At least it’s over.
So now you know why I was so glad the Palladinos are gone. As The Star-Ledger said yesterday, “The Palladinos have said in interviews that they wrote the finale with the intention of continuing the story next season — and, tonally, it fits in with some of their more unpopular story arcs of years past — but with all that happened afterwards, it plays out like a raised middle finger to both their replacements and the viewers.”
I read another article in USA Today that concludes, “[Lauren Graham], her fans, and her character deserve a better ending than they’ve been given tonight.”
No kidding.
The season began with a desperate plea in a diner and a Rory/Logan theme party, and it ended with a desperate plea in a diner and a Rory/Logan theme party. I get the bookends. Only, you know, it would have been a heck of a lot better without that last scene, which I am convinced is a big “screw you” to the WB, the fans, and the characters. As far as Luke and Lorelai are concerned, neither one seemed to get anywhere emotionally this season. In fact, we’re at a worse place than we were when we started.
Okay, so, I’ve had a little more time to think about this. I know you’re in shock. I was in shock, too, for a few days after I found out (accidentally) that this was happening. And I said, “This is the one thing I always said I would not tolerate. It’s ridiculous.” And if Amy and Daniel were staying, I probably wouldn’t keep watching, because they were the ones who said, “Invest in this couple,” and that Luke and Lorelai are soulmates. And then screwed everything over to create more drama and extend their contracts. But they’re gone. So keep that in mind. Someone can fix this mess.
Here’s what I know. If you look at interviews from the first part of the season, Amy and Daniel made it clear that they were heading in the direction of Luke and Lorelai going to the altar. And then a few things happened. UPN and the WB merged, the Palladino pilot for a new WB show got the axe, David Sutcliffe was available, and, suddenly, it seemed as if the Palladinos switched gears. Don’t believe me? Watch the first half of season 6 again. Read some of those interviews again. Then read interviews from the second half of season 6, where it’s clear that they’ve changed gears and are messing things up. It was set up clearly that Luke and Lorelai, who, as Amy said many times, are both adults with baggage, were learning how to deal with that baggage and have lives together. Great stuff! I can even believe that the Long Lost Daughter storyline was planned from last summer, as was claimed, because the Long Lost Daughter storyline could have been constructed in such a way to bring Luke and Lorelai together.
Instead, the Palladinos, trying to stretch the show out for two more seasons instead of just one (since no pilot = no job past the end of GG), decided that what we really needed was another diversion to keep Luke and Lorelai from the altar. The network did not want to offer them two seasons, so they trashed the show and the characters, and then left a mess. Those are the facts. The fact that both fans and critics have been upset with the second half of the season is no accident. It’s not just the people who love Luke and Lorelai who are upset. Although, I will say, Luke and Lorelai were not given one single episode to be happily engaged this whole season. First there was the Rory stuff and then the April stuff. Completely ridiculous. And so the Palladinos sacrificed their characters. They made Lorelai passive and Luke a jerk. They brought Christopher in and made him a good guy. Come on, if, a year ago, I had said that Lorelai was going to end up in Christopher’s bed at the end of this season, would you have believed me? The Christopher road was closed after Richard and Emily’s wedding last season. This is not organic storytelling, no matter what Amy thinks. It’s contrived and ridiculous. Good riddance to her.
In fact, I did not think that Luke and Lorelai should have eloped at the end of this episode. They have spent too much time not talking to each other. The promise of the first half of the season was not followed up on. If they still had so many things to work out, it would have been better for Luke to have (gently) said no at the beginning of the season and for them to spend this year working on their relationship. It would have made more sense for them to break up after the bad Martha’s Vineyard trip and then for them to spend the rest of the season getting back together. There’s an organic story. Instead, we have the season ending much like last season, with a frantic Lorelai running into the diner to propose, only this time Luke says no. Would the Luke Danes who said, “Yes,” without hesitation at the beginning of this season really have acted the way we’ve seen Luke Danes act this season? Would the Luke Danes who could “see her face” at the end of season 4 have acted this way? That Luke Danes wanted to tell Lorelai about big news, wanted to talk to her when he was sad. The Luke Danes from the first half of this season could read Lorelai better than he’s been doing in the past 10 episodes. That’s the kind of thing that makes me think, “Character assassination for the sake of a (not very good) story, plain and simple.” Would Lorelai really have acted so passively? If it was supposed to be leftover fear from confronting Rory and losing her, couldn’t they have said that? Because I am stuck believing that the Lorelai who dumped Jason because he was suing her dad would just say, “I need to meet your daughter. And can we set a wedding date?” Does Luke have NO friends in the town to tell him how Lorelai is actually feeling? Not even Kirk?
