Season 7, episode 11
Santa's Secret Stuff
Rory comes home from England. Lorelai saved Christmas for her. Luke asks Lorelai for a reference letter to assure the family court he is fit to be a father. Lorelai and Rory go to a mall to buy Christmas gifts for their delayed Christmas and run into Luke, who is there to exchange April's rock polisher for a microscope. Lorelai is reminded of how good a surrogate father he was for Rory and finds inspiration to write a glowing letter of recommendation to the family court.
Tropes
- Baby Factory: Lane hates being treated like this instead of like a person.
- Blatant Lies:
- Gigi asks why Lorelai has Santa's clothes in a box and Lorelai stutters that she does Santa's dry cleaning. Subverted since Gigi is like three.
- Lane claims to be fat rather than eight months pregnant.
- April came up with an elaborate lie to get to spend time with her father without her mother finding out.
- Brick Joke: Lorelai covers up having Santa's clothes in her closet to Gigi by claiming to have been Santa's dry cleaner. Later, Rory is telling her she's not a kid who needs to be protected from knowledge of problems anymore, and Lorelai asks if she at least still believes in Santa. Rory replies in the affirmative.Your best dry cleaning client? Uh, yeah!
- Call-Back:
- When Sookie was pregnant, Andrew pointed out that an elephant's gestation lasts 22 months. Now Lane is pregnant, and April points it out.
- Lorelai calls Rory's shopping lists "shining haikus". She compared them to haikus in an early episode as well.
- Captain Obvious: The woman working at Weston's does her best to convince Lorelai that Christmas is over.
- Catchphrase: Lorelai claims her mind goes: "Hockey puck, rattle snake, monkey, monkey underpants."
- Christmas Carolers: Lorelai and Rory claim it would be cruel of them to sing to people, but Chris nevertheless breaks into a Hollywood Tonedeaf rendition of Gloria.
- Christmas Episode: Subverted. Rory spent actual Christmas in England, so Lorelai insisted on celebrating it in January instead.
- Comically Missing the Point:
- Christopher claims the Christmas trees are subpar and that if you look up "tree" in the dictionary you won't find a picture of any of them. Lorelai wonders why he would look up "tree" in the dictionary.
- Rory says they should make books out of something lighter, but Lorelai thinks paper is light enough.
- Compliment Backfire: A diner tries to leave Lane a fifty percent tip. Lane angrily informs the woman that she's pregnant, not homeless.
- Embarrassing Nickname: And birthname. Gil's son Macon the Bacon.
- Gift-Giving Gaffe: Luke used to give Rory towels or unicorn marionettes.
- Hollywood Atheist: April claims the reason Christmas isn't a big deal for her is that she is 60% atheist and 40% agnostic.
- Malaproper: Gigi tells her father: "We made cookies by scratching", being unfamiliar with the expression "making something from scratch".
- Product Placement:
- Lorelai claims to have hidden a Maserati behind her bed.
- Gil talks up Alcmere 3000 breast pump.
- Pun:
- Lorelai can only think to describe Luke as a "stand-up" guy in her letter to the court, and she thinks it makes him sound like a comedian.
- Thinking of Casablanca makes Lorelai think of the White House.
- Shout-Out:
- Rory swears she was a complete Scrooge on the inside while celebrating Christmas in London.
- Christopher sings Gloria.
- Lorelai associates Casablanca with the White House.
- Lorelai thinks Lenny Bruce steals jokes from Woody Allen.
- Lorelai went totally The Grinch on the Rory-less Christmas.
- Lorelai needs a Muse, or maybe Sharon Stone.
- The Smiths were an influence on Zach's latest song.
- Lorelai guesses that Lies of Omission is a Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman movie.
- April feels that Luke talks about her like she's Pearl Harbor.
- Zach argues that Sonic Youth and Mick Jagger have kids and are still rock'n roll.
- Snow Means Love: Lorelai held Christmas off by keeping it from snowing, she claims. It snows by the end of the episode.
- Stealth Insult: Michel pretends to wonder whether someone in Luke's family owns a flannel factory or something.
- You Just Told Me: Lorelai accuses Rory of smelling of Christmas cookies. Rory says she can't possibly, because that was six days ago.
