Application Anxiety

Season

Episode

3

3

Aired

October 8, 2002

Written by

Daniel Palladino

Directed by

Gail Mancuso

[[{{{transcript}}}|Episode Transcript]]
[[{{{transcript2}}}|Part Two]]

SynopsisEdit

Hackneyed, perfunctory, run-of-the-mill - that's Rory. When her Harvard application arrives, her confidence disappears. And soon three generations of Gilmore girls share one giant anxiety attack.

Plot outlineEdit

Rory's application for Harvard arrives, plunging Rory, Lorelai and Emily into a frenzy. A Chilton seminar on college applications only adds to Rory's anxiety and sends Paris into a tizzy. Taylor steamrollers Luke into opening a soda shop next to the diner. Lane places an ad in the paper for a band and finds a musical soulmate. Lorelai and Rory have dinner with a Harvard alumni and his family which may assure her chances of acceptance. Dean has a talk with Rory about their future after she goes to Harvard.

MusicEdit

• "Tiny Cities Made of Ashes" by Modest Mouse
• "I Wanna Be Sedated" by The Ramones
• "Big in Japan" by Tom Waits
• "Smile" by Grant Lee Phillips
• "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" by They Might Be Giants
• Also referenced: The Accelerators, The Adolescents, The Adverts, Agent Orange, The Angelic Upstarts, The Agnostic Front, Ash, AC/DC, The Animals, a-ha, David Bowie, Jackson Browne, Nico, The Ramones, Yes, Jethro Tull, The Jam, Nirvana, Bananarama, The Pixies, The Breeders, Dead Kennedys, Wu-Tang Clan, Butthole Surfers, The Clash, The Kinks

Book ReferencesEdit

• Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol

Movie ReferencesEdit

• Fiddler on the Roof
• Karate Kid
• West Side Story
• Sid and Nancy

Pop Culture ReferencesEdit

The Brady Bunch Variety Hour

(about the TV show they're watching)
Rory: It's on my top fifty best.
Lorelai: Yeah, right after Holmes & Yo-Yo and Hee Haw Honeys.

Rory: Sylvia Plath?
Lorelai: Might send the wrong message.
Rory: The "sticking her head in the oven" thing?

Lorelai: How about the one of us sticking our heads through the carved out holes of Johnny Bravo and SpongeBob Squarepants?

Rory: So, what are you doing Saturday?
Dean: Just my usual chores.
Rory: Your usual chores, John Boy?

Emily: And now it's the in thing for young Hollywood celebrities to go to universities. What do they call themselves, the Brat Pack?

Lorelai: We could call it Tangerinorama or Banafana-fofanna-rama or something.

Taylor: I am telling you Luke, if we don't quickly furnish these skateboarding Z-boys with a moral distraction they are going to turn Starshollow into Dogtown.

Luke: And when I die, I'm gonna have them freeze me next to Ted Williams.

Rory: You're no Danny Gans.