Inexplicable Gilmore Girls Review: Divorce, Make-outs and Virginity to Close S4

Warning: Spoilers follow for episodes 14 through 22 for season four of Gilmore Girls, along with the first episode of season five.

For seasons now, I’ve been saying that Dean is the worst, and his behavior in the episode four finale certainly confirms my suspicions. In said finale, he beds down with Rory, taking her virginity in her childhood bed. By doing so, he cheats on Lindsay, and completes a cringe-worthy downward spiral for Rory.

To be clear, she has close to equal responsibility in the matter. Dean didn’t force himself upon her or anything. However, she was vulnerable because of how things were going at Yale, and Dean is married. And also, as the first episode of season five makes clear, Dean isn’t actually committed to making things work with Lindsay. I jokingly called her Barbie in a previous entry, but she is making a good faith effort to improve herself, as evidenced by her roast beef progress.

So, Rory loses her virginity to Dean, and becomes a homewrecker in the process. Fun times! At least she firmly rejected Jess. That was one of her few bright moments as the season ended, since it immediately followed a low moment – having Dean rescue her at a bar, and then basically telling him to screw when Jess showed up. You couldn’t call anyone except Dean? Lorelai, Paris, Lane, I think all of them have cars.

In contrast, it was cute to see Luke and then Jess to drastically improve their lives, seemingly, with self-help books and tapes. Luke seems especially improved, and while Jess speaking with Rory didn’t work out, he seemed to turn a page when it came to his relationship with Luke and his mom. Luke snapping out of his meek funk and asking Lorelai out, and then making some face time with her face, that’s all good stuff.

I’m not so pleased with Richard and Emily suddenly going Heel Mode with each other. The issues that have made them blow up seem somewhat minor to me. Yes, PENNILYN LOTT having lunch with Richard is a big offense, but things like the mustache and Jason deciding social things for the new business?

Eh. Gilmore Girls has enough plot balls in the air without also having the Emily and Richard on the verge of divorce. Not even mentioned by me in the post, but taking up significant air time in the last half of season four – Paris and Asher Fleming breaking up then not after his hospital visit, Lane and Mrs. Kim repairing their relationship subtly, the success of Lane’s band and her quirky bandmates (especially Sebastian Bach!), the SPRING BREAK! trip with Madeline and Louise.

Of those, Lane’s stuff is the best. She takes a big step forward in terms of my interest in season four – She goes from solely being Rory’s friend and sounding board, to developing her own personality and storylines. The break from Mrs. Kim really helps, of course, as her storyline has gotten more realistic as we’ve gone along.

Anyway, a procedural note as we go along. I’m obviously a couple seasons behind, even though the revival is starting today. I’m going to continue with seasons five, six and seven, and not skip ahead. Karen has told me that she’s going to skip ahead, but she’s also going to take some notes on them for when I watch them. Good times!

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Inexplicable Gilmore Girls Review: Drama and Longing in Season Four

PENNILYN LOTT!

Warning: Spoilers follow for episodes 7 through 13 for season four of Gilmore Girls.

Because I’m binging this show, and trying to split up my writing into chunks based on three to seven episodes, I neglected to mention two prominent side characters in my last entry – Jason and Lane. One relationship I wish would get more time, and one less, and if you’ve been reading my past entries, you can probably guess the distribution I’m craving.

Jason seems like a dolt. He’s rich, but seems kind of sleazy, and his basic appeal to Lorelai seems to be 1) it’ll annoy her parents and 2) he can talk as fast as she can. The first aspect is especially annoying to me. I don’t think Emily and Richard are particularly warm, and clearly, Emily’s henpecking is probably responsible for a lot of Lorelai’s issues. However, Lorelai is quick to sabotage inroads her parents belatedly make, whether it’s insisting on paying back Rory’s Chilton tuition, grinding her teeth through every social opportunity, or dating Jason.

So, Jason. The relationship starts when Lorelai is drunk (essentially) and pissed off at Emily. Jason is kind of weird, with his various apneas, and I imagine things will go south once Lorelai is forced to introduce him as her boyfriend. At that point, the “fun” of the forbidden goes away, and what are you left with? A rich, fast-talking insurance salesman, which is pretty much the opposite of Lorelai’s type. (And, plus – I still know Luke is lurking out there as a dating option. Damn my foreknowledge of this show! But, it’s not like this is a giant secret, as the show clearly keeps foreshadowing his continued love for Lorelai.)

In contrast, Lane getting kicked out of her home and momentarily living with Rory is incredibly interesting. They don’t really delve too deeply into her new, awkward situations, unfortunately, but having seen some future episodes, at least it is a plotline that is continued throughout season four, as opposed to being dropped with little explanation.

It’s also unique and somewhat realistic, because I feel like in most shows, the Lane-Mrs. Kim drama would be wrapped up by the end of the episode. Instead, Mrs. Kim essentially tells Lane to go screw when she finds out how much her daughter has been hiding from her. There isn’t a “make nice” moment, so in a way, we’re getting a reenactment of the Emily-Lorelai feud.

