Season One, Episode Eighteen: “The Third Lorelai”

Season 1, episode 18: “The Third Lorelai”
Original air date: 22 March 2001
Directed by: Michael Katleman
Written by: Amy Sherman-Palladino

Summary: Richard’s imperious mother comes to town and suggests Rory get early access to her trust fund. Lorelai and Emily worry how the money might disrupt the family dynamic.

On this page: All References in Chronological Order | References Sorted by Category | Frequent References | Indigenous Land Acknowledgment

All References in Chronological Order

00:10 – 🗺️ reference
LORELAI: Dig it, man.
RORY: Peace out, Humphrey.

This reference seems pretty obscure to me. Lorelai and Rory are using slang popularized by the 1960s counterculture, leading my peer over at The Annotated Gilmore Girls to conclude that Rory is referring to Hubert Humphrey (1911-1978). Their guess is as good as mine. Humphrey served as the 38th vice president of the United States from 1965 to 1969, under Lyndon B. Johnson. Following the end of Johnson’s term, Humphrey made two bids of his own for the presidency, in 1968 and 1972, but was unsuccessful both times.

00:25 – 🗺️ reference
EMILY: Do you know that every night at dinner, the Kennedy clan would sit around the table having lively debates about everything under the sun? They would quiz each other about current events, historical facts, intellectual trivia.
…
LORELAI: Do you know that a butt model makes $10,000 a day?
EMILY: Camelot is truly dead.

The Kennedys are a US “political family that has long been prominent in American politics, public service, entertainment, and business” (Wikipedia). The most famous member of the family is likely John F. Kennedy (often abbreviated as JFK), who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. His vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson (see above), succeeded him. “The term ‘Camelot’ is often used to describe [Kennedy’s] presidency, reflecting both the mythic grandeur accorded Kennedy in death and powerful nostalgia for that era of American history” (Wikipedia). The phrase specifically recalls King Arthur’s castle and court of Arthurian legend.
Emily repeats a popular piece of historical trivia concerning John F. Kennedy’s childhood household, which included his father (Joseph Kennedy Sr.), mother (Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy), and eight siblings. According to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum website, the Kennedy “parents involved their children in discussions of history and current affairs.” JFK’s younger brother, Robert “Bobby” Kennedy, once said, “I can hardly remember a mealtime…when the conversation was not dominated by what Franklin D. Roosevelt was doing or what was happening in the world.”

01:15 – 🗺️ mention
EMILY: You were on the phone?
RICHARD: Long distance.
LORELAI: God?
RICHARD: London.

London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It is the largest metropolitan area in Western Europe, and the third-most populous European city after Istanbul, Turkey and Moscow, Russia. “As one of the world’s major global cities, London exerts a strong influence on world art, entertainment, fashion, commerce and finance” (Wikipedia). The city was mentioned previously in episodes three and ten.

01:55 – 🎧 mention
LORELAI: I still can’t get over that I’m related to God. It’s gonna make getting Madonna tickets so much easier.

Madonna (born Madonna Louise Ciccone, 1958) is a US singer, songwriter, and actor often hailed as the Queen of Pop. Her most recent album at the time of this episode was Music, released in September 2000. She began the Drowned World Tour in June 2001 following an eight-year hiatus from touring; it became the year’s highest-grossing tour by a solo artist. Madonna’s marriage to Sean Penn was mentioned in episode three, and her chart-topping 1984 song “Like a Virgin” was mentioned in episode six.

03:15 – ⭐ reference
EMILY: Thirty-five years’ worth of fish lamps and dog statues, lion tables and stupid, naked angels with their…butts! And–
LORELAI: Whoa! Stupid, naked angel butts? What, did David Mamet just stop by?

David Mamet (born 1947) is a US playwright, filmmaker, and author perhaps best known for his 1984 play Glengarry Glen Ross, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize. The play follows four Chicago real estate agents who will stoop to any low in order to make sales. Mamet is known for his use of profanity, and Lorelai may be ribbing Emily for her reference to “stupid, naked angel butts,” which, though uncharacteristically crude for Emily, is comically tame in comparison with Mamet’s writing.