One of the worst things from last night is that Luke didn’t even follow her. I just don’t buy that. The only explanation I can think of is that he thought perhaps she just needed to cool off and then they could talk in private. Of course, we also have the possibility that Luke doesn’t know for sure that they’re broken up . . . she was still wearing the ring when she walked away, after all. We had an ambiguous breakup last season, Palladinos. Thanks for the original storyline.
So, do I think there’s hope for the show? Well, yeah. I wish it hadn’t gone this way, but I do think there’s hope. I think that fans who were manipulated into liking Chris and hating Luke this year can just as easily be manipulated back into liking Luke again. I never hated Luke this season. I did break up with him, but I watched the last few episodes in a state of shock, like, “These are not my characters.” I can’t hate Luke OR Lorelai, because I’m pretty sure that neither of them would actually act this way. And do I think there’s hope for their relationship? Yeah. I could see it being a detriment, Luke thinking, “She ran to his bed five minutes after we broke up,” but I can also see it being a way to finally get Christopher out of the picture. I am still of the opinion that Christopher was out of the picture after Richard and Emily’s wedding, but . . . okay. If it finally puts the “threat” of Christopher to rest, okay.
And the look on Lorelai’s face was something else. Lorelai has long been a rebound kind of girl - she went back to Max after Rachel showed up, she ran to Luke’s Diner when Chris was getting married to Sherri, she does that whole “stalking Max” thing after she’s seen Luke with someone else, she proposed to Luke after Rory dropped out of Yale. The three times we’ve seen her sleep with Christopher were at bad times - his parents trashed her and Rory, she was in a fight with Luke and Sookie was getting married, and, now, she’s just ended an engagement. So . . . despite the OOC things that have brought us here, sleeping with Christopher is not necessarily out of character for her. But it sure didn’t look to me like she was proud she had done it.
I have decided that I’m going to keep watching. I have hope for the new showrunner and the new writers. I think season 6 (especially the second half) was a mess, and it got too focused on the girls’ romantic relationships. There’s more to Lorelai than her relationship with Luke, and there’s more to Rory than Logan. Let’s get back to those roots, see the girls become themselves again, and then see what happens. Amy Sherman Palladino claimed that Luke was Lorelai’s soulmate, and before she got mad at the network, trashed the characters, and took her ball and left, I believed that was where they were ultimately heading. And I think that’s still where it’s going, good riddance to Amy. Let someone else tell the story now, someone who will take these characters back to the people that we know and love. I think it can be done. I don’t feel like I was foolish for believing that this season would end in a wedding, because I think that’s what was promised. I think the Palladinos are foolish for changing things up on their fans (and, as I noted above, it’s not just the fans who are upset), but I am not going to lose hope. I think there’s hope for the show . . . and if it turns out badly, I am just going to pretend that it ended with Luke telling Lorelai to stand still at the end of season 4. Because those were some good times.
(I’m not buying season 6 until I hear how season 7 turns out. And maybe not even then.)
(Rory’s story was great last night.)
(Next season WILL be better.)
(We can start figuring out how they’re gonna get out of this one now. . . . GO!)
May 10th, 2006 at
When the credits appears I yelled “I HATE THE PALLADINOS!”
So I guess that means we are on the same page Kari.
GRRRRR!!!
May 10th, 2006 at
This post is ridiculously long, but it can be summed up in four words: “I hate the Palladinos.”
May 10th, 2006 at
well kari, i’m not too happy with you either. you made me like the girls and this is just stupid. stupid musicians, stupid lorelai, stupid luke, stupid christopher, stupid episode. and yes, you can sum it up in really really really stupid palladinos.
