Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life: Fall
November 25, 2016 2:33 PM - Season 1, Episode 4 - Subscribe

Netflix summary: At odds with the most important people in her life, Lorelai seeks wisdom in nature. Rory goes out for a wild night with an unexpected crowd.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero (76 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
GUYS THOSE LAST FOUR WORDS
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 4:40 PM on November 25, 2016 [9 favorites]


Cried my eyes out at Luke and Lorelai's post-Wild reconciliation, that was lovely and adult and charming and true to the characters.

Almost died when Emily decided to ditch the DAR, that was great, and excellent first use (I think?) of Netflix's ability to use obscenities.

I did feel cheated out of a Kiefer Sutherland cameo, though.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 4:43 PM on November 25, 2016 [12 favorites]


I'm holding off talking about "the last four words" because that's a powder keg I'm not ready to touch (and I want to go back and rewatch first).

Instead, I would rather point out that one of my favorite things about the show was Emily keeping a maid for an entire year. I know it was largely started due to her stiff-upper-lip grief, but the fact that she kept her (and the entire family!) and then ended up taking care of her at the end made me so happy. The revolving door of maids was such a standard joke in the original show that I just really loved that there was this maid who stampeded her way into Emily's life and gave her a defacto family when she needed it most (whether she wanted it or not, but please, like the Gilmore women have never steamrolled anyone in their lives).

Overall, I really enjoyed the revival. It wasn't perfect, and I felt the lack of some beloved characters and felt like some were shoehorned in, and I know there are some quibbles about characterization -- my devoted inner fangirl and sleep-deprived self is will to wave it away as "things can change in nine years. But it made me happy. It felt like the Stars Hollow I've known and loved, and unlike other revivals that didn't seem to hit the mark, I quickly was swept up into the crazy fast-talking world that meant so much to me when I was growing up alongside Rory.
posted by paisley sheep at 4:44 PM on November 25, 2016 [16 favorites]


I mean: my devoted inner fangirl and sleep-deprived self is willing to wave it away as "things can change in nine years." But it made me happy.

I did say sleep-deprived, right? Right?
posted by paisley sheep at 4:55 PM on November 25, 2016


So, does that ending mean more Gilmore Girls in the future on Netflix ?
posted by Pendragon at 4:57 PM on November 25, 2016


Well, as ever with Gilmore Girls, it's a mixed bag. Some parts you hate, some parts bring you to tears. I almost always liked Amy Sherman episodes more than Daniel Palladino ones.

The last line was genius.
posted by Bee'sWing at 5:52 PM on November 25, 2016


GUYS THOSE LAST FOUR WORDS

I'm usually not that guy, but: did we ever think it would be something else?
posted by the man of twists and turns at 5:52 PM on November 25, 2016 [2 favorites]


I feel like this Jess was a repeat of Philly Jess, which made him popular in the decade since it's airing but it's also a fairly one-dimensional character and I really wish they did something more interesting with him.

Logan and his crew are still insufferable to me, and that whole bit felt like a huge step back for Rory.

I am having trouble suspending my disbelief that Lane and the band are still together. But I wish there had been more Lane, overall. She was present for a lot of scenes? but didn't seem like we got much substance there.

I think the best parts were the townspeople parts, and I think I was more excited to see all of them than I was any of the more prominent character cameos.
posted by likeatoaster at 6:14 PM on November 25, 2016 [3 favorites]


Logan and his crew are still insufferable to me, and that whole bit felt like a huge step back for Rory.

Yes, agreed. But I liked that her arc these four episodes was "oh wow Rory is making some poor life choices and she knows it but doesn't know how to stop doing it and get it together." (Logan is such a bag of crap of a person, man oh man.)

The ending puts that scene with Christopher in a different light...

I loved the Parenthood-themed park rangers :)
posted by sallybrown at 7:25 PM on November 25, 2016 [10 favorites]


"The previous owners called it the Clam Shack. I guess 'Vagina House' was taken."

Emily, you are my favorite.
posted by rewil at 7:41 PM on November 25, 2016 [31 favorites]


officially starting a petition for netflix to create an emily gilmore spinoff show that chronicles her life in nantucket with berta and co and scaring children
posted by kerning at 8:50 PM on November 25, 2016 [26 favorites]


WOOKIE BABY
posted by maggieb at 10:11 PM on November 25, 2016 [15 favorites]


Emily as the museum guide was the best.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:46 AM on November 26, 2016 [10 favorites]


I think this was my favorite of the four. I also started crying about three times during it, omg. I loved the Life & Death Brigade thing at the start (both on its own and as a reminder that HEY you can be in your early-30s and still do weird cool shit instead of just lazing about in your small town). Lorelai's call to her mother had me in tears. Emily Gilmore is the absolute best for everything. The Lorelai-Luke wedding seemed out of a dream.

But then the four words thing happened and I AM STILL SO MAD (I watched all of this yesterday). The fact that the producers thought that this was where the series should go -- and did not change that plan for like 10 years -- is infuriating. Instead of her being a successful reporter or traveling the world or whatever, their end goal was for her to get pregnant? That sucks! Also, Rory is a grown ass woman (and very smart) and it is 2016, how the hell does she not have an IUD?
posted by aaanastasia at 6:19 AM on November 26, 2016 [7 favorites]


I actually think the terrible relationship decisions Rory makes as an adult are consistent with her character. I wanted her to be more mature and not smarm around with Logan but the way it's written is probably more true to Rory Gilmore. And accidental pregnancy can be a thing no matter what precautions you take.

My biggest issue with ol' Rory is that she couldn't get through her mother's wedding day without spilling the beans. You can't give her this one day of happiness?! At least wait until the formal ceremony is over?
posted by something something at 7:00 AM on November 26, 2016 [16 favorites]


Rory spoiling her mom's special day reads to me as pretty on track for her character, too, awful as it is. Everything's always all about Rory. I wonder how having a kid would change that, but I kind of hope we don't get to see because holy cow, what a way to go out.

I definitely need to re-watch the Christopher scene given the final four words. The first time through I was focusing too much on the weird editing that gave me the feeling they weren't actually filmed together. I did watch the magical wedding sequence through to the end again so I could cry properly without screaming at the end.