04:55 – 🪶 mention
PARIS: I think that the basic structure of the Elizabethan government is relatively sound. The division of power between the monarchy, the Privy Council, and the Parliament all seem to work.
06:30
LOUISE: Okay, fine. I’ll be the head of the quarter sessions court.

As Paris explains, the structure of English government during the Elizabethan Era consisted of three national bodies: the monarch, Queen Elizabeth I (see below); the Privy Council, the principal executive branch that advised her; and the Parliament, a representative body formed by the House of Lords, or Upper House (consisting of nobility and clergy), and the House of Commons, or Lower House (consisting of common people). Beyond the national level, the government was further structured into regional councils and a judicial courts system.
Quarter sessions were part of the latter system, being “held four times a year by a justice of the peace to hear criminal charges as well as civil and criminal appeals” (Encyclopaedia Britannica). These sessions date to the 14th century, but were ultimately abolished in 1971.

05:10 – 🪶 mention
PARIS: Queen Elizabeth chose to remain unwed. She took on the burden of leadership all by herself at a time when possibly marrying the prince of France or the king of Spain would have solidified her throne while expanding her empire.

Elizabeth I (1533-1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 1558 to 1603. She was the child of King Henry VIII (see below) and the second of his six wives, Anne Boleyn. Elizabeth defied the expectations of her era, sex, and political position by never marrying or producing heirs, making her the last monarch of the House of Tudor; as a result, she is sometimes referred to as the Virgin Queen. Marriage considerations were, as Paris notes, a matter of foreign policy for Elizabeth, and she entertained proposals from Austrian, Danish, and Swedish monarchs, two French princes (Henry, Duke of Anjou, and Francis, Duke of Anjou), and King Phillip II of Spain. France and Spain were both major powers, and marriage to one of their rulers would have constituted a strategic alliance. England and Spain had a particularly tenuous relationship, culminating in the Anglo-Spanish War (1585-1604).
Elizabeth was mentioned previously, in the context of Elizabethan literature, in episode four.

05:55 – 🪶 mention
RORY: Henry VIII started a new church when the old one wouldn’t allow divorce.
PARIS: He also cut off his wife’s head. Is he still your role model?

Henry VIII (1491-1547) was King of England from 1509 to 1547. He is known primarily for the fact that he married six times, in pursuit of political alliances and a healthy male heir. Though the cause of his fertility problems is an ongoing historical mystery, Henry was clearly the common denominator; despite being a notorious womanizer, he fathered only four children who survived infancy, three of whom were female. He nevertheless sought different results with different partners, leading to conflict with the Roman Catholic Church, which refused to annul his first marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Henry consequently renounced papal authority over the Church of England, appointing himself Supreme Head of the Church and ushering in the English Reformation. He subsequently had two marriages annulled and had two wives executed, including Anne Boleyn, mother of Elizabeth I (see above).
Henry VIII was mentioned previously in episode five.

06:15 – 🪶 reference
PARIS: Lady-in-waiting is not a political office.
LOUISE: No, but they get all the sex.
PARIS: What?
LOUISE: Watch a movie.

A lady-in-waiting “is a female personal assistant at a court, attending on a royal woman or a high-ranking noblewoman. Historically, in Europe, a lady-in-waiting was often a noblewoman but of lower rank than the woman to whom she attended” (Wikipedia). Ladies-in-waiting may be portrayed as sexually active in media, and this is not entirely without historical precedent. For example, King Henry VIII (see above) began pursuing his second wife, Anne Boleyn, while she was a lady-in-waiting to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. (He had also carried out an affair with Anne’s sister, Mary Boleyn, another of Catherine’s ladies-in-waiting.) While married to Anne, he took up an affair with one of her ladies-in-waiting, Jane Seymour, who would become his third wife just ten days after Anne’s execution. His fifth wife, Catherine Howard, had also been a lady-in-waiting of Anne’s.
As for film portrayals, Shekhar Kapur’s 2007 film Elizabeth: The Golden Age (the sequel to Kapur’s 1998 film Elizabeth) depicts an affair between Elizabeth’s lady-in-waiting, Elizabeth “Bess” Throckmorton, and the English explorer Walter Raleigh. The film was released over six years after this episode aired, but I don’t think Louise is referencing any one movie in particular.

