Tag: Unsolved Mysteries

Rory Shows Emily the Potting Shed

(Rory opens the door and walks in. Emily looks in from the doorway.)
RORY: I know it’s looks small, but it’s really pretty. Come on. See, we had our bed right over there, and Mom put up this really pretty curtain around the tub so that it looked like a real bathroom. And we would just sit outside at night when the Inn would have parties, and we’d just listen to music and feed the ducks and . . . (Emily walks away) Grandma? Grandma wait, what’s the matter?

This is the potting shed next to the duck pond at the Independence Inn that Lorelai and Rory lived in when they first moved to Stars Hollow, as they had no money for accommodation (like the Holy Family, there was “no room at the inn”, and they were put in an outbuilding, so Baby Rory was just like Baby Jesus).

The shed is sturdy but rustic, and is stocked with gardening tools and plants, like any potting shed: it isn’t clear if those things were there while Lorelai and Rory lived there. Their bed is no longer there (they must have shared a single bed together), but the bath has been left, including the curtain that Lorelai put around it to serve as a bathroom wall. Lorelai mentioned that it has rosebud wallpaper, but the shed is painted white inside and doesn’t look as though it’s got the kind of walls that you could easily wallpaper.

It looks impractical for bringing up a baby, and we learn later that they moved to Stars Hollow in the autumn, so it would have been very cold as well (we don’t know what they used for heating). We don’t know how long they lived in this temporary accomodation, but long enough for Rory, who was only a baby when they came to Stars Hollow, to have some memories of it, and long enough that the weather became warm enough for them to sit outside at night. I would guess at least a year, and possibly two. Who looked after baby Rory while Lorelai was working is unknown.

This is the first time that Emily has ever seen the potting shed, and she is clearly distraught to discover the conditions her daughter and granddaughter lived in. Lorelai told Sookie that her parents visited them a few times at the inn while Rory was a baby, but they never saw where they slept at night. Lorelai was probably clever at keeping them away from the shed, but their lack of curiosity is surprising. Perhaps they were scared to push it in case Lorelai ran even further away.

In this case, it is Emily who runs away, too upset to spend any more time with Rory or even say a proper goodbye to her. This incident serves as a device to keep Emily at a distance from Stars Hollow. Emily was having a good time with Rory, and was fitting in well with the townspeople, finding that she had things in common with Mrs. Kim and Michel. By showing her in the potting shed, it explains why Emily doesn’t visit Stars Hollow more often in the future.

Where they lived between the potting shed when Rory was a baby/toddler, and moving into their own house when Rory was eleven, is a complete mystery and never mentioned. Perhaps Lorelai saved up enough money to rent a cheap apartment for them, but renting would make it hard to save for a house. They could have lived in a friend’s house (with Sookie?), but if so, nobody ever refers to it.

In real life, it wouldn’t be legal for anyone to live in the potting shed under Connecticut zoning laws, but I’m not sure that would stop Lorelai anyway – rules were made for non-Gilmores!

“I work here”

EMILY: Do you spend a lot of time here? [at the Independence Inn]
RORY: Yeah. I work here a couple afternoons a week, and I help out with special occasions. They have a lot of weddings here.

We learn that Rory, on top of her heavy school workload, also works part time two afternoons per week at the Independence Inn. This is different to what Rory told Headmaster Charleston in The Lorelais’ First Day at Chilton,  when she said that she sometimes worked at the inn after school, so on weekdays. In the Pilot, Lorelai suggested she might want to help out and “earn some extra money” when Rory had a day off between changing schools, which could mean on top of the usual work she did at the inn, or to suggest that Rory helped out sometimes when she had free time.

It’s possible that Rory took on more regular work at the inn once she turned 16 (in Connecticut, there is a limit as to what kind of jobs a child under 16 may perform, although it is legal to work from 14 onward). As Rory doesn’t get home until nearly five pm from Hartford on weekdays, I can only think the two afternoons she works must be Saturday and Sunday – although it’s Saturday afternoon in this episode and Rory isn’t working, so I don’t know. She also says she works extra hours on the numerous weddings, which would mostly be on weekends anyway.

Maybe Rory works for just an hour or so after school twice a week. We never see her at this regular part-time job, so it’s hard to say how she manages her schedule. The job doesn’t seem too onerous, as it never seems to conflict with homework or social life (nor do we ever see Lorelai and Rory arriving home from work at the inn together). It’s possible that Rory is exaggerating her work schedule to impress her grandmother.

