Gilmore Girls S1, Ep9, “Rory’s Dance”: Pop Culture Rewatch

At Chilton, Rory reads in line for tickets for the dance, where Tristin flirts with her:

“She’s reading again– how novel.”

He asks Rory to go with him, and she not-so-politely declines.

On the night of the dance, Rory primps and Lorelai wonders “why,” since she’s 16 and has a face like a baby’s bum. In those days, we really didn’t primp. The cosmetic industry just wasn’t what it is in the time of Sephora and “get ready with me” videos. I recall going to my junior prom wearing bright blue eyeliner, and it wasn’t even the 80s. Beyond that, the most primping I did was hoping that the 3-step Proactiv system from the famous commercials would cure my acne. Now, though, I know that even preteens younger than Rory are really into primping.

Rory looks super cute in her formal dress and Ugg boots. I think it’s the cutest thing when teens where comfy shoes like Chuck Taylors with their formal wear. It gives them a sense of growing up while still being a kid at the same time. I also find Rory’s “fit” to be pretty true to the time. And that definitely includes her baby’s breath-encrusted updo. The tackier, the better in our days.

Sookie arrives with tacos and burritos, and she really is the best. How happy would you be if your best friend brought you Mexican grub when it was your daughter’s first dance and your back was out?! Or, really any time. One should never pass up a burrito. But for Lorelai’s sake, it better not have avocado on it.

Next, Emily arrives and attempts to photograph Rory with a bib and a burrito. Dean honks for Rory, and Emily loses it. What a savage burn we have here:

“This is not a drive through. She’s not fried chicken.”

They wait for Dean, and let’s be honest, this is definitely not his fault. He and Rory agreed to the honk. He handles Emily Post a/k/a Emily Gilmore with grace.

At the dance, the very tall, dark, and handsome Dean impresses Madeline and Louise. He says he’s 6’2, but I think he’s taller than that. After all, later in the series, Jess calls him “Frankenstein.” According to Google, he’s 6’4″.

Emily makes Lorelai mashed banana on toast, which she apparently loved, but seriously, it’s really gross. She’s not a toddler! Especially since Sookie left her a burrito.

Paris’s date, Jacob, asks Rory out, and he reveals he’s actually her cousin. Oh, snap! Paris has some tough moments in this series, and this certainly is one.

Back at the house, Lorelai and Emily have a big mother-daughter moment. Emily actually compliments Lorelai on both the dress and on raising Rory. This is huge!

Things get heated between Dean and Tristin, and Dean’s burn here is just about as savage as an Emily burn: He tells Tristin that fighting him would be like fighting an accountant.

Emily tucks in Lorelai, who calls her “mommy,” and the moment is so sweet that it’s almost destined to backfire. Things are just not meant to be this good between these two.

Dean and Rory grab coffee in Stars Hollow, and their little “walk and talk” reminds me of the simple beauties of dating. It’s been so long since I left the house after dark, dressed up, and did something this special! I’m not complaining by any means —I love my cozy nights at home —but I am just saying that marriage is very different from dating.

Anyway, they sneak into Miss Patty’s, where we learn that Rory brought her book to the dance:

“I just take a book with me everywhere. It’s just habit.”

They read, smooch, and… fall asleep! The next morning, Miss Patty’s yoga class finds them, and you just know that every single one of those women is going to be talking about her behind her back!

Rory runs home shoeless in the snow, and I can almost feel the coldness on her feet. She knows this is big.

At the house, Lorelai and Emily are freaking out. Why, why, why, of all moments, did Emily have to be there for this one? Miss Patty calls to notify Lorelai about finding Rory, and Emily wonders if Miss Patty’s is “a motel.” Truly, the writing couldn’t have been better in this scene.

And now, folks, the thunder that has rumbled so low and slow throughout the series thus far causes lightning to strike. There could be no tensions deeper in this family than the prospect of Rory becoming a teen mom like Lorelai. Just as Emily and Lorelai took one step forward, they now take them all back to the beginning again, like a game of Chutes & Ladders.

This scene is so definitive of the relationship between Lorelai and Emily —questioning each other’s mothering styles and threatening to lose each other. It’s like a pressure cooker filled with decades of conflicts and judgments and misunderstandings, all wrapped into one argument.

Lorelai stands up for her “my daughter is my best friend” method of mothering, but Emily comes right back at her with this very direct and very harsh savage burn:

“Well, if I was so controlling, why couldn’t I control you running around getting pregnant and throwing your life away.”

It stings, but at the same time, this is one instance in which you can empathize with the points of view of each Gilmore. After all, none of them are perfect, and they each kind of have a point. This is why I love the family drama genre so much! It’s all shades of grey when you blend different points of view that are forced to engage with each other on very emotional levels.