07:10 – 🏷️ mention
RORY: You know, not all girls want to be queen, Paris. Even Barbie ended up being a stewardess.

Barbie is a fashion doll “designed to be dressed to reflect fashion trends” (Wikipedia). She was created by US businesswoman Ruth Handler (with inspiration from a German doll, Bild Lilli, based on a German comic strip character) and has been manufactured by US toy company Mattel since 1959. Barbie’s outfits and accessories often correspond to a particular activity, setting, or career. Of the more than 250 careers held by Barbie, flight attendant was one of the earliest, debuting in 1961. (At that time, “stewardess” was a common term for the role. Today, the preferred term is “flight attendant.”) Barbie has worn the uniform of various real-life airlines, but American Airlines was the first. To date, Mattel has sold more than a billion Barbie dolls, and she is considered a classic children’s toy.
Barbie was mentioned previously in episode ten, and her male counterpart, Ken, was referenced in episode sixteen.

07:20 – ⚖️ reference
PARIS: Read my manifesto. I want your thoughts.
RORY: First thought: lose the word “manifesto.”
PARIS: Too cabin-in-the-woods?
RORY: Don’t open your mail.

Theodore “Ted” Kaczynski (1942-2023) was a US domestic terrorist who carried out a nationwide mail bombing campaign between 1978 and 1995, killing three people and injuring 23 others. He targeted those “he believed to be advancing modern technology and the destruction of the natural environment” (Wikipedia), laying out his motives in a 35,000-word manifesto titled Industrial Society and Its Future. Kaczynski lived as a recluse and survivalist in a cabin in rural Montana. By the time of his arrest in 1996, he was the subject of the longest and most expensive investigation in the history of the FBI. “The FBI used the case identifier UNABOM (University and Airline Bomber) before his identity was known, resulting in the media naming him the ‘Unabomber.'”
Generally speaking, “a manifesto is a written declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer” (Wikipedia), often religious or political in nature. Besides Kaczynski’s, other famous examples of manifestos include The Communist Manifesto (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, and Mein Kampf (1925) by Adolf Hitler. The word may have negative connotations due to its association with the perpetrators of ideologically motivated crimes.

07:45 – 🎥 reference
RORY: Well, that could’ve been a potential Marx Brothers moment.

The Marx Brothers were a US “family comedy act that was successful in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in 14 motion pictures from 1905 to 1949. … They are widely considered by critics, scholars and fans to be among the greatest and most influential comedians of the 20th century” (Wikipedia). Their style of comedy is characterized by musical gags, deadpan humor, wordplay, and slapstick. Rory invites the comparison after she and Tristan try to pass simultaneously through the same doorway and nearly collide with each other.

08:25 – 🏷️ feature
At the inn, Lorelai and Michel struggle with booking software on a Mac desktop.

Lorelai and Michel are using a Mac personal computer, as evidenced by the Apple logo on the front and back of the monitor. Based on the timing of this episode and the acrylic appearance of the monitor, mouse, and keyboard, the computer is likely a Power Mac G4 Cube, produced by Apple Computer from July 2000 to July 2001.
Rory received a different Apple product, the iBook, as a birthday present in episode six.

09:00 – 🎧 reference
LORELAI: Ooh, it happened when you pushed something funky.
MICHEL: I pushed nothing “funky.”
LORELAI: You have the funk, my friend.

“Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker)” is a 1975 song by US funk band Parliament. It was originally released as a single under the name “Tear the Roof Off the Sucker (Give Up the Funk” and appeared on the album Mothership Connection. The lyrics include many repetitions of the line, “We need the funk, we gotta have that funk.”

10:00 – 📖 reference
LORELAI: What would Miss Manners say about this?

Judith Martin (born Judith Perlman, 1938) is a US advice columnist, author, and etiquette authority better known by her pen name Miss Manners. Lorelai makes this remark upon learning that Emily has “re-gifted” a hat rack originally given to Emily by her mother-in-law. This is, indeed, the kind of social concern Miss Manners might address. According to a 2012 column in The Washington Post, both of Miss Manners’ most frequently received questions concern gifts: one, how to politely inform guests that only monetary gifts are desired (answer: there is no polite way), and two, what factors determine the appropriate amount of a cash gift (answer: what the giver can afford).

