(S07E12) For some reason, despite everything that has happened to make this show start circling the drain, four Gilmore characters can be relied upon to entertain, no matter who is writing the episode: Emily, Richard, Sookie and Paris. All four of them are in tonight's episode (Emily is just in the cold open, but it counts), and, I've got to tell you, their presence made it pretty decent as a result.Otherwise? Um... well... Let's just say this crawl towards the inevitable Lorelai - Luke reunion is driving me nuts.
Oh, come on, people; we know it's going to happen. They couldn't project this in bigger letters if they rented out the local drive-in. First, there was the letter; it wasn't just a character reference for Luke's custody case, it was emotional, heartfelt, and emotional (yes, I said that already. It was that good). You knew the stomach-punch parts of it, if Chris were to ever find it, were when Lorelai said that Luke was always there for Rory -- implying, of course, that Chris wasn't -- and that when Luke enters a person's life, he stays forever.
And, of course you knew Chris was going to find it (It was in the coming attractions last week, anyway... thanks, CW promotions!), and of course you knew that he was going to overreact. But leave? Disappear? Over that letter? Really? Isn't Chris supposed to be mature and responsible now, not bolting at the slightest sign of trouble? I mean, for crissakes, he even had trouble choking down coffee from Luke's diner, much less dealing with this letter. What a baby. Granted, the letter was quite a bit more than a character reference, and maybe he was just realizing what the entire Gilmore-watching public knew already: that he was Lor's second choice. But being married means working through these issues, or at least trying. It's not about getting liquored up and running back to Hartford.
Anyway, it's not like Lor and Luke don't have their own issues. Anna, who all of a sudden has been made a bitch, tells Luke before their custody hearing that he bailed on Lorelai, to which he vehemently objected. Technically, he's right. But he became emotionally unavailable to the point where Lor walked away. If Anna had actually known how that all went down, she might have retained full custody of April instead of losing her on every other holiday (by the way, I was actually kind of surprised that Luke won so quickly. The letter may have turned the tide, considering his behavior during the visit with the judge. But that would be too easy for the writers to write... wouldn't it?).
Moving on... Was Sookie's harumphing over Jackson's non-vasectomy adorable or what? News of Melissa McCarthy's pregnancy had been floating around the web for a while, so this turn of events wasn't unexpected. But it's nice to see her and Jackson get more screen time; lately we've just seen Sook sitting in the inn's kitchen saying "Are you sure you're OK with Luke doing blah blah blah?" to Lorelai all the time. It's good to see that the writers have realized she's good at other stuff, too.
Here's what I want to know: why is Rory following Paris' nutty post-graduation scheme of grant applications and taking unnecessary tests like the MCATs ("Sanjay Gupta. CNN's chief medical correspondent. He's cornered the market.")? Is it because she doesn't know what she wants to do with herself? Is she humoring Paris? Or was she just trying to distract herself from the whole "Lucy hates me" issue? Thankfully, Paris decided to get Ror and Lucy back together with her own heartfelt speech about how Rory is one of the best and how lucky she is to be friends with her (believe me, I'm being more sentimental about it than Paris was). And those tiny, portable reproductions of Paris' whiteboards were pretty funny. Don't you think a Paris spin-off would be a hoot? Maybe as a half-hour single-camera sitcom...
So Lucy broke up with Marty. Do I see a Marty-Logan-Rory triangle in the offing? God, I hope not. And Richard decided to go have himself a heart attack; I guess all the years of cigars and awful Mexican quail dishes finally caught up with him. It's the perfect device to show what kind of a schmuck Chris is and how wonderful Luke is, isn't it?
Like I said, this episode was better than the season's average. But the continuing weird characterizations of Chris -- "I can't believe I drank his coffee!" -- and Rory -- "I don't know what I want to do with my life, even though I've wanted to be a journalist since I was in diapers!" -- are still bothersome to me. Oh well. I guess a half-decent Gilmore episode is better than what we've been getting so far this year.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
1-30-2007 @ 11:03PM
Courtney said...
