Winter

              A gorgeous scene that this Alabamian will never be able to relate to

I think I loved this episode almost as much as the finale. It wasn't until I had watched it that I realized that despite quitting due to shipper rage, there really was so much I loved about the show other than the main couple. The family relationships, the witty repartee, the townies, all with their own little dramas and foibles and quirks . . . it was really wonderful being in that world again.


The fact that Luke was so proud of Rory that he ordered extra copies of her New Yorker article and plastered them on the back of the diner menus (as well as meeting her forgettable boyfriend) really puts into focus on how he has essentially become her official surrogate dad. He always danced around that in the original series, in part because he didn't want to get in Lorelai's way and due to the ever-changing status of their relationship, but he's really settled into that role now and I heart it.






Luke and Lorelai's domestic bedtime routine really settles how boring and domesticated they are and that is really, really sexy in my eyes. I'll try to steer away from making all of this shipper-related, but I really loved this scene.

One thing none of the official media reviews have noticed is how old Lorelai has gotten. She's still a babe, but she is no longer hip. Her primary digital communication is by e-mail. She doesn't get Marvel movies. She has absolutely no idea how Twitter works.  And let's not even talk about the outfits.

The only way Lorelai could be dropping more grandma anvils in this outfit is if she were wearing a GILF T shirt.

I didn't realize how much I missed Kirk until his scenes here. Glad to see that Lulu's still around.

Lane has her little hipster family unit and she seems happy, but Zach has really aged. They seem really happy and affectionate and I wish we could see a lot more of this. Rory's rootlessness and career failures aren't half as interesting to me as the prospect of Lane balancing family life with a musician's sensibility and values. Plus, loved seeing Sebastian Bach again.

Michel is as bitchy as ever and I love it.

Paris is still as awesome and scary as she's always been and she's really rocking that haircut.

I thought the ribbing on Doyle was due to the professional jealousy of the writers (I had no idea the actor was that Danny Strong) but the fact that Strong willingly showed up for multiple episodes makes me think that's not the case here.

The fact that Paris and Lane both have kids and that Paris is so well-accomplished is a real contrast to Rory's unsettled vagabond existence and her pathetic excuse of a relationship with Logan. Rory is nowhere near where they are personally or professionally and it really brings into contrast how this storyline was originally intended for someone who was 23, not 32. Given how it all turns out, I'm glad that Rory is older, but I really couldn't tolerate her behavior for most of this revival. That's fine, though. I've always been more about Lorelai.

That said, Rory is essentially doing exactly what she said she always wanted to do in life which is to travel the world and write about interesting people doing interesting things. She may not be succeeding at it as well as she wanted, but that was her life goal. She achieved it.

Oh, Logan. I was a little surprised at how much we saw him, not because I didn't like him back in the day, but because the actor didn't seem that available and there didn't seem to be much left to say about that relationship ten years later. Rory wanted an independent life and he wanted someone to fit more into his social circle yet a decade later he's still toying around with the fiance and she's the side chick? Why didn't he get himself a society wife seven or eight years ago? I feel that I need more context on the deal with the fiance and why he and Rory can't have a real relationship.

That said, I get it. Matt is looking good these days.

                                 

The Richard Gilmore scenes really got to me. I've been there. The uncertainty, the awkwardness, the need to somehow live up to everyone else's grief expectations. Yet somehow the whole arc with Richard's death didn't really resonate with me like I thought it should. I mean, I literally cried out "not Grandpa Gilmore!" when I heard Edward Hermann had died. Emily's story here is one that was threatened several times on the original series, so it wasn't that fulfilling to me until the last episode. I don't think there was really anything new there that hadn't been explored before.

I'm not regretful that Christopher wasn't at the funeral, but I'm wondering why exactly he wasn't there. Was this just one more indication that he cannot be relied on for anything, or did someone call him and warn him off so that he wouldn't get into a drunken fistfight with Luke (again) in the middle of the cemetery? I mean, such things are common at my family grieving events, but I'm white trash. Television should perhaps be held to a higher standard.

The fact that Luke tries to help out here by fixing stuff around the house perfectly shows how he works, He's not the most demonstrative or emotional guy, and he tends to show his love by building and fixing stuff and expressing his loyalty through concrete action.

Yet even though he's not the other type of guy, he does try. The fact that he spent hours deciphering his daughter's letter by pulling out multiple dictionaries in an attempt to understand her is proof of how much effort he put into that relationship, even though it wasn't what he was expecting.

"I've always considered Rory a little bit mine". Luke, she is yours. I just can't with this guy sometimes.

Ah, the baby talk. After the original series ended, I imagined that Luke and Lorelai settled down, married, and had a few more kids. When the news came out that they were still together after all these years and yet hadn't married, I knew it hadn't happened and unless the writers really screwed up and had her run off with Christopher again, the central conflict in these episodes would end with them finally making good on that promise. But it was way too late for more babies.

I'm not sure how much Luke really wanted it back then. He wanted a future with Lorelai, with kids included, but she always had to be part of that picture. Then he couldn't handle it when April came along, but Lorelai was eventually the one to walk away from it all. It's clear that he was just so relieved when he got her back that it was enough to satisfy him, even if he might have wanted it a little in the few years that it would have been possible.

The scene with Paris in the fertility clinic was hilarious, but I'm not really sure how much Lorelai wanted this, either. When Luke brought it up all those years ago, she didn't want to talk about it, and she shot down the idea with Christopher when he brought it up. She seemed to think about it more as a way to make Luke happy, but he is happy. Plus, between April, Rory, and Jess, he's already done plenty of parenting. He is perfectly fine with their arrangement, but she wants more, and thinks this is a way to fix it. She seemed a little sad to be letting the idea go, but it's clear that she hasn't quite figured out what needs to happen to cement their relationship.

And with extra points for a Dolly Patron song on the soundtrack, we are on to . . .

Spring