by: Krissy Trujillo
A love letter to The Gilmore Girls in the wake of Netflix tendering its revival, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life…
My Dearest Gilmore Girls,
I have spent the last two months falling in love with you. Despite being completely aware of your existence while you first aired on The WB (and watching Charmed) we somehow missed each other along the way. Fortunately, because of Netflix, a beloved television show’s pending revival, and my best friend’s excellent recommendations, this was remedied. I honestly could not be more grateful, especially since I didn’t have to endure the pain and suffering of waiting nearly a decade for your return as many of your fans did. Actually, I only had to wait forty-eight hours – I timed this very specifically – but that doesn’t mean I love you any less.
As a newly minted devotee, I sobbed just as hard as any first-run fan when Rory graduated from Chilton. I stupidly smiled for hours after Luke finally kissed Lorelai. My heart broke when Rory left Yale and she and Lorelai stopped speaking, and I appropriately had a breakdown when they reunited, because what is Gilmore Girls without the Gilmore girls together: talking quickly, drinking coffee, and making all my favorite pop culture references? Anyway, the point is all fans, new and old, love you and all that you’ve given us.
We love Lorelai Gilmore! Man, where do I even start expressing how I feel about Lorelai? I have very rarely felt so immediately drawn to a character the way I was to her. Maybe it’s because I also talk about a mile-a-minute, make obscure pop culture references, and have a bloodstream that is definitely 99% caffeine – but more so Diet Coke than coffee. It’s more than just that, though. It’s her fierce independence, her relentless drive to create a life for herself and her daughter, and her constant support and love for Rory. It’s her eccentricities, her complete and total sense of, “This is me, take it or leave it.” It’s her selfishness in wanting things to fit into her comfort zone, her flight in the Max situation, her bottling up of her emotions around Luke during the April situation. You gave me a character that represented both the great and darker parts of myself. I wept when Lorelai sat in Carolyn Bates’ car and told her she had never really pictured herself getting married (until Luke) in “Partings,” because it just so deeply resonated with me – and to top it all off, it probably doesn’t help that at age ten I decided I wanted to be a single mom. I love that I see a lot of myself in Lorelai, which keeps me aware of my faults, while simultaneously inspiring me to move toward my goals despite the circumstances.
We love Rory Gilmore! Her taste in books, the drive she clearly gets from her mother, her debatable taste in men. Rory and Lorelai’s relationship shows us some of the strongest Rory moments. As much as Lorelai is there for Rory, Rory is there for Lorelai. She joins her in the spontaneous wedding-avoidance road trip. She rushes home after her breakup with Luke. She tells her mom to be cautious of Christopher given their track record. Their relationship is the heart of the show, of course, and really it’s #goals (Shout out to my mom, who is also actually my best friend and confidant, and will 100% be reading this).
We love more than your beautiful portrayal of a mother-daughter relationship, we love your fictional town of Stars Hollow, its gazebo, and all these incredible people who remind us that friends are family too. It’s Sookie’s talks in the kitchen. It’s Lane’s impeccable music taste – even if I’m still personally offended she’s ashamed of liking Fleetwood Mac. It’s Michael and his chows. It’s Miss Patty and Babbette gossiping. It’s Taylor and his town meetings, rules, permits, traffic lights, and the sundae shoppe. It’s Kirk and his endless string of jobs, films, and interpretive dance. It’s Paris, though not an actual Stars Hollow resident, she deserves an honorable mention for her intensity and insurmountable ambition. I mean, Law School and Medical School?! What a goddamn gem.
It’s the men who dared love a Gilmore. We all have our opinions on them, and this may be one of the few things that we can all argue about until our faces turn blue. Dean, Jess, and Logan – though personally I do agree with the notion that they all came in at the right time for Rory – there are things I love about each of them specifically. I love that Dean made an effort to be a part of the Gilmore girls’ dynamic when he and Rory were first together. I love that Jess was an intellectual match, who came back and guided her onto her rightful path with Yale. I love how Logan made her adventurous and daring, and how he was there for her when Richard was in the hospital.
I loved Max Medina, whose name I always insist on saying completely, for some reason. Obviously things didn’t work out, and Lorelai kind of, sort of, maybe didn’t handle this best, but Max was a good guy. I think if there was no chuppah I would have liked for them to have been together. It’s Christopher…okay, maybe it’s not Christopher…or Jason…¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Then there’s Luke. King of burgers, eye rolling, rants, and flannel. Luke is the kind of person we all hope to have in our lives. Not even in the romantic sense – though his love for Lorelai is deeply moving. Luke is the kind of person we can only hope for, because although he comes off as a grump, he really cares about those around him. Though I think we can all agree his communication skills are absolute shit – but hey, we can’t all be perfect. His total love of Lorelai and Rory is what wins me over every time, though. Like when he just knew to bring ice to Rory’s birthday party. When he attended her graduation and helped move in her mattress at Yale. When he built Lorelai a chuppah for her wedding and bought her basket so she didn’t have to eat with any of the designated suitors. Comforted her over the Dragonfly, and then chipped in so she could accomplish her dream. Even when they split, he came straight to her when he heard her voicemail. OTP: I’M ALL IN, y’all – love these two, and Luke loves Lorelai, and Lorelai loves Luke, and goddamn if I don’t get emotional about it.
Last, but not least, the Gilmores: Emily and Richard. I don’t think I know a single person who wasn’t mentally and emotionally preparing for the funeral going into “A Year in the Life.” While many of us obviously hope for the kind of relationship Lorelai and Rory have, you don’t always get what you hope for. Sometimes we have parents whom we just cannot relate to – who want different things for us – and who push us right when every fiber of our being is saying go left. At the end of the day, Richard and Emily weren’t the perfect parents for Lorelai but that happens sometimes in life and it’s another part of the show that is so relatable and makes me love you so much.
We love Emily, who has a completely different set of priorities and expectations for her daughter than Lorelai has for herself. I admittedly wasn’t crazy about Emily at the top of Season 1 because her comments and demeanor were so harsh. Then I remembered that this is a woman who felt that she’d lost her daughter. Much of her character is built on the wall of defenses she’s created to deal with the hurt and betrayal she’s felt. And I live for the tender moments between Lorelai and Emily, honestly. Also, I must admit that I have a 32-hour Spotify playlist made up solely of show tunes that I feel like she’d appreciate (and yes, A Chorus Line is on there too. *wink, wink, nudge, nudge*).
In addition to confessing my undying love, I just really want to say thank you. Thank you for the relationships and the characters, the laughter and the tears. Thank you for letting us experience your lives, and for shaping ours. Thank you for leading, and letting us follow.
xoxo,
Gossip Squirrel Krissy
Krissy Trujillo works in communications at a med-tech company by day, and binge watches television shows that feed her emotional masochism by night. In her spare time she enjoys going on feminist rants, giving in to her shopping addiction, and consuming copious amounts of cheeseburgers and diet coke. You can follow her @katullys.
