(S07E17) When Dawn Ostroff, the CW's president of entertainment, was doing her "state of the network" press tour session in January, she said this about Gilmore Girls: "(David Rosenthal) was painted into a corner into with a storyline that he got out of. The second half of the season is much stronger, and I think viewers will be surprised." I scoffed a little when she said that; nothing about the season to that point had suggested that the show was going to improve. But I've got to hand it to Rosenthal and company; the show has been on an upward trend, giving us about a month's worth of entertaining episodes that, while not quite up to the level of the show's creative peak, certainly give me hope that the show won't go out with a whimper, whether it's this season or next.
The key? Keep the Gilmore girls together. All three of them.
The key to the show's chemistry has always been the interaction between Lorelai, Rory, and Emily, and since Richard's heart attack, we've been seeing more of that lately (don't ya just love how great a plot device open heart surgery is?). The almost-musical interplay between Lor and Rory, the admiration and love Emily and Rory have for each other, and the chilly-but-somehow-loving interaction between Emily and Lorelai have all carried the emotional load for the entire series; no matter what silliness is going on in Lorelai's or Rory's love lives, the most emotionally satisfying scenes have always explored how the Girls relate to each other.
And this episode brought all that out. Lorelai is finally realizing that Rory is leaving the nest for good; we saw that in the cold open when she tried to get her daughter to come to the wedding of Mia (Kathy Baker, who I haven't seen on TV in a while), who took Lorelai in when she was pregnant and put her to work at the Independence Inn, while Rory was trying on interview suits. Emily came face to face with the mistake she made when she and Richard shut out Lor all those years ago; we saw that when she inadvertently got herself invited to the wedding, even though she wanted to go to a spa instead. And, Lor realized that, no matter what happened in the past, she needs to stay connected to her mother, even when the person that previously connected them, Rory, goes to work for the San Francisco Chronicle or the Detroit Free-Press or what have you.
(By the way, why is Rory only considering certain papers? There are fine journalists working at tabloids like the Boston Herald, New York Post, and the New York Daily News, among others. Some of them actually used to work for papers like the Times and the Boston Globe. I don't care if she's going to Yale. She shouldn't be so damned picky.)
Kelly Bishop was again in fine form; she's one of the few actresses who can make you angry and sympathetic all at the same time. When Emily talks down to a waitress at a Denny's-like restaurant -- "Chardonnay. That's the clear one." -- you want to tell her to stuff it. But when she's confronted by how Mia was "almost like a mother" to Lorelai, you can sympathize with how hurt she's feeling at that moment. She's also one of the few actresses who can take two words, "Lucky you," and make the viewer just sit there and go "Oooohhh. That hurt."
There were some distractions: The Rory/Logan relationship came to a bit of a head, as Rory agreed with Mitchum that Logan needs to face up to his screw-up and accept responsibility rather than booze it up with Colin and Finn. In fact, the relationship took a nice turn when Logan came down to Mia's wedding in North Carolina to talk to Rory. Wimpy Rory's heart would have melted at the gesture. But the suddenly Tough Rory just scoffed and said "This is so last year's Logan." Nice. I think that was a call-out to the fans who were also sick of the grand gestures. But I was very surprised that Logan not only owned up to his mistake, he decided to quit his dad's company. Snipping the cord like that took balls. How is Logan going to deal with not being rich anymore? How will Rory deal with it? I'd be curious to see if it stays strong or falls apart quickly.
The Zack daddy freak-out was fun, if kind of by the books, plot-wise. What young father-to-be doesn't freak out right before his wife gives birth? I mean, hearing Zack "dude" it up during the freak out gave it a unique spin, but it wasn't any different than your standard father-to-be panic scenes. Of course, the story only illustrated how ready Luke is to be with Lorelai. He calmed Zack down and told him about finding his "daddy mode," relating to his experience with April. Oh, he's ready all right. Though, I really wonder why he had such a bothered reaction when Zack and Lane asked him to be the twins' godfather (so they're not against using the term "Godmother" or "Godfather." This puts extra significance behind Lane's wish that Rory be her twins' "Lorelai Gilmore"). Oh, and Lane had the twins. Amazing that they didn't make a big deal out of it. Refreshing, though.
