Subscribe
In ‘Swan Song‘, Jess gets “beaked” by a swan and, surprise surprise, doesn’t want to admit to it. Hey, it’s not so macho to say you were attacked by a swan! Plus, given Jess’ history at school – and with Dean – perhaps he figured nobody would believe him anyway.
However, the black eye came at a bad time – right as Jess shows up to the Gilmore mansion for a dinner! So, it’s not exactly a time when Jess and Rory can talk about the issue. If Jess had been honest from the start with Rory – or Luke or anyone – do you think they would have believed him?
Ok, and I couldn’t resist bringing up a second topic here – the fact that Rory is “maybe” thinking of taking things further with Jess – why is she moving so quickly?!
Watch this episode of Gilmore Girls on TheWB.com here.
Image: TheWB.com
291 days ago
Swans can be vicious and Jess supposedly did hang out at the lake to be alone, but I still didn’t buy it. He sure has a long history with the lake, being pushed in, his picnic with Rory and talk after the dance marathon. And now the swan. Maybe, he was telling the truth after all, I’m not convinced.
Rory was questioned by Lorelai about that before she thought about it herself. Her own mother made her, and Jess wasn’t Dean. She was growing up and Jess was pushing her just a little bit. It was bound to enter her thoughts sometime.
Reply
291 days ago
I never believed that he was attecked by a swan. That’s just so lame story. And at the end of the episode, he said that he was hit by football, and he wasn’t very convincing. I think in this episode begins the downhill of their relationship, we saw, that Jess can’t be trusted. After that come the lies to Luke and Rory about the school, the prom. He treated her very badly, forget to call her, get mad when she don’t want to sleep with him.
In this episode they show us that they can’t be a happy couple for long.
Reply
291 days ago
Large waterfowl can react quickly and aggressively if improperly triggered so the posssibility of such an attack is real. Besides, the story is so lame that it has to be true, Jess could come up with something much better if he was lying.
As to the second question there is thinking about it as all adolescents do at some point or THINKING ABOUT IT as in Rory’s case. Suspect in Rory’s case this action was accelerated by the subconscious feeling that something was going wrong with her relationship with Jess and maybe this would help make things right [or at least provide a life-changing experience for her before Jess flew the coup]. IMHO, the failure to get this right carried over throughout the next year and was a significant contributor to the ill-fated Rory/Dean liason.
Reply
291 days ago
I thought it was believable, apart from what mcityrk and martin are teaching me about waterfowl! It’s also Stars Hollow, where all sorts of odd things happen. And I like what Martin has to say about all the symbolism surrounding the lake. I had not thought of that before! (Do we see the lake again in the show except when it involves Jess?)
The bigger issue of Jess and believing him has less to do with the swan than what Luke gets out of him in the boat. Jess doesn’t seem to really believe Rory chose him (he knows it’s doomed in some ways, for now), but he also has no respect for the fact that Rory has people in her life other than him, and seems shocked when Luke tells him he’ll have to relate to her family to be with her. We saw more of this “sense and sensibility” when the winter festival appeared in an earlier episode where he told Rory he “had” her and therefore no longer had to do town things that she wanted to do. We see it again when he tells Rory at the keg party he doesn’t “like anyone else” and wants Rory to do whatever he wants to do. And his story is suspicious because of the contempt he has for everyone, often even the way he treats Rory — not calling her after he says he would, assuming she’ll be home waiting around for him, etc.
Jess’ defenders will always respond that Jess had a hard childhood, but that’s not only unfair to the rest of us, it’s not fair to the show — When Liz appears, we see she’s more eccentric than menacing, and Luke and Jess are so full of rage and tend to anger that they like to trash her for not living up to their expectations. And she too shares the Danes temper, which leads to a lot of accusations.
We’ve only really Jess’ sad tale from Jess, much as we hear Lorelai portray Richard and Emily as villains in ways that turn out not to be true. Just as Lorelai is “dramatic” and childish as Emily often says that she is, Jess has a point of view that defies sympathy and is probably extremely distorted. This is not to say it’s his fault. Some people seem to be born chemically with a tendency to rage and anger. Some are psychologically immature despite parents’ best efforts.
And yet, while many of us have broken homes, fathers who abandon them, mothers who are demanding, the rage and selfishness that Jess exhibits is shocking even to Luke, who is pretty anti-social. It’s not just his history at school and with Dean — it’s his history with everyone, including Rory, that made no one trust him, about anything, wounds or otherwise.
