(S07E20) I really find it hard to feel sorry for Rory Gilmore. Yes, she grew up without a father for the most part, and for much of her young life, she and her mother Lorelai struggled to keep their heads above water. But, for the most part. Rory has been able to achieve whatever she's set her mind to achieving. Until now, of course. There are worse things that can happen to a person than not getting a New York Times internship: dismemberment, irritable bowel syndrome, bad haircuts, and at least a couple of other things. But she's gotten so much in her life that not having a job when she graduates seems like a complete disaster to her.
Jeez, I wish I was facing her kind of disaster when I was graduating college. Well, glad the writers -- through the voice of Lorelai -- decided to set Rory straight.
"Rory gets what Rory wants," is how Lor put it to Luke, and she's definitely right. I also liked the fact that she gave Rory a very gentle lecture about gaining from perspective about not having everything come so easy in life, etc. etc. Of course, most parents would be saying that lecture with a raised voice, and sprinkled with a lot of "hells," "damns," and "spoiled brats" (oh, maybe that was just my parents), but, either way, Rory needs to consider herself lucky. After busting her ass at Yale for four years, who wouldn't want a summer off to take a break or backpack around Europe or even just drink coffee at Luke's every day? I went to work less than a month after I graduated college, and it was one of the worst decisions I ever made. Luckily, Lor's words and a night of watching Miss Patty and Babette warbling showtunes set her straight.
Oh, and on what fantasy planet does a peon for the Times get to rub elbows with Bill Keller (no relation) and Maureen Dowd? If Rory really wants to see her byline in the Gray Lady, then all she really needs to do is, I don't know, send a travel editor an idea about going to visit old diners in New England towns... oops, that's already been done. But I'm sure she'd be full of ideas for freelance articles. Probably an easier road than getting an internship that only has two slots open.
What did you folks think of that opening dream sequence? Rory getting "kicked out" of Chilton (nice to see the headmaster again), then seeing Lorelai bolt to Hawaii, then noticing that Dr. Paris and Washington Post editor Doyle are now occupying her mother's house. All odd. Though the Photoshops of Paris and Doyle with Bono and Hillary Clinton were nice little touches.
So, was this a high-budget episode? This has to be the first episode this season where I've seen almost the entire cast, short of Jackson, Michel, Kirk and Taylor. We have Richard and Emily, Luke, Caesar, April, Miss Patty, Babette, Zack, Logan, Sookie, Paris, Doyle, Kirk (thanks, folks! I must have missed him) and even a guest appearance by the new mother, Lane.
Lane! Boy, I completely forgot about her until I saw her putting Steve and Kwan to bed. For a person who lives 90 minutes away from New York, she and Zack got around the city's music scene, didn't they? Bowery Ballroom, Mercury Lounge... heck, they even knew the cool clubs in DC! Anyway, good to see Zack get his chance. But you knew that Lane was going to have to stay home. Just ask my sister-in-law how tough it is to take care of twins; doing it from the back of a tour bus was going to be impossible. But she was mature enough to insist that Zack go on the tour, knowing what kind of opporunity it was. She's right; motherhood has made her mature, much more mature than her best friend Rory, who thought she was going to be sharing cafeteria tables with Frank Rich.
Ok, so why do you think Luke really went back to the blue hat? Was it a gesture to Lorelai, symbolizing their repaired friendship? Or was it simply because he lost his other hat? It's an intriguing question. Of course, we need to ask the other side: It seemed that Lorelai's rendition of "I Will Always Love You" was going pretty well until she saw Luke. Then she quickly regained her drunken composure and belted out the song while looking directly at him. So... is she expressing more than friendship there? Or is that the "my blue hat" gesture that she talked about with Sookie? We may only have two other episodes to find out.
And, poor Luke. That brain of April's is always getting in the way of his father-daughter bonding. You know he was disappointed when she called him about the science camp, but you also knew he'd never stand in her way, six week boat trip be damned. Besides, it'll give him a chance to fall in love with Lorelai all over again, right?
