Season 5, episode 11
Women of Questionable Morals
The first snow comes, and the only thing we get every season happens, namely the reenactment of the scene from the Revolutionary War. This year they include a newly unearthed story about a woman of the night who stalled an English soldier.Emily discovers a dog in her yard. Rory doesn't want to talk to Christopher. Strobe is dead, and Christopher doesn't want his and Rory's relationship to be what his and Strobe's relationship was.
The reenactment isn't quite as historically accurate as expected, as the first female participant (Lulu) has a male understudy (Kirk) and becomes sick. Luke makes Lorelai an ice ring so she can ice skate.
This episode contains examples of:
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Emily and Richard take a break from bickering for the first time this season to work together and find the home of a lost dog, this results in many sweet moments between the two.
- Berserk Button: If Lorelai puts you on a pedestal, and you're snow, don't fall on her car, she'll get mad.
- Captain Obvious:
- Luke admits that his freshly poured coffee is hot.
- Luke also insists that snow can't deliberately protect you, being frozen water and all.
- Captain Oblivious: Emily really doesn't understand what dogs are about.Emily: (when the dog stands up and sits down again) Oh, it moved! Is it supposed to do that?
- Child Hater: Inverted. Lorelai thinks children should shoot adults for what they make them do, like narrating reenactments in synchronicity.
- Chubby Chaser: Andrew thinks Lorelai is too thin to play the prostitute, prompting the others to comment that they can't base the actress on his personal aesthetics.
- Comically Missing the Point:
- Even after Lorelai explains her Beverly Hills Cop reference, Sookie asks why there were dogs sniffing around on the premises.
- Taylor asks the auditioners to give him their best "come hither" look. Their "come hither" look doesn't look like that to him.
- Companion Cube: For Lorelai, snow. After it has pissed her off by being cold and heavy at her, she claws it with her fingers and yells at it that they are through.
- Compliment Backfire: Kirk calls Lulu "as insensitive as they come" when Taylor announces they're looking for someone who isn't sensitive to cold.
- Continuity Nod: Rory mentions the last time she met Strobe. She thought he seemed bitter.
- Crotch-Glance Sex Check: The Gilmores try to be subtle about it, waiting until the dog rolls onto its back on its own to do said check, but it turns out to be an unreliable test.
- Exposition: The three child narrators at the reenactment leave nothing to be shown and not told. Lorelai comments on it.
- First Snow: Lorelai excitedly wakes Luke up in the middle of the night to bring him outside and see the first snow of the season.
- Generation Xerox: Chris tries to avert this, telling Rory he does not want his eldest daughter to have the same relationship with him as he had with his father.
- Incest Subtext: Taylor's niece was at the audition to play the prostitute against his English soldier. One assumes he was always going to dismiss her.
- Literal-Minded: Lorelai tells Sookie that heroin-sniffing dogs get crazy around coffee.Lorelai: Because you smuggle heroin in coffee.
Sookie: (hurt) No, I don't! - Must Have Coffee: Lorelai gets so desperate that she collects leftover coffee from cups left in the restaurant after dinner. Fortunately Sookie sees this and stops her before she can drink it.
- Product Placement: Richard shows Emily a Louis Vuitton website.
- Running Gag:
- The gender of the dog at the Gilmore house.
- During the audition, Kirk being a pagant mom.
- Shout-Out
- One of the reenactors would rather watch Farewell My Concubine than The Sound of Music.
- "Scarlet letter" is too Nathaniel Hawthorne to call the heroine of the reenactment.
- And calling her a "prostitute" is too Baretta.
- Michel hasn't been this excited since Madonna dropped by Total Express Live.
- Lorelai learned from Beverly Hills Cop that smugglers hide heroin in coffee.
- Chris learned about college watching Oxford Blues.
- Lorelai sells the inn as a snowy Xanadu, but doesn't think she can get Bing Crosby to come pick guests up.
- David Hume is discussed in Rory's philosophy class.
- Revolutionary War era Stars Hollow citizens wouldn't want to off a potential ancestor of Winston Churchill or Benny Hill.
- Rory can sip coffee at a decible level rivaling Louis Armstrong's high C.
- Lorelai mentions that Christopher's entire support group is a big fan of Sesame Street to justify going to him after his father died.
- Lorelai thinks that for a lack of horses, the reenactors should bang coconuts together.
- Rory surmises Tony Kushner wasn't available to direct the reenactment.
- The dialogue in From Justin to Kelly was better that the reenactment dialogue.
- Lorelai asks Luke to be the Randy to her Tai, referrencing figure staking champions Randy Gardner and Tai Babilonia.
- Squick: In-universe, Sookie is thoroughly grossed out by Lorelai collecting leftover coffee from guests' cups planning to drink it herself.
- Stage Mom: Kirk acts as this for Lulu. Miss Patty asks him to stop.
- Stealth Insult: Miss Patty comments that picturing a dashingly handsome man on a horse is redundant because that guy's played by Taylor.
- Take That!: Lorelai claims Mother Nature has been more of a mom to her than her own mother.
- Title Drop: The reenactors look for a more respectful term for such an important historical figure than "hooker" and someone suggests the title.
- Wanted a Son Instead: Lorelai retroactively wishes she had a boy instead because he wouldn't have such a high-pitched voice when she was hungover.
- War Reenactors: The town sub-plot of the episode revolves around the reenactment of a significant moment (or at least they'd like to think so) for Stars Hollow during the Revolutionary War.
