The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits

LORELAI: This whole morning has been a little Twilight Zone-y.
LUKE: Or Outer Limits-y … Great show, just as eerie, same era, but no one ever references it.
LORELAI: Oh, I’m sorry, I don’t speak geek.

The Twilight Zone, previously discussed.

The Outer Limits, an anthology television series originally broadcast from 1963 to 1965. It is often compared to The Twilight Zone, but stories were more science-fiction based than fantasy or supernatural, and were more straight action and suspense, often showing the human spirit spirit confronting dark existential forces, either from within or without.

The Outer Limits was very influential on the development of Star Trek – one reason why Luke might be a fan of the show. The Outer Limits was revived in 1995, and its last episode shown in January 2002, so Luke may very well have only recently finished watching the new series (and could be missing the show now it’s gone).

Lorelai is completely full of it for saying she doesn’t “speak geek”. She is a huge fan of Star Trek herself.

Debating Team

RORY: Okay, 3:30 on Friday – my debate at Chilton. Write it down.

As well as working on the school newspaper, The Franklin, Rory is now on the debating team at Chilton. According to Paris, Rory is one of the best public speakers in the school, and as an aspiring journalist, it makes sense for her to gain experience debating in a public forum. An apt choice of extracurricular activity for Rory that will look good on her CV, and one I’m sure Paris pushed her into doing.

Klump Street

LORELAI: I don’t know. Um, how ‘bout this table with it’s unobstructed westward view of the wide cosmopolitan expansive Klump Street?

Lorelai seems to be saying that Luke’s is on Klump Street. I presumed that the street that Luke’s is on is Main Street – Luke mentioned Main Street, and it looks like the main street of town, as it’s where major businesses are, like the market. If there is a bigger, more important Main Street somewhere, we never see it, which seems odd.

It’s just possible she means that you can see the street which crosses it, as Luke’s is on a corner, and that this is Klump Street. If so, that’s the street Weston Bakery is on. Klump Street is the location of the giant slinky.

In fact, due to the frosted glass, curtains and blinds on the diner windows, customers don’t actually seem to have a great view of anything much from the tables at Luke’s.

Rory Loses her Bracelet

Rory walks away, not realizing her bracelet had fallen off while she was on the bridge (the bracelet Dean gave her as a sixteenth birthday present). Jess picks it up and puts it in his pocket – just like the “little boy” who picked up the lost love letter in the nursery rhyme, A-Tisket, A-Tasket.

It is unclear why Jess keeps Rory’s bracelet, but most likely just the sentimental pleasure of having something of Rory’s he can hold and touch. He probably intended to give it back at some point, the same way he returned her book. He may have also thought the handing back ceremony would be a flirtatiously teasing one – “Oh, you were looking for this? Another one of my magic tricks“.

Lorelai’s Bid-on-a-Basket History

LORELAI: Well, last year Roy Wilkins bought it and I got my sprinklers fixed for half price … And this year my rain gutters are completely clogged, and I thought if I could get the Collins kid to bite, I’d get that taken care of.

We learn that the previous year, in 2001, a man named Roy Wilkins bought Lorelai’s basket at the fundraiser, and she was charming enough to him that he fixed her sprinklers and only charged half price for it. This year, she was hoping that “the Collins kid” might buy her and be inveigled into cleaning her gutters for cheap or free.

“The Collins kid” could be in his early twenties, I don’t suppose Lorelai would picnic with a literal child? Although considering how the town laughed at her for going on one date with someone in his early-to-mid twenties, you’d think she’d be wary of that now.

It sounds as if since becoming a homeowner, Lorelai has been using the Bid-on-a-Basket Fundraiser as a way to get free or cheap home repairs or home maintenance done. Hmm, you know who is really good at handyman stuff? Luke! And now she’s having a picnic with him.

Jackson and Sookie Get Engaged

JACKSON: I think we should get married … Soon.
SOOKIE: Are you pregnant?
JACKSON: What do you say? Sookie?
SOOKIE: Yes! I say yes. Oh my God, we’re getting married!