Reply
290 days ago
On the swan – definitely true. It’s such an embarrassing story, that it simply isn’t something he’d make up. After all, if he had hit someone else – it would have come out.
I think Rory was moving quickly with Jess because she had a much stronger physical attraction to him than to Dean. She seems much more physically aware of him late second season and third season – where he is and so on. She liked Dean, but did not react in the same way.
On the subject that Marie brings up – I think that’s overkill. As a teenager Jess was selfish and seemed rarely aware of others than Rory – except sometimes Luke and sort-of Paris (he does talk to her when they first meet about Jane Austen). And I think his mother was not so much an evil whatever, but completely incapable of bringing up Jess. However, I found Jess’s behaviour could sometimes be funny (the police tape, for example) and was usually that he really didn’t think about the other people he would affect (eg. I felt really sorry for the maker of the snow figure he destroyed to let Rory win).
Maybe I went to an unusually violent school – but I didn’t find Jess’s rage or selfishness particularly shocking for 17 (Dean, in contrast, at the party is shocking for lashing out about something that’s none of his business and he’s jumped to conclusions about). And whilst the destruction of the snow-person seemed unfair, so did the pelting of Jess’s car with deviled eggs (because Chris had got his girlfriend pregnant!) – and it’s an event over which Rory and Loralei felt not the slightest regret (come to that – Rory just looks happy about the snow person too!).
At 17 Jess didn’t deserve Rory. A few years on, he’s become a better person. Maybe he still doesn’t deserve Rory, but I think he has at least proved that he was capable of “making good” away from his mother and, to some extent, away from Luke (who, after all, didn’t believe that Dean started that last fight – despite that, in the end, Jess was starting to be more honest with him, like over the swan).
Reply
290 days ago
if you think jess is kinda like lorelai
*they both hated their lives growing up
*they both made lots of mistakes
*they both were rebels
*they both hated their lifestyle
*they both hated their parents
*they both often ran away
*they both fall inlove fast in their relationships
*they both freak out in relationships
*they both had their eyes on someone in stars hollow
*they both got their act together when they grew up
*they both love rory
*they both love luke
*they both hate logan
*they both were dislike by the gilmores
*they both like the same music
*they both get jealous of other people’s relationship jess/dean logan lorelai/nicole
*they both used someone as bait to reel in the people they love
*they both make lots of mistakes
*they both are spontaneous
DOES ANYONE AGREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Reply
290 days ago
dolphin- he didnt get mad that she didnt sleep with him he got mad because he just got kicked out of school he knew he would have to leave he knew he would make his girlfriend upset because he cant take her to prom he is mad that he is in love with a girl that he will have to leave soon and that he is mad at himself for not staying in school DUH!!!
Rory even said i something is wrong i dont know what it is he was upset yadi yada yada
notice when luke and jess are screaming at eachother and when luke says then you have to go he is almost to tears ???
Reply
290 days ago
In response to ggfan:
Yes, there are similarities between them, although I would be wary of taking that too far as I can’t imagine Jess raising a kid at the same age as Lorelai did (and all that went with that).
There’s been various posts about what if Jess came back again after season 6; usually in connection with restarting a relationship with Rory. I think it would have been interesting for him to come back just to explore this comparison with Lorelai. She hated him and hasn’t seen him since he sorted himself out; I think it would make interesting parallels with how her parents reacted to her after she made good with Rory and the Inn(s).
Reply
289 days ago
About this parallel between Jess and Lorelai (there are some similarities, no doubt of that) I want to just bring something in discussion: as much as I love Lorelai, she acted very irresponsible with Max. I mean running away before the wedding.
And I want to make a parallel between Lorelai’s freak out and leaving town before getting married (I don’t remember exactly, Max finds out that the wedding is off directly from Lorelai or someone else??) and Jess leaving town, leaving Rory without a word. I think that the two of them are alike form this point of view. When they hit the hard parts in their relationships they tend to run away because they are scared. Now, what is worst: when a mature woman leaves his future husband and runs from the wedding or when a rebel, troubled teenager leaves town (when he is forced by the situation that he caused-he was his fault after all) without saying anything to his girlfriend? All the people that hate Jess and blame him for what he did to Rory, they don’t think for a minute that what he did wasn’t such a crime for what he never must be forgiven. I mean Lorelai (and I love her character) did, in my opinion something much worse giving the fact that she is an adult and was on her way to getting married-a much deep relation.