Anyway, is Jess Rory's Luke now? He'll pine as he watches her raise the Huntzbaby from a distance, while Rory exists in denial, oblivious to his blatant feelings, until the kid is grown and gone and can't be an emotional shield and they reunite in middle age?
posted by circle at 7:39 AM on November 26, 2016 [9 favorites]


I don't think Gilmore Girls was ever a show that wanted its plot lines, or its characters, tied up neat with a bow. That's one of the show's best traits. It's why so many of us watch it.

Yes, the final four words were a shock. Arguably 'infuriating'. My own gut reaction was to shout, "What?" while giggling and wondering if we had all just been punk'd.

But I appreciated it. There was nothing cutesy, sentimental, or "awww"-inducing about that ending. It's an anti-ending. And it gives all of us so much to wonder about now that the show is officially "done." THAT is our gift. That is Amy Sherman-Palladino's gift to us. She'd be disappointed if we didn't have such a complicated reaction. A mixture of "WTF?" and "What now?" We could talk and philosophize about where Rory's character and life goes for years to come.

I'm pleasingly amused. I'm happy I got a little caffeine jolt (heh) with those final words. But, again, I'm someone who doesn't care for tidy sentimental endings. Please note that I am NOT saying that anyone who disliked the choice for the "final four words" must somehow just prefer sentimental and/or tidy endings. I'm just saying that my favorite shows - the ones I muse over and remember for years to come after they'd reached their episodic conclusion - are the ones that left me with so much to wonder about. Mad Men was a great example of this. I haven't yet seen The Sopranos all the way through, but am familiar with its ending and its viewing public's reaction. A show that did have a fairly tidy ending? Breaking Bad. Loved the show, felt the ending suited the show's style, but I don't sit around pondering Breaking Bad the way I ponder Mad Men and, now, Gilmore Girls.

It was a French ending, in spirit anyway. No final resolution. Not an unhappy ending, just inconclusive and dare I say realistic. It's what I would hope and expect from a show creator with such a great respect for the gamut of pop culture.
posted by nightrecordings at 8:52 AM on November 26, 2016 [4 favorites]


I loved the Life & Death Brigade thing at the start (both on its own and as a reminder that HEY you can be in your early-30s and still do weird cool shit instead of just lazing about in your small town).

((if you're sufficiently rich and white and male))
posted by Etrigan at 9:24 AM on November 26, 2016 [25 favorites]


Speaking of which, am I the last person to notice that it acronyms to LAD Brigade?
posted by Etrigan at 10:30 AM on November 26, 2016 [2 favorites]


So, overall feelings:

I'm glad Amy Sherman-Palladino got the chance to wrap things up on her terms. I wish she hadn't let Daniel write half of them.

I'm glad Netflix gave her the equivalent of eight episodes to wrap it up, rather than a movie. I wish she hadn't been so wedded to the "Year in the Life" seasonal concept and written eight episodes with internal plots, rather than four long acts of a single story.

I'm glad that the characters were consistent. I wish that didn't mean that Lorelai kept being a person who hates her own reflection in other people, nor that Rory continued to be an entitled slacker who somehow manages to be disdainful of entitled slackers.

I'm glad we got to see some of our old familiar faces. I wish some of them had been a little more available, or a little less available (Dean is in town and doesn't call Rory? Sookie is in town, but Michel is at the midnight wedding?).

I'm glad they didn't wrap it all up in a tight little bow because that's not how people live their lives. I wish the Last Four Words had come a decade earlier, because "Oh no she's going to squander her potential by making the same mistakes I did" doesn't really have as much of a sting when she's already squandered her potential.

All in all... This was great television. It was sub-par Gilmore Girls. B+ on the former scale; C- on the latter.
posted by Etrigan at 10:44 AM on November 26, 2016 [8 favorites]


"Also, Rory is a grown ass woman (and very smart) and it is 2016, how the hell does she not have an IUD?"

Yeah, I was like, "It's 2016, surely she knows how morning after pills work."

Also in my headcanon Paris and Doyle obviously get back together.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 11:00 AM on November 26, 2016 [10 favorites]


I wasn't the biggest GG fan to begin with, but I can definitely sense the love (and fan-service) that went into this. That said, those final 4 words as orginally planned for 22-year-old Rory are much less tolerable for 32-year-old Rory, to me. (That said, I totally think the Wookiee is the father).

Biggest disappointments overall: that Rory didn't actually seem to grow up at all and actually move on with a guy who's not a punchline. The gross "breeder" plotline for Paris. The totally uneccesary fat-shaming in the "Summer" episode.

Emily Gilmore should totally get her own spinoff, though. Next up: Emily Gilmore, museum director.
posted by TwoStride at 12:05 PM on November 26, 2016 [4 favorites]


Also, the Gilmores can totally afford an abortion.
posted by Karmakaze at 4:20 PM on November 26, 2016 [3 favorites]


Are you kidding? A Fitzhuntzberger baby would make it so they could totally afford anything.
posted by Etrigan at 4:41 PM on November 26, 2016 [1 favorite]


The New ‘Gilmore Girls’ Is Bigger Than Nostalgia, review by Alison Herman of The Ringer.
posted by Etrigan at 5:08 PM on November 26, 2016 [1 favorite]


Can I tell you how I much I actually hated this series? I had been rewatching the original series in preparation for this show and was struck by how much I hated Lorelei. When the show first came out - I was a year younger than Rory and was enthralled with what a cool and amazing mom she had. On rewatch when I am a year younger than Lorelei - I am amazed at what a selfish child she is in every aspect of her life.

Now with this series, I get to be thoroughly unimpressed with both Lorelei and disgusted by what Rory has become. She had an ounce of hardship in her charmed life and she becomes bitter and defeatist and Logan's secret baby mama.

