CHRISTOPHER: Ooh, I gotta say, this isn’t like the chai lattes in Boston. LORELAI: Yeah, well, expecting Luke to make a chai anything was completely insane.
Chai tea is a tea beverage originating in India; in Hindi it is called Masala chai, or “mixed spice tea”. Recipes vary, but it’s based on strong black tea combined with spices such as cardamom, pepper, and ginger, with milk and sugar added. A cinnamon stick is often added for a sweet-spicy flavour. A chai latte is produced by steaming and frothing the milk before adding it to the spiced tea. The drink became popularised in the west in the 1990s.
Did Luke really not know how to make chai tea, or did he deliberately sabotage Christopher’s drink? Lorelai suggests he just put an old stick in a cup of tea, which seems like more than simple incompetence (especially as he could have said the diner didn’t provide chai lattes). Seeing Lorelai happily walking around town with Christopher while he was visiting Stars Hollow must have been deeply annoying for Luke, especially as Lorelai and Christopher had sex the last time he was there.
CHRISTOPHER: Imagine what we could do if we freed up the brain space that holds onto the Viennese Waltz. LORELAI: Yeah, it’s right up there in between old Brady Bunch reruns and the lyrics to Rapture.
Christopher and Lorelai mention things they learned and experienced during their teenage years they can never forget. It’s a none-too-subtle reference to the fact that they can never really forget each other or let each other go.
Viennese Waltz
A type of ballroom dance, the original form of the waltz. It emerged in the second half of the 18th century from a German baroque dance and an Austrian folk dance. The American style of the waltz allows for much greater freedom of movement.
The Brady Bunch
An American sitcom about a large blended family which aired from 1969 to 1974, but is still popular today as re-runs. There are also numerous specials, spin-offs, and television movies based on the show. It later turns out that Lorelai and Rory often watched them.
Rapture
A 1981 Blondie song which combines new wave, disco, and rap. From the album Autoamerican, it went to #1 in the US, and was successful around the world. It was the first song with rapping in it to get to #1, and the first rap song to original music.
The lyrics are:
Toe to toe Dancing very close Barely breathing Almost comatose Wall to wall People hypnotised And they’re stepping lightly Hang each night in Rapture
Back to back Sacroiliac Spineless movement And a wild attack
Face to face Sadly solitude And it’s finger popping Twenty-four hour shopping in Rapture
Fab Five Freddy told me everybody’s fly Dj spinnin’ I said, “My, my” Flash is fast, Flash is cool François c’est pas, Flash ain’t no dude And you don’t stop, sure shot Go out to the parking lot And you get in your car and drive real far And you drive all night and then you see a light And it comes right down and it lands on the ground And out comes a man from Mars And you try to run but he’s got a gun And he shoots you dead and he eats your head And then you’re in the man from Mars You go out at night eatin’ cars You eat Cadillacs, Lincolns too Mercurys and Subaru And you don’t stop, you keep on eatin’ cars Then, when there’s no more cars you go out at night And eat up bars where the people meet Face to face, dance cheek to cheek One to one, man to man Dance toe to toe, don’t move too slow ‘Cause the man from Mars is through with cars He’s eatin’ bars, yeah wall to wall Door to door, hall to hall He’s gonna eat ’em all Rapture, be pure Take a tour through the sewer Don’t strain your brain, paint a train You’ll be singin’ in the rain Said don’t stop to punk rock
Well now you see what you wanna be Just have your party on TV ‘Cause the man from Mars won’t eat up bars when the TV’s on And now he’s gone back up to space Where he won’t have a hassle with the human race And you hip-hop, and you don’t stop Just blast off, sure shot ‘Cause the man from Mars stopped eatin’ cars and eatin’ bars And now he only eats guitars, get up
Lorelai must have sung along to this a lot to have learned all the lyrics off by heart! Maybe this is the song Lorelai was thinking of when she told Max she is into rap music?
Rory and Dean are given a quick dancing lesson by Miss Patty at her dancing school – the Miss Patty’s Place that’s been such a feature of Rory and Dean’s relationship. Could their nerves over being in a place that got them into trouble be one reason their dancing is so poor? (Mind you, Rory is said to be physically uncoordinated which makes her bad at sport, and Dean hates dancing).
The other debutantes will have had weeks of dancing classes. Rory apparently just had this one lesson. It seems unbelievable that Emily would send her granddaughter to make her debut while so ill-prepared.
EMILY: There’s the presentation, the circle, the curtsy, the fan dance.
Presentation
Debutantes are presented to a guest of honour during their debut, as a sign that they are being welcomed into good society. Originally, debutantes were presented to a reigning monarch at the English court. These days, it’s usually to someone prominent in the community.
Circle
All the debutantes and their escorts form a large circle, and take a slow, leisurely walk around it together. It’s designed to show off the girls, much like models on a catwalk, and is probably the part Lorelai was thinking of when she said it was like a “county fair”. Once upon a time, the idea was to let eligible bachelors get a good long look at some marital prospects, but these days it’s mostly so parents can see their little girl all dressed up and take pictures for Facebook etc.
Curtsy
The debutantes receive many lessons on how to perform the perfect deep curtsy at the ball. Sometimes the curtsy is during the presentation, while at other balls, the curtsy will be part of a complicated dance or performance. Rory seems to be missing out on all those weeks of curtsy practice, but presumably is getting intensive training from her parents and grandmother that we don’t see onscreen.
