Season 1, episode 19
Emily in Wonderland
During Friday night dinner, Rory lets slip that there's an antique store in Stars Hollow. Luke's new/old girlfriend Rachel offers to take picture of the Dragonfly. Emily spends Saturday with Rory in her town, where she discovers that her granddaughter spent her early childhood living out of a tool shed. Rachel asks Lorelai to put in a good word for her with Luke.
Tropes:
- Bilingual Bonus: Emily and Michel speak French to each other.
- Blatant Lies: Emily insists that she had nothing against baby Lorelai's big head, but she keeps mentioning unfortunate things about it. Lorelai herself is long past buying any of it.
- Call-Back: Lorelai relates to Rachel a paraphrase of the first conversation we see her have with Luke in the pilot, with Lorelai stating that the extent of their interactions is basically her begging him for coffee and him refusing to serve her any.
- Continuity Snarl:
- Not that long ago Emily and Richard claimed to only go to Europe every other spring, but Emily says to Michel that she goes to Paris every spring.
- Not that long ago Lorelai claimed Richard and Emily visited on occasion when Rory was little, but how could they have if they remained completely ignorant of their daughter living in a toolshed.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Invoked. Lorelai worries that Luke doesn't want her to be Rachel's friend.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Invoked. Luke worries that Rachel won't like that he's friends with Lorelai.
- Embarrassing Old Photo: Seven-year-old Lorelai thought her baby photos were so ugly she burned them, including the negatives.
- Dating What Daddy Hates: Subverted. Lane knows she won't be able to like Henry if her parents like him.
- Hypocrite: Kirk complains about Lorelai and Rory talking in the movie theatre. Then his phone rings. And he tries to answer it.
- Miming the Cues: Sookie tries miming to Jackson that she hasn't asked if it's okay that Rune stays yet as he delivers his thank-you jam.
- Not Even Bothering with an Excuse: Rory wants Lorelai to join her and Emily for lunch, but Lorelai says she can't.Rory: What are you doing at lunch?Lorelai: Oh, I have very important things to do.Rory: Like what?Lorelai: Uh, well, at noon, I have to not have lunch with my mother.
- Product Placement: Sears, where you get not-annoying kids.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Luke picked his own pink, frilly curtains.
- Rule of Symbolism: Luke's coffee tastes different after he gets serious with Rachel again.
- Slippery Slope Fallacy: Lorelai is worried her habit of putting her hands on nine and four on the steering wheel will lead to putting them on six and twelve, or worse, on eight and eleven.
- Shout-Out:
- Emily made the mistake of telling Peg Mossley about the best antique stores on the East coast, but when asked to guess Lorelai assumes she lured two children into her gingerbread house.
- Lorelai calls Sookie Yoko.
- Lorelai refers to Rune as Boo Radley.
- Emily compares Lorelai and Rory to The Grapes of Wrath.
- Rory and Lorelai collect Charlie's Angels plates.
- Rory explains that the Kate Jackson and the Shelley Hack, and even the Cheryl Ladd ones are easy to find, but the Farrah Fawcett and Jaclyn Smith ones are a little hard to come by. Tanya Roberts is the rarest one.
- Watching Emily and Mrs. Kim haggle is like watching the Williams sisters play tennis against each other.
- According to Lane here are many kinds of gloomy: Joy Division, Nick Cave, Robert Smith, and Johnny Cash.
- Lane is a Lou Reed gloomy.
- Rory has to choose between N Sync, 98 Degrees, and Backstreet Boys.
- Lorelai claims not to be a Vulcan.
- Lorelai thinks Rachel is telling the truth because her nose didn't grow.
- Lorelai made Emily listen to a Prince song once, and Emily looked like she was having a stroke.
- The film playing in the movie theatre is Queen of Outer Space.
- Emily got Rory Hello Kitty notepads.
- Lorelai would date Stephen Tyler.
- Emily and Lorelai's attempts to communicate are like the first fifteen minutes of Saving Private Ryan.
- All Emily hears when Lorelai speaks to her is "Blah blah blah ginger".
- Stop Being Stereotypical: Inverted with Emily, who decorates a stereotypical teen girl bedroom for Rory, rather than one crammed with books like the one she has at home.
- Unsatisfiable Customer: Played with. Lorelai sends her food back because it's ogling her. Luke, knowing her, rearranges it and returns it to her.
- Verbal Backspace:
- Luke is terrified of the Green-Eyed Monster, so when he accidentally admits to Rachel that Lorelai looks good in a photo he immediately backtracks to "her eyes are …placed good".
- Lorelai starts to say that the whole town isn't just waiting for Rachel to screw up. Rachel mentions Miss Patty, and she has to go back on that.