I wash my hands of this show - frankly I prefer season 7 than this. At least Rory was slightly less detestable then.
posted by Suffocating Kitty at 5:43 PM on November 26, 2016 [14 favorites]


I have similar feelings, Suffocating Kitty. I loved it when I was young, but now that I am old, when I rewatched the original series, I found I didn't like either Rory or Lorelei as people. I watched these new episodes hoping for some sense of redemption, but am left with the feeling that if only Rory had an actual parent instead of a bunch of well-aged children looking after her, she might have actually achieved the potential the show constantly told us she had. Instead, she never learned to do anything she didn't want to do to in hopes of getting to somewhere she really wanted to be. Other than Paris, I'm not sure there's a single character on this show who wouldn't eat the Marshmallow the second the researchers left the room.
posted by jacquilynne at 5:59 PM on November 26, 2016 [7 favorites]


Nothing you anticipate with the expectation that it will make all the horrible things about your life go away can ever be perfect. (Just reminding myself of that.) There were things that absolutely delighted me. There were things that made me crazy. I will likely be turning this over in my head for weeks or months to come (and using it to distract me from my real life, and the political world, and everything in between).

I'd like to point out, it's not like Rory was floundering for 9 years. She was a journalist, traveling for work (and, likely, it seems, on an only-on-TV travel expense account); then she wrote the New Yorker piece. I'm fairly certain she's only supposed to have been unemployed since after Richard's death. I can debate whether Rory puts in the labor, but it really does seem like she's been working all along. Until now. And we can all fall off the cliff that was our path to success. Trust me.

I'm sure I will have more questions, but right now, I can't get past the fact that Fall came and went without an explanation of the horrible letter Emily claimed Lor had written her. Did Emily imagine it? Did Lorelei block out the fact that she'd ever written it? The Wookie and the nuns not knowing Lorelei and Forgettable Paul? I'll be fussing over those things, but how can they leave that letter unexplained? Gah.

Also, I cried during Lorelei's sweater/boyfriend/pretzel story to the point that we had to pause the TV because my glasses filled with an ocean of salty water.
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 10:27 PM on November 26, 2016 [4 favorites]


So much to say!

I'm going to disagree with everyone about Logan. I think he was decent and obviously cared for Rory. I thought the final LAD outing was nice. They both knew that stage had to be over and he wanted to make it special for her and acknowledge where they came from and all they'd been to each other. Yes he's smarmy & privileged but people like that exist and he's not shouting at maids or anything. To me he represents the guy you fall in love with that you know can never be anything permanent.

I was disappointed with Jess! It was so much smaller than I wanted that to be. Nothing happened. Let down.

As for Rory, people get pregnant. What's so terrible about getting pregnant at 32?? Why should she have an abortion? Why assume she doesn't want a baby or that it's a bad thing for her life? And I don't think lorelei would have minded one bit that the disclosure happened on her wedding day. Those two have no boundaries with each other.

That's the biggest thing I found rewatching the series. I was pregnant with my first child when it started, I thought lorelei was such a cool mom. Then I had my children and a couple of years ago Rewatched from the beginning with my now 15yo daughter. I kept pointing out all the bits I thought were off in their mother-daughter relationship and how what a spoiled brat Lorelei was with her parents. I didn't want my daughter to think that relationship between Rory & lorelei was as cool as I had once thought it was.

But we still love stars hollow. We still love the show. We both cried several times.
posted by stellathon at 11:55 PM on November 26, 2016 [8 favorites]


And Tanc Sade and I worked together at KFC in the 90s :)
posted by stellathon at 11:58 PM on November 26, 2016 [1 favorite]


What's so terrible about getting pregnant at 32??

Yeah, that's the problem with it. The Four Words would have been absolutely fucking devastating if they had been the last thing we heard in Season Seven. Hell, they should have been the first thing we heard in this season, under a "Ten Years Ago" chyron. But ASP was too wedded to her perfect beautiful cake topper that she didn't (want to) realize that she was putting it on an entirely different cake.
posted by Etrigan at 5:13 AM on November 27, 2016 [6 favorites]


Yeah, the ending was clearly meant for Rory at 22, not Rory at 32.

It does explain why she was so terrible at keeping or getting a job in these four episodes. I was getting so annoyed at her for not pitching more articles, not taking the headmaster's advice, being completely unprepared at the Buzzfeed-clone job, and eventually deciding that writing a whole book without any advance or agent was a good alternative for a full-time job.

But now it makes sense: she HAD to act like a clueless student because the ending wouldn't be dramatic enough for a well-adjusted person.
posted by easternblot at 6:34 AM on November 27, 2016 [3 favorites]


(I think this was in this episode?) I feel like the fact that Rory faced no repercussions for how horribly she treated Paul was a real missed opportunity. Once again, she gets off easy. Arguably her big repercussion in this episode was getting pregnant, but she's 32 years old and has an incredibly supportive and well-off family. This is not Lorelai getting pregnant at 16.
posted by dysh at 7:22 AM on November 27, 2016 [4 favorites]


I think the difference between this show the first time I watched it and now is that its overwhelming (Rich) White People Problems vibe is a lot clearer to me.

Of course Rory got pregnant with no plan and no prospects (well there's always family money). I want it to be the Wookiee's kid.

I got a fundraising call from my alma mater from an English major kid, who sounded about 12, who was asking me what I did with my major. I told her and asked her what she wanted to do, and it was a vague "Write...stuff. Novels?" and I refrained from saying "Honey, hope your family has money or you marry rich."

But if Grandma's willing, Rory has that covered so she can probably piddle around as an unsuccessful author the rest of her life if she wants to.
posted by emjaybee at 11:02 AM on November 27, 2016 [10 favorites]


I think he was decent and obviously cared for Rory.

he's engaged the whole time!!!! his betrothed is an even bigger nonentity in his world than Paul is in Rory's. she does not even get the bare courtesy of being treated as a punchline now and then. he is vile and even though I hated him ten years ago, with the benefit of time on his part and and increasingly shallow agedness on mine, I must say he has become extremely good-looking. nearly as good looking as alexis bledell. so that, plus the brutal treatment of anybody he is not sexual captivated, plus the thing where he's exactly like her terrifyingly unaging dad except that unlike Christopher, he remembers Rory exists for at least five minutes after she leaves a room

well all in all he is completely perfect for her. I ship it. as they said in my day.