Anyway, it seems like Gilmore Girls is on a roll of some pretty decent episodes. We even found out that Emily had a "thing" for Will Smith (great final scene, by the way. It encapsulates the Girls' relationships in a nutshell). We've got five episodes left. Let's see where they go from here.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
3-06-2007 @ 11:31PM
David said...
I hope they give the show a 13 episode season 8 just so they can finish it off nicely and not have to cram everything in the next 5 episodes.
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3-06-2007 @ 11:57PM
Julia said...
Um, you do realize that Logan quitting doesn't mean that he's not rich, right? He's got a trust fund that has nothing to do with his job. And it is way more than the $3 mil he invested. That was likely all he could get his hands on at the time. Rory herself said he has a $5 mil a year trust fund.
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3-07-2007 @ 12:01AM
Joel Keller said...
Julia, how do you know that Mitchum isn't going to cut him off? I'm not saying that Logan lost all his money with the acquisition; I'm saying that now that he's not under his father's thumb anymore, his father will make sure he's completely on his own by yanking the trust fund. Anyway, we'll see what happens, I guess....
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3-07-2007 @ 12:25AM
Craig said...
Lorelai was not pregnant when she left Emily and Richard.
BTW - please unless your name is Chris please please please stop calling Lorelai "Lor"
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3-07-2007 @ 12:58AM
Julia said...
Joel, Mitchum doesn't have the power to yank the trust fund. Logan is already 25. The money is already his.
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3-07-2007 @ 1:05AM
daverrr said...
Hey Joel Keller,
"Anyway, it seems like Gilmore Girls is on a roll"
Well it's better than being on a bun.
Did Mr. Rosenthal get it right or what.
Kudos to the writing staff, you got the vibe of the love and hate that ASP gave this family.
The fast pace and quick wit is right on.
If I am a lone voice in the woods will it be heard?
Let this show go on one more year.
Face it all you nay sawyers, smart is smart and GG is as good and sharp as I remember it.
Now do the unexpected, give us the cliff hanger in the history of night time soaps.
daverrr
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3-07-2007 @ 3:41AM
Michael Canfield said...
I also thought the episode was a strong return to form. I'm not buying Ostroff's "painted into a corner" defense for the first half of this year though. Rosenthal could have come up with a better solution that forcing Lorelei to marry Chris temporarily.
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3-07-2007 @ 3:48AM
jeff said...
I must admit, the last 5 or so episodes have left me wanting another season. I've always thought the show was limping towards the finish line. If it does end now, I won't be completley disappointed, but Rosenthal has done an admirable job and one more season would give us some more Luke and Lorelai, which we haven't seen this season.
On a side note, I know Rory has always been involved with her school newspapers, but wasn't there a time she wanted to be the next Christiane Amanpour. Why go into newspapers at all. Its a dying medium. Maybe she should blog.
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3-07-2007 @ 7:28AM
Mandy said...
I hope we do find out that Logan is cut off from all the money, including his trust fund (which could have been revocable or had stipulations tied to it). Otherwise, all his whining about how he had to work for his dad and had no choice about what to do with his own life kind of pointless. If he could have stopped working for his father at any time with no monetary consequences, then why did he stay this long?
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3-07-2007 @ 8:27AM
valerie said...
The episode was really nice!
So have they already decided on the 8th seaseon?? That would be really nice if we got more of this nice Gilmore Girls!
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3-07-2007 @ 9:35AM
mamaloo said...
What I want to know is: Who has the track listing for Zack's Godfather Mix?
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3-07-2007 @ 9:47AM
justelise said...