Fan Dance
Often at debutante balls, the debutantes perform some kind of highly choreographed dance routine. Amusingly, at Rory’s ball, the debutantes are preparing a “fan dance”, which is literally an erotic dance, usually performed in the nude or a skimpy costume as part of a burlesque show. Of course this would never happen at a real debutante ball, and the girls will all be wearing formal dresses anyway. (Picture shows burlesque dancer Michelle L’Amour performing).
The song playing in car Christopher’s car when he turns the sound system up. It’s a song by German electro-industrial metal band Rammstein, from their 1997 album Sehnsucht. The song was a #5 hit in Germany, and went to #20 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs chart in the US.
The song’s title translates to “You have” in English, but in German is a play on words with the homophone Du hasst, meaning, “You hate”. Possibly a slightly threatening song to arrive with, although it’s another reminder that Lorelai and Chris are both heavy metal fans.
LORELAI: Oh yeah. A Volvo sedan, are you kidding? CHRISTOPHER: This is a great car. LORELAI: For driving to bingo.
CHRISTOPHER: I’ve got Alpine head units, two subs, and two twelves. In exchange, no passenger-side airbag.
Volvo is a Swedish brand of luxury cars founded in 1927; the name is Latin for “I roll”. It was founded upon the concept of safety, and their cars have long been marketed as safe and reliable; many of the Volvo’s safety innovations have now become standard or even compulsory. Lorelai sees it as an old person’s car, because of its staid and rather boring image.
I think Christopher’s car is a 2001 Volvo S80, an executive sedan. He describes the car’s sound system as Alpine brand head units, with two sub woofers, and two twelve-inch sub woofers (maybe he means two amplifiers and two twelve-inch sub woofers?), which means he had to give up passenger-side airbags, a major feature of the S80. So he’s bought a safe car, and made it less safe (for the person who’s not him), so he can enjoy music.
As Lorelai notes, Christopher has given up his cool motorcycle for a sensible car, but the old (selfish) Christopher still lives. Take warning!
(There is an immediate shot of the Massachusetts license plate, to remind us Christopher has moved to Boston. It begins with 169, which seems like a naughty joke, although it’s not a vanity plate, so not deliberate on Christopher’s part).
LORELAI: What happened to your bike? CHRISTOPHER: A crazy game of key exchange at the car wash.
Christopher’s joke is possibly a slight allusion to “key parties”, where wife-swapping takes place depending on whose car keys the woman picks out of a bowl. A foreshadowing of what’s to come?
CHRISTOPHER: Whoa! Hold it right there. A lady never runs out to meet a gentleman caller who hasn’t been announced.
A callback both to The Glass Menagerie, previously discussed, and to the advice Emily gave Rory, when she wanted to run out to Dean before he’d knocked at the door. Christopher lets Rory know that he’s lived in Emily’s world, and knows its rules, but that he also takes an ironic, playful attitude to them. He’s letting Rory know that he understands exactly how to behave at her debut, but will be an ally for her in not taking it too seriously, so that she’s relaxed about it rather than stressed.
Then again, Lorelai is running right behind Rory – is his teasing comment secretly aimed at Lorelai?
DEAN: It’s the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. RORY: And doesn’t Neil Young look cool? … If you’ll notice, he’s wearing a tux. DEAN: Neil Young looks cool because he’s Neil Young, not because he’s wearing a tux.
Neil Young (born 1945) is a Canadian-American singer-songwriter, musician, and activist. His career started in the 1960s, and includes membership of critically-acclaimed rock band Buffalo Springfield, folk-rock supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, and solo work backed by his band Crazy Horse. His distorted electric guitar playing has earned him the nickname “Grandfather of Grunge”. He has won several Grammy and Juno Awards, and been named one of the great musical artists in history, defined by his guitar work, deeply personal lyrics, and signature high tenor vocals.
Neil Young has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – in 1995 as a solo artist, and in 1997 as a member of Buffalo Springfield. He has served to induct others into the Hall of Fame six times: The Everly Brothers (1986), Woody Guthrie (1988), Jimi Hendrix (1992), Paul McCartney (1999), The Pretenders (2005), and Tom Waits (2011).
However, Neil Young doesn’t seem to have worn a tuxedo for any of his appearances at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, preferring a more casual (and occasionally more cowboy) look. When he was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1982, he did dress in evening wear: not a tuxedo, but tailcoat, ruffled shirt, waistcoat and bow-tie [pictured].
It seems awfully unlikely, but just possibly they are watching an old video of this somehow (or it appears in a documentary or clip show???), and Dean mistakes it for the Rock and Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. It feels as if Rory and Lane might have put it on expressly to persuade Dean that men can still look cool in formal wear.
We never see Rory ask Dean to be her escort for the ball, but we can safely assume he agreed with the greatest reluctance, because the first time we see him in this episode, he seems bewildered, dismayed and rather sulky as he discovers just what escorting Rory to her debut entails.
In real life, it is not recommended debutantes ask their boyfriends to be their escorts. Not only would a break-up put everything in jeopardy, but relationship dramas can create an unwelcome distraction. Some debutante committees even ban them outright, and it’s common for the committee to pair girls up with a suitable escort of their choosing – usually a boy or young man who has experience of cotillions and debutante balls. The DAR would have probably chosen someone rather like Tristan to be Rory’s escort (which could have been an interesting take on the episode).
As Rory is a very late entry, perhaps she has organised her own escort, along with her own dancing lessons and so on.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 