-fuelled songwriting and anti-establishment persona, Cobain’s compositions challenged the conventions of rock music. He was often heralded as a spokesman for Generation X and is considered one of the most influential musicians in the history of alternative rock.

Cobain struggled with depression, heroin addiction and the pressure of fame, and was found shot dead at the age of 27, apparently by his own hand. He was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, along with his fellow band members, in 2014.

Courtney (Love), Cobain’s wife, previously discussed.

Rory pretty much gives Jess the same talk that Lorelai did when he arrived in Stars Hollow – if anything, she is less sympathetic, telling him to quit the “misunderstood act”, and saying he is way too strong to be dragged down by his circumstances.

Jess is far more receptive to hearing this from Rory. He probably appreciates not being pitied, and likes the suggestion he is tough enough to survive anything. Rory may be the first person to openly tell Jess he can achieve anything he wants, and once again, she is very keen to urge a male love interest to attend college.

Note that as Rory casts Jess in the role of Kurt Cobain, he is equally quick to cast her as Kurt’s wife – an obvious suggestion that Jess considers her to be his “other half” that Rory surely cannot miss. As Kurt and Courtney were something of a doomed, destructive couple, it doesn’t feel like a good omen for Jess and Rory.

“I’m dripping”

JESS: I’m dripping here, hold the wheel.

Could they have made this any more sexual? Even the choice to buy ice cream cones seems like a deliberately erotic choice.

Out the back window, you can see a set of traffic lights, and multiple cars behind them. I think they are still supposed to be driving around Stars Hollow, which only has one traffic light, on the main square, and almost no traffic. It really doesn’t look like Stars Hollow!

I can accept this scene as believable if Jess drove to a nearby larger town to buy ice cream cones and then back to cone-less Stars Hollow, but I’m not sure this is what the show actually wants us to think. My understanding is that Jess was just circling the main square.

Othello

Othello, a tragedy by William Shakespeare, probably written in 1603, and first performed in 1604. Set during the Ottoman-Venetian War (1570-1573), the story revolves around Othello, a noble Moorish military general serving in the Venetian army who is married to Desdemona, a beautiful wealthy Venetian lady much younger than he. A malevolent junior officer named Iago stokes Othello’s jealousy until the usual calm and stoic man kills his wife in a fit of blind rage. Its themes of passion, jealousy, and race are still relevant today, and it is popular and widely performed.

The significance of Jess studying Othello with Rory is obvious, as it is all about a man who is insecure about his wife, and is too easily led to believe she is unfaithful to him. Dean’s belief in Rory is going to be severely tested by Rory spending time with Jess while he is away. It’s another suggestion from Jess that Dean will become violent over Rory’s relationship with Jess.

Guns of Brixton

Jess writes some of the lyrics to this song by English punk rock band The Clash on a notepad for Rory, who correctly identifies it – thus passing one of Jess’ “tests” to see if she’s worthy.

“Guns of Brixton” is from the 1979 album, London Calling. It was written and sung by the band’s bassist, Paul Simonon, who grew up in Brixton in South London, and has a strong reggae influence, reflecting the culture of the area. It predates the race riots which took place in Brixton in the 1980s, but depicts the discontent of the area due to economic factors and heavy-handed policing against black youth.

The lyrics begin:

When they kick at your front door
How you gonna come?
With your hands on your head
Or on the trigger of your gun?

When the law break in
How you gonna go?
Shot down on the pavement
Or waiting on death row?

After this point, the phrase “guns of Brixton” becomes used so often that it would be immediately apparent which song it is, so I presume Jess showed Rory the first stanza or the first two stanzas. It looks as if he has written the first two stanzas on the notepad, but I can’t see it very clearly.

Jess’ Magic Trick

RORY: Get your books or I’m going home.