May 10th, 2006 at
It’s not very nice of you to blame me. It’s not my fault that it’s all stupid. When I found out a few weeks ago that Lorelai was going to end up in Christopher’s bed, I thought, “People are going to blame me because I got them into the show.”
I never forced you to watch the DVDs! Take responsibility for your own actions!
I think the troubador thing could have been funny, but it took up too much TIME. NOTHING HAPPENED in the first part of the episode. Wasted time. Just like the whole season.
May 10th, 2006 at
Yea, the troubador thing was SO overdone.
And my mom totally predicted that Lorelai would sleep with Christopher. But I didn’t want to believe her. But she was right.
May 10th, 2006 at
So, in reading your pep talk here, I wondered to myself, “Self, how would you get out of this mess?” And I said, “Self, I would have Lorelai wake up from all of this as being a really bad dream, and then I would have the new writers get to re-do the last two-thirds of this season over again in their own unique ways.” Is it messy? Yes. Is it cheesy? Yes. But as soon as we can all stop pretending that this is where this show was really headed, well …
Of course, my concept is a silly one, and good TV writers will be able to find their way from the crap zone back to the Promised Land. Of that I am sure, as sure as I am that I’m not a good TV writer.
May 11th, 2006 at
I dunno if a dream would work. That was my first thought when I heard about this, too, just do a quick reset, but then the way it went down seemed so . . . real. (Except for Luke not following Lorelai.) But if a dream is what happens, then I will be fine with that, because I sure had a lot of angry voicemails yesterday. hehe.
May 11th, 2006 at
i haven’t watched most of the seasons this episode… and the only way i’ll ever be able to is to buy the DVDs… this breaks my heart. thanks for the anylsis, kari. at least i know what i’m getting myself back into in september.
May 11th, 2006 at
EXACTLY. It was completely out-of-character, even for Palladino-assassinated Luke, to not go after her.
May 11th, 2006 at
[...] Gilmore Girls. Kari said it much better than I could – everything is just so wrong. This is not the behavior of the Luke and Lorelai they gave us in the first few seasons. This is pod person Luke and Lorelai. It’s all wrong. And while I remain firmly on the anti-Logan train, I have to say that their goodbye scene totally got to me. I remember those feelings all too well… when the goodbye you’ve been dreading for so long is suddenly happening, and you don’t know what to say or how to act so you just cry. And then they leave. And then you cry. It sucks. I’ll stick with my girls through the last season, but I think it might be tough. I want my old characters back. (And dear sweet lord could they have wasted any more time on those troubadors? Sheesh.) [...]
May 12th, 2006 at
So disappointed with the ending…but being in my 30’s and seeing friends go through the same stupid actions and mistakes (like going for a one nighter with an ex husband because the new guy isn’t emotionally there just one night) I suppose it is an organic story. Its sucks, but it does happen. My husband pointed out to me that Lorelai has always been a self centered (selfish) character (that is a male talking now!) and it seemed very within character of her to go sleep with Chris - because that is what selfish people do. That doesn’t mean I want to watch it - or that I will buy the DVD of this past season…
May 29th, 2006 at
As I was searching the net for an answer to the mess left by the Palladinos, trying to get a clue where to go from here, I stumbled accross your point of view.
I wholeheartedly agree with everything you say. You know and follow your Gilmore Girls.
The more I read about Season 6, the more I see that I am not alone in thinking that Amy sabotaged that season. She has written some good stuff over the seasons but also some lame ones. I have all of the seasons and I go over them from time to time. I have to say that the chemistry between Luke and Lorelai (through Lauren Graham and Scott Patterson) was perfect, much stronger, very palpable up to the end of season 4. After that, seeing them in bed turning their back to one another, what is the point, might as well not show them and let us use our imagination.I have read rumours that Lauren G. was not fond of Scott P. as her love interest in the show, that would explain why they would act as a couple who have been married for 50 years.If that is true, I am deeply disappointed in Lauren. She is an actress and she should act the part she is paid to perform, and make it believable for the viewer. I do not understand the “Jason” era. The guy was totally not her type, you would not pay me to sleep with him, so what is a beautiful girl like Lorelai doing with a creep like that. Bad choice on the part of Amy. The break up was pretty lame too. It should have been that Lorelai discovered that she just did not love him and did not see a future with him. End of story. The “sueing your father” storyline was just a rush way to get rid of the character and it never made sense to me, considering the speech Lorelai gave her father before that and the fact that there was never any great love for her family. Lame. Christopher, I cannot stand. To me he looks like a weasel. Some people say there is chemistry with Lorelai. I try to look at it objectively, I just dont see it. Bland. The only strong chemistry is with Luke. Millions of fans can’t be that wrong.