Finally... Logan. I can't remember, but did the CW promo department ruin the final scene for us during last week's "coming attractions"? I think they did. Somehow, I knew what was coming as soon as he said to Lorelai, "I came to see you." So, Logan is going to be a partner in a Silicon Valley startup and he wants Rory to marry him and move away. I think that speechless look on Lorelai's face at the end of the episode (hence the episode's title) was more of a look of horror at the thought of her daughter and best friend being 3,000 miles away. She 
knows she needs to cut the cord, but she never figured that Rory might end up so far away. Curious to see how that develops.
This was a nice episode in the traditional Gilmore vein. I'll give it a 5.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
5-02-2007 @ 1:10PM
Keli said...
Actually, Kirk was singing at Karaoke, remember?
I thought it was a fantastic episode and I thought the ending was priceless.
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5-01-2007 @ 11:03PM
Nancy said...
Kirk did appear in this episode. He was in the Karaoke bar singing before Lorelai took the stage.
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5-01-2007 @ 11:03PM
Joel Keller said...
Ah. You're both right. I'll fix the post.
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5-01-2007 @ 11:41PM
mike said...
Good episode, loved the karaoke scene, especially when Lorelai made the switch. Also loved the mention of "The Magic Stick" one of my favorite hometown clubs.
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5-01-2007 @ 11:45PM
Mandy said...
I agree that Rory needs to learn that she can't have everything she wants, and I'm glad she isn't having an easy time finding a job, but I still felt bad for her. She worked her tail off for seven years to get where she is. She doesn't have to go to work right after graduation to pay off student loans or put food on the table, she has to go to work after graduation because that will be the reward for all her efforts and all her sacrifices. I think a meltdown at this point was perfectly realistic.
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5-02-2007 @ 12:37AM
daverrr said...
For the last 7 seasons this show has always been about
Lorelai for me.
Her fights with her mom,
her hurting Suki with that nasty comment about not knowing anything about being in a relationship,
her anger toward Jess when Rory broke her wrist and taking it out on Luke.
Now her singing to Rory and then half way thru to Luke.
I don't know why I feel her pain but let's say her acting lets me suspend disbelief.
i felt her emotions and I fell in luv with this show all over again.
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5-02-2007 @ 12:59AM
David said...
I think the new head writer should have ship off Luke's so called daughter as soon as he took over. Never even show her this season just go "She died in a plane crash on the way to visit her real dad".
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5-02-2007 @ 5:15AM
Joseph said...
Zach seems like a pretty happy husband, considering he only got to have sex with Lane that one, crappy time and got two kids for his trouble. Did they ever decide to make Lane not hate sex?
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5-02-2007 @ 6:04AM
Guy said...
Actually, The Gilmore Girls isn't at all what it used to be. The characters are played by the same actors, and they certainly seem the same, but ever since the original writers have gone, they don't really behave like themselves. Everything is off. Wrote about it a while back: http://hatchling.blogspot.com/2007/02/gilmore-girls-and-domino-effect.html
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5-02-2007 @ 8:35AM
Joel Keller said...
Guy, read my reviews from the first half of the season. I think every Gilmore fan knew something was off. Things have gotten better in the second half, though. It's still not as good as it was during the peak of the AS-P era, but I'm just happy that the episodes don't suck as hard as the ones from earlier this season did.
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5-02-2007 @ 9:20AM
kvorrasi said...
As someone from DC, it is highly unlikely that Zack's new band would be playing at both the Black Cat AND 9:30 club.
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5-02-2007 @ 12:29PM
terry fisher said...
Luke & Lorelai are going to take the boat trip. The final episode will end with them boarding and all the eccentric characters in town bidding them farewell.
I've been waiting for Logan and Rory to get married but projected they would buy the Stars Hollow news paper and live in the small town.
Anyone else disappointed that Luke & Lorelai never married during the first snow of the winter?
