Footnotes to the TV series
LORELAI: Do you come bearing pizza?
DEAN: I’m not an idiot.
A play on the phrase “to come bearing gifts”, which originates from the Christmas story as told in the Gospels, where the three wise men come to visit the baby Jesus, bearing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
LANE: I was just wondering if I could go somewhere tomorrow with Rory and her mom.
MRS. KIM: Tomorrow is church.
As Seventh Day Adventists, the Kims attend church on Saturday, the same day as the concert. From this we know that Lane approaches her mother on Friday.
RORY: But a play is not a lie?
LANE: Well it’s far away from the truth that it might work but close enough to the truth that I think I can negotiate a Purgatory stint if forced to.
In Roman Catholic theology, Purgatory is an after-life state where souls are purified in order to make them holy enough to enter Heaven. A soul in Purgatory cannot go to Hell, and is guaranteed to to be admitted to Heaven at some point.
As a Seventh Day Adventist, Lane isn’t saying that she believes in Purgatory, but is using the concept to describe a state where her mother will chastise and punish her for a certain period, yet forgive her at a future date when she thinks Lane has suffered enough.
RORY: Your mom’s really mad huh?
LANE: The words “convent” and “Siberia” were both used several times and at least once as a combo.
It’s not clear why Mrs. Kim, a practicing and devout Seventh Day Adventist, would send her daughter to a convent, which are generally Catholic, Anglican, or Orthodox. I’m guessing either Lane is exaggerating, or Mrs. Kim was babbling threatening nonsense in a terrified (and terrifying) rage.
However, if Mrs. Kim was determined to send Lane to a convent in Siberia, there is a small one in the city of Omsk, Siberia – the Beatas Olimpia y Laurencia. It is highly unlikely that they would accept Lane though.
LORELAI: I’m not eating alone. You’re here.
LUKE: I’m working.
LORELAI: Yeah but after three cheeseburgers you’re done, unless you’re expecting Elijah to stop by.
A reference to the biblical prophet Elijah, who God ordered to flee into a safe hiding place near a brook where he was miraculously fed bread and meat by ravens. After the brook dried up, God sent a widow to feed him: even though she had only a little flour and oil, by a miracle this small supply of ingredients never ran out.
Lorelai’s reference suggests she must have received some religious education as a child – unlike her earlier reference to Noah’s Ark, this isn’t a story familiar to nearly everyone.
LANE: And then I was thinking that this date could maybe happen this weekend.
RORY: Huh.
LANE: Sunday preferably.
RORY: Well –
LANE: After church.
Lane makes it sound as if the date will be the evening after church on Sunday, but as a Seventh Day Adventist she would attend church on Saturday. She must mean the date will be on the day after church – at least that’s the only way her statement makes any sense.
TRISTAN: No, I think you two make a very cute couple. Is your horse and buggy parked outside? Got to get home for the barn raising?
Yet another reference to the Amish, who drive horse and buggies as their traditional form of transport.
A barn raising is a community activity whereby all the members get together to build (“raise”) a barn for one person or one family. Generally the men do the physical labour, while women provide food and drink; it’s a major social occasion. Barn raising was common in North America in the 18th and 19th centuries, while the Amish and Mennonite communities continue the practice today.
Tristan is implying that life in Stars Hollow must be both agrarian and hopelessly antiquated.
EMILY: A bad storm is heading your way. It’s already hitting us here.
LORELAI: Well, don’t panic. I’ll get the ark, you get the animals.
A reference to Noah’s Ark, the vessel in which God spares Noah, his family, and a selection of animals from a global flood. The story appears in chapters 6 to 9 of Genesis in the Bible.
LORELAI: You’re comparing me to my mother? … I’m Emily Gilmore? My, how the mighty have fallen.
A common expression meaning that those who were once powerful have now been reduced to a lowly status. The idiom comes from the King James version of the Bible, and is first found in Samuel 2 1:19, where it laments, The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places: how are the mighty fallen!
Lorelai always prided herself on being a “cool mom”, and now she discovers she’s actually a mother. A mother just like her own mother, Emily. Rory could hardly have said anything more hurtful to her. Bring on the tourniquet, her heart is bleeding.
LORELAI: I’m sorry. I thought you would be happy about this [that Lorelai invited Dean to their movie night].
RORY: In what universe would I be happy? This isn’t Amish country. Girls and boys usually date alone.
In conservative Amish groups, teenage couples might be expected to date each other with groups of friends, or even with their parents accompanying them. However some Amish teenagers do go on dates alone, at least sometimes. The most conservative Amish of all practice a form of dating where the boy and girl talk all night in the same bed, fully clothed, and with no touching. (Yet when Rory and Dean tried that, all hell broke loose!)
When people say Amish country, they usually mean south-eastern Pennsylvania.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 