Season 2, episode 20
Help Wanted
Jess has gone back to New York. Rory is recovering from a broken arm. Luke left town to go fishing, so Lorelai has to go to a different diner. Richard is starting a new business.
Lorelai offers to help Richard with his office until he can find a new secretary. Richard buys himself a twelve-pack of post-its in various hues, plus one for Emily since he's seen her put notes on her mirror before. When Lorelai tells her father she can't come back tomorrow he gets passive-aggressive. He ends up hiring a woman named Karen, who is no Margie.
Emily spots the cast on Rory's arm and berates Lorelai for letting Rory spend time with Jess. Rory flips out and demands to be held responsible for what happened.
Lane begs Sophie to let her play drums twice a week without buying them. She offers to teach her Korean.
Tropes:
- Bad to the Last Drop: Coffee at The Hungry Diner is not like Luke's. Thankfully they come in very small cups.
- Bill... Bill... Junk... Bill...: How Lorelai goes about shopping for a coffee maker.Lorelai: Let's see, ugly, crappy, German, ooh, pretty!
- Blatant Lies: Lorelai plans on telling her parents that Rory's cast has something to do with large bees.
- Brick Joke: Lorelai quips that she will make up a story about large bees putting Rory in a cast. When Emily sees the cast and asks Lorelai says "bees."
- Call-Back: Lorelai's pen-buying philosophy resembles Rory's highlighter-buying one, as she recommends Richard buy twice as many pens as he thinks he'll use because he'll lose half of them.
- Captain Obvious:
- Taylor advises Rory not to shut her body up too soon, as that's called death.
- Lorelai tries to explain to Rory that if you weren't driving the car that crashed, you are not as responsible for the crash as the person who was driving.
- Creator Cameo: The music shop that opens in Stars Hollow is run by Sophie, played by Carole King.
- Cult: Babette was in one when she was younger. It involved dancing in airports.
- "Dear John" Letter: Subverted in every way. Rory delivers a letter to Dean where she explains what has happened with her and Jess while he was away, and stands there while he reads it. She fully expects him to break up with her.
- Embarrassing Nickname: When she was six, Lorelai nicknamed Richard's secretary "Largie Margie."
- History Repeats: Richard used to have the same problem finding a secretary he liked as Emily has finding a maid she likes.
- In-Joke: Karen the prospective secretary finishes her story with "but then she got pregnant and here we are," prompting Lorelai to reply "story of my life."
- Insistent Terminology: You don't "score a deal" or "bag the Swede" in the insurance business, you build relationships based on trust and fulfilling the client's needs.
- Malaproper: Lorelai calls Richard's new firm which he is considering giving up on on account of his old secretary not coming with him, "a baby in desperate need of some bathwater," which is an odd rephrasing of "don't throw the baby out with the bathwater," since it makes it sound like someone threw the baby out and kept the bathwater.
- Neologism: Thinglet.
- Never My Fault: Inverted with everyone's reaction to Rory getting in an accident in her own car. Everyone denies she holds any blame at all. Rory thinks she should be held responsible too.
- Non Sequitur: Discussed. Rory tells Lorelai that instead of breaking up with her, Dean gave her his corn. Lorelai lacks the context of them eating dinner at the time, so thinks he just out of the blue gave her his corn.
- Prank Call: Inverted by Lorelai. Emily calls Richard's office and doesn't recognize Lorelai's voice, so Lorelai pretends to be some bimbo implying that she's sleeping with Richard.
- Running Joke: Kirk's about having almost all the jobs in town, as he applies for a job at the new music store.
- Selective Obliviousness: Lorelai is determined to buy a coffee machine for Richard's office, so when he answers her rhetorical question about what the first thing he does in the morning is with "call the Asian companies," she simply chooses not to hear him.
- Shout-Out:
- Lorelai gives Rory The Little Locksmith as a "get well" present.
- Lorelai assumes the Wu-Tang Clan had Richard's office before him.
- Lane and Rory discuss whether Dawn Powell was plagiarized by Dorothy Parker.
- Taylor thinks Jess is a Sal Mineo wannabe.
- Chachi and Chachi alone will be held responsible for the incident, Taylor assures Rory.
- Having discovered drums, Lane feels like Keith Moon, Neil Peart, and Rick Allen.
- We Do Not Know Each Other: Rory starts inquiring what empty threat Lorelai was about to make, so Lorelai pretends not to have a child to avoid answering.
- What, Exactly, Is His Job?: Richard has come out of retirement, but when asked what he does all Emily can say is that he's in an office and that he consults about something.