If Amy thought she was being super clever with her so called cliffhanger, she should get herself another job because she is not the star and clever writer she thinks she is. How can you salvage a scene like that, she made Lorelai a slut, pure and simple. I have seen fan fiction thousands of time better than her script. She also lingers on too long on stories of second interest. Lane and her band. Although Mrs Kim is pretty good.
After the Martha’s Vineyeard episode I recorded but did not watch until I felt ready to stomach it. I was getting pretty sick of the April story and Luke as a jerk and Lorelai as a whimp. Again “lame”. But when I finally watched some scenes of Lorelai were actually pretty good, especially when she is with her mother, those are always excellent scenes. As to the shocker Amy served us, I don’t know what can come of it. I don’t share your hopes. In real life, that would be the end of her and Luke, she deserves a jerk like Christopher, let her raise the kid he had with another woman. I don’t want to watch a full season of Christopher but that is what she deserves right now. I don’t know how Luke can forgive her.
Finally, I don’t buy the reasons given by Amy for abandoning the show, it was never her intentions to go two more seasons. Her ego was bruised. Lauren G. wants to quit because of the gruelling schedule and she will be in a position to do so at the end of next season.
Amy also complaints in her press comments of her time consuming schedule. For 5 millions, I would not complaint and if she wants to find a 9 to 5 with 3 weeks vacations and $30,000 a year, she can find a job at a greeting card company. So like you I say good riddance to team Palladino and I will stay clear of anything that she pens from now on. She should be blacklisted and fans should turn their back on her future creations.
There are good pieces of acting throughout all of the Girls seasons, but there is also a very good reason why they never made it to the Emmys unlike Desperate Housewives, because the show contains a lot of inconsistencies.
I have to hand it to Amy for giving us such a fascinating couple like Luke and Lorelai, but why she decided to destroy it at the end, that is beyond comprehension.
I really need to detach myself from that, because the botchery that Amy has made in season 6 really makes me sick.
Thanks for your beautiful point of view on the whole matter.
Noële
May 31st, 2006 at
We, fans of Luke and Lorelai, are doomed, as I was trying to find out how many episodes David Sutcliffe will be on in season 7, I discovered that he is signed up for 13. 13! More than half the season. There goes the end of Luke and Lorelai and the beginning of the prospect of a Christopher and Lorelai wedding. This is very depressing news. You said that you would pretend that the series ended with season 4. I will do the same but with seson 5. It is fiction so we can make our own stories with a happier ending based on the mental picture of L and L from the show. After all, Amy literally abandoned her creation. This is blatant sabotage on the part of the Palladinos.
Noële
June 1st, 2006 at
What I heard was “up to 13,” which doesn’t mean he is necessarily going to be in 13. And, new showrunner means all of that is null and void.
Who cares how many Amy had planned to put him in. Let’s see what David does.
Keep the faith!
June 1st, 2006 at
Maybe we can see Luke kick Christopher’s ass in 12 of the 13 episodes.
June 1st, 2006 at
I vote for Luke running over Christopher with his truck.
June 1st, 2006 at
You could have that happen the first episode, and then every “Previously, on Gilmore Girls …” could have Christopher screaming like a wuss as Luke laughs maniacally.
[I would never want this to happen in person, but I can handle it in fiction. Especially if Christopher is wearing a T-shirt that says "I *heart* ASP.]
October 13th, 2006 at
i vote for the writers to have christopher go gay or something else like that! this is not the end for l&l!