11:10 – 🎥 reference
RORY: I just think it would be hard for you. It would probably involve some kind of lock-up facility, and one of those Hannibal Lecter masks.

The Silence of the Lambs (1991) is a US psychological horror film directed by Jonathan Demme and based on Thomas Harris’s 1988 novel of the same name. Jodie Foster stars as Clarice Starling, an FBI trainee who conducts a series of interviews with the imprisoned Hannibal Lecter, a highly intelligent cannibalistic serial killer, in order to gain insight into another killer she is pursuing. In one scene (viewer discretion advised), Lecter is transported wearing a now-iconic mask that covers the lower part of his face.
The Silence of the Lambs won the Academy Awards for Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay, and became the first and only horror film to win Best Picture. It was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 2011. Anthony Hopkins, who plays Lecter, also starred in The Elephant Man (1980), discussed at 33:20.

12:00 – 🎥 reference
RORY: Louis, I think this is the beginning of a wonderful friendship.

Casablanca (1942) is a US “romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Paul Henreid” (Wikipedia). Rory slightly misquotes the line, “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship,” spoken by Bogart’s character, Rick Blaine, to Captain Louis Renault (played by Claude Rains) at the end of the film. The line was included, along with five others, on the American Film Institute’s 2005 list, “100 Years… 100 Movie Quotes,” making Casablanca the list’s most represented film.
Casablanca won the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay in 1944. It was also among the inaugural group of films selected for preservation in the US National Film Registry when the Registry was established in 1989 (a distinction it shares with Citizen Kane). Another of Bergman’s films, Gaslight (1944), is referenced at 33:55.

17:05 – 🏷️ reference
LORELAI: Yes, I joined a support group, bought a hairbrush, and, uh, just taking it one day at a time.

“One day at a time” is a saying often associated with Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), “a global peer-led mutual aid fellowship…dedicated to abstinence-based recovery from alcoholism” (Wikipedia). The phrase encourages those struggling with addiction to take an incremental approach to sobriety, committing to not drinking “just for today,” lest the idea of long-term abstinence become too overwhelming. AA was founded in the United States in 1935.

18:20 – 🎓 mention
TRIX: You’re a Yale man! Your father was a Yale man!

Yale University is a private research university located in New Haven, Connecticut. “Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States,” after Harvard University and the College of William & Mary, “and one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution” (Wikipedia). Like the previously mentioned Harvard University and Princeton University, Yale is a member of the Ivy League.

19:05 – 🗺️ mention
TRIX: I once traveled to a small village in Cambodia. I did not eat dessert there either.

Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in Southeast Asia. Agriculture is a pillar of rural life and the Cambodian economy, with rice being a major export. As of 2019, about 60.6% of Cambodia’s population resided in rural areas. The country was mentioned previously in episode fourteen.

19:30 – 🎓 mention
PARIS: You’ll thank me when you get into Sarah Lawrence.

“Sarah Lawrence College is a private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York” (Wikipedia). The college was founded in 1926 by US real estate mogul William Van Duzer Lawrence, who named it after his wife. “Originally a women’s college, Sarah Lawrence became coeducational in 1968.”

20:35 – ⭐ reference + 🎥 reference
LOUISE: Those who simply wait for information to find them spend a lot of time sitting by the phone. Those who go out and find it themselves have something to say when it rings.
RORY: Nietzsche?
LOUISE: Dawson.

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) was a German philosopher “who became one of the most influential of all modern thinkers. … Nietzsche’s work spans philosophical polemics, poetry, cultural criticism, and fiction while displaying a fondness for aphorism and irony” (Wikipedia). Such aphorisms include, “When you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you,” which comes from Nietzsche’s 1886 text Beyond Good and Evil (German: Jenseits von Gut und Böse). This and other quotations by Nietzsche remain widely circulated today.
Dawson’s Creek is a US teen drama television series that aired from 1998 to 2003. The series is named for its lead character, Dawson Leery, an idealistic high school student and aspiring filmmaker. The line Louise quotes seems to be attributed exclusively to Gilmore Girls, so either she is either paraphrasing Dawson, or the writer of the episode (Amy Sherman-Palladino) simply invented the quotation as an example of the type of wisdom Dawson might dispense.