Fun moment – The Gilmores, as a family, attending the Yale-Harvard football game, and Lorelai ribbing Emily about Pennilyn Lott. Not so fun moment – the ensuing drama and FEELINGS as Emily discovers that Richard still meets with Pennilyn Lott. Definitely fun moment – Repeatedly typing Pennilyn Lott. Pennilyn Lott! What a name, Pennilyn Lott, is.

By the way, speaking of tangled love and family webs, Jess comes back. We finally get the blow-off between him and Rory, presumably because that whole spin-off thing didn’t work. I mean, uh, not the spin-off, the completely legitimate reasons for him to be out in California with his biological father.

Anyway, Jess is still horrible, but he confesses his love to Rory. He then immediately leaves town. Yay? Annoyingly, I imagine this means Jess will pop up in at least one more episode. He’s the god damn Chekov’s gun of this show. Until Rory tells him to go screw, a la Mrs. Kim, I won’t believe that he’s gone for good.

Other odds and ends: It was distressing that Sookie turned out to be a flake when it comes to inn issues. Nicole and Luke is very meh. Lulu and Kirk is the new hotness. (Did you know that Kirk has a girlfriend?) Gil is played by Sebastian Bach, and not the 10 other hair metal band members I initially thought of, and he’s pretty fly. Paris is still baller, even though she (or possibly because?) crushed Jamie with a single phone call. Andddd, my next entry will be Friday or Saturday, depending on when I manage to write more about the ole Gilmore Girls.

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Inexplicable Gilmore Girls Review: The End of Jess For Now! (And Season 3)

It's okay Barbie, I like Michelle Branch and Matchbox 20.

Warning: Spoilers follow for episodes 19 through the end of season three of Gilmore Girls.

The last couple episodes of season three of Gilmore Girls are pretty, pretty, pretty eventful. First things first, we finally get the big Dean-Jess feud blow-off, after an odd exchange in a bedroom of some kid’s house between Rory and Jess. He pressures Rory to have sex, she turns him down, and then they get into an argument. It’s implied that Jess is feeling weird and pressured because of how horrible things are going for him at school, and because his car is stolen (probably by Luke).

So, Dean hears the commotion in the bedroom, and confronts Jess outside of it. Now, I might be mistaken, but I’m pretty sure Dean does throw the first punch. This gives further credence to my theory that he is a psychopath. It doesn’t help that a few episodes later, he tells Rory that he’s going to marry his Barbie doll looking girlfriend! I guess he really is going for the Donna Reed lifestyle.

Anyway. One realistic aspect as the season ends – the dissolution of Jess and Rory. It just ends of goes out with a “meh,” with a non-conversation on the bus and Jess prank calling her a few times. At least in my own experience, relationships usually peter out more than end in a verbal combustion, like you see on television. Both methods are equally painful, like trying to decide whether to rip a band-aid off or simply peeling it off slowly.

Jess flees Stars Hollow and takes the bus cross-country to California, to finally converse with and find out the deal with his deadbeat dad. Wikipedia tells me that this was actually a backdoor pilot for a Jess-centered show, Windward Circle. This sounds horrible, so I’m glad it didn’t happen. Jess is petulant and annoying at best, his dad was an older, more deadbeat version of him, and I didn’t care much for his girlfriend Dharma. Since the pilot didn’t get picked up though, I’m positive I’ll see more of Jess and some point, along with *shudder* Dean at some point probably, given that his marriage seems like a horrible idea.

Let me focus on the good – Alexis Bledel is pretty damn good in the last couple episodes of season three. From standing up to Lorelai and forcing her to open her inn, to the graduation speech, and her basically telling Jess on the phone to put up or shut up, she had a strong couple of moments. I usually find her to mostly be along for the ride that is the Wondrous Lauren Graham Carnival, but she held her own and seems to be steadily improving as the seasons continue.

Meanwhile, Lorelai probably had her worst stretch of episodes. Between being kind of dismissive about Emily’s feelings, trying to force herself back on Max and trying to ruin Rory’s deal with her parents, it wasn’t a good run. While I’ve railed against Max multiple times, good on him for realizing that his dealings with Lorelai aren’t positive.

One odd thing that completely slipped through the cracks – We got nothing from the Stars Hollow or Chilton proms. Rory just didn’t go to either one? And, Lane is a prominent character in the first three seasons, and we spent a lot of storyline time on her and Dave trying to go to prom together. We can’t get some prom moments from them? It is like my complaints about not seeing Sookie and Jackson actually saying “I do” at the end of season two. If a story element doesn’t feature a Gilmore girl, we apparently don’t get to see it.

Anyway, final thing – There is a funny bookend to the season, as it essentially ends with Luke having a dream about being with Lorelai. He’s obviously still completely in the bag for Lorelai, and again, I know that he and her officially date at some point, and I haven’t seen that yet. So, I don’t think that he and Nicole are going to be together forever following this cruise. (Spoiler: I’m into season four as I write this, so I know that they’re not together. But anyone watching the end of season three wouldn’t think Luke-Nicole is a permanent thing anyway.)

Want to support Steve’s blogging? Then purchase something via the Amazon clickthru link for Your Parents Basement, Steve’s other project! To read all of Steve’s past Inexplicable Movie Reviews, click here! For Inexplicable TV Reviews, click here! For Inexplicable Video Game Reviews, click here! And for Inexplicable Book Reviews, go here!