Sorry for the off topic. Now to respond the questions: I am positive about the swan thing (it was quite funny that Jess got “beaked” and to make another parallel, Rory also got hit by a deer=)) What is it with the animals in Stars Hollow that they are so violent???). I was sad that he didn’t tell the truth to Rory but I think that he thought Rory would think he is weak and a loser-I mean who gets attacked by swans besides maybe Kirk, since the cats don’t like him also=))- and he was very unsure of himself giving the fact that Rory firstly think he fought with Dean and didn’t believe him before Dean made her sure that was no fight. Many communication issues between them…
Long post, sorry if I’m boring!
Reply
289 days ago
And to respond the second question: Jess was for Rory the first boy that she was really attracted to. I mean she liked Dean from the beginning but it was sort of autosuggestion: Dean liked her, later he loved her, but she never had the possibility to choose him. It wasn’t a boy she liked and wanted to know him, it was the other way a round. Dean noticed her and aproached her. She liked that a boy is interesed in her (a cute guy, sweet and all) so why not be with him? But with Jess was something else: he came in a moment of her life that she wasn’t thinking at boys at all. She had Dean(after the breakup) and she was happy. She saw in Jess a potential friend, nothing more. But she was attracted to him and inevitably fell for Jess. So that’s why she seem to move so quickly in their relationship, she was physically attracted to Jess.
I’m sorry for grammar mistakes, I’m not very good with english
Reply
289 days ago
Lathany,
With all respect, I have to disagree about Jess. I think it’s interesting that you use words like “overkill” and say you went to a violent school as if that is the way it’s supposed to be. In much of the world it is not — and we have standards where there are not repeated killings in our offices and schools and shootings on television every day.
But that’s another topic.
I lived in New York City for several years, where Jess supposedly came from. It is a diverse and wonderful city, where many children ride the subway and are non-violent, and many of the schools there are excellent and safe. Just because Jess went to school in New York, we do not know if he went to a violent school, or had a violent home, or had any other reason to be angry or violent, that his home was violent, or other things in his life made him so.
Yes, violence breeds violence and if it is usual in your school Lathany I am sad that it was normal behavior. There are other ways to live.
As I said, some people are angry perhaps, we believe, because of biology, adrenaline, primitive leftovers from evolution in our genes. Luke, Liz, and Jess all have tempers that may be something other than conditioning.
That said, Jess’ rage if not biological or chemical should be justified.
The “golden rule” that I know Americans claim to believe (and more when they claim to be religious) teaches that you treat people like we want to be treated. If Jess can act so selfishly and so bitterly to so many people, why is there such a need to defend him? It’s not behavior any of us in society would expect the world to accept and love us when we do not show the same consideration for other people.
I also find this interesting in light of the comments on Amy Palladino wanting to still write Gilmore Girls because the stories she has to tell are about battling your family and no therapy curing that. As Josh said, this tells you something about Amy, as well as Jess, not to mention Lorelai, Emily, Luke, Paris and so many other characters on the show who have real problems with rage. If even therapy cannot help you with these issues, our dear Amy, what does that say? She seems to understand in her writing that all these explosions and hatreds have horrible consequences — and makes fun of people for their temper tantrums — but then, like so many here, tend to defend it as if it’s the way it is, and therefore, should be, especially her own behavior.
This, my Gilmore Girl friends, is WHY so many people are upset with Amy for leaving her show. Rather than staying calm at the end of Season 6, as even Michael Ausiello suggested, finishing the show with dignity on one more year, she quit in a huff and continues to suggest in interviews she holds grudges, blaming other people for ruining her show. This is what you get when you think this behavior is normal.
At least Amy saw that Jess had to be broken for his behavior before he could be redeemed. And I don’t think EVEN she thinks his rage and selfishness were “normal” or appropriate. I think she made very clear that he brought on his rejection and isolation himself.
Reply
289 days ago
Marie
I take your points, but you don’t commment on Dean for the fight or Rory / Lorelai for their behaviour – do you see those as rages too? And were they justified?
Reply
288 days ago
Thanks, Lathany.
Dean is not perfect. He made many mistakes, and his outburst attacking Jess not noble — clearly backed by rage that should have been controlled or released some other way — but Dean admitted it. Notice how he was contrite and already gone to the house to make up for the damage he caused? But we also have to put it in context. In general, Dean was non-violent — resisting fighting with Tristan, trying to keep Jess from fighting. He was even taunted by Jess repeatedly, humiliated in public and had lost someone he loved to Jess — ALL of that he RESISTED fighting Jess. He only hit Jess when he saw Rory crying with Jess coming after and thought Jess had hurt her. In Dean’s mind, he used the moment to protect Rory, but also to release his anger. And he went into “overdrive” trying to make up for it. Lindsey must have seen him rush to Rory’s defense, and humiliated, it’s probably why, after Rory did not run to him, he felt he should marry Lindsey.