21:30 – 🎥 reference
MADELINE: Looks like we’re going to have to do a Pink Ladies makeover on you.
LOUISE: Turn you from a sweet Sandy into a slutty Sandy, dancing at the school fair in high heels, black spandex, and permed hair.

Grease (1978) is a US musical romantic comedy film directed by Randal Kleiser and based on the 1971 stage musical of the same name. It centers two 1950s teenagers, greaser Danny Zuko (John Travolta) and ingénue Sandra “Sandy” Olsson (Olivia Newton-John), who encounter each other in school following a summer romance. Sandy becomes friends with a group of female greasers who call themselves the Pink Ladies, and they make her over in the greaser style at the end of the film.

22:30 – 🪶 reference
RORY: If I’m not prepared tonight, Paris is gonna have me sent to the Tower.

The Tower of London (officially His Majesty’s Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London) is a historic castle located on the bank of the River Thames in London, England. It is famous for its use as a prison in the 16th and 17th centuries, giving rise to the phrase “sent to the Tower.” King Henry VIII’s second and fifth wives, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, were both held at the Tower of London prior to their respective executions on the Tower Green. Elizabeth I was also imprisoned there for two months, prior to her ascension to the throne, by her half-sister, Queen Mary I.

22:35 – 🎥 reference
RORY: I did a little matchmaking.
LORELAI: (imitating Ricky Ricardo) Lucy! How many times have I told you not to butt into other people’s business?

I Love Lucy (1951-1957) is a US television sitcom that follows middle-class couple Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, played by real-life married couple Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. In many episodes, Lucy hatches harebrained schemes and gets herself, and sometimes her friends and husband, into trouble. Ricky may become exasperated with Lucy’s antics, and he is often remembered for the catchphrase, “Lucy, you got some ‘splaining to do!” However, this exact phrase is reportedly never used in the series (much like his other catchphrase, “Lucy, I’m home!” which he says only once).
I Love Lucy was referenced previously in episodes six, fourteen, and fifteen. Also in episode fifteen, Lorelai wears an I Love Lucy pajama set.

24:10 – 🕊️ mention
RORY: Nothing’s left at home?
PARIS: Nothing but my Chilton uniform and my bat mitzvah dress, which has menorahs on the collar.

In Judaism, a bat mitzvah (for girls) or bar mitzvah (for boys) is a coming-of-age ritual marking the point at which a child assumes responsibility for their own actions, rather than being the responsibility of their parents. Beyond this point, they must also be familiar with Jewish law and tradition, and participate fully in Jewish community life. In Orthodox Judaism, this milestone occurs at age 12 for girls and 13 for boys, while in other branches of Judaism, it occurs at age 13 for all children.
A menorah is a seven-branched candelabrum described in the Hebrew Bible and used in Jewish tradition. “Since ancient times, [the image of the menorah] has served as a symbol representing the Jewish people and Judaism in both the Land of Israel and the Diaspora. … The Hanukkah menorah, a nine-branched variant of the menorah, is closely associated with the Jewish festival of Hanukkah” (Wikipedia).

26:20 – 🪶 reference
PARIS: Just some reference points, really. You know, subjects to bring up in case the conversation lags.
RORY: Well, can I suggest that you leave this one about the Spanish Inquisition out?

The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition (Spanish: Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición) was a formal tribunal established by the Catholic Monarchs, King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile, in Spain and its colonies and territories. The purpose of the Spanish Inquisition was to enforce Catholic orthodoxy and identify heretics among former Jews and Muslims who had been compelled to convert to Catholicism. It was established in 1478 and abolished in 1834, during the reign of Isabella II; in this time, approximately 150,000 people were prosecuted, and between 3,000 and 5,000 were executed.

27:45 – 📖 feature
TRIX: You know, Shakespeare once wrote, “Neither a borrower nor a lender be.”