& speaking of people I hated the first time around I have to admit Dean aged into something much more tolerable than I would have guessed. or is he Jan? Torvill? whichever one he is on this show. his haircut is silly but so is Jess's, now.
posted by queenofbithynia at 4:58 PM on November 27, 2016 [4 favorites]


anyway although I think it is only just and right for a chewbacca to inherit the Huntzberger millions I think Rory being a single mother by conscious choice is just as predictable a consequence of her upbringing as was having boyfriends who were copies of her feckless dad, her sexy dad, and her only-imaginary good old boring reliable dad, not in that order. It could be a principled and well-thought-out decision or it could be a childish reflex to make her own Rory now that her mom finally has a first priority that isn't her.

but either way, I say no way is this a birth control failure. this is what you do when your only good idea is autobiography and you just wrote your whole life up to now and you need some new material. I bet you all a quarter she used Paris's finest donor and it wasn't the one night stand or Logan or even poor Paul.
posted by queenofbithynia at 5:05 PM on November 27, 2016 [4 favorites]


I have so many weird, angry, conflicting feels right now, but I will say reading these Fanfare threads makes me wonder why people just went all in with hate-watching this. Rory is, in hindsight, a garbage fire of a selfish entitled human being. Lorelei cannot communicate properly to save her life.

But you and I would not watch this if everyone turned out to be functional and fine. That would make for dull television.

That said, I loved Emily's ending arc.
posted by Kitteh at 6:03 PM on November 27, 2016 [2 favorites]


Yeah, who'd have guessed Emily would be the one Gilmore Girl to show character growth?
posted by jacquilynne at 7:06 PM on November 27, 2016 [16 favorites]


I'm 25 minutes in. Jesus God Rory have some self-respect.

I shouldn't have watched these so fast, I have no tolerance for the schtick anymore.
posted by Snarl Furillo at 1:10 AM on November 28, 2016 [2 favorites]


I feel like Rory was supposed to be basically horrible and self-centered and shitty during the initial run of the show, because she was 16 to 22 years old, and that's when you learn how not to be horrible and self-centered and shitty. Sometimes you learn that by watching other people be those things and thinking Ew, no. I won't be like that., but sometimes you learn that by powering through it. You dump the nice boy for the destructive relationship with the bad boy who skips town, and you have the affair with that no-longer-single nice boy, and you run into a brick wall in college when you suddenly realize that everyone else is the smartest and prettiest and bestest person in their hometown. But you learn, bit by bit, that your wants are not everyone's wants, and that other people do not exist as background players in your story, and that things won't get handed to you even if you don't really want them but gosh you clearly deserve them, and maybe that ends up with you getting pregnant straight out of college and having to figure out what the hell happens next, but you at least have this base of learning how to be a better person.

Except, for some reason, your senior year went kind of weird, like someone new was writing your life, and this big arc of thoughtless (almost solipsistic) bouncing giddily through life on clouds of talent and luck and other people's sacrifices deflates into you not really learning anything and bouncing giddily away to the next thing you were handed, tra la la, and a decade later, you're still doing that because nothing concrete has happened to you, and that's a pretty big problem, because you've never learned how to make things happen, so you're still having an affair with your no-longer-single ex-boyfriend and hopping from job to job and pretty much just waiting to go back home and fall into the trap that you somehow bounced giddily around ten years ago.

And that's the problem. Everyone was put in a deep-freeze for ten years because Rory hadn't learned her lessons, which wasn't so bad for Lorelai and Luke and Emily and Kirk and Taylor and so forth, because it's not abnormal to be the same person at 48 that you were at 38. But it's intensely abnormal to be the same person at 32 that you were at 22, especially when that's also more or less the same person you were at 16.
posted by Etrigan at 6:19 AM on November 28, 2016 [15 favorites]


I am just really super glad that Emily Gilmore did not kill herself. That's what I felt the cuts between Lorelai's wedding and Emily getting her wine and going out to the backyard was feeling like. I was scared the last four words were going to be something like, "Emily Gilmore is dead". WHEW!

I was nonplussed with the last four words so much so that I thought maybe there were supposed to be scenes after the credits or something because how uninteresting were those four words?!? But then I realized through Twitter that it was related to her visit with her dad and suddenly it made a lot more sense. Now I want to rewatch to try to figure out when Rory first knew she was pregnant. She was drinking that scotch with Jess in the newspaper office - hopefully she found out sometime AFTER that. So, as much as I would love for the baby to be #TeamWookiee, I really hope it is not.

The Life and Death Brigade visit was a bit long and annoying, I think. Especially the goodbyes. I mean, did those three guys REALLY care about Rory as a person and love her and would be sad to miss her? No. Maybe I'm jaded. She and Logan were the item.
posted by jillithd at 6:53 AM on November 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


I am just really super glad that Emily Gilmore did not kill herself.

Oh, wow, I had totally forgotten how afraid I was of that in the moment. I don't know whether to chalk that up to how much I disliked the actual Last Four Words (thereby displacing some of the rest of the episode) or to give credit to Kelly Bishop and Amy Sherman-Palladino for creating a character who could have done that, but in retrospect, of course she wouldn't have, why would I even think that, how gauche of me.
posted by Etrigan at 7:13 AM on November 28, 2016 [4 favorites]


And that's the problem. Everyone was put in a deep-freeze for ten years because Rory hadn't learned her lessons, which wasn't so bad for Lorelai and Luke and Emily and Kirk and Taylor and so forth, because it's not abnormal to be the same person at 48 that you were at 38. But it's intensely abnormal to be the same person at 32 that you were at 22, especially when that's also more or less the same person you were at 16.

This is maybe the truest thing I've ever read and exactly what I went to bed pondering last night after finishing the series. I know TV is TV and Real Life is Real Life. But the people I've known/knew that didn't change at all between 22 and 32 were not just feckless, entitled and irresponsible but deeply fucked up people. And it's not just that Rory's material circumstances, activities and social millieu hasn't changed, but her complete absence of self-awareness, of earned wisdom, God, I can't believe how stupid I was then (the closest she gets in that conversation with Dean? Maybe?). That level of obliviousness is almost frightening in its intensity. And bleak conclusion suggests that Rory will be stuck there forever surrounded by a whole town full of monied enablers, likely raising another child in the thick of it.

