Back in with the Gilmores

I must be gay. Honestly. I am about to dedicate an entire blog entry to an episode of Gilmore Girls.


WARNING: You probably don't want to read this.

Anyway, I just watched the first episode of this season. They re-ran it last night & I Tivo'd it. WOW! I had complained about there being new producers & writers of this show, but I hadn't given them a chance from watching the first couple episodes. They really did the first episode justice.

Luke Danes: Our Man in the Clutch

I think the thing that I am happiest about is that they have made Luke back into a good guy. He's not a jerk anymore. And when he hung his heart out on the line for Lorelai when he apologized & confessed his undying love, we all fell back in love with the "old Luke" again. And when Lorelai crushed him with the news that she had slept with Christopher, the father of her daughter, he just turned, got in his truck, and drove off. And the best part was that I SAW THE WHOLE THING COMING. Not in a bad, awful unimaginative predictable kind of way. But in a good, warm, "They got it right!" predictable kind of way. It was a nice, "They got it right! They still have the characters right!" kind of moment. It's almost as if I was afraid I had lost some friends for good when the Palladino's left the show. (Wow, that makes it sound like I watch WAY too much TV. And, with Gilmore Girls, I probably do take this stuff way too seriously.) It was also a sinking feeling for Luke, though: "Poor guy always gets the bad end of these things."

And in the episode, Kirk drives Taylor's car into Luke's diner. Luke's diner. His pride & joy. The place he cherishes above all else. All of this sets up this great scene at the end of the show.

The ever-charming, ever-gorgeous, and ever-neurotic Lorelai Gilmore

So, ok. Near the end of the show, there is this absolutely compelling, completely touching scene where Luke & Lorelai are both not at ease. Of course, the Sam Phillips "la-la" song is playing. (AHHHHH ... I just LOVE that song. So peaceful & tranquil ... yet, unsettled.) Lorelai is restless: tearing the bedspread off her bed, moving pillows. She's throwing pillows, she's putting pillows back -- she just can't quite find the right niche to settle into. And it's just like her life. In her life, she has never been able to stay settled. She can't find stable comfort in anyone's arms for very long. Whether it is Rory's old teacher from the first couple seasons, Luke, now Christopher, or any of her other boyfriends, she cannot stay comfortable. She is unsettled. She can't find comfort. Poor Lorelai. So Sad.

At the same time, Luke is sitting on a chair in the middle of his destroyed & cluttered restaurant as we peer in through the big hole in the side of the place. He sits there. Still. People walking by on the street, and he just sits there with his arms folded in his big empty, cluttered restaurant with the hole in the wall. It symbolizes the big hole in his heart, and the emptiness & clutter that Lorelai has wrought with her whirlwind wares. There is even a broom next to him. He's not ready to clean up. He's not ready to pick up the pieces. He's just sitting there, in stillness & in shock: heart broken wide open. Poor Luke. So Sad.

Anyways ... GREAT art. Well-written, well-produced art. And I know it's Gilmore Girls, but folks, it is still an awesome show.