“$250 000”

LORELAI: You lost out on $250,000 today.
RORY: What?!

Trix never said how much she was giving Rory in the trust fund, so I’m not sure where Lorelai got the figure of $250 000 from. Maybe Trix told her offscreen, or Lorelai has just added up everything Rory needs for her education and decided it must be around that amount. I guess we have to accept the figure as something Lorelai knows and we don’t.

Trix originally intended the trust fund to be something Rory could access when she was twenty-five. It isn’t clear whether Rory is still getting that arrangement, or whether Trix was so angered that she decided not to give her any trust fund at all.

She did say that she now thinks “that trust fund” was a bad idea, sounding as if she had decided against any trust fund. However, as she was angry at Emily and Lorelai, it doesn’t seem fair to punish Rory for their behaviour (she specifically says she thinks Rory is mature enough to handle the money).

Trix seems to be leaving Hartford before consulting a lawyer, which looks bad, but she’s taking a train, which might mean that when she said “into town” she meant New York, which looks good.

“Women shouldn’t drive”

TRIX: I’ve ordered a car; women shouldn’t drive. Are you ready? [heads for the door]

Trix told Lorelai that she approved of her working, which she thought was good for a woman. However, she apparently doesn’t think women should drive. I guess they should only get jobs on a public transport route, or within walking distance.

It’s also not clear why Trix needed to order a car – in Love and War and Snow, Emily sent their chauffeur (?) Lance to pick Rory up from school. Did they sack Lance, or is Sunday his day off?

Whore of Babylon

EMILY: I don’t care if she [Trix] demeans me and looks down on me. I don’t care if she thinks I’ve tarnished the Gilmore name. I don’t care if she thinks I’m the Whore of Babylon.

The Whore of Babylon is is a mythological female figure mentioned in the book of Revelations in the Bible. Her full name is given as Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth. This is handily written on her forehead, presumably in fairly small writing so it can all fit.

This “great whore” is described as lavishly dressed, drinking the blood of saints and martyrs in a jewelled cup, and sitting on a scarlet beast of blasphemy, with seven heads and ten horns. Revelations explains that the seven heads mean seven mountains and seven kings, while the ten horns are ten further kings who will receive power for a short time, while the woman stands for a great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.

The Great Beast is regarded as the Antichrist, and the Whore of Babylon is usually taken by biblical scholars to mean Rome, or the Roman Empire, with the seven mountains the seven hills of Rome. Many modern scholars point out that the Great Whore is more likely to be Jerusalem, which also sits on seven hills. The seventeen kings are quite unidentifiable in either case.

Although Emily takes the Whore of Babylon to be a sexual figure, which is the way most people probably understand it, the frank sensuality of the image is symbolic of blasphemy and pagan idolatry – the Bible often talks about “whoring after idols” when it means that people are chasing after false gods. (In other words, they are being unfaithful to God and their religion, like a bride cheating on her husband).

“They get all the sex”

LOUISE: I’ll be the lady-in-waiting. The one with the low-cut blue velvet Renaissance dress.
PARIS: Lady-in-waiting is not a political office.
LOUISE: No, but they get all the sex.
PARIS: What?
LOUISE: Watch a movie.

In period films, it is fairly common to have the lady-in-waiting be the “sexy” figure, as compared to the noble, romantic, or dull queen or princess she is companion to. A classic example is Racquel Welch in The Three Musketeers (1973); she plays the lady-in-waiting Constance, and all her gowns are low-cut to display her assets [pictured].

Louise seems to be thinking of a specific lady-in-waiting in a blue velvet dress, but I don’t know which one. The period film Elizabeth came out in 1998, based on the early reign of Elizabeth I; as they are studying her in Government that would seem the most likely candidate. However, there is no dress such as Louise describes, and although one of the ladies-in-waiting does have sex because of a particular dress, it ends in tragedy for her.

“Why don’t you see if Lane can come with you?”

LORELAI: Why don’t you see if Lane can come with you [to the party]? You know that way if the socialising doesn’t turn out how you planned, you got a friendly face around.
RORY: Okay, good idea. Thank you.

How Mrs Kim ever allowed Lane to go out to a co-ed teenage party in Hartford on the Sabbath when they would be getting home fairly late is a real mystery. Especially if it was in order to comfort Rory over a break up with a boyfriend that Mrs Kim thought she never should have had. I can’t imagine how Lane ever pulled this one off.