Rory thanks her mom for standing up for her, but Lorelai is livid. I can’t blame her. That fight, and Rory’s failure to come home, were about as tough as it gets in Stars Hollow.

So far, these episodes have ended with all being well in Stars Hollow, but here, they very much aren’t.

Books and Authors Referenced

Let’s break down the Gilmores’ world of books– this episode’s most iconic literary references for those taking the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge with us on Fridaynightreaders.substack.com, where we read from the list of books mentioned on Gilmore Girls.

• Midnight Express by Billy Hayes
• The Group by Mary McCarthy
• Susan Faludi
• Emily Post
• The Portable Dorothy Parker 
• The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
• A Streetcar Named Desire  by Tennessee Williams

Lorelai jokingly says she and Rory should “go to Turkey and stay in that place from Midnight Express.” Here, we don’t know if she’s talking about the book or the movie, so I’m going with the book. It centers on a young American student sent to a Turkish prison, and it’s based on a memoir.

In line for tickets to the dance, Rory reads The Group by Mary McCarthy. This #1 New York Times bestseller and National Book Award Finalist is a feminist title, like we so often see Rory reading. It follows eight Vassar graduates from the Class of 1933 as they navigate love, work, and identity in New York. It’s both sharp and satirical in its exploration of female friendship, sexuality, and social expectations —groundbreaking for its time. Hugely popular and just as controversial, it’s now regarded as a precursor to shows like Sex and the City. I’ve never read it, but it’s definitely high on my list.

Tristin tells Rory that “the man” is supposed to buy the dance ticket, and Rory wonders if Susan Faludi knew about that. Faludi is an American journalist and feminist author known for her sharp critiques of gender roles and media culture.

Next, Lorelai introduces Dean to her mother as Emily Post. She was an American socialite best known for her influential writings on etiquette and manners. Through her books, newspaper columns, and radio shows, she shaped American social behavior. She sounds like the Martha Stewart of etiquette to me!

Now, very famously, Rory brings The Portable Dorothy Parker to the dance. Born at the turn of the 20th Century, Dorothy Parker was a highly quotable American writer, poet, and critic known for her sharp wit and social commentary, often filled with themes of loneliness and disillusionment, which was very prominent in writing at that time.

Now, if you’ve heard Taylor Swift sing about the Algonquin, then you should know that Dorothy Parker was a founding member of the Algonquin Round Table, a group of New York writers and intellectuals in the 1920s.

I’ve never read her work, but I did snag a copy of this book at my local library sale, so I definitely plan to! It was such an amazing score.

One final thing I want to note is that the line Dean quotes is from “Coda” by Dorothy Parker.

“There’s little in taking or giving. There’s little in water or wine. This living, this living, this living was never a project of mine.”

Then, Rory refers to Dean as her “gentleman caller.” This is from The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, one of my favorite plays. It’s considered a “memory play” because it’s told from the perspective of one character —so it’s a single point of view and not contemporaneous. By nature, the story is subjective and incomplete.

Set in a low-class St. Louis apartment in the 1930s, it offers a window into a few relatively inconsequential moments in the lives of the Wingfield family, showing the stronghold that memory has had over their happiness. In some ways, it even reminds me of The Great Gatsby, and that famous line:

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” 

That’s very much what’s happening in The Glass Menagerie, as our narrator’s Southern belle mother attempts to set his painfully shy sister up with a “gentleman caller.”

If you read the play, I definitely recommend diving deeper into its theme of memory; it’s really brilliant. I actually loved this literary device so much, I wrote about The Glass Menagerie as a memory play.

Moving along! In return, Lane calls Rory “Blanche” from A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams– another great play!

Set in postwar New Orleans, it tells the story of Blanche DuBois, a fading Southern belle who moves in with her sister, Stella, and brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski, after losing her family’s estate. The play explores themes of desire, illusion, class conflict, and mental decay as Blanche’s fragile fantasy world clashes with Stanley’s brutal realism.

I love this reference for this episode, especially since family tensions also run high here. And, we’ll hear more about this book in an episode to come. (Think: Lorelai yelling “Stella!”)

Curious about every single book mentioned in this Gilmore Girls episode—even the obscure references most people miss, like Louise’s Shakespearean reference? Head to this episode’s page at Fridaynightreaders.substack.com. Paid members get printable episode guides for every Gilmore Girls episode, which are perfect for tracking your own Rory-inspired reading journey.

Up Next

Lastly, the time has come for me to be what Jess called Rory—a book tease. Tune in next week, when we dive into episode 1.10, “Forgiveness and Stuff,” and books like The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, which Rory buys for Dean for Christmas.