Or to put another way, I actually found myself thinking (post "Fall") that at least the similarly entitled, feckless, frequently intolerable, borderline sociopaths of "Girls" occasionally approach something like character growth.
posted by thivaia at 7:20 AM on November 28, 2016 [4 favorites]


Slate goes full-on contrarian on the four words: perfect and a disappointment.
posted by rewil at 8:12 AM on November 28, 2016 [2 favorites]


I mean, did those three guys REALLY care about Rory as a person and love her and would be sad to miss her? No.

The Life and Death brigade is the worst and I had completely pushed away the memory of them until they were back on my screen this weekend. Uggggh. They have such a complete lack of responsibility and lack of consideration. "Oh, I don't like this music. Guess I'll buy the club so I can play what I want. LOL, I won't remember this tomorrow because alcohol."

Part of me wants to believe that groups and people like this aren't real, or that if they are, they don't do this stuff in their thirties anymore, but I suspect there is an unfortunate level of truth in this depiction.
posted by easternblot at 8:13 AM on November 28, 2016 [8 favorites]


They have such a complete lack of responsibility and lack of consideration. "Oh, I don't like this music. Guess I'll buy the club so I can play what I want. LOL, I won't remember this tomorrow because alcohol."

It wasn't even that stupid and selfish. He intentionally destroyed something that a bunch of people clearly loved. Not "made it better for himself", either, because it's obviously either going to switch back to tango as soon as he leaves and forgets it exists or it'll be dead within a month because no one will go there. And if he somehow stumbles in next weekend before it's completely dead, he'll be pissed at the music again and try to buy the place again.
posted by Etrigan at 8:29 AM on November 28, 2016 [3 favorites]


The only thing I can add to all the great comments is that the saddest thing to me was that I thought the main reason Lorelai wanted to get pregnant was to maintain the connection she had with Emily through Rory. Maybe I'm reading too much into Lorelai's motivations because generally the people on this show don't think too deeply about things (I love it, but it's not a major characteristic of GG).
posted by tracicle at 8:42 AM on November 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


I am absolutely convinced of my own headcanon, that the subtitles for Berta kept improving because Emily was secretly learning her language (Berta + family knew: Lorelei and Rory and the DAR ladies etc had no idea). I waited every moment for this to happen, but I guess that making people cry in a museum (so like Paris at Chilton!) is also ok.

Rory should have spoken to Luke about not being around for April's childhood, not just Christopher. But I also thought about it and decided that what makes sense to me about Rory's story is: she worked hard for about 6 years, until she got that New Yorker article. At that point, Rory thought she had made it, that people would be lining up to find her, and she could relax a bit. This already derailed her, because one article in the New Yorker is not "your career is saved forever", and she was horrified by this. Then Richard died, and it knocked her entirely off the horse and since she had never dealt with failure before, she didn't know what to do -- she didn't even notice she had fallen until the horse was way off in the distance.

It's not perfect, because the show tried to be both a "8 years later" and a "retcon season 7/8", which devolved into a huge muddled mess, but there we go.

I am SO MAD that Lorelei just gave in on the stupid book, though.
posted by jeather at 8:44 AM on November 28, 2016 [7 favorites]


Also: content creators, please learn what the difference is between a cliffhanger and an open-ended ending and choose correctly.
posted by jeather at 8:49 AM on November 28, 2016 [2 favorites]


Loved:
Dean
Christopher
Sookie, her many cake options, and her kitchen usurpation tirade
Emily and the whale-hunting terror tale (plus the DAR rant, god love her), the ever-expanding extended family living with her

Hated:
doing Wild -- seriously, what a fucking waste of screen time
Life and Death Brigade, which is where the show originally, irrevocably jumped the shark
Logan in general, although I guess his presence is a pretty good indicator of how aimless and self-sabotaging Rory has remained

There was a little too much Michel, but just enough Kirk and Lane.
posted by FelliniBlank at 2:02 PM on November 28, 2016 [3 favorites]


So, by my count, that makes SIX unplanned pregnancies in this entire show (Lorelai, Sherry, Lane, Anna, Sookie & now Rory). I know Sookie wanted her first two, but not the third (and I get that some of that was that Melissa McCarthy got pregnant) but no one else planned to get pregnant or even expressed that much interest in having kids (well, we don't really know about Lorelai or Anna).

That's just ... weird.

The punchline at the end would have felt different if Rory had ever, even once, expressed any interest in having children. Ever. Even just in these sets of shows (Rory: "Steve and Kwon are such great kids!" Lane: "Do you ever think about having any?" I mean, sure, she babysat Paris' kids, but that just seemed out of kindness than maternal instinct).

And I guess that's ultimately what bothers me about how pregnancy and childrearing it treated on this show -- as an accident, as something that comes from obligation rather than something these women actually desired (outside of Sookie). Considering how many times Lorelai said her parents should not have had a child, I never felt like Lorelai was anything less than wanted by her parents. She was had intentionally.

I don't know if that was the point they were trying to make, but they made it -- somehow it's "better" just to fall into parenthood than it is to desire it and plan for it (the whole surrogacy plot was weird and so quickly dropped). No, that's not how it works, really, at all.

I have more and more problems with how this whole series played out (I thought the L&D Brigade thing was a dream sequence and then ... it wasn't. The whole musical sequence went on WAAAAAY too long. Paul was treated like a joke, except that whole thing wasn't funny but gross. Berta speaking a fake language was just ... probably "racist" isn't the right world, but it still felt pretty offense at worst and weirdly broad at best). No one seemed to learn a damn thing (especially not Rory. Not a thing). I'm glad I got progressively more drunk as I watched this because I think it took the edge of the anger.

I'm happy for Emily but Emily is the best. Other than that, this was a mess and I'm glad I can be done with Gilmore Girls forever now. Which is sad because I really loved the show for a long time.
posted by darksong at 3:50 PM on November 28, 2016 [12 favorites]


(the whole surrogacy plot was weird and so quickly dropped).

no way was it dropped! surely if we don't think Rory went to Paris for donor help, we assume she's working as a surrogate for Paris now. we = me but not just me, right?

