Tag: Speculation

Mickey Hargitay

BABETTE: I met this guy once – gorgeous, tan, looked just like Mickey Hargitay. We had coffee, he gave me a pamphlet. Next thing you know, I’m wearing a muumuu, playing a tambourine, jumping up and down at the airport.

Miklós “Mickey” Hargitay (1926-2006), Hungarian-born bodybuilder, actor and the 1955 Mr Universe. He was married to actress Jayne Mansfield from 1958-1964, and they made four films together, including Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957). He is the father of actress Mariska Hargitay.

Babette sometimes alludes to the terrible experiences she had with men before fortunately meeting Morey, which she has no compunction about sharing with Rory. The previous season, she told Rory about the time she got pushed out of a car, and this season she tells Rory about how she was lured into a cult! For such a bright and bubbly character, she has a very dark past.

I think the cult that Babette is describing are the Hare Krishnas, who tended to recruit new members at airports in the 1970s, and often used tambourine music and dancing to attract interest. They didn’t actually wear muumuus, but Babette might have thought their orange robes looked like muumuus.

Sophie Bloom (Carole King)

Sophie Bloom is the owner of the new music store that opens in Stars Hollow, Sophie’s Music. The role is played by Carole King, who sings the show’s theme song, “Where You Lead (I Will Follow)”. She is a rather grouchy woman, even quite rude, which seems pretty typical for Stars Hollow customer service!

It does raise some interesting questions – Sophie must know of Carole King and her music, doesn’t she wonder why she and Carole King look and sound exactly the same? Or is it possible that Sophie Bloom is an identity that Carole King has taken on so that she can secretly live and work in Stars Hollow?

Sal Mineo and Chachi

TAYLOR: Rory, you don’t have to explain a thing to me. I know that there is absolutely no way that you would be involved in something like that if it weren’t for that Sal Mineo wannabe, believe me. Chachi, and Chachi alone, will be held responsible for that incident, okay?

Salvatore “Sal” Mineo (1939-1976) [pictured], actor, singer, and director. He is best known for his role of John “Plato” Crawford, in the 1955 film Rebel Without a Cause, previously discussed. Like Jess, Plato was abandoned by his father and is neglected by his mother, and although treated as a juvenile delinquent, is a sad, lonely boy, desperate for love and affection, and the target of bullies. Plato has a tragic ending, perhaps a bit of wish fulfilment from Taylor.

The role of Plato was played as if the character was a gay teenager in love with James Dean’s character, Jim – the original script even had them sharing a kiss – and Plato is commonly identified as the first gay teen in cinema. Sal Mineo was himself openly bisexual, and unfortunately, like his character, Sal Mineo’s life had a violent ending, as he was murdered in an apparent random mugging.

One fan theory, possibly controversial, suggests that Jess too may be gay or bisexual, and that this is a hint of it – although there’s nothing to disprove that, it seems more likely that Taylor is simply clueless about gay subtext in films.

Chachi, character from television sitcoms Happy Days and Joanie Loves Chachi, previously discussed.

“My car hit the bench”

RORY: Right. Um, Taylor, listen, I just wanted to apologize to you … About the other night. You know, my car hit the bench that had your brand new Doose’s Market sign on it and I know how much that sign meant to you and I’m just so, so sorry that it was ruined.

Even though the footage showed Rory and Jess driving around with a lot of traffic on their way back from getting ice cream, we now discover that the actual accident occurred in Stars Hollow, when they were nearly home (where most car accidents are said to happen). We also learn that when Jess swerved to hit the small furry animal, he ended up hitting a bench on the sidewalk, which had an advertisement for Doose’s Market on it.

Despite footage clearly indicating that Rory and Jess were out on a busy road, I think we are supposed to believe that they were only driving around Stars Hollow.

Tornado

TAYLOR: That boy [Jess] is a walking natural disaster, they should name a tornado after him.

Tornadoes don’t receive personal names, that’s only for hurricanes and tropical cyclones. There has never been a Hurricane Jess, or Tropical Cyclone Jess.

The reference to tornadoes is yet another allusion to The Wizard of Oz [pictured], because it was a tornado that carried Dorothy to the Land of Oz. A possible hint that Jess could provide a gateway to another world for Rory.

Hit Parade

RICHARD: Done. Now, what else is on the hit parade?

