SOOKIE: Mm, about a half-hour ago they set the lawn on fire … But Phil says it’s okay and everything ’cause it’ll grow back twice as lush. Though that’s what he said when he broke my salad bowl that I brought back from Belgium. That’ll maybe grow back, too, huh?
Sookie travelled to Belgium at some point, bringing back a salad bowl with her as a souvenir. Possibly she went there to study some particular culinary art – Belgium is famous for its chocolate-making, for example. It’s just as likely it was a foodie’s tour, allowing her to sample the local produce. It may also have been as part of a trip to Europe. It’s just possible that Sookie and Jackson went to Europe for their honeymoon, although Sookie doesn’t say that we brought the salad bowl back from Belgium. Mind you, she’s pretty drunk by now.
LANE: Really? After all this – the marathon hymns, the weak punch, the crabby Koreans, you still wanna go out on a date with me?
[Dave nods, then kisses her] DAVE: I’ve gotta go . . . but I’m gonna call you tomorrow.
Lane and Dave puts into place what I assume to be another step in their plan when Lane says she needs to run after Dave to return his Bible. Did Dave really bring a Bible with him, and purposefully leave it behind, or did Lane prepare and plant the Bible in advance?
Either way, one or the other had the genius idea of having Dave inscribe the Bible: This Bible belongs to God, but is being used by Dave Rygalski. Mrs Kim reads this, and it immediately convinces her that Dave is a solid young Christian man, and allows Lane to go after him.
This episode is the one where Dave and Lane kiss for the first time, and begin dating (Rory kissed and began dating both Dean and Jess around Thanksgiving, too, and it was when Lorelai went on her first date with Max – November, it’s dating month on Gilmore Girls!).
Lane is so excited by what happened that when she pages Rory to tell her all about it, she can only write bible kissbible, which Rory says is a great band name.
LUKE: Well, that we’re not Native Americans who got their land stolen in exchange for smallpox infested blankets.
Luke refers to the commonly held belief that British colonists gave Native American tribes blankets that were infected with smallpox, as an act of genocidal biological warfare. There is only one recorded instance of this actually being planned, in Pennsylvania. It is unknown whether this cruel scheme was ever put into operation, and if so, whether the blankets made anyone ill – they were old, and may have no longer been infectious.
Nine months later, smallpox was raging in the community, but it was everywhere by then, and cannot be traced to a blanket. There is no suggestion that land was traded in exchange for the blankets (if they were given at all).
However, while Luke’s statement isn’t strictly correct, there is no denying the overall truth that Native Americans had their land taken from them, often brutally, and that their population was devastated by smallpox, to which they had no immunity.
LORELAI: Young-Kwan, good to see you. Hee-Jin, hi. Oh, I love your hair. Su-Nam, hi. Hi. Ho-Kyung, Won-Kyu, great to see you, hi.
Young-Kwan – a male name meaning “brave and strong”. In A Year in the Life, one of Lane’s sons is named Kwan, so it is possibly a family name.
Hee-Jin – a female name meaning “precious pearl”.
Su-Nam – a male name which can be translated as “man of a long lifespan”. Lane said she had a cousin called “Nam”, I am not sure if this is the same person or not.
Ho-Kyung – a unisex (?) name which can be translated in several ways, including “bright and respectful”.
Won-Kyu – a unisex (?) name which can be translated as “first and standard”. I have only ever seen it the other way around, Kyu-Won, when it is usually male.
Notice how familiar Lorelai and Rory are with the Kim relatives, knowing their names, and comfortable enough to make polite small talk. They look genuinely happy to see Lorelai and Rory. Although we rarely see it, the Gilmore girls must often attend family gatherings at the Kim household.
The Kim family members are played by Peter Kim, Jennifer Bolton Lee, Janet Song, Kim Kim, Alexis Rhee, Greg Joung Paik, Jae Woo Lee, Sunny Bonner, John D. Kim, and April Moon. None were very experienced at this point, but Rhee and Song have gone on to have long careers, appearing in some well-known and popular productions.
