Season 2, episode 4
The Road Trip to Harvard
The Gilmore girls take a road trip and end up visiting Harvard. They visit the dorm. Rory audits a philosophy class, with no one suspecting she's sixteen. Lorelai looks at the people who graduated they year she would have graduated.
They spend a couple of nights at an inn. Their room has wallpaper with flower motif and there's a grey cat named Sammy. The other guests treat Rory like a small child.
Tropes
- Bilingual Bonus: Luke says Kirk doesn't have to tip him, saying "Welcome to France," prompting Kirk to reply "Gracias."
- Blatant Lies:
- Rory claims to not be hiding a road map on their road trip.
- Subverted with Lorelai's story about being a publisher of children's books. The other B&Ber believes her and claims ro have heard of one of the generic made-up titles.
- The girls they run into at Harvard while claiming to be Angie and Trish are weirded out by a thirty-something woman talking Valley Girl slang at them.
- The inn owner claims the cat who has been on the stairs their entire stay is hardly ever on the stairs. Every shot of the stairs, the cat is lying their washing itself.
- Brick Joke: Rory changes Lorelai's comment in the guest book to "I sat and forever am at work here" (from "satanic forces are at work here"). When they leave and the owner hopes they had a nice stay, Lorelai repeats Rory's edit to her.
- Captain Obvious:
- Rory insists they can't give themselves their own Harvard tour, not knowing anything about the place. Lorelai points out that they know its location: right in front of them.
- Rory points out that a sign says "residents only" in plain English.
- Downer Ending: The fake book Lorelai claims she published, "The Horse Who Wanted To Bark", ends with the horse dying.
- Elopement: Emily accuses Lorelai of eloping to cruelly keep her out of her wedding. Lorelai clarifies that she simply called off the wedding.
- Riddle for the Ages: We never find out what Emily got Lorelai for her wedding.
- Runaway Bride: Lorelai bails on the night before her wedding.
- Seamless Spontaneous Lie:
- Lorelai doesn't want to talk to strangers about running away from her wedding, so makes up a story about being a publisher.
- Lorelai letting a guy at Harvard think she's a fellow student.
- Shout-Out:
- It's the first time Lorelai has been in her car without AC/DC.
- Rory thinks saying "a cool B&B" is like saying "an understated Nicolas Cage movie."
- The inn they stay at is named The Cheshire Cat.
- Lorelai thinks their room is the only one in the world that would have made Liberace say "whoa, step back, no one's that gay."
- Lorelai suggests singing Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the U.K." at the top of their lungs.
- Lorelai has a Hello Kitty waffle iron.
- At a U2 concert, Rory is Lorelai's best friend, but not when they're arguing about Lorelai's love life in a flowery bedroom.
- Henry James was a Harvard graduate, Lorelai reads from a pamphlet.
- If Rory's roommate listens to Linkin Park she'll have to drop out.
- Rory says not to argue with the inn owner because it's Chinatown.
- Lorelai threatens to fall in love with a separated Catholic like Katharine Hepburn in Spencer Tracy.
- Rory reads Mrs. Dalloway while Lorelai tries to find out what Emily got her for her wedding.
- Lorelai claims she parked her car "close enough for jazz" to the sidewalk.
- Lane found Elvis Costello at the Marquee in 1978, Nico doing barely coherent The Doors songs in 1974, and Iggy Pop doing David Bowie songs in 1981 in Seoul.
- Lane got the cd's she bought in Korea into the US by strapping them to her body like in Midnight Express.
- Stupid Question Bait: Luke makes the mistake of saying there is no such thing as a stupid question, compelling Lorelai to disprove his claim by asking how ink comes out of pens.
- Take That!:
- Lorelai feels that "Christian rock" is an oxymoron.
- Rory's thinks "cool B&B" is the same, comparing it to "an understated Nicolas Cage movie."
- What Lorelai writes in the guest book.Rory: (reading) "Satanic forces are at work here."
- Rory won't room with someone who likes Linkin Park.
- When the radio announces that Hootie & the Blowfish are up next, both Rory and Lorelai let out a loud groan.
- Take That Me: Rory berates herself for not having read thirteen million books yet.Rory: I have only read like three hundred books in my entire life and I'm already sixteen!