Okay, so I know I'm going to upset alot of Gilmore fans by saying this, and trust me I am a HUGE Gilmore Girls fan, my entire extended family and I watch it together, and everyone in my family (myself included) always thought Christopher and Lorelai should be together. We have discussed how even though Luke is a good friend, all he does is nag all the time and not enjoy moments, this very fact is shown in the Valentine's episode of season six, where him and Lorelai couldn't even have a nice time because he was complaining about everything. I just think it's sad that in season 7 they are turning the Christopher character into someone I do not even recognize and making me dislike the Lorelai character which is odd because I use to think she was the coolest person ever! I don't know what the rest of the fans think, but I am heartbroken that they tore Christopher and Lorelai apart for a relantionship I never thought was right. But hey what does me or my family know? My sister still has hopes for Max coming back so he can be with Lorelai.
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1-30-2007 @ 11:26PM
judi said...
Ew ew ew... in regards to Max.
Christopher is only turning into a schmuck because he has money. He's always been pretty self conscious when dealing with Lor, but now he uses the fact he's a bazillionaire to back up whatever lameness he's thought up, and she doesn't know how to combat that. So she uses the ol "love" factor, that has existed for years, just now without the passion. Le sigh~
I am sad to see this all coming to an end, but I spose it was bound to happen sooner...it is neat to see how the secondary characters are ending up--altho wtf with Kirk and Lulu? No crazy wedding or babies there?
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1-30-2007 @ 11:30PM
Mandy said...
I seriously am wondering what I have been doing for the past 6+ years, because I guess I wasn't watching Gilmore Girls. The show I was watching had an Anna who was a bitch from day one, and a Christopher who has always been whiny and immature. I'd better check the settings on my VCR.
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1-30-2007 @ 11:44PM
David said...
The Gilmore Girls we all loved died years and years ago. Luke wasn't always a whiney bitch, that's recent, back in the day he used to be an outcast. Back in the day Emily thought Lorelai and Luke should be together, than it was Lorelai and Chris. Then it was an insane Lorelai and Chris that she hated Luke for no real reason. This isn't the same show it used to be in season 2 and three, this is some bastard step child from another dimention. After we all realize this the better we are.
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1-30-2007 @ 11:44PM
Joel Keller said...
Mandy, you're right... Anna's been a bitch in the recent past. But Chris is now supposed to be mature and responsible; he's the "new Chris." So, having him revert to his immature behavior still seems jarring to me, even though there's precedent.
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1-31-2007 @ 12:15AM
Diana said...
I feel that since the writers made the decision to break Lorelai and Luke up and push her towards Chris, they should have to live with it. None of Lorelai's actions this season have showed that she still had feelings for Chris. She appears to really love Chris even though she's continuing to be a passive aggressive moron. I feel like the writers are just going to suddenly make Lorelai in love with Luke again and honestly, I don't buy it. If this really is the last season of the show any L/L reunion will feel false and quite frankly cheap. They need a season 8 so Lorelai can be single for a lengthy period of time.
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1-31-2007 @ 12:28AM
Mandy said...
Joel, I just never saw Christopher's transformation as real. Even after he supposedly was the "new Chris," he still seemed to talk about Rory like she was an afterthought -- a means to be with Lorelai -- and he seemed to treat her friends the same way. So while he treated Lorelai in a way that Luke hadn't, I still never believed that it was real character growth.
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1-31-2007 @ 12:32AM
Mike said...
It's been painful watching those Lore and Chris scenes knowing that it's all just a stunt to delay Luke and her getting together again finally and stretch out another season.
I wonder who will get pregnant next? Paris? Lucy? April??? At least the Lucy/Rory tiff is over. Rory was getting annoying the way she just can't bear the thought of anyone disliking her. So sad what has happened to this great show.
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1-31-2007 @ 12:46AM
Diana said...
Crap, that should read that she still has feelings for Luke.
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1-31-2007 @ 8:14AM
justelise said...