This quotation comes from William Shakespeare’s 1602 play Hamlet, referenced previously in episode nine. It is a piece of advice given by the character Polonius to his son, Laertes, the context being, “Neither a borrower nor a lender be; / For loan oft loses both itself and friend, / And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry” (Interesting Literature). Polonius follows this with another famous line, “This above all: to thine ownself be true.” The essence of this advice is that lending or borrowing money carries the risk of ruining a relationship. If you lend money and are never repaid, you may feel lasting resentment toward the borrower. If you borrow money, not only may the lender feel the same way toward you, but you will undermine your ability to maintain your own household accounts.

31:35 – 🎧 feature
The town troubadour (played by Grant-Lee Phillips) plays “It’s the Life” by Grant Lee Buffalo while Lorelai and Sookie shop at the flower mart.

This song comes from the 1994 album Mighty Joe Moon by US rock band Grant Lee Buffalo. Songs by the band and by its singer and lead guitarist, Grant-Lee Phillips, have been featured in episode five, in episode fourteen at 09:45 and 40:25, and in episode sixteen at 05:05 and 37:45.

31:55 – 🎥 reference
SOOKIE: Hi! For that much money, you wake her up! You hire singing telegrams. Women jump out of cakes. People dress up like bankers and dance around with those toasters.

Though the practice became less common in the 2000s, banks used to offer a free toaster or other small home appliance as an incentive to open an account. The strategy was once prevalent enough to yield references and parodies in media. If Sookie is alluding to a specific advertisement, I’m not able to find or identify it.
The following are a few reference examples I could find on YouTube. On the television sitcom Ellen (1994-1998), the title character receives a free toaster upon officially coming out as a lesbian. In “Control Freaks,” a 2005 episode of the Nickelodeon cartoon, Danny Phantom (2004-2007), the protagonist taunts a villain with the line, “Opening a new bank account? Don’t forget your free toaster!” And finally, British comedian James Veitch makes comedic use of the cliché in his 2015 TED Talk.

32:10 – 🎥 reference
SOOKIE: We can sing the money song from Cabaret. You can be Liza, I’ll be Joel.

Cabaret (dir. Bob Fosse, 1972) is a US musical drama film depicting the cabaret scene in early-1930s Berlin, coinciding with the Nazi Party’s rise to power. (A cabaret is a type of nightclub featuring live entertainment.) In one scene, cabaret singer Sally Bowles (played by Liza Minnelli) and the cabaret’s Master of Ceremonies (played by Joel Grey) perform the number “Money,” famous for its chorus, “Money makes the world go around.”
The film is one in a series of adaptations, beginning with Christopher Isherwood’s semi-autobiographical novel Goodbye to Berlin (1939). The novel served as the basis for John Van Druten’s 1951 play I Am a Camera, which was adapted into the 1966 stage musical upon which the film is based.

33:20 – ⭐ reference
LORELAI: I don’t care if she buys a house, or a boat, or the Elephant Man’s bones.

Joseph Merrick (1862-1890) was a British man with severe deformities, for which he was dubbed “the Elephant Man” during his time with traveling exhibitions (known derogatorily as “freak shows”). Rejected by his family, Merrick faced ostracism and poverty, ultimately agreeing to be displayed as a curiosity in order to escape life in the workhouse. It was as an attraction in a penny gaff shop that he met British surgeon Sir Frederick Treves, who became a lifelong friend and arranged for Merrick to live permanently at the London Hospital. When Merrick died at age 27, Treves dissected the body, collected skin samples, and took plaster casts of Merrick’s head and limbs. Today, Merrick’s skeleton is housed at the medical school of the Royal London Hospital. The medical condition responsible for his appearance remains a mystery.
Merrick’s life and friendship with Treves are depicted in Bernard Pomerance’s 1977 play and in David Lynch’s 1980 film, both titled The Elephant Man. In the film, Treves is played by Anthony Hopkins, who is also known for his role in The Silence of the Lambs, referenced at 11:10.

33:35 – 🎧 reference
LORELAI: I have my mother’s voice stuck in my head. It’s like that annoying Cranberries song.

