Season 6, episode 18
The Real Paul Anka
Lorelai dreams that her dog Paul Anka is sometimes the musician he is named for. Luke goes on a trip with April and her math team. Rory punishes Logan with passive-aggression. Logan plans a base-hop in Costa Rica with Robert, Finn, and Colin. Emily and Richard walk around Stars Hollow. Luke visits Jess's workplace with April. Rory drops by as well.
Tropes
- Ask a Stupid Question...: Cesar asks Luke what to do if he sees a flash flood coming at the diner while Luke is away. Luke says he should make sure all the customers are settled up.
- Blatant Lies:
- Emily and Richard claim to be in Stars Hollow antiquing, but Kirk already spilled the beans about them looking for a house to buy.
- Lorelai confuses her parents by claiming to smell garbage right before the wind doesn't change. That's after she claims there's a meth lab nearby.
- Emily pretends to be very impressed with Sissy's intelligence.
- Bridezilla: Downplayed with Lane, who just wants Lorelai to have an accident with a perfectly okay wedding dress.
- Captain Obvious: Cesar mentions a flash flood in El Salvador that no one expected. Luke points out that the surprise is what the "flash" in "flash flood" covers.
- Cheater Gets Cheated On: Rory attempts this with Jess, but can't bring herself to do more than kiss him back. Jess is upset that he's being used in this way, but tells her if it will help, she can always lie and say they did something more.
- Child Hater: Emily calls Sissy "it" after finding out she's not Luke's daughter.Emily: This is 't Luke's daughter?! And here I was, bonding with it… […] The little idiot kept tipping her hand so I could see them so I pretended I didn't and specifically asked for things I knew she didn't have. Kid's a moron.
- Comically Missing the Point:
- Luke. Of mnemonics. Then he grasps it and uses it all the time, embarrassing his daughter.
- Lorelai at first assumes the garment bag is the wedding dress.Lorelai: Khaki with a big zipper down the middle? How fashions fluctuate, huh?
- Continuity Snarl: Taylor refers to himself as the town mayor instead of town selectman.
- Crazy-Prepared: Much as Lorelai has mocked Emily's tendency towards this, like when she had Rory bring two of her own bathing suits to the Yale field trip, she does this herself, telling Luke to bring nice clothes to the ten-day school trip "just in case".
- Embarrassing Nickname: Lorelai wants to put her parents off Stars Hollow and calls Taylor "Gropy McGee".
- Immediate Selfcontradiction:
- As part of her passive-aggression, Rory tells Logan their wires didn't get crossed, then that they did get crossed, then goes back on her pronouncement that Paris's jar of insects is gross.
- As Logan calls Rory on, she followed up her forgiveness with some not very forgiving behavior.
- Indian Burial Ground: Kirk is trying to sell a house that's in particularly bad shape and built on one of these.
- Informed Wrongness: In-universe. You wonder why Lorelai would want to live in such an awful town as she describes.
- "It" Is Dehumanizing: Emily refers to Cissy as "it" after learning she is not Luke's daughter like she thought.
- Like Father Like Daughter: April appears to be a trekkie, like Luke in his youth.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: When Luke says April is smart, Jess wonders if he confirmed paternity.
- Memory Palace: April suggests Luke use mnemonics to remember people's names on the schooltrip. He takes the technique to heart.
- Mistaken Identity: Emily plays go fish with some girl she thinks is Luke's daughter.
- Never the Selves Shall Meet: In Lorelai's dream, the effect of the two Paul Ankas meeting is that the universe explodes.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Emily and Richard are so focused on keeping their true purpose secret that they don't seem to notice how friendly she suddenly is.
- Passive Aggressive Combat: Rory takes revenge on Logan by deliberately "getting their wires crossed", which was his excuse for sleeping around while they were on a break.
- Shout-Out
- Paul Anka visits Lorelai in a dream.
- Cesar thinks it's weird for math classes to go on the road like Metallica.
- April doubts Luke's having seen the original Star Trek.
- April's math teacher shares a last name with The Munsters.
- Said Mr. Munster likes to wow people with his Chris Rock impressions. April finds it borderline racist.
- They sing Tom Lehrer's The Element Song on the bus.
- Jess's co-worker wants their bookstore to have a café where the next de Kooning can meet the next Franz Kline and dis the next Jackson Pollock while the next Charlie Parker shoots up in the corner.
- Jess's books The Subsect does not sell out everywhere like The Da Vinci Code.
- Some poet friend of Jess's finds Golda Meir attractive.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Both Cesar and Lorelai think positive expectations are a jinx.
- Take That!:
- Lorelai delibers a series of these to the town of Stars Hollow.
- According to Taylor, this is against a law written in the 1700s and violations were punishable by shooting squad.
- Cesar comes to regret being left in charge while Luke is away. After dealing with customers, he comes to realize that he hates customers.
- Lorelai delibers a series of these to the town of Stars Hollow.
- Take That Me: Invoked. Jess threatens to kick his own ass if they call a bar Cedar Bar Redux.