JESS: Wait there. [does magic trick]

At the end of the trick, Jess presents Rory with an apple by sleight of hand. It’s an apple for the teacher, but also a potent symbol of sexual temptation – Jess is the cunning serpent in the Paradise of Stars Hollow. Although Rory receives it with a bashful smile, clearly charmed, she never takes a bite from the apple – she’s a virginal Eve, not ready to give into temptation.

Lying to Dean

RORY: Listen, just in case, and I don’t think he will, but if Dean calls, will you tell him I’m with Lane? ….

LORELAI: How come I have to lie to Dean?

Lorelai balks at lying to Dean, and suggests to Rory that if she feels as if she needs to lie to Dean about tutoring Jess, then maybe she shouldn’t be tutoring him. Yet when Rory lost her bracelet, Lorelai encouraged her to lie to Dean. Has she realised the error of her ways, or is she simply being sulky and stubborn, and trying to stop Rory spending the evening alone with Jess?

Lorelai says that if Rory needs to lie about Jess, maybe she shouldn’t tutor him. She never considers saying that if Rory is too frightened to be honest with Dean, then maybe she shouldn’t be with him.

Reasons Jess is Going to Fail Junior Year

His grades are poor

He doesn’t do homework

He doesn’t participate in class

His attendance record is erratic

His attitude to teachers ranges from indifference to hostility

He shows no interest in school activities or fellow students

He stole all the baseballs

Principal Merton only tells Luke about all these issues one month before the end of semester! I don’t think it’s just Jess who’s been indifferent to his teachers – they sound like they’ve been indifferent to him as well. It’s almost as if the school has just been waiting for Jess to fail, rather than intervening to help or trying to engage with him – or talking to Luke about all these problems a lot earlier.

Schools really are quite useless in Gilmore Girls. Even if Jess was a model student for the next month, surely that wouldn’t be enough for him to pass, considering he’s had an entire year of doing nothing?

By the way, notice that Principal Merton’s observation that Jess isn’t interested in social activities or making friends at school is very similar to the criticism Mrs Verdinas had of Rory not socialising at Chilton. One might be failing while the other is maintaining a straight A average, but Rory and Jess have more in common academically than people think.

Rory’s Weekly Phone Call from Christopher

In “It Should Have Been Lorelai”, Sherry says that Christopher phones Rory every Wednesday night at 7 pm. Now he is phoning her at 6.45 on Wednesday morning.

Rory is busy getting ready for school in the morning, how does she have time to talk on the phone? Christopher even says that he can’t talk for long, but he’s sent an email, and to add an extra 40 minutes onto next week’s call. There’s no way she can chat on the phone for 40 minutes before school. It seems as if Christopher has figured out a way to make his weekly phone call just a quick check-in. He is the king of minimal effort fathering.

Lon Chaney Junior

LORELAI: Just as Marty, aka Eve Harrington, shows up trying to take Dean’s job, Taylor’s ladder mysteriously disappears, suddenly making Dean invaluable no matter what fancy tricks Lon Chaney Junior over there pulls.

Lon Chaney Jr., stage name of Creighton Chaney (1906-1973), actor best known for playing the title character in the 1941 horror film, The Wolf Man. He was the son of Leonidas “Lon” Chaney (1883-1930), a star of silent film and one of the most versatile actors of all time. He was known as “The Man with a Thousand Faces”, due to his ability to completely transform his appearance with make-up.

Creighton Chaney felt overshadowed by his famous father, and Lon Chaney discouraged him from following him into show business. It was only after his father’s death that Creighton began acting in films, often in uncredited roles, or doing stunt work. By 1934 he had a leading role, and the next year was billed as Lon Chaney Jr; by 1942, Universal Studios usually insisted on him being credited as Lon Chaney.

Lorelai is suggesting that now Dean has gone, Marty will be slowly replacing him, just as Creighton Chaney gradually took over his father’s name. Of course, Lorelai isn’t really worried about Marty – all this talk is a replacement for her real fear, that Jess will replace Dean while he’s out of town. She seems to be trying to suggest to Rory that Dean in invaluable and irreplaceable.