Lorelai may be referring to the 1994 song “Zombie” by Irish rock band the Cranberries. Lead singer Dolores O’Riordan wrote the song in response to the deaths of two children, three-year-old Johnathan Ball and twelve-year-old Tim Parry, in a 1993 bombing attack in Warrington, England; the bombing was one of thousands carried out during the Troubles, an ethno-nationalist conflict that took place in Northern Ireland from the late 1960s to 1998. The song features O’Riordan’s distinctive “lilting mezzo-soprano voice, signature yodel, emphasized use of keening, and strong Limerick accent” (Wikipedia). Its political themes, distorted guitars, and shouted chorus marked a departure from the mellow love songs, like “Dreams” and “Linger,” for which the band had previously been known.
The song was released as the lead single from the album No Need to Argue. Though it was critically praised and has become one of the band’s best-known songs, it was not without controversy; some questioned O’Riordan’s right to comment on a conflict waged far from her home in Limerick, located in the Southern Region of the Republic of Ireland.

33:55 – 🎥 reference
LORELAI: I have to change and go to tea with Gran and the cast of Gaslight.

In George Cukor’s 1944 US psychological thriller film, Gaslight, a man “slowly manipulates [his wife] into believing that she is descending into insanity” (Wikipedia). The film is a remake of Thorold Dickinson’s 1940 British film of the same name, and is, in turn, based on Patrick Hamilton’s 1938 play Gas Light. In the mid-2010s, the film’s title came into common use as a verb, “gaslighting,” used to describe the act of deliberately misleading someone into doubting their perception of reality.
John Van Druten, one of the film’s writers, also wrote the play, I Am a Camera, upon which Cabaret is based. Ingrid Bergman, who appeared opposite Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca (1942), stars as the tormented wife, and Joseph Cotten, who appeared in Citizen Kane (1941), plays a police inspector who becomes concerned about her welfare.

34:25 – 🕊️ reference
EMILY: I don’t care if she thinks I’m the whore of Babylon.

The whore of Babylon is a symbolic female figure described in the Book of Revelation of the New Testament. “She is seen as analogous to the pagan nations and governments considered in direct opposition to the Christian faith, particularly the imperial city of Rome” (Encyclopaedia Britannica). Babylon was an ancient city in Mesopotamia, in modern-day Iraq, that “has long served as an exemplar of evil in the Hebrew Bible and the subsequent Judeo-Christian tradition. … In the Book of Isaiah, Babylon is called a ‘faithful city’ that had ‘become a whore.'” The whore of Babylon is widely considered to be a coded reference to Rome, rather than a literal reference to the city of Babylon, which fell in 539 BCE, centuries before the Book of Revelation was written.

35:45 – 🪶 reference
RORY: Then it’s the perfect time to talk about our over-taxed peasants.
PARIS: Oh, let them eat cake.

Marie Antoinette (born Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria, 1755-1793) “was the last queen consort of France prior to the French Revolution. … As queen, Marie Antoinette became increasingly unpopular among the people; the French libelles [inflammatory political pamphlets] accused her of being profligate, promiscuous, having illegitimate children, and harboring sympathies for France’s perceived enemies, including her native Austria” (Wikipedia). She was also blamed for the country’s financial crisis, in view of her lavish lifestyle and exorbitant spending, earning the nickname Madame Déficit. She and her husband, Louis XVI, were executed by revolutionaries in 1793.
The phrase “let them eat cake” (French: Qu’ils mangent de la brioche) is famously associated with Marie Antoinette despite an absence of evidence that she ever said it. It first appeared in Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Les Confessions, published in 1782. He attributes the words to a “great princess,” though “the purported writing date precedes Marie Antoinette’s arrival in France. Some think that he invented it altogether” (Wikipedia). The phrase can be interpreted as a callous or clueless response to the information that the peasants have no bread.

40:45 – ⭐ reference
TRIX: Raising your voice during high tea. Whoever heard of such a thing? It’s like Fergie all over again.

Sarah, Duchess of York (born Sarah Ferguson, 1959), “also known by the nickname Fergie, is a British author, philanthropist, television personality, and member of the extended British royal family” (Wikipedia). Her marriage to and divorce from Prince Andrew, Duke of York (son of Queen Elizabeth II) attracted significant media attention, and she was the subject of a number of scandals in the years following the marriage. Most of these took place after this episode aired, though she did receive press coverage in the 1990s for accruing a bank deficit of over £4 million.