I mean she ran through every other nepotistic and networking connection she had to get herself a job, none of them worked, the newspaper doesn't pay, the book will be done soon and seriously nobody is going to publish and/or buy it and even if they did it would be the New Yorker article all over again but even worse in terms of being a one-trick pony who has just wrung all the milage from its one trick. the post-publication/book tour depression would/will be the absolute worst.

so, she works for Paris now! because she needs an excuse to keep on needing her mom and not getting an office job. this is pretty perfect.

anyway I will never understand why she didn't take the goddamn Maine cottage. Sleeping with a nearly-married man but not taking writing retreat cottages from him indicates an ethical system I will never understand. it had a maid AND a groundskeeper. for god's sake I wouldn't sleep with Logan for it but I would sacrifice my self-respect in a heartbeat, where self-respect just means not taking fancy things from rich people who don't need them.
posted by queenofbithynia at 6:23 PM on November 28, 2016 [3 favorites]


I don't buy Rory working for Paris as a surrogate at all. There are plenty of non-surrogate ways she could've gotten pregnant, and I am #TeamWookiee, because why not. It makes about as much sense as the rest of this hot mess.

(Ugh I wish this was better. Putting Jess in Luke's place like that, shuffling Rory into Lorelai's except double her age ... argh argh argh.)

That Emily Gilmore, though. When I take my rightful place on Crone Island, it's straight to Vagina House for me.
posted by minsies at 6:51 PM on November 28, 2016 [6 favorites]


I would love the idea of Rory being a surrogate for Logan and Odette because that would be amazing and actually show Rory actually had some agency in her life choices (or something) but I sadly don't think that's the case. I think Rory got knocked up by Logan, won't tell him and just ... hang around Stars Hollow for the rest of her life. Or give her mom and Luke her baby to raise and just run off (like Sherry did with Gigi).
posted by darksong at 6:58 PM on November 28, 2016


You really could do a lot worse than to end up in the nice town you came from with family money coming out your ears so you never have to do anything but hobby jobs or volunteering or pointless whimsy (your greatest strength) your whole life long, and you have your mom and stepdad and pining hot ex-boyfriend and old friends all right there all the time. with a baby or without one.

the only reason for that to be a bittersweet or positively depressing ending is if Rory has to be special and do special things. and that is why, if she really is accidentally pregnant with an articulated action figurine or whatever, she decided to have that accident. because Rory Gilmore can't take the initiative to deliberately have a small pleasant privileged life of no particular interest or achievement but full of easy comfort and ready pleasures. it has to happen to her so that she can make the best of it.

this all sounds very mean to Rory because I am used to being mean about Rory. but the one grievance she does have is that there always was a lot of pressure from her mom to justify her own sacrifices and choices by becoming something great. Rory just doesn't have any greatness in her and she can't really take it upon herself to break it to her mom that just fucking around, reading novels, and breaking up a marriage here and there, now and again, is most of what she wants out of life. so, she "has" to stay home for the baby-raising help.

I got a million interpretations and every one of them is mean to Rory in one way or another
posted by queenofbithynia at 7:24 PM on November 28, 2016 [25 favorites]


Sleeping with a nearly-married man but not taking writing retreat cottages from him indicates an ethical system I will never understand. it had a maid AND a groundskeeper. for god's sake I wouldn't sleep with Logan for it but I would sacrifice my self-respect in a heartbeat, where self-respect just means not taking fancy things from rich people who don't need them.

I was puking over the one room or two back and forth at the inn. I hate the irresistible forbidden desire thing, I find it creepy. I think I would have liked it more if Rory had ended things AFTER that scene, and not before (do I have the timeline confused?)? Then it would have been a goodbye to a fun sexy fling with a person who represents your youth/past, but instead it's just another example of a time when Logan pushes and Rory gives in. She's already broken up with him unsuccessfully twice. She's not ruthless enough to bang him once for the road and fuck off to Maine. She'd never write anything and "accidentally" sleep with Logan four times a year and feel sorry for herself. I completely buy a version of this where Rory's pregnancy is "accidentally but not really." I would buy in that version that Lorelai did the same thing. It got them both what they want- Rory can be Queen of Stars Hollow again, and Lorelai got to escape her parents and Public Gilmoredom.
posted by Snarl Furillo at 9:50 PM on November 28, 2016 [4 favorites]


I said before I thought Logan and Rory were pretty perfect for each other because neither of them want a serious commitment to each other, just a handy prop for their egos, and neither of them care about the feelings of other people. but it just makes me awful sad to see women marry their dads. at least Rory is prevented from literally marrying Logan by circumstance, and at least he is an improvement on the Christopher model in prettiness.

& I like Luke and hate Richard and at least Luke is not twenty tons of privilege in a ten pound sack. and again, better looking. but Luke and Richard were/are both the northeastern kings of harrumphing. nobody harrumphed like them. that's got to have been a formative thing for poor Lorelai.

& also I don't know if there is any overlap between the Hannibal and the Gilmore Girls fanbases, but if there is, Freddie Lounds is what became of Rory in a harsher and less candy-coated universe, where curiosity and moderate writing talent and a staggering disregard for human decency reap different rewards. Freddie Lounds is Rory Gilmore with a work ethic.
posted by queenofbithynia at 10:32 PM on November 28, 2016 [6 favorites]


Overall I liked it, but not near as much as I'd hoped. I think Winter was good, Spring was better, and then the start of Summer was fun. The secret bar was so hilarious, and when Taylor leaves the newspaper a couple scenes later and you hear a kid yell 5-0 in the distance I couldn't stop laughing. That was great.