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5-02-2007 @ 1:09PM
Nor said...
Yes, the discussion about the writing is so over. It has come a long way since the beginning of the season, but again lets remember ASP's last season was terrible!!! I do like how the current writers are throwing slight digs at all of you who complain. Last week, when Lorelai responded to Sookie by say she need a better comparision then the farrah/ryan o'neill reference. There was another reference again this week that probably wouldn't be obsure enough for the gg of the past, but the current writers in last nights episode again said something like oh, that's not a good enough reference(Can a tivo-er help me out with this?). I think the writers realize no matter what they write at this point, someone will always complain and say the writing is good as the gg of the past.....ENOUGH.....just enjoy what could be the last two gg's shows. I know I will!!
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5-02-2007 @ 1:03PM
Liza said...
the karaoke scene had me and my daughter and my friends all screaming and cracking up and hiding our eyes. we didn't want to look but we had too!!! they HAVE to get back together!! i can't wait til next week's episode, i read some spoilers, so it should be good.
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5-02-2007 @ 2:16PM
Tammy said...
Terry - My husband said the same thing last night... Luke and Lorelai are going on the boat trip.
I see this whole Rory not getting a job as another heavy handed set up by the current writing staff. It just seems that things have to be so obvious when they use to be subtle. Honestly, the way it looks is Rory will turn Logan down. She won't be as excited about being 'saved' by Logan. Paris already started her on this path with the whole 'career over relationship' talk last week. Logan blowing all that money and hanging out with Quinn again didn't set well with Rory either. She wants something else and I can see her taking a smaller town newspaper job, in an area very similar to Stars Hallow and striking out on her own. Like Lorelai did years ago when she moved to Stars Hallow.
Anyway, the show is much better with Luke and Lorelai talking. It felt off balance when Lorelai and Rory weren't speaking and it felt off balance when Lorelai and Luke don't talk. Even bad writing seems okay when all of the characters we love get along.
But now I know why I haven't matured in life, I never had kids! :)
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5-02-2007 @ 2:54PM
Joel Keller said...
Tammy, you're right about at least the first Luke/Lorelai diner scene. It felt so comfy, like the last year-and-a-half never happened.
What I want to know is: Why doesn't Rory just write for whatever Internet portal or whatever thing Logan is going to work for? We all know that newspapers are "dying," right? Why does she impart so much importance on working for a newspaper? This isn't 1985 anymore. She can freelance, or go work for an online mag like Slate, or just about anything in the publishing realm. Her actions just don't seem to jibe with what goes on in the real world of journalism and publishing, 2007-style.
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5-02-2007 @ 3:40PM
NH Gary said...
Does anybody read lips? A line from Logan to Lorelai in the last scene, was bleeped. His lips moved, but there was no audio.
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5-02-2007 @ 3:53PM
Dawn said...
I truly love this show, I miss the banter and feeling that earlier seasons had and think that they are getting closer to that feeling and if they do not, I will continue to watch because I feel like I am missing my friends if I don't.
I have not heard if there is going to be a season 8 or not, I sure hope there is, but if there is not, I have thought of the perfect ending for this series (not that I want it to end.) Rory should get married (or not), get pregnant and have a little girl, thus continuing with the Gilmore Girls... and leaving room for revisits ect...
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5-02-2007 @ 7:12PM
HD said...
Lorelai's singing was terrific--loved Miss Patty's reaction and Luke's gorgeous face during the song. Rory seemed to get it (that she was singing to Luke) but didn't mention it the next morning when she was making all those comments about letting your feelings out. And, yes, Joseph, gotta wonder--have poor Lane & Zach gotten ANY good loving, yet? Weird!
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5-03-2007 @ 12:22AM
Bill said...
Did anyone else notice that the chime thingies in Lane's kids' room was playing "Boys Don't Cry" by the Cure, but in a lullaby sort of way? I thought that was a nice touch.
http://popculturejunk.blogspot.com/
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