In typical Gilmore Girls fashion, a marriage proposal comes out of a fight, and the wedding is scheduled to happen as soon as possible.

Sookie seems to have packed the basket expecting or hoping for a proposal, because there’s a vase of roses, candles, champagne, and even what looks like a tiny wedding cake with white icing. She may not have been quite so surprised by the proposal as she acts. Is it possible that Sookie deliberately ignored Jackson’s hints about moving in together because she was holding out for marriage?

A bit of trivia – this scene was filmed in the dark, and then the light turned up in editing until it appears to be a sunny afternoon.

Rory’s Basket

A small plastic container of disgusting-looking, potentially very old leftovers

A can of Hansen’s soda (Rory’s favourite brand, she’s always shown drinking it)

Can you believe this went for $90, and Sookie’s was snapped up for $35? There’s no justice. Could it also be saying that Jess is overestimating Rory’s value, or that he’s going to pay too high a price for her?

It’s almost as if Lorelai and Rory’s baskets are trolling the town, because they could have bought something nice from a restaurant, like Lane did, and Sookie would have happily given them something decent to take.

They’re saying, “Sure, you can enjoy our wonderful company. But we won’t cater to your needs in any way, or give you false expectations that providing edible food is something that will ever happen”.

Henry Dumps Lane

HENRY: Lane, I like you but I want to be able to actually pick you up, stop the car, and take you out. And I wanna be able to call you, at your house.

Lane’s complicated dating plan predictably goes wrong when Henry tries to call the pay phone at the park where’s having her mother-approved picnic with her cousin David. The phone isn’t working, so Henry calls Lane’s house in desperation, and gets Mrs Kim; he panics and tries to sell her a subscription to the Wall Street Journal.

When Lane calls Henry at his house in Hartford and discovers all this, she suggests they still have time for a date. All he needs to do is drive past, honk twice, go around the block, and on the second go around, Lane will jump in the car while it’s still moving.

Henry rejects this madness, and says he wants a girlfriend he can go on dates with, and phone if he wants to. He has already asked somebody else to attend the prom with him, which is about three months away – I think this means Henry is a year older than Lane, and in his last year of school?

This is the end of Lane’s first relationship with a boy she really likes who returns her feelings, coming to a halt before she even got to go on one date with him. It’s warning to her of what her life will be like if she continues trying to hide everything from her mother.

Jackson Buys Sookie’s Basket From Kirk

KIRK: Two hundred and fifty dollars …
JACKSON: Will you take a check?
KIRK: With two forms of ID.

Jackson eventually convinces Kirk to let him have Sookie’s basket, but it costs him $250 – much more than if he had bid on it originally. This makes Sookie’s the most expensive basket of the day, but the money doesn’t go to charity, but to Kirk!

However, Kirk refuses to take Jackson’s cheque because he doesn’t resemble his photo ID closely enough, so Jackson is paying him back in weekly instalments of crinkle cut carrot sticks. It is not known whether Jackson ever really did pay him back, and no cash seems to have changed hands. It’s possible that Kirk only wanted to mess with Jackson and never intended to make him pay for Sookie’s basket. I think he should have at least got his $35 back though.

“Twelve brothers and sisters”

KIRK: My mother didn’t even make one for me … She made one for all my brothers and sisters but not for me … Twelve brothers and sisters, the only one without a basket – me.

Kirk’s statement could mean either that he has twelve siblings, or that he is one of twelve brothers and sisters. Either way, that’s a very large family. It doesn’t make a huge amount of sense for Kirk’s mother to make baskets for her children – I guess maybe for the girls, so they’ve got something to take to the auction, but shouldn’t the boys be buying other people’s baskets for charity, not getting a free one from their mother???

We never find out if Kirk’s claim is true or not, or if he’s making it up to sound more pathetic. He did talk of going on vacation with his parents, as if he was their only child, and if they chose to only take him over eleven or twelve other siblings, he doesn’t sound neglected by them.

Some fans have wondered if the “swan guy” and “Mick the DSL installer” from the early episodes were actually two of Kirk’s look-alike brothers. However, all the siblings may be entirely imaginary.