PARIS: I mean, come on, Senator Boxer, as one of our foremost Democratic leaders …
Paris is speaking to Barbara Boxer (born Barbara Levy in 1940), politician and lobbyist who served in the US Senate, representing California (where Gilmore Girls was filmed) from 1993 to 2017, as a member of the Democratic Party. She was known for having one of the most progressive voting records in Congress. Her daughter Nicole married Tony Rodham, the younger brother of Hillary Clinton in 1994, at the first White House wedding since 1971.
At 4 foot 11 inches in height, Barbara Boxer was one of the shortest members of Congress, sometimes standing on a portable platform to address the chamber – this became known as the “Boxer Box”.
Barbara Boxer portrays herself in this episode. She had previously played herself in cameo roles on Murphy Brown in 1994, and in the film Traffic in 2000. She went on to do so again in Curb Your Enthusiasm in 2007.
TAYLOR: This is gonna be a very exciting day. I’m really gonna go all out for this. I even think you’ll be impressed.
LORELAI: Really, even me?
TAYLOR: Yes-sir-ee, Mini-Me, I did not put the word madness in the title for nothing.
Taylor references comedy spy film Austin Powers in Goldmember, a sequel to Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, previously mentioned. Goldmember had just come out in July 2002, so would be very fresh in their minds (presumably Taylor saw it that summer, which reveals a slightly unexpected side to Taylor).
In the film, spy Austin Powers’ nemesis is Dr Evil, who has a clone of himself at 1/8th size, who he names Mini-Me, played by Verne Troyer. Dr Evil declares Mini-Me his favourite son. Oddly, Taylor seems to be designating himself as Dr Evil??? And Lorelai as his … clone? What? Does Taylor understand how references work? Maybe it’s just as an example of madness at work?
The plot of the film involves more than one example of surprise paternity, which is interesting, given that there is a popular fan theory that Taylor is secretly Kirk’s biological father. He does employ him at Doose’s Market, the video store (which he also seems to own), and has him photograph key events around town. This might explain Kirk’s multiple jobs – they are all, or mostly, given to him by Taylor, who owns a large proportion of Stars Hollow.
TAYLOR: This, young lady, is for the first annual Stars Hollow End of Summer Madness Festival.
LORELAI: You finally found a way to fill September, didn’t ya?
The previous season, there was some sort of Harvest Festival in early September, with scenes of happy people bringing sheaves of wheat to the centre of town, and hanging autumn leaf decorations on lamp posts. The season before that, there was a Teen Hayride in mid-September. It seems like September was getting filled with activities already.
Note that after Lorelai finishes talking to Taylor, she takes a wistful look at Luke, working in his diner, to remind us that she and Luke still aren’t speaking to one another.
LORELAI: Hey Taylor, how’s the leg?
TAYLOR: It’s just fine.
LORELAI: Still haven’t found out who put that banana peel on your doorstep, huh?
TAYLOR: No, but I have a list of suspects.
Now that Jess is back in town, surely he is pretty high up on on the suspect list?
Note that the dress Lorelai is wearing is very similar in colour and design to the pink lace-trimmed nightgown she wore in her dream. Either the dress she was going to wear got into her dream, or she decided to wear something that reminded her of her dream.
SOOKIE: How can you like ruffles?
JACKSON: Because I’m very, very gay.
SOOKIE: Jackson!
JACKSON: Judy, Vincente has to go to work now.
Jackson is referring to actress and singer Judy Garland, previously discussed and frequently mentioned, and her husband Vincente Minnelli, born Lester Minnelli (1903-1986). A director of theatre and film, he directed famous films such as Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), An American in Paris (1951), and Gigi (1958). He was married to Judy Garland from 1945 to 1951, and they are the parents of actress and singer Liza Minnelli.
Despite Vincente being married to three other women during his life, and having affairs with women, for years there was speculation that he was gay or bisexual. His biographer, Emanuel Levy, claims that Vincente Minnelli was openly gay in New York, according to stories from people such as Dorothy Parker. However, if so, he seems to have gone back in the closet when he went to Hollywood.
One of the subplots of this episode is Sookie suddenly deciding that her house is too “feminine” for a man to live in now that she is married – even though Jackson was already living with her before their wedding, and has said again and again that he likes the house the way it is. Also, Sookie’s house is warm, cosy, and practical, rather than fussy and frilly.
The same thing happened during the wedding planning, when Sookie unilaterally decided that pink wedding decorations were some sort of hostile message to Jackson that his opinions weren’t important. (We only see a bit of the wedding decorations, but there seems to be some pink, among many other colours, so I’m not sure if she changed her mind or not).
Sookie and Jackson were a very cute couple for most of their courtship, but, as happened many other times in Gilmore Girls, they became almost instantly annoying once they got married. This is the first of several tiresome marital issues (or non-issues?) that they have.
