History Headscratchers / DirtyDancing

** This is also the person who is sleeping with his youngest daughter. Dads tend not to like those people, especially when they make a public display of it.

* At the very end, when Johnny reappears, doesn't Jake behave a bit too hostile for someone who'd just realized that he'd wrongly accused a man of knocking up his partner?

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* As a non-English person, what is the deal about the line, "I carried a watermelon"? Is this an euphemism for something that Baby realized too late which is why she got embarrassed?

* Did the filmmakers even need the abortion storyline in the first place? Couldn't they have just had Penny break a leg, have a ruptured appendix, or just suffer any other type of normal malady for Baby to fill in for her? Did they really have to be that drastic?
** None of those are grounds for ending a relationship. A pregnancy from an affair is.
*** Well, they could have had Dr. Houseman solely object on the grounds that Johnny is poor.
** It's a moral choice that the rich and sheltered Baby would normally never have ever had to be confronted with. The whole point of Baby's character arc is her moral choices, and her steadfast belief in doing the right thing no matter what the cost. Penny had no other choice, Baby recognized that, so she risked alienating her relationship with her father to help someone who had no other options. If it had been something as "simple" as a ruptured appendix, Baby's sacrifice of her time and money would not have been so profound. Also, the subplot is an illustration of another theme in the movie, which is class distinctions. Penny is poor, has little to no education, no familial ties, few friends in the world, a crappy job, believed Robbie loved her, etc. The awful thing about unintended pregnancies is that they disproportionately happen to women like Penny - women who have been dealt a bad hand in life. Compare her life to Baby's, and see why the plot required such a difficult situation and moral choice, and why a more simple illness would have lessened the impact of the plot.
** Don't forget that for a big portion of the movie, part of the drama between Johnny and Baby is because she thinks Penny is pregnant from Johnny and most of the time, Baby's dad thinks the same thing. Getting rid of the abortion detail in the movie would make a lot of the conflict disappear along with the ability for Baby's dad to apologize in the end with his line, "When I'm wrong, I say I'm wrong" or whatever it was. This way, they can spend most of the movie looking down their noses at Johnny and then realize he's a decent person despite his position in society.
*** Unfortunately, in my opinion, it just makes Baby's father seem dumb, stupid, and just in general, devoid of logic.
*** Why? Baby's father would have seen Johnny and Penny around the resort and most people, including Baby, assume they're dating just from watching them dance. Not to mention Johnny says that he's responsible for Penny; what he means is, he's the one who cares about her, like a brother, but Baby's dad meant "who's responsible for this woman's condition". He may have even believed that Johnny obligated Penny to get a back-alley abortion. To top it all off, this is the guy who's having sex with his underage daughter. Keeping in mind the film's classism theme, it makes sense he wouldn't like Johnny from the offset.

** In response to the question, I think everyone (including Baby) thought the guy they hired was a real doctor. It isn't until after he leaves that Johnny and Baby find out from Penny and the other guy that the "doctor" had a dirty knife and a folding table.

** Don't forget that for a big portion of the movie, part of the drama between Johnny and Baby is because she thinks Penny is pregnant from Johnny and most of the time, Baby's dad thinks the same thing. Getting rid of the abortion detail in the movie would make a lot of the conflict disappear along with the ability for Baby's dad to apologize in the end with his line, "When I'm wrong, I say I'm wrong" or whatever it was. This way, they can spend most of the movie looking down their noses at Johnny and then realize he's a decent person despite his position in society.

** It's a moral choice that the rich and sheltered Baby would normally never have ever had to be confronted with. The whole point of Baby's character arc is her moral choices, and her steadfast belief in doing the right thing no matter what the cost. Penny had no other choice, Baby recognized that, so she risked alienating her relationship with her father to help someone who had no other options. If it had been something as "simple" as a ruptured appendix, Baby's sacrifice of her time and money would not have been so profound. Also, the subplot an illustration of another theme in the movie, which is class distinctions. Penny is poor, has little to no education, no familial ties, few friends in the world, a crappy job, believed Robbie loved her, etc. The awful thing about unintended pregnancies is that they disproportionately happen to women like Penny - women who have been dealt a bad hand in life. Compare her life to Baby's, and see why the plot required such a difficult situation and moral choice, and why a more simple illness would have lessened the impact of the plot.

* Did the filmmakers even need the abortion storyline in the first place? Couldn't they have just had Penny break a leg, have a ruptured appendix, of just suffer any other type of normal malady for Baby to fill in for her? Did they really have to be that drastic?

**** I always thought it was because the managment would do periodic checks of the employees rooms looking for contraband.