I love this episode for the Vicar of Dibley homage. Geraldine Granger binds her community the same way in "The Christmas Lunch Incident." Of course, it being British TV, she spends the night in the loo afterward instead of snagging a few dinner rolls for the walk home, but apart from that, it's pretty much the same story.
I guess Lorelai must have overreacted at Yale if Rory was afraid to tell her about the backup apps. But she was thinking about it, she read the brochure and she remembered what Emily and Richard said when Rory repeated it all nearly verbatim. Was it a paranoia-inducing coinidence? Rory obviously knew how Lorelai would react to the news, but she couldn't have known what Richard and Emily had said about applying to Yale during her interview.
A part of her was thinking she didn't want Rory to apply to anywhere besides Harvard because she was too naive to understand what she was up against. Another part of her was thinking that she hated her parents so much she couldn't let them invest in Rory's dream. What she told Rory was that she could be fantastic anywhere she went, but she was afraid of what would happen if Rory gave the Gilmores an inch on Yale because they try to control everything that they care about. Rory could never disappoint Lorelai, but disappointing Emily and Richard carries dire consequences from which Lorelai had hoped to protect her little girl forever.
At least Rory learned something about keeping secrets. She realized she couldn't hide her Gilmore-ishly pragmatic Yale ambitions from Lorelai forever, even if her motives in applying weren't quite pure enough for Lorelai's "paranoid" values. It seemed to clue her in that there was no point in trying to hide her shame with Jess, even if the way she found her way to him was something she might be a little ashamed of.
I'm not sure how Dave Rygalski figures in, though. (Is he Middleman-in-training, Wendy Watson's underrated musical boyfriend?) Come on, "This Bible belongs to God?" Clearly, he is prepared to stoop to any level and suffer any indignity to be with her, and if their one big heist pays off, she can sidle up to a slightly open, nearly honest relationship with her mother while dating a boy who is way more complex, talented, and daring than that prep stick-in-the-mud Chiltonite she used to hang around with.
I guess if there's a comparison, it's that Lane knows she could convince her mother that Dave Rygalski is right for her if she could just get a chance, and David is crazy enough to go along with the games that would give her that chance. But as long as she is trying to trick her mother she runs the risk of being outed and falsely confirming her mother's worst fears about Lane's Americanization.
Hmm, don't know if I'm out of words or just waking minutes. Mmm, g'night, all.
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