Note that once again, a man liking curtains is linked to him being considered “unmanly” – Luke refused to get curtains for the diner because they were too feminine, but when Lorelai went to his apartment, she is amused to discover he had picked out floral curtains for himself. Oddly enough, the diner already has checked curtains …?
LORELAI: Huh, Kosher bacon.
SOOKIE: Beef, not pork.
LORELAI: I am so Jewish.
Beef bacon is made from beef belly, so that it’s streaked with fat like pork bacon, and then cured, dried, smoked, and sliced in exactly the same way. It’s leaner than pork bacon, though. It’s recently become popular because it’s halal and kosher – there’s a big market for it in the Middle East – but it’s not a new product. Bacon was made from beef and mutton as well as pork hundreds of years ago.
“I am so Jewish” is presumably a meta-comment from the writer, Amy Sherman-Palladino.
PARIS: [sleep talking] I did not have sexual relations with that woman.
Paris refers to the Clinton-Lewinsky sex scandal, involving then-President Bill Clinton (born William Blythe III in 1946) and 24-year-old White House intern Monica Lewinsky (born 1973), which took place in 1998. Their sexual relationship lasted between 1995 and 1997.
Clinton ended a televised speech in late January 1998 with the statement that he “did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky”. Further investigation led to charges of perjury and to the impeachment of Bill Clinton in 1998 by the US House of Representatives. He was subsequently acquitted on all impeachment charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in a US. Senate trial.
Harry Thomason worked as an image consultant during the scandal, ending up testifying before the Lewinsky Grand Jury. This seems to be why Paris mentions him during her dream argument – she appears to be having an argument about the Lewinsky scandal, although whether she is supporting either party in the case is unclear.
RORY: We have a breakfast mixer with members of Congress and the Senate.
LORELAI: Cool. See if you can steal me something off of Tom Daschle’s fruit plate.
Thomas “Tom” Daschle (born 1947), politician and lobbyist, a US Senator from South Dakota from 1987 to 2005. A member of the Democratic Party, he became U.S. Senate Minority Leader in 1995 and later the Majority Leader in 2001.
One small thing: Rory refers to their organised event as a “breakfast mixer”, but later on the sign at the event calls it a “brunch”.
PARIS: [sleep talking in background] Woodward . . . Bernstein . . . Harry Thomason.
LORELAI: Is that Paris?
RORY: Yeah, she talks in her sleep . . . long in-depth arguments.
Paris references Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, previously mentioned, the journalists who broke the story of Richard Nixon and Watergate.
Harry Thomason (born 1940) [pictured], film and television director and producer, best known for the sitcom Designing Women (1986-1993). Thomason and his wife, Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, are close friends with former President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary, the former Secretary of State, playing a major role in President Clinton’s election campaign. He produced a glowing biographical film called The Man From Hope, the centrepiece of the 1992 Democratic National Convention. Thomason served as co-chairman of the 1992 Presidential Inauguration Committee.
It is not completely clear whether Paris is arguing with Woodward, Bernstein, and Thomason in her dreams, or if she is quoting them in support of her dream arguments. I think the second?
LORELAI: Give me another analysis or I’ll put your Taylor hula-hooping dream into a whole other context.
RORY: I told you, Taylor was supposed to be Dean. I could tell by his freakishly thick head of hair.
Rory had a dream while she was in Washington, apparently sexual in nature, about Taylor hula-hooping. She knows that Taylor was actually a stand-in for Dean, suggesting that she sees Dean as rather boring and irritating, like Taylor. Dreaming of hula-hoops can be indicative of a situation where you keep going around in circles – just as Rory’s relationship with Dean keeps going around the same old circle.
The dream suggests that Rory can’t see any way of breaking free of the dull routine she’s in with Dean. And nothing has changed, because although Rory has a stack of letters from Dean, sent from Chicago, where he’s on vacation, she is trying to write a letter to Jess – having got no further than writing Dear Jess.
We can see Dean’s return address on the envelopes: 106 Don Ridge Drive, Chicago IL 60620. This isn’t a real address – Don Ridge Drive is in Toronto, Ontario, a little nod to Gilmore Girls first being filmed in Canada. The zip code is that of central Chicago – primarily made up of poor African-American neighbourhoods. It seems like an unlikely place for the Forester family to stay with family or friends.
There is a Ridge Drive in Chicago Ridge, a suburban village of around 14 000 people on the outskirts of Chicago. That actually seems far more believable as the area where Dean grew up.
Rory’s address in Washington is 1765 Harring, Washington DC 2005, which is entirely fictional, and doesn’t even look like a proper address, having no building name or street designation. It sounds vaguely like the Hotel Harrington, Washington’s oldest operating hotel, which is centrally located, and within walking distance of landmarks such as the White House, the Capitol, and the Smithsonian. This is certainly the area that Rory would have been staying in.
