Inexplicable Gilmore Girls Review: Season six’s midseason blur

Warning: Spoilers follow for episodes 11 through 16 for season six of Gilmore Girls.

The thing I’ve noticed about the middle portions of Gilmore Girls seasons is that the Good Ship Gilmore takes on water, and disasters are obviously visible on the horizon, but at least when it comes to the main characters, they try to save the highest drama for the last six episodes.

I imagine it wasn’t such a big deal when it was a weekly show, but it’s much more noticeable when you’re on an endless binging marathon run of episodes, like I’m trying to do. It’s a slow drip, drip, drip of drama as the pressure builds on Luke and Lorelai, and Rory and Logan. There are essentially four “big” developments in this six episode span:

1) Lorelai finds out about Luke’s daughter, because April works a day at the diner. This understandably causes friction in their relationship, because, you know, Luke has a secret daughter, and he didn’t immediately tell Lorelai. The biggest issue with all Gilmore Girls fights is that they usually hinge on one character holding something from another, even if this is the 50^th time that’s happened to in the show’s run.

2) Rory and Logan fight about stupid things, but it’s ultimately OK because he has money. Whether it’s using it to get the paper pushed out on time, or taking the “family” on a vacation to Martha’s Vineyard, Logan usually spends his way out of trouble. Things seem to be coming to a head with that though, as Huntberger Senior has a “what the fuck are you doing?” chat with him on the vineyard. (And by the way, Abigail Spencer pops up as a bridesmaid in E6-16!)

3) Zach and Lane make up, and then, quickly get engaged and married. Since I’ve watched ahead a bit, I’d like to point out that Lane’s story arcs are like Bizarro Gilmore Girls. She basically serves as a “what if?” in a way for Lorelai, if she had managed to patch things up with Emily way back when.

4) Paris loses control of the Yale newspaper in comical fashion. Like, ridiculous, over the top, stupid fashion, to the point where she has a bunker at the end. While I still find Paris really enjoyable, it’s kind of lame to see her still stuck in a rigidly anti-social box, even at Yale. It’s an Ivy League college, it’s weird that she can’t find some similarly ridiculously competitive people to bond with.

Anyway. Emily and Richard also reconcile with Rory and Lorelai in that patch, but it’s kind of Yada Yada / handwaved at the end of an episode where they all get drunk. My next entry will be on the final six episodes of the sixth season, so I’ll have a lot more to say then, as Gilmore Girls emerges from its middle episode doldrums.

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