Through a Glass, Darkly

Spoilers for Gilmore Girls episode “That’s What You Get Folks, for Makin’ Whoopee.”

First of all: Did you watch Veronica Mars? Why not? It’s a great show, I’m thrilled that it’s on after Gilmore Girls, and all of you should be watching it, too.

Okay, now, on to our actual topic. I heard a lot this past week about the Sherman-Palladinos getting the “last laugh” since ratings were down from last year’s premiere. How is it possible that they are getting the last laugh? This is THEIR crappy storyline that brought the ratings down! People WANTED to see Luke and Lorelai get engaged in last year’s premiere. We are not so much excited about Lorelai waking up in Christopher’s bed. I don’t really think that’s the new showrunner’s fault, or the WB [may it rest in peace]’s fault. I am pretty sure that the blame for the ratings being down falls firmly at the feet of “the bad people,” since they are the ones who gave us all this unhappiness. My biggest hope for this season, more than Luke and Lorelai getting back together (which is probable), more than the return of Marty (which is highly unlikely but a girl can dream . . . and hold on to storylines that are years past their prime) is that the show will do incredibly well and that David Rosenthal, who was handed a bad situation, will be the one with the last laugh. This can happen. I want to see it happen. Which is why we have to stick with this show. If you give up on the show, the terrorists win.

Sorry, I just needed to get that out of my system. On to tonight’s episode.

After watching the names of dozens and dozens of people who now produce in some capacity move across the screen, I noticed that the episode was written by Rebecca Rand Kirshner. “YES!” I squealed. “This will be good.” I didn’t love her episodes last season, but she always had good characterization and her episodes have a certain sweetness/bittersweetness to them. She wrote “Emily Says Hello” and my favorite episode of Freaks and Geeks, so I was excited, to say the least. Plus, her episode had already started with Luke punching Christopher in the nose. Instant classic already.

And, from the nose punch to Lane’s awful honeymoon (and sex conspiracy), from the meeting in the middle of the road to Rory chewing her mother out, from “Kirk’s” to a slightly less annoying version of TJ (and Liz being the voice of reason about Anna and April. Liz! Of all people!), from the “trip to Asia” to the final showdown in the grocery store, this episode didn’t disappoint. Yes, as the other Kari mentioned in my comments, Luke wasn’t the nicest of guys this week (is it wrong that I enjoyed him being mean more than a little bit and offered to make him my boyfriend again?). But he apologized (or said he was a jerk, which I guess is close enough) and . . . that, “You’ll go back to being Lorelai Gilmore and I’ll go back to being the guy who pours your coffee,” was pretty much perfect. He doesn’t believe they aren’t right for each other, and neither does she. It broke my heart (it got a little dusty in the room is what I’m saying), but it made me so much more sure that it’s all going to end well. I do not care what promos say (and I don’t know what they say anyway). I do not believe the Evil Promo Guy. I just know that if they were going to have Luke and Lorelai apart forever, they wouldn’t have bothered to show us him being kind at the end. The road ahead may not be perfectly smooth, but, from the way it ended, I feel like everything is going to be fine.

Lorelai isn’t meant to be with Christopher, and this episode just made that even more clear. I feel like I don’t even have to say anything, because, clearly, it must be as obvious to you as it was to me. Surely, Theresa, you must feel more cheered up after this episode. If you aren’t, just remember Luke punching Christopher in the face. I’ve waited YEARS for that scene. And when the Ls finally get back together, it will totally be worth it. This one episode made me feel that way. This one episode that was greater than the entire last season (except maybe Rory’s 21st birthday party and that time Gil played “Hollaback Girl” at the bar mitzvah), that had the characters being themselves and had the sweet quirkiness back. This show is going to be fine. Luke and Lorelai are going to be fine. We’ll see who gets the last laugh in the end.

(Oh, and how much did I love the parallels of Rory yelling at Lorelai . . . just like Lorelai yelled at her at the end of season 4? Such a great job there.)