But then the series grinds to a halt for about an hour and a half. The Stars Hollow play was so bad. Sometimes its fun to have a bit that is comically bad while you and the surrogate (Lorelai) scoff at it, but not for 18 fucking minutes. Literally this killed all the mirth and enjoyment I had so far. The Stars Hollow play felt to me like the pilot that ASP and Lauren Graham used to pitch Netflix or something. It's self contained, it only has Lauren and a few other second tier characters who could probably clear their schedules, and I think the writing is a lot weaker. I think there were 4 Hamilton jokes? and at least one was Taylor going "yea, remember we talked about Hamilton?" which isn't really a joke if you're just saying "hey remember our earlier joke?"

Summer then ends with Rory and Lorelai fighting, which is infuriating because that was the worst part of the original run for me and I'm shocked they'd do that over. Then Fall starts with the most ridiculous part of the whole series for me, Lorelai going on a Wild trip. Lorelai hates the outdoors and hates exercise. In Summer Lorelai jokes about how destroyed she is by walking around their tiny town for a few hours handing out newspapers, and we're supposed to believe she would want to hike part of the PCT? This is the dumbest plot point in an episode that has the Life and Death Brigade in it for way longer than they had any right to be. After the LDB gets out of the way and everyone gets happy, I think the ship rights itself and the series ends fine.

It was fun seeing the old crew. At times the writing was just as good as always, though a lot of the dialogue felt like it was trying a bit too hard. Kirk was great, Paris was great, I was glad to see Jess (still #teamjess) and many of the others, but man it feels like they lost the story halfway through Summer. The Paul stuff sucks, Rory's journalism career is so hollow and weird, and I don't want to see Logan ever again so it's annoying he gets to now be Rory's Christopher.
posted by DynamiteToast at 10:48 AM on November 29, 2016 [3 favorites]


Why doesn't Emily know that it's Lorelei calling? She's like "hello?" like she means "who is this?" but it's a cell phone. Why does Emily sleep in yesterday's makeup, that's insane, she's totally a cold-cream, night-cream, eye-cream kind of lady.

Logan's crew do an admirable job of making Logan seem less insufferable by being THE MOST INSUFFERABLE.

Does anyone in this show know how to kiss? Gods, it's smushyclosedmouth fakeness all the way down.

(Okay I love that Emily listens to Bernadette Peters' version of Gypsy.)

Seriously how is Rory's hair that shiny?

Dismissive text wrap-up of Paul storyline was...gross. The lighting design on the dawn after the secret wedding was pretty great though.

Why is everyone going on about "the last four words" when it was actually three words?
posted by desuetude at 11:03 PM on November 29, 2016 [4 favorites]


"Mom?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm pregnant."

Four.
posted by Etrigan at 12:41 AM on November 30, 2016


Why is everyone going on about "the last four words" when it was actually three words?

Don't worry, this tripped me up too.
posted by DynamiteToast at 6:50 AM on November 30, 2016 [1 favorite]


& also I don't know if there is any overlap between the Hannibal and the Gilmore Girls fanbases, but if there is, Freddie Lounds is what became of Rory in a harsher and less candy-coated universe, where curiosity and moderate writing talent and a staggering disregard for human decency reap different rewards. Freddie Lounds is Rory Gilmore with a work ethic.

Yes there is overlap, right here, and totally! Great insight.

I will have to fight you on the deeply misguided "Logan cuter than Christopher" thing, though, because that's just crazytalk. David Sutcliffe is teh dreamy hawtness.
posted by FelliniBlank at 7:03 AM on November 30, 2016


ha, Freddie gets the anti-GG mission statement line of all lines, too: "..smart girls grow up." Not in Stars Hollow they don't! Hannibal is such a grown-up show, if a silly one, that nobody is interested in recapitulating or even mentioning their childhood traumas, they have all moved on to making exciting new adult ones for themselves and other people. the only people caught in the web of their childhood are Abigail and Francis and they have the unhappiest endings of all. this is why only Emily Gilmore could possibly survive in that world. even though she is the rudest of the rude, she knows how to adapt and change. to become, if you will.

even Will knows that if you can't get over your ex-boyfriend no matter how hard you try and he WON'T STOP just trying for one more shot with you even after you told him you were moving on you got to lock him up behind plate glass and take away his shoes and necktie and go try to make it work with somebody totally new. growth!
I mean that is a terrific use for the Maine cottage if Rory is too much of a realist to take it for a writing retreat because she knows she'll never write much. lock Logan up in a closet there and set the groundskeeper to watch him, come back in five years to taunt him a little. set Jess to be his Chilton. I forget what Jess is supposed to be doing with his life right now but he must need either a job or a writing retreat of his own.

& Christopher's not NOT cute! just I wouldn't take either of them unless it was life or death and they would have to buy me so many houses to make it tolerable. so, so many.
posted by queenofbithynia at 8:09 AM on November 30, 2016 [2 favorites]


Oh my god, Christopher is SO CUTE. Christopher > Jess > Logan on cuteness ratings (unless Logan changes his hair to brown in which case I would do Christopher > Logan > Jess)
posted by aaanastasia at 10:12 AM on November 30, 2016 [3 favorites]


this is why only Emily Gilmore could possibly survive in that world. even though she is the rudest of the rude, she knows how to adapt and change. to become, if you will.

Emily Gilmore would be sort of a more caustic, less loopy Mrs. Komeda, or maybe a non-medicated feisty Bedelia. Wow, Emily-as-Bedelia would REALLY teach Will a thing or two about snark!

There prolly needs to be a whole "Hannibal / Gilmore Girls Parallels" FanFare area. Like: Which Stars Hollow-ite matches up with each murderer-of-the-week? Rory's boyfriends vs Hannibal's groupies. (Logan seems very Dimmondesque in his unctuousness.) Michel and Sookie as Team Sassy Inn?
posted by FelliniBlank at 3:52 PM on November 30, 2016 [3 favorites]


(Okay I love that Emily listens to Bernadette Peters' version of Gypsy.)

