Title: The Long Morrow

An episode of the The Twilight Zone that aired January 10, 1964. An astronaut and his girlfriend at home age at different speeds for 40 years. “That’s true love.” Starring Robert Lansing, who was also in Star Trek, young Luke’s favorite show according to Mia (See Season 2, Episode 8).

Summary: The girls try racketball. Rory gets a weird rocket. Lorelai fucks it up. Luke is crushed. Taylor puts up a traffic camera. Kirk is Evel Knievel. Paris frightens the next generation.

BABETTE: She has a huge mouth. And she and Eileen Whitewin were behind Doose’s market seeing how many devil dogs Becky could stuff in there.

“Two fun-shaped devils food cakes, sandwiched around an abundance of rich Drake’s vanilla-flavored creme.” Seems like it would be a Gilmore favorite given the girls’ love for Twinkies and other Hostess treats.

SAT MOM: She has such potential. PARIS: Well, so did Charles Manson.

Charles Manson, the well-known crazy person and frequent Gilmore referencee. See also Patricia Krenwinkel in Season 2, Episode 12 or “The Manson Girls” in Season 3, Episode 8.

TAYLOR: You run a red light, it’s time for your close-up, Mr. Demille.

Taylor is misquoting the movie Sunset Boulevard and referencing infamous director Cecil B. DeMille. In the final scene, the jaded and attention-obsessed former silent film star Norma Desmond says “Alright Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up”. Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIcC8YJrevQ

LORELAI: What?! The prodigal daughter returns.

The Prodigal Daughter is a novel by Jeffrey Archer, which chronicles a girl’s (Florentyna) rise to become President of the United States. Archer got the inspiration for Florentyna’s political life and rise to the Presidency from the elections of Golda Meir, Margaret Thatcher and Indira Gandhi. All I can think is Rory would make a great US President, and probably could have beaten the orange-face-who-much-not-be named.

RORY: You want to run cross-country. LORELAI: Not across the whole country, maybe just Michigan.

I think this is a Forrest Gump reference but not sure.

LORELAI: Rocket, rocket, rocket. Rocket man — “Rocket Man”, “Crocodile rock” was good. “Bennie and the Jets,” “Candle in the Wind.” RORY: Are you just naming Elton John songs? LORELAI: He is just so talented.

The man is a legend. He’s made more than 30 albums, won 5 Grammys, an Academy award and a Tony. He’s a long-time ally in the fight against AIDS, raising hundreds of millions of dollars for the cause. Plus he was close friends with Princess Diana and was knighted in 1998. So jealous.

RORY: What about space? LORELAI: It’s the final frontier?

“Space; the final frontier.” The phrase William Shatner used to begin each episode of Star Trek. The whole quote goes “Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.” You’ll remember that Luke was a big Star trek fan as a kid, as revealed by Mia in Season 2, Episode 8.

LULU: Taylor’s putting a camera on the traffic light. GYPSY: Big Brother is watching.

Big Brother is a fictional character and symbol in George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. In the book, Big Brother is seen on huge computer screens throughout the city with the phrase “Big Brother is watching you.”  Anthony Burgess, in his book about Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four, claims that Orwell took inspiration from an educational company Bennett’s and the billboard that featured a close-up of an ominous looking man saying “Let me be your big brother.”The phrase is now used in popular culture to talk about civil liberties and mass surveillance. Snowden was right.

RORY: Okay, do you remember when you begged me to go see The Fast and the Furious with you, and I said no? And then you begged me to go see The Fast and the Furious 2 with you, and I said no? Then The Fast and the Furious 3: Tokyo Drift came out…

Street racing, heists, hand-to-hand combat, hot guys, tender family moments with Coronas – what’s more to like? Rory and Lorelai are clearly missing out. The Fast and the Furious franchise includes 8 films with more on the way. The movies significantly improved after Fast 5. But now without Paul Walker (RIP :(), the future for the Fast crew is different. Long live Brian O’Conner!

RORY: Then Kirk gets up, he gets out of the car, and he’s all like, Evel Knievel style, like, “I’m okay, I’m okay.”

Evel Knieval was a stunt entertainer and semi-celebrity in the 70s, proving just how weird that decade was. He tried more than 75 ramp jumps over his career, including some epic fails like the Ceaser’s Palace Fountains jump where he landed short. Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYGGCVE2lKY. It’s kind of a bad fall though, you’ve been warned.

LORELAI: I wore it with Luke when we went to see “Jarhead.” I was trying to look kind of Army.

A 2003 novel and a 2005 film starring Jake Gyllenhaal about US Marines during Operation Desert Storm. It was acclaimed as a pretty accurate depiction of modern war. Jake Gyllenhaal looked pretty good in that movie, no wonder Lorelai wanted to dress up in a camo skirt. Plus she loves a good theme outfit.

RORY: Cormac McCarthy – good call. “In Cold Blood” – he would have loved that.

Luke would have loved Cormac McCarthy, Rory was right. McCarthy wrote No Country for Old Man, All the Pretty Horses, The Road, and Blood Meridian. He has a similar gruff and simplistic language to Luke himself.

In Cold Blood is a non-fiction novel by Truman Capote about the grisly murders of a farming family in Kansas. Not sure why Lorelai would recommend it to Luke or why Rory thought that was a good idea, unless she knew he would want to murder Christopher for good reason, in Season 7 (Episodes 2 and 10).

RORY: Was it an “I hate you” wave, or an “I’m sorry” wave, or “I can’t believe you wanted my mother to shave her head and become a Moonie” wave.

Everyone loves a good religious cult. Led by Sun Myung Moon (hence Moonies), the Unification Church of the United States was a new religion movement mainly in the 70s with missionaries coming from Japan and South Korea to establish the church in the US. Apparently, the term Moonies was viewed as derogatory. Ted Koppel (see Season 4, Episode 9) even apologized after using the term on Nightline evening news in 1994.

LORELAI: Zen. RORY: Thoreau, Walden Pond.

Henry David Thoreau, the simple living enthusiast, famously builds a cabin in the woods at Walden Pond with his buddy Ralph Waldo Emerson (we get it with the triple names, guys) and has a transcendent experience being in nature. The Gilmores don’t really like nature so wouldn’t have loved On Walden Pond, but Lorelai’s home devoid of anything that reminds her of Luke is certainly very zen.

RORY: Logan has very expressive eyes. LORELAI: I’ve noticed. It’s one of the things he and Bette Davis have in common.

Bette Davis was known for playing rude, cold, and kind of bitchy characters, but was perhaps more well-known for her intense style and very expressive eyes. There is even a song called “Bette Davis Eyes” made popular by Kim Karnes in 1981. That song has been covered by so many artists including Courtney Love, Taylor Swift, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Eddie Murphy in a hilarious SNL skit. Interesting facts about Bette Davis – She was a co-founder of the Hollywood Canteen (see Season 6, Episode 5) and was the first female president of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Girl Power.

LORELAI: Wa wa wa. RORY: Mom. LORELAI: Sorry. RORY: Chachi, right? LORELAI: Proud.

Scott Baio as Chachi was a national treat. His catchphrase “Wa Wa Wa” usually meant he was referring to something sexual. Example:”I get along especially well with the Cunnigham women. Wa wa wa.” The saying came from Scott Baio himself, who always said “what, what, what.”

RORY: You’re turning British. Do you have a secretary named Moneypenny?

Miss Moneypenny, James Bond’s perennial right hand woman and the quintessential British secretary stereotype. She was technically the secretary to M, the leader of MI6, but worked closely (but surprisingly not sexually) with Bond.