I think no matter what Chris does he can't make up for being absent from Rory's life for large chunks of time and major milestones. No matter what kind of bond Chris and Lorelai have, it seems to be the nature of the baby mamma (hah forgive that) is to make herself available to the man who WAS around. Luke may be stiff and he may be set in his ways and he may fall into bouts of emotional unavailability, but the point stands that when Rory's needed him, he's been here. Same thing for Lorelai for the most part. To Chris "being there" for Rory was paying for things once he inherited cash and falling into bed with Lorelai when she needed a rebound guy. Luke's support for Lorelai and Rory has transcended that. Chris was forced to be there for GiGi but hasn't gone out of his way to make himself available for Rory. I'm surprised they haven't made the Rory character resent that more over time.
Lorelai's love for Chris is stuck in their teenaged 80's relationship. It has never matured beyond that. Every time they get together they enjoy each other most when they're reminiscing and waxing poetic about how in love they were in HS and how cool they were as teens and how much fun they had. Lorelai herself has matured but she doesn't seem to be able to see that Chris has not. The New Chris is like New Coke - just a marketing ploy. You test him to any degree and he will freak out which he did last night. If he was truly a new more mature model, he wouldn't have disappeared completely. Personally I think that Lorelai realized the folly of her ways right after she and Chris got married and has been in denial since. She let herself get caught up in a moment which was totally created by Chris' money. Had he not been loaded and been able to create such a wonderful atmosphere for her in Paris, would she have married him? Unlikely. I'm glad reality is setting in for her now.
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1-31-2007 @ 9:24AM
MrsEldubya said...
The whole Luke/Lorelai/Chris thing just reminds me in a way of Pacey/Joey/Dawson. For me Dawson was Joey's ideal love, the first love, the fantasy love. Alot of times the first person you fall in love with is set up on a pedestal and worshiped in a way and then all the other loves in your life are compared to them. Pacey was the more mature love. Their relationship developed over time, they saw the flaws in each other as well as the good.
Chris was Lorelai's childhood love. The idealistic love that she compared all other guys too because Chris always dropped back in to remind her of her first love. It was tough for people like Jason and Max to live up to Chris. But Luke was the more mature love and should be the person she ends up with. I think Lor had to go through this so that the knight in shining armour fell off of the pedestal. Of course Chris came in to sweep her off of her feet, that's what he does. Rides in on the motorcycle and reminds her of the idealistic love from her youth. Paints this happy family picture but even Rory wasn't going to totally fall for that this time around. She had doubt when they came back married this time.
So maybe this was another hurdle Luke and Lorelai had to get over to be completely happy. She had to get Chris out of her system, she had to really see what she needed for the future vs the past. She had to see that Chris wasn't the guy she always thought he was.
Anyway, that's my thoughts..... :)
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1-31-2007 @ 9:58AM
ALLISON WALDMAN said...
A couple of comments: first, I don't think the shows this season would have felt so forced and arch if Palladino and Sherman had been writing the scripts. They set this storyline in motion when they broke up Luke and Lor last season, but didn't get to follow through.
Second, I think Chris woke up last night and realized he was the rebound guy. He always wanted to be the one for Lor, but that ship sailed when they were 16 and he bailed on her. It sailed again when he walked out on her after Sookie's wedding. The point being he had his chances.
Third, I find it odd that in the custody case, 12-year-old April was never consulted. A child that age should be able to speak for herself -- and she would have told the judge that Luke was a father to her and she wanted to see him regularly. Her absence was a glaring omission in a usually smart show.
Finally, Lor has never fallen out of love with Luke. It's been obvious all season. The marriage to Chris was a rebound thing, maybe even an act of desperation by someone afraid of being left alone. Rory is off in school, in love with Logan, in many ways out of Lor's life. After the break with Luke, Lor had a huge, gaping hole in her life. She thought Chris might fill it, but his love is all empty calories, no substance.
To me, the show is now turning the way Amy intended -- toward it's inevitable conclusion which will likely be Luke and Lor, happily ever after in Stars Hollow, Rory off to work as a foreign correspondent in London.
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1-31-2007 @ 11:25AM
homerj312 said...