The whole Rory/Logan relationship needs to end. Rory needs to find someone who comes from a family that's more down to earth. Logan as a business man, after all those years of swilling alcohol and not attending classes at Yale, is not believable even if he did grow up watching his father. That became obvious with his bad investment. Rory has seen Logan get pissy and behave badly before. This is his behavior pattern and she should realize that. I think that the way she handled him this time around -- on her terms -- is a pivot point in the relationship and she's finally outgrowing him.
I am glad that Emily had Mia thrown in her face for a couple of days straight. The way she treated Lorelai when she had Rory is inexcusable. If it had been up to Richard, somehow I doubt Lorelai would've been forced out into the real world with Rory. Emily made her bed and this whole episode she finally had to lie in it.
I'm glad that Lane had the babies. The empathy belly they had her wearing on the show was just too big even for someone carrying twins. She looked like she was carrying an Escalade. Between these kids and Sookie's bun in the oven, GG is going to be a baby fest. I wonder if that will be one of the plot devices they use to push Luke and Lorelai back together. If they couple it with the impending empty nest syndrome that Lorelai is already dreading, it's the perfect formula for Lorelai to have another kid.
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3-07-2007 @ 10:26AM
Elizabeth said...
It feels like GG is finally back on track, but the sudden personality change in Rory was a little surprising, but in a good way. It was good to see her finally get past Logan's money and gestures and grow a freaking backbone for once. She's been way too sweet lately. I think realizing she has to go out into the real world and make her own life is changing her, as it does many a young person. I hope they make a season 8, but if they don't I hope that they finish it up in a clean way, not with Luke & Lorelei's wedding, or Rory getting pregnant, or some other such predictable plot device.
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3-07-2007 @ 11:36AM
marah said...
craig, i'm pretty sure she was, right? that's why emily wasn't there for the birth.
also, did it bother anyone that when luke was making coffee, it was folger's? b/c everyone's always like "oooh, luke's coffee is so great, blahblah," and... really... folger's??? seriously?
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3-07-2007 @ 11:45AM
David said...
justelise I agree with you, but that ship has already sailed.
I thought Logan would be rebound guy after the affair with Dean, sadly that wasn't the case. If the writers knew what they were doing the last few seasons Rory would have dumped Logan and went to Marty the naked guy.
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3-07-2007 @ 11:46AM
margot said...
Lorelai was most definitely pregnant when she left Emily and Richards back in the 80's. Remember Rory's coming out episode? They flashed back to Lorelai's and her dress didn't fit b/c she was pregnant.
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3-07-2007 @ 12:13PM
Violeta said...
Lorelai had already had Rory when she left her parents' house. She did sneak out to deliver Rory but her parents found her and presumably brought her and the baby back home. It was all in the flashback episode, but Lorelai has definitely already had Rory when she came to Mia's, as it was mentioned in another episode, the first one where we met Mia.
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3-07-2007 @ 12:57PM
floretbroccoli said...
Wasn't it stated explicity in an earlier episode that Logan sunk his trust fund in this failed venture?
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3-07-2007 @ 1:53PM
Tracy said...
At the beginning of the episode when Lorelai was trying to convince Rory to go to the weding she said that Mia had taken her in, a 17 year old with a baby in her arms in the middle of the night. Also, there was a flashback episode where Richard and Emily came home from an evening out and Emily was happy that Lorelai had moved the baby stroller that had been cluttering the foyer. It turned out that was the night that Lorelai and Rory moved out/on.
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3-07-2007 @ 3:13PM
Ian said...
By bet is that they are beginning to show Rory and Logan as full adults, accepting responsibility for actions and making major decisions unaided (or swayed) by parents. IN essence they are setting up a likely fnish to the show next season and potential for a spin off new show for Rory and Logan as they go it alone.
Note other characters in the series are beginning to mature somewhat (FINALLY) as the need to stretch out storylines is coming to an end next year.
Makes sense.
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