I noticed that too! Cracked me up, it seemed so Emily.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:40 PM on November 30, 2016


sure, she babysat Paris' kids, but that just seemed out of kindness than maternal instinct
But she was just on her phone in both instances, the whole dang time, when she was "babysitting" Paris's kids! That's not ok, and underscores her lack of interest in children. She doesn't seem interested at all in Lane's kids either. And oh, Lane. Why did this happen to you? The entire series is a pretty stark commentary about being a woman in our society. Not to say I didn't enjoy it, but holy heck. I want better for us.
posted by sockermom at 7:56 PM on November 30, 2016 [14 favorites]


Emily Gilmore's plot throughout this is the best plot because the death of Edward Hermann forced ASP to actually come up with something new and not treat Emily like she has been frozen in amber for 9 years as apparently Lorelai and Rory had been.

Also because that house in Nantucket looked fuckin' rad.
posted by Squeak Attack at 3:06 PM on December 1, 2016 [6 favorites]


This is probably the best article I've read about the Gilmore Girls revival and made me think about it in a completely different way than I had been.
posted by dysh at 4:26 PM on December 1, 2016 [20 favorites]


Also because that house in Nantucket looked fuckin' rad.

I can also confirm that that Nantucket Whaling Museum is excellent and sometimes they have lectures where the docents yell things like "They'd been hunting the Right Whale but, as those became increasingly scarce, they started hunting [something else -- Minke, maybe?] and they soon discovered that this was the WRONG whale!" with intense descriptions of just how wrong that whale was that involve lots of stabbing and capsizing. It is fantastic and I think Emily would be great at it.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 5:28 AM on December 2, 2016 [4 favorites]


Sperm whales were the "wrong whales" Nantucketers hunted (right for commercial reasons, wrong for "don't want to end up dying horribly" reasons). Minkes are tiny and I don't believe were ever the target of much large scale commercial hunting until the 20th century when the stocks of other whales were depleted.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 5:39 AM on December 2, 2016


Right, sperm whales! I bet those are a popular topic at Vagina House.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 5:53 AM on December 2, 2016 [3 favorites]


I am disappoint.

#neverlogan

Also what's cute at 22 is less cute at 32.
posted by French Fry at 11:24 AM on December 2, 2016 [1 favorite]


Just in case anyone is still reading -

The baby can't be the Wookiee's. Rory slept with the Wookiee months before the reveal - she'd have been showing prominently. She'd had her last night with Logan at the inn with the Life and Death Brigade recently.

Sorry, team Wookiee.
posted by tzikeh at 10:18 AM on December 4, 2016 [4 favorites]


The baby can't be the Wookiee's. Rory slept with the Wookiee months before the reveal - she'd have been showing prominently.

no but don't they have like a much longer gestational cycle than humans do, that could account for it

this is supported by the text insofar as Lorelai asked if he took off his costume before they did it and Rory refused to answer (because it wasn't a costume)

but I also propose as an alternate theory that Gilmore women age only two weeks out of every month. thus accounting for their extremely well-preserved looks across the generations, their emotional immaturity, and their inability to remember what other people are doing or what time it is because they are always a week or two out of sync. the two weeks out of the month they aren't living and aging, they spend immobile, wrapped in silken shrouds in the garage, except for Emily, who is trying to be even older school than she is and who spends her suspended weeks in a massive amphora kind of thing like the Cumaean Sibyl. (the Cumaean Sibyl is the legendary Gilmore Ancestor. Emily tried to lecture Lorelai about this but she thought it was as boring as the DAR. it's not, though)

anyway this is also a good explanation for why Rory might be twice as pregnant as she looks. it's just simple Gilmore biology is all
posted by queenofbithynia at 7:00 PM on December 4, 2016 [6 favorites]


It strikes me that there is an invisible Baton of Greatness being played with in the series.

Greatness could be defined as a combination of 3 ingredients:

1) The internal drive to identify a goal and then push through difficult circumstances to completion.
2) Willingness to accept the help of others (or let them share in the credit?) Think Family Money here. Or equal partnership with a husband.
3) Fearlessness to stand out from the crowd for something substantive. i.e. In showing your greatness to the world, you'll probably display some degree of eccentricity as well.

Emily, as the original holder of the baton, had 1 and 2 in spades but really struggled with 3. She'd act out on occasion but never in a display of greatness, rather in a last-ditch effort to let off steam.

Not quite sure about the baton pass from Emily to Lorelai. Was it a pass or a grab? In any case, we saw season after season of Lorelai hitting 1 and 3 out of the park but kneecapping herself on 2. She had a breakthrough on the subject during the pop tart scene, but it took her years to take the next step and start letting others participate in greatness alongside her.

As for Rory, at some point during her childhood, both Emily and Lorelai placed their desires for greatness squarely on Rory's shoulders. Sad to say, but Rory is little more than a puppet in the show. Completely lacking in ingredient 1. (Where you lead... I will follow...) If it's not her mom or grandmother putting wind (/caffeine) in her sails, it's one of her friends or boyfriends (or one Mitchum Huntzberger) either nudging her off course or back on. Even Rory eventually returning to Yale--which Lorelai hoped would be a completely internally-fueled thing--was a direct result of Jess' intervention. Turning down Logan was perhaps the first autonomous thing she did in the show, and even that took a number of attempts and didn't permanently stick. As her mom's original dreams for her ended with graduation, and becoming a carbon copy of Christiane Amanpour didn't quite work out, she seems to have flailed about somewhat aimlessly since graduation.

In this latest season I see the pieces finally starting to fall into place for Emily and Lorelai. Emily finally found her own voice and wasn't afraid to show it in public. As her own person worthy of recognition! (as opposed to just being the wife of some rich dude). The Emily that sparkled through was pretty great.

Lorelai finally found willingness to accept family money to expand the inn, and simultaneously to share in greatness with the people she cares about (namely Luke and Michel, the two who have always had her back... and I guess Suki if she wants to return). I think she's finally got it figured out and who knows, maybe franchising is in her future. She did express interest in getting to travel for work.

Rory is younger and given how long it took the previous generations to find all the ingredients for greatness, it's no surprise that she's still drifting without the ability to self-propel in a specific direction. From those last 4 words, it would seem that she's decided to relieve some of the pressure she's feeling from her mom and grandma, by passing the baton (and the Gilmore name) on again. Maybe the next generation will luck out and get all 3 ingredients off the bat, or maybe the saga will continue.
posted by mantecol at 1:57 AM on December 19, 2016


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