References Sorted by Category

🎓 Academia

18:20 – Yale University (academic institution)
19:30 – Sarah Lawrence College (academic institution)

🏷️ Brand Names

07:10 – Barbie (toy)
08:25 – Power Mac G4 Cube (computer)
17:05 – Alcoholics Anonymous (mutual aid fellowship)

⭐ Famous Figures

00:10 – Hubert Humphrey (US vice president)
03:15 – David Mamet (playwright)
10:00 – Judith Martin (writer and etiquette authority), Miss Manners (pen name)
20:35 – Friedrich Nietzsche (philosopher)
33:20 – Joseph Merrick (man with congenital deformities), the Elephant Man (also known as)
40:45 – Sarah, Duchess of York (member of British royal family), Sarah Ferguson (given name), Fergie (nickname)

🎥 Film, Television & Theater

07:45 – Marx Brothers (entertainment act)
11:10 – The Silence of the Lambs (1991 film), Hannibal Lecter (character)
12:00 – Casablanca (1942 film)
20:35 – Dawson’s Creek (television series), Dawson Leery (character)
21:30 – Grease (1978 film), Pink Ladies (characters), Sandy Olsson (character)
22:35 – I Love Lucy (television show), Lucy Ricardo (character), Ricky Ricardo (character)
31:55 – open a bank account, get a free toaster (trope)
32:10 – Cabaret (1972 film), Liza Minnelli (actor), Joel Grey (actor)
33:55 – Gaslight (1944 film), Gas Light (1938 stage play)

🗺️ Geography & Politics

00:10 – Hubert Humphrey (US vice president)
00:25 – Kennedy family (US political family), Camelot (nickname for Kennedy presidency)
01:15 – London, United Kingdom (European city)
19:05 – Cambodia (Asian country)

🪶 History

04:55 – Elizabethan government (governmental system)
05:10 – Queen Elizabeth I (monarch)
05:55 – King Henry VIII (monarch)
06:15 – lady-in-waiting (position in royal household)
06:30 – quarter sessions (English and Welsh court sessions)
22:30 – Tower of London (historical site and former prison)
26:20 – Spanish Inquisition (Catholic tribunal)
35:45 – Marie Antoinette (monarch), “Let them eat cake.” (apocryphal quotation)

📖 Literature

27:45 – Hamlet by William Shakespeare (stage play), “Neither a borrower nor a lender be.” (quotation)

🎧 Music

01:55 – Madonna (artist)
09:00 – “Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker)” by Parliament (song)
31:35 – “It’s the Life” by Grant Lee Buffalo (song)
33:35 – The Cranberries (band)

🕊️ Religion

24:10 – bat mitzvah (coming-of-age ritual)
24:10 – menorah (religious article and symbol)
34:25 – whore of Babylon (symbolic figure)

⚖️ True Crime

07:20 – Theodore “Ted” Kaczynski (domestic terrorist), Unabomber (also known as)

Frequent References

A few things come up so routinely in the show, I am not going to include an entry for them every time they do. I wrote about the following people, places, and things when they first appeared or were mentioned.

Christmas, Easter, Halloween (holidays)
Hartford, Connecticut (US city)
Harvard University (academic institution)
Herman Beeftink (piano and string composer)
Independence Inn (named for the American War of Independence)
Jeep (automotive brand)
New York, New York (US city)
Sam Phillips (series composer)
“Travel to Historic Brazil” (poster in Rory’s bedroom)
“Where You Lead” by Carole King and Louise Goffin (series theme)

Indigenous Land Acknowledgment

In beginning my work on this guide, I’ve come to realize just how many references (however subtle) the show contains to the Revolutionary War and the colonial history of the United States. It is important and necessary to acknowledge the people whose lands were usurped when these events took place, though this is not a simple matter. Please visit my land acknowledgment page to view the results of my research.

Episode citation: “The Third Lorelai.” Gilmore Girls, created by Amy Sherman-Palladino, season 1, episode 18, Dorothy Parker Drank Here Productions, Hofflund/Polone, Warner Bros. Television, 2001.

Posted 26 August 2024