I disagree that Lorelai and Jess’ rage are comparable – Lorelai is non-violent and throughout the show has never applauded men fighting (for example, when Luke pushed Dean from the diner, or attacked Nicole’s lover’s car, or tolerating Jess’ violence).
But I have said many times — prompting criticism that I do not like the show – that Lorelai is a troubled woman and there is no real explanation for the depth of her childish behavior. As charming, beautiful and funny as she can be, at her best she is mature and growing, but at her worst, she is the epitome of a spoiled, narcissistic, and immature child. I agree with Richard, that he and Emily did nothing to deserve having her run away, as she turns her back on many people, pushes them away, throws fits, and worst of all, turned her back on Rory for months. And the way she treated Max (in Season 3), Christopher (from the beginning), and Luke (especially in Season 2, 4 and 6) is particularly troubling.
There is, though, an explanation for the childish side of her behavior. Giving birth at 16 — and if anyone does the math, it probably means she got pregnant at FIFTEEN — she lost her childhood. She had to grow up too fast to become a mother. Most of us ARE childish in some ways at 16 because we are children.
But her anger and resentment of her parents or anyone who disagrees with her, perhaps a trait Amy shares, is not productive. Even when Lorelai just is trying to tell someone what to wear or do, she cannot let it go when someone disagrees with her — she teases, jokes, harasses — clearly taking it personally that everyone does not agree with her all the time.
Sadly, in Seasons 1-3 she seemed to grow out of this behavior, until Amy and Dan decided in Seasons 5 and 6 to show that her “tragic flaw” was something she struggled to overcome. But that is why maybe we all still watched.
None of us are perfect. We all need to grow in different ways. But the idea that someone will endorse Jess and Lorelai’s behavior (or for example, Luke punching Christopher for Lorelai’s mistake) is something we should all be concerned with. Liking a person for their good traits should not mean embracing and defending their bad ones.
Reply
288 days ago
Marie,
Many thanks.
On Jess – I thought the actor’s comments on Jess’ behaviour were interesting, have you seen them (link below)? He doesn’t see his character as a tragic hero (although that site describes him in that fashion elsewhere).
http://www.gilmoregirls.org/news/367.html
On Dean – I’ve always had trouble, past the first season, of liking Dean. The character, when facing difficulties in his relationship started trying to do more and more for Rory almost suffocating her. I did like him walking away at the dance – I felt that showed a bit of honesty and self-respect. However, after that he almost starts to pick up Jess’ failings; taunting him (the first time he sees him after the split), starting a fight (at the Keg party) and generally going down hill. And that’s before he got married and cheated on his wife. I dunno, I just wasn’t impressed.
Reply
288 days ago
Hi Lathany,
I would agree with Milo’s assessment to a degree. “Hero” is a bit of a stretch, as well as protagonist. I would not be surprised if any actor needs to see himself or herself as such, and I definitely think it applies to Lorelai. She absolutely meets the definition in literature of a protagonist with a tragic flaw (her arrested development). And the brilliance of her playing herself as justified in all of her actions is that it made her charming and more complex.
I think for Dean, I try to put him in the context of the series. Yes, I think he threatened to behave in the bad ways of Jess, but it did not last, and he never did it to the degree Jess did. Yes, before he could not take it anymore and had to leave Rory after the way she treated him at the dance, he smothered her. But if we remember, in earlier episodes, Rory admitted that he called her 10 times and she seemed to like it. And he apparently learned, backed off, and was not unjustified in feeling that his relationship was threatened and was trying to save it. Of course his marriage to Lindsey and his affair was a low point, but again I gave credit to Dean for saying several times after his breakup that he hurt Lindsey and didn’t want to keep hurting her by being seen in public with Rory. Rory never apologized to Lindsey as far as we know, and the single episode of shame Rory seemed to experience was much too quick and never brought up again, except by Dean who admitted over and over again when he was wrong.
Like so many characters on the show, his character degraded as he was used in the plot. By Season 6 Emily cannot even recognized Spanish or tell a blueberry from a raspberry! I don’t know who was responsible for all of it, and we have to take it all for the character as is, but at least Jess was redeemed and used in the later Season for good — and maybe would be heroic after all.
Reply