Tag: Timeline

“We’ll be gone all of December, including Christmas”

EMILY: Your father and I are going out of town the next day and we’ll be gone all of December, including Christmas, so it’s the last chance for the family to be together for the rest of the year.

Emily and Richard supposedly throw a dinner party two weeks before Christmas every year, before they leave for their winter vacation. They seem to have cancelled it this year, leaving for their vacation straight after Thanksgiving, so perhaps they are in bad moods over the Yale incident as well.

It seemed as this annual never-to-be-changed tradition was cancelled the year before as well, because Richard was in a mood over his forced retirement, so perhaps this tradition isn’t a tradition any more? Richard had to be rushed to hospital during the Christmas party of 2000, and it’s possible that put them off holding another one.

“You’ve missed two dinners”

EMILY: Yes, it is Thanksgiving. And before you sift through the dozen or so excuses you always have on hand, let me have my say. You’ve missed two dinners and avoided my calls because you’re mad at us about what happened at Yale. But I want you and Rory at Thanksgiving this year.

We learn that this episode takes place more than two weeks after “Let the Games Begin”, and that Lorelai has been so angry with Richard over the Yale interview that she has refused to attend two Friday Night Dinners in a row.

Because Emily says, “I want you and Rory at Thanksgiving this year”, it implies that they don’t usually go to Thanksgiving dinner with Lorelai’s parents. The episode strongly implies that they usually spend Thanksgiving in Stars Hollow, dividing their time between Lane’s, Sookie’s, and Luke’s.

“Tomorrow’s Thanksgiving”

EMILY: Well, I certainly hope you’re feeling better now because I want you to come to dinner tomorrow night.

LORELAI: Tomorrow? Tomorrow’s Thanksgiving.

In 2002, Thanksgiving Day was on Thursday 28 November – very close to the original episode broadcast date of 26 November.

There has actually been far too many events for them to have all occurred before the end of November, and by my reckoning it’s almost Christmas. But we’re in TV Land here, where the timeline can be stretched a long way.

Rory and Jess Kiss

JESS: Well, whatever else happens between us, at least we know that part works.

Rory and Jess leave the diner separately, Jess claiming that he has to pick up a part for his car, while Rory needs to get home and study. As Lorelai knew immediately, that meant they were planning to meet somewhere.

When Rory catches up with Jess, they kiss. It’s not their first kiss – that happened at Sookie’s wedding about six months previously. But it is their first kiss as a couple (closely followed by their second kiss as a couple).

It is two weeks since Rory and Dean broke up, so they haven’t rushed into kissing, probably because Luke walked in on them when they tried before. Jess’ comment makes it clear that the physical attraction between them is not going to be a problem, whatever else might be.

The viewer might note from Jess’ comment that he is expecting other types of problems to come between them, which is remarkably foresighted for a teenage boy, or unusually cynical.

Richard and Emily’s Engagement

EMILY: We were going to meet my girlfriends who were going to drive me back to school.

RICHARD: And you were angry with me.

EMILY: Because you wouldn’t commit to plans for the holidays.

RICHARD: Because I was going to invite you to the house to meet my parents after I proposed.

EMILY: Which I didn’t know because you gave me no indication whatsoever.

RICHARD: Anyway, you had just finished calling me a spineless jellyfish.

EMILY: And you got very annoyed, reached in your pocket, pulled out a box and said, “Here.”

RICHARD: And you opened the box, showed no emotion, slammed it close and said, “Fine.”

Richard and Emily describe the circumstances of their engagement at Yale University, which happens during a fight while sitting next to a trash can, with the engagement ring being offered and accepted in a fit of temper. It’s somehow reminiscent of screwball romantic comedies of the 1930s and ’40s.

They were both in collage at the time – when Emily says she was going back to “school”, she means her own college. They must have got engaged at the end of the year, because they were arguing about their “holiday” (ie Christmas) plans at the time. Yet they were still able to sit outside, so it can’t have been freezing or snowing – surely they would have mentioned that if it had been the case? They may have got engaged in November, before Thanksgiving – around this time of year, in fact, although neither of them mentions that the date is close.

Rory Goes Up to the Apartment

RORY: Yup, here we are. Wow, I haven’t seen it since you guys redid it … It’s bigger.

JESS: Ripping a wall down can have that effect on a room.

As you may recall, Luke renovated the apartment back in March, after buying the flower shop next door. They knocked down the wall between the apartment and the upper floor of the flower shop. It feels as if that should have made the apartment twice as big, but it only looks slightly more roomy than before. For some reason, Jess still doesn’t have his own room, which was supposed to be the initial reason for the renovation. The whole renovation (which is of course quite fictional, they didn’t renovate the set) thus seems like a lot of wasted opportunity and money on Luke’s part.

This seems to be Rory and Jess’ first opportunity to be alone together since the dance, more than a week ago. They haven’t rushed into this, and are naturally extremely nervous with one another.

“You’ve been up twenty-four hours straight”

RORY: I feel jet-lagged.

LORELAI: You’ve been up twenty-four hours straight.

Um, no. The dance marathon began at 6 am on Saturday and finished at 6 am Sunday (earlier actually, as Kirk won some time before 6). It’s now Monday morning, so where did Sunday go? Everyone acts as if the marathon just finished an hour or so ago, but an entire day is missing from the timeline here. Maybe the whole town went into a collective coma after the marathon and they all lost a day.

“Where’s Rory?”

KIRK: I win, I win! I win, I win, I win, I win!

LORELAI: You didn’t win! I’m still here! Patty, where’s Rory?

MISS PATTY: Oh, she ran off the floor a little while ago, honey.

LORELAI: What? No!

How did Lorelai not see what happened? She was just sitting in the bleachers with Luke. And she was only supposed to have a ten minute break, but it seems as if she was gone much longer than that. I’m not convinced that Lorelai wasn’t disqualified anyway.

Dave and Mrs Kim

DAVE: You know, my parents would love these sandwiches. I wish I could bring them by but unfortunately they’re in private Bible study right now.

Dave shows Lane how interested he is in her, and how keen he is to impress her rather scary mother, by coming over to eat her fake egg sandwiches. Just in case you’ve forgotten, it is now past five in the morning! Who even wants sandwiches at this hour? Why is Mrs Kim still serving them? The filling would have gone off by now, and she freely admits herself the bread is stale.

He also pretends that he is a Christian, as a way to inveigle himself into Mrs Kim’s good books. He claims that his parents would be joining in the stale fake egg sandwich celebration, except that they are in a private Bible study session. At five in the morning??? It would be far more believable to say they were asleep!

Later he says his parents are at church (at five in the morning!), which means the fictional Bible study session wasn’t private at all. Dave’s story has more holes than Swiss cheese, but Mrs Kim, always shown to be pretty switched-on previously, is swallowing this farrago of lies like a gullible fool. She must be very, very tired. Or she really likes Dave.