Tag: Speculation

Comparing Dean and Jess

RORY: Sure, when Dean said he’d call, he always called, but where’s the fun in that?
LORELAI: Oh, honey, don’t do that.
RORY: Do what?
LORELAI: Compare Dean and Jess, that’s not fair. They’re different people.
RORY: Clearly. One calls when he says he will and one doesn’t.

Dean phoned Rory obsessively – five times a night was considered normal in the early days of their relationship, when Dean presumably felt secure and happy. As he became less secure, he phoned Rory to the point that she began getting impatient, and at the height of his paranoia, rang 14 times while Rory was working on a school project, which alarmed her a little bit.

However, Rory is now seeing Dean with rose-tinted glasses, and now all she can remember is that Dean was reliable at phoning when he said he would. Lorelai tells her it isn’t fair to judge Jess against Dean – but then says that’s because Dean is so obviously superior! It would have been more helpful if she reminded Rory of all the times Rory got fed up with Dean’s obsessive phone calls.

“Two months”

LUKE: Dean had that girl for two years. You have a little fight after two months, you walk out, and it’s over?

Jess and Rory have actually been going over for a little over three months, since mid-November.

It annoys me that Luke says, “Dean had that girl for two years”. He had Rory? He owned her? And why does Luke call her “that girl” like he hardly knows her? It’s very strange and a bit creepy.

Dr Phil

LUKE: Being jealous of Dean is pointless. You’re just gonna drive Rory away. You wanna have a relationship with someone, you’re gonna have to learn to open up your mouth and say something.
JESS: Give it a rest, Dr. Phil.

Dr Phil, previously discussed.

Having a girlfriend for a few weeks has certainly given Luke a lot of authority on relationship matters. This scene between Luke and Jess reads like Luke urgently giving Jess the sort of relationship advice he himself has badly needed during the show.

Swan Attack

JESS: I was attacked by a swan. Okay, you happy? A stupid swan.
LUKE: Now, how ’bout the real story?

Luke professes disbelief that Jess’ black eye came from a swan attack. Swans are notoriously aggressive during breeding season, and can do some damage when provoked – generally of the bruising variety, rather than breaking bones or anything. Breeding season is April to June, and this is February, but if you’re unlucky, swans can attack at any time.

I’m not sure why Luke doesn’t believe Jess at first, nor why Jess is too embarrassed to tell Rory the truth. For that matter, why is everyone so sure that Dean gave Jess the black eye? Had it happened before? Does Dean seem that dangerous? And if she believes Dean did hurt Jess, why is Rory angry at Jess, rather than Dean?

An interesting point to ponder: most swan-related injuries actually occur when the person is running away from the swan – falling over and cutting their knee, or getting a branch in their eye running through trees. (In one unfortunate case, drowning while trying to escape). Is it possible that this is really how Jess got a black eye, and is this why he is so embarrassed?

Lord Jim

EMILY: Oh, and that attitude – I wanted to slap that monosyllabic mouth of his. And God forbid they’re in another accident together or his heap of a car breaks down and Lord Jim has decided cell phones are beneath him and they’re stranded in the middle of nowhere. How can you let this happen? He had a black eye. He belongs in jail!

Lord Jim, 1900 novel by Joseph Conrad. The novel features a young British seaman named Jim, who is working on a steamship where the captain and crew abandon the passengers when the ship begins sinking. Although Jim argued for the passengers being saved, he leaps into the rescue boat with the rest of the crew.

Wracked with guilt, Jim finds other jobs on ships, but leaves abruptly once his disgrace becomes known. After getting into a fist fight in Bangkok, Jim is offered the chance to redeem himself by becoming a trade representative in a village on a remote island that that is shut off from most commerce. He becomes successful here, and called “Lord Jim” by the villagers, but comes to grief two years later.

Jim doesn’t seem terrifically similar to Jess, and I can only think Emily is thinking of the fist fight (which Jess didn’t get into, but she thinks he did), and the life of disgrace which leads him to find sanctuary in a remote village (which is how she apparently sees Stars Hollow!).

Dean Martin, New York Mining Disaster

LORELAI: Then we picked the same Dean Martin song on the jukebox twenty-five times and people started complaining, so we picked the Bee Gees’ “New York Mining Disaster” and they begged for Dean Martin back.

Dean Martin, previously discussed. It would be interesting to speculate which Dean Martin song they kept playing – my guess would be his signature song “That’s Amore”, which begins, When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie. It makes sense that a pizza place would have that song on the jukebox. Unfortunately, it looks as if John’s of Bleeker Street doesn’t actually have a jukebox. Possibly the jukebox was somewhere else.

“New York Mining Disaster 1941”, the 1967 international debut single by the Bee Gees, written by Barry and Robin Gibb, and their first song to hit the charts in both the UK and US. It received a lot of attention, because rumours had been circulated that the Bee Gees were actually The Beatles, playing under assumed names. It went to #12 in the UK and #14 in the US, and was most popular in the Netherlands and New Zealand, at #3.

Barry and Robin wrote the song sitting in darkness during a power cut. The song recounts the story of a miner trapped in a cave-in. According to the Gibb brothers, the song was inspired by the 1966 Aberfan disaster in Wales. According to Robin, there actually had also been a mining disaster in New York in 1939, but not in 1941, and he thought “New York” sounded more “glamorous”.

Moose Murders

ALEX: This is the worst piece of crap I’ve ever seen … I saw Moose Murders. This stinks worse.

Moose Murders, a play by Arthur Bicknell, self-described as a mystery farce. A notorious flop, it is now widely considered the standard of awfulness against which all Broadway failures are judged, and its name has become synonymous with those distinctively bad Broadway plays that open and close on the same night. It had its single performance (excluding 13 previews) at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre on February 22, 1983.

Despite the scathing reviews and its bad reputation, it has been staged by community theatre groups a number of times – it’s possible Alex saw one of these, rather than the original Broadway show in the early 1980s, which seems a bit unlikely.

Big Rig, Bennies and Goofballs

EMILY: There was something with a big rig. Oh, those things, they scare the life out of me. And apparently, all the men who drive them are hopped up on bennies and goofballs.

Big rig, informal English for a large truck, an 18-wheeler – otherwise known as a semi-trailer truck, a semi-trailer, a semi-truck, or just a semi.

Bennies, slang for the drug Benzedrine, an amphetamine used recreationally since the 1920s.

Goofballs, slang for tranquilisers or sleeping pills, used as a recreational drug. Note that you can’t really get “hopped up” on sleeping pills, and taking them alongside amphetamines seems counterproductive, suggesting that Emily’s knowledge of the drug scene is limited. I think this is her attempt to seem cool and hip in front of Jess.