Note: I know nothing about Korean names, so feel free to rip this apart!
LUKE: Don’t bother, saw you coming, already ordered your Wednesday usual – the French dip, extra fries, the every-Wednesday cherry pie.
We know the Gilmore girls like their food routines, with every Wednesday being the day they have a Danish pastry and coffee for breakfast. Wednesday for dinner, which is always at the diner, they order extra fries with their dinner and French [onion] dip to have with them, and cherry pie for dessert.
Hm, cherry Danish for breakfast and cherry pie for dinner? What is it about Wednesdays and cherries with these girls??? And having a set menu on Wednesdays in general? Perhaps it’s meant to be a sort of midweek lift.
In the recent episode “They Shoot Gilmores, Don’t They?”, Rory tried to persuade her mother to let Kirk win the dance marathon because he had so little in his life … not even a pet. Two episodes later, he buys a cat. Did Kirk overhear what Rory said, or was it relayed to him? We shall never know, but now he has a cat, with predictably unfortunate results.
Kirk has bought an enormous carry case for the cat, more suitable for a large dog! I’m not sure if that’s trying to tell us the size of the cat (did he accidentally buy a panther?) or Kirk’s incompetence buying cat equipment.
To be coldcocked is American slang meaning to be struck so forcefully that you are knocked unconscious. It appears to date to the early 20th century, but the origin is not known. The “cold” part is obviously from being knocked out cold, but no one can agree on the “cock” part.
The sign says it is the Autumn Festival again, which is supposedly the first weekend in November, but possibly continues right through until Thanksgiving.
LOUISE: I’m having [Thanksgiving] dinner with my dad.
MADELINE: Isn’t he still in jail?
LOUISE: Yes, but his company donated some treadmills for the inmates so he swung a special trailer for dinner that they’re gonna set up for us in the parking lot. We have it for about two hours and then one of the Manson girls gets us.
In the episode “Back in the Saddle”, Louise mentioned that her father was due in court, on mysterious charges (she didn’t bother finding out what he had been arrested for). Now it’s seven months later, and Louise’s father is undertaking his sentence – for whatever it was. Madeline refers to it as “jail”, rather than “prison”, possibly suggesting a shorter, lighter sentence (although sometimes people use the word jail for both jail and prison, so that’s not certain at all).
It does sound as if Louise’s father is in a low or medium security facility, since he is permitted to spend his Thanksgiving dinner in a trailer in the parking lot with his daughter (and possibly other family members, it seems unlikely only Louise would go and see him). These trailers are a reward for good behaviour given to model prisoners, so Louise’s father is clearly well-behaved – even the donation of treadmills to the prison would not be enough on its own. Connecticut is one of only four states that allow extended visits like this (the others are California, New York, and Washington).
Louise says the trailer then goes to “one of the Manson girls”, referring to the female members of the Manson family who were convicted for their crimes. In real life, they were incarcerated in California, and in high security prisons, so this could not have really happened. (Squeaky Fromme was in a high security mental treatment facility in Texas).
Interestingly, there is a state prison in Cheshire, Connecticut called the Manson Youth Institution, for men under the age of 21. Louise can’t be referring to that either, as they are young men, not women, and they are not permitted visits such as she describes.
It is just possible that Louise’s father is being held at the federal correctional facility in Danbury, Connecticut [pictured], a medium and low security prison and satellite prison camp which has facilities for both male and female inmates – so if Louise’s dad’s trailer wasn’t going to a “Manson girl”, it could feasibly be going to a female prisoner, at least. The facility in Danbury has often featured in pop culture, including Orange is the New Black.
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.
LORELAI: I’m still . . . uh, these allergies really just hit me like a ton of bricks.
EMILY: I’ve never heard you mention allergies before.
In a future season, Lorelai needs allergy medication, and has old packets stored at home, so it seems that she really does suffer from allergies (even if she’s making it up right now). Or they changed it so that Lorelai actually has allergies.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 