I don't care what anyone says I still love this show, and Lucy is hot. It's so hip to say that the show sucks now, these people are growing up and getting older, Rory is almost out of college. The dialogue is still good, the story lines are just continuations of the old story lines that people loved. People will always talk about how good it was in the old days but you know what its still good.
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1-31-2007 @ 11:33AM
Jasmine said...
Okay, so my landlord's and I get together on Tuesdays for GG and last night's episode called for a pause of the DVR and commentary. WTF?!? I could not believe that Chris upped and walked out over that letter. Was the letter emotional? Yes, but Lor was freakin' engaged to Luke for crying out loud! I think the underlying issue was that the letter emphasized how Luke was there for Rory, for all of her birthdays and yadda, yadda, yadda and Chris is kicking himself because Luke was there for his kid (Rory) and he should've been. Let's not foget to mention that Rory turned out great (minus all the huffing and puffing about Lucy...c'mon now!)and I think Chris really regrets not being there. And Chris had his stankin' nerve to jump on Lor about still being in love with Luke! Hold up! How many times has he left Lor hanging? That's what he does best is up and leave. Remember when Lor fell back in love with him a few seasons back and he went and married Gigi's mom? I'm glad I'm not in Lor's shoes b/c Chris surely would've got told. Chris and Lor are married now, that's a whole other level of committment. No one said marriage was easy, but you're supposed to work at it. To fight for it.
Let me go to Luke and Anna a minute. Anna had her nerve talking about how Luke left Lor! If it weren't for Anna bitching it up and telling Luke she didn't want different women (Lor) around April, perhaps he wouldn't have drove Lor away. That's my thought on that. And who does Anna think she is? Her daughter found her dad, a dad that loves her and wants to be in her life. Why would Anna want to deny April of that?
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1-31-2007 @ 1:55PM
Margaret said...
This episode is the first one for me that truly felt natural Gilmorian, through and through. Paris is just a wonderful counterpoint to Rory's indecisiveness and people pleasing ways. More Paris!
Thanks to justelise and MrsEldubya for pretty much summing up my thinking as well on the Chris/Lorelai/Luke relationships.
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1-31-2007 @ 2:44PM
Allison said...
Anna has always acted like that towards Luke. She never told him he had a daughter for pete's sake! Then when they made contact, she made it clear that she called the shots. I don't think her character has changed at all over the past year.
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1-31-2007 @ 5:05PM
Katie said...
Mandy, you're totally right, Anna has always been a bitch... and Christopher has always been immature. The only real chance they had was back in Season 2 but then his girlfriend got pregnant. They've both been grasping at straws trying to make it work now...
Rory has been annoying for the past few seasons and it continues. The whole Lucy thing? Rory just couldn't stand the fact that someone in the universe was mad at her and didn't think she was perfect. Joel, she said several times in the episode that she wasn't going along with Paris. She's just humoring her, partly because it's Paris, and partly because she doesn't know what to do with her life. Which is stupid! Now she doesn't want to be a journalist? Endlessly annoying...
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1-31-2007 @ 8:36PM
Karen said...
watching any of this season's episodes has been such a drag. The de-evolution of Rory especially. Just saw a rerun of the Chilton graduation episode. She *used* to be a self assured person. And this Christopher stuff is sooo contrived. Oh and what ever happened to all the people who live in Stars Hollow? What, did Patty and Taylor move?
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2-01-2007 @ 3:25PM
lissy said...
i LOVE gilmore girls but even though luke and lorelai are ment to be i want it to be her and chris!! and i was shocked when richard had a heart attack! but i found out that he will be fine and that in the end of the season lorelai and luke are going to get married and have a baby!! i hope it isent true!! i want it to be chris and lor!!
well toodles i hope u ppl reply to this comment!LOL
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2-02-2007 @ 7:13AM
lissy said...
i want lor and chris to stay togeather! well it probally wont happen. and i think that insted of gettin into a marty/rory/logan triangle it should be a jess/rory/logan triangle. but that wont happen cuz since the time jess first came on Alexis and Milo were actully boyfriend and girlfriend but they broke up in like the 6th season so i dont think he will come back on for uh real life issues. but maybe! im crossin my fingers on that one!!
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