A hit parade is a ranked list of the most popular recordings at a given point in time, usually determined by either sales or airplay. Billboard magazine published its first hit parade on January 4 1936.

It’s possible that Richard is specifically thinking of the radio and television music program Your Hit Parade, broadcast from 1935 to 1953 on radio, and from 1950 to 1959 on television. Each Saturday evening, the program would play the most popular and bestselling songs of the week. It was invariably referred to, incorrectly, as The Hit Parade.

Rory’s Letter to Dean

DEAN: What happened? What’d you do to your arm?

RORY: [hands him an envelope] Here.

DEAN: What is this?

RORY: Just read it.

Rory waits for Dean to come home from Chicago that evening, sitting on the porch, in a mirror image of when Dean waited fruitlessly for Rory to come home from Friday Night Dinner. When his dad brings Dean home, presumably from the airport, Rory hands him a letter where she has written down what happened to the car.

It’s a quick way to avoid lots of superfluous dialogue, but it makes Rory look a little cowardly that she couldn’t talk to Dean directly. Are we meant to think that she was too scared to talk to Dean, or that she didn’t feel confident Dean would listen to her all the way through?

Dean does read the letter all the way through, while yelling and kicking a duffle bag, which seems a bit threatening. However, once he is assured that Jess has really and truly left town, he just asks Rory to join he and his family for dinner. Later they watch TV with Dean’s sister, Clara.

It seems odd that Dean doesn’t have any other questions or comments about the accident or about the car – he seems to think the only thing wrong with his relationship with Rory was Jess, and now he’s gone, they can get back to normal.

Rory didn’t seem to have met Dean’s family in the first six months or so of them dating, but she is obviously very familiar with them now.

The Gilmore Group

EMILY: Your father is now the president and CEO of the Gilmore Group, an international insurance consulting firm.

LORELAI: Wow, that’s great. So, um, what’s the . . . like, how does . . . what’s his job? …

EMILY: Your father is an international insurance consultant … He consults on matters relating to international insurance.

Lorelai has no idea what an insurance consultant does, Emily doesn’t really know, and I’m not sure the writer (Allan Heinberg) knows either! I’m a bit in the dark too, because they usually work for an insurance company, and are basically sales agents. I presume an independent insurance consultant would help businesses choose from various insurance plan options, and sell insurance policies from a range of insurance carriers, rather than one. Don’t ask me how a single person can be a “group”.

Jess Leaves Town

BABETTE: Last night, not long after the accident happened, Luke walked him straight to the bus station, stuck the kid on a bus, sent him home to his mom.

MISS PATTY: I can’t believe Luke would send him off like that.

BABETTE: Well, I heard the kid wanted to go. I don’t know. All I know is that Jess is gone.

While watching the film with Lane and her parents, Rory overhears Babette and Miss Patty gossiping, and in this way learns that Jess left town the previous night, after the accident he had driving Rory’s car. Luke walked him straight to the bus station and sent him home to Liz.

We never got to see the conversation between Luke and Jess, so we have no idea why Luke did that, or in what mood he did it. Babette heard that Jess actually asked to leave, rather than Luke throwing him out. Did Luke take Lorelai’s advice and get rid of Jess, or did he regretfully give way to Jess’ request that he go home? We don’t know for sure, but town gossip hints the latter is more likely than the former.

In real life, the last bus to New York City leaves Hartford at 10.30 pm, so Jess would have left Stars Hollow around 11.10 pm, and got to Manhattan some time after 1 am. That might suggest the accident took place somewhere between 8.30 pm and 9.30 pm.

After all the town’s complaints about Jess, Babette and Miss Patty seem rather regretful that Jess has gone, saying that they don’t know what they will do for entertainment now (and Jess stole from Babette and pestered Miss Patty’s dance students, so they have personal reasons to wish him gone). It suggests that the town’s exaggerated hatred of Jess was mostly motivated by a desire to cause drama so they’d have something to focus on. Like old Louie Danes, Jess was a convenient sinkhole where they could throw all their negativity.

Lorelai keeps her face rigidly glued to the screen, trying not to betray anything by her expression, but she knows this can’t be good news for her friendship with Luke. Rory looks hurt and unhappy, and turns away from her mother, as if needing privacy for her grief (or possibly as if she is beginning to blame Lorelai for Jess’ departure). It feels as if Jess being gone will cause just as many issues for the Gilmore girls as Jess being there …