gilmore girls was never going to end well

ASP's ending was never good and Justice For Lane Kim.

The common opinion among Gilmore Girls fans is that the show starts to go downhill after Season 3 and then crashes and burns in its final Season 7. This decrease in quality is often attributed to 3 things:

1. Rory’s attendance at Yale beginning in Season 4 caused the show to lose its footing since the central location wasn’t Stars Hollow anymore

2. Questionable character decisions, infuriating plot lines, and overall just bad writing, especially when it came to Rory, whose character devolved post-high school

3. Contract disputes between the show’s creator, Amy Sherman-Palladino, her husband Daniel, and The CW caused the Palladinos to leave the show early, leaving its final season in the hands of a new showrunner

It’s important to note here that the Palladinos were not only producers and showrunners, but they also wrote and directed many of the episodes, which isn’t unheard of but generally uncommon, especially for that era of network TV. Even if ASP didn’t write an episode herself, every script would pass through her hands for edits, which is what gave the show its distinct style. The show had long been a shell of its former self but after the Palladinos left, it was essentially the final nail in the coffin. Despite this, after a rocky Season 7, the series finale managed to be satisfying. Rory graduated Yale, rejected Logan’s proposal, and is headed to her first job as a journalist on the presidential campaign trail. Lorelai and Luke get back together, and while we don’t get a wedding scene between them, we know it’s forever this time.

I was always satisfied with the ending of Gilmore Girls’ original run but many fans were disappointed with it and always wondered what it would have been like if Amy Sherman-Palladino had gotten to stay and bring her ending to life. Then, we didn’t have to wonder anymore. In 2016, Netflix produced and distributed Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, a four-part miniseries taking place 9 years after the events of the finale and most importantly, written by ASP herself. Amy would get to create the ending she always had in mind!

the infamous “final four words” scene. image taken from IndieWire but original credit goes to Netflix.

“Mom?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m pregnant.”

[Fade to black]

Those final seconds of the revival will haunt everyone who’s ever watched it and not in a good way. This was the ending Amy Sherman-Palladino always had in mind? For Rory Gilmore?! The Rory who, at 15 years old, determinedly told everyone she knew that she was going to attend Harvard, become a journalist, and travel the world? The Rory whose biggest inspiration was Christiane Amanpour? The Rory who watched her single mother claw her way to a decent life? The Rory who rejected Logan’s proposal because she didn’t want to be stuck as a housewife to a WASP cardboard cutout of a man?

I get what ASP was going for: that despite everyone’s attempts to make sure Rory had the life her mother never got, the central theme of the show is “like mother, like daughter” and so Rory ended up just like Lorelai anyway, pregnant by a man who will never be ready for commitment and headed for single motherhood. But this just doesn’t work and it never would have and ASP needs to learn how to let ideas go.

First off, ASP’s ending makes the least sense when it comes to the revival. Sure, single motherhood is daunting and scary and the Rory of the revival, with her flailing journalism career and lack of a permanent residence surely wasn’t ready for it, but Rory was 32 at the end of the revival. She had multiple job offers throughout the miniseries and either turned them down or acted unprofessional and ruined her chances. But if she had just taken a little bit of time to get her shit together, she could’ve found a job that wasn’t the Stars Hollow Gazette. For the sake of her child, I’m hoping Rory would have even reconsidered working at Chilton–sure, it’s a teaching gig she never wanted to do, but it’s a steady income from a private school she’s an alumnus of, she would have thrived, even for just a few years while she kicks her writing career back into gear. Of course, the revival does imply that Rory will publish a memoir but even the optimism of the Gilmore Girls universe isn’t enough for me to have faith in the publishing industry.

Aside from being 32 with professional work experience, Rory wouldn’t have had to raise that baby alone for even a second. Everyone in the entire town would be all over her, offering to babysit or run errands. Emily Gilmore would’ve paid for a nanny and snagged a spot at an elite preschool years in advance, at the very least. Maybe Rory would’ve refused help or she wouldn’t let Emily control everything, which would’ve been a callback to Lorelai’s pregnancy. But even so, she wouldn’t have been entirely alone and helpless.

Not like Lorelai. Lorelai, who had Rory at 16 and left home without a high school diploma, much less a degree from an Ivy League. Lorelai, who had no job experience, took a job as a maid for an inn and slept in a shed on the inn’s property with her daughter until they could afford a permanent residence. Lorelai, who was estranged from her parents for years and received no help or financial assistance from them until it was time to pay for Rory’s tuition.

If the central idea is “like mother, like daughter” then comparison to Lorelai’s pregnancy is inevitable. ASP’s ending for Rory pales in comparison to Lorelai when you think about it for more than 5 seconds. If ASP had gotten to do her ending when she originally intended, Rory would have been 22 instead of 32. This admittedly does make things a little more dramatic and complicated but the original point still stands. Rory would have still had a college degree, she still would’ve had hoards of people to help her out physically and financially, and she probably would’ve continued working. She may not have gotten as far into her career as she hoped but it still would’ve been a long way off from facing single motherhood at 16. And while we’re at it, Rory technically already did everything Lorelai never got to do. She went to private school and she went to Yale. That was always the dream and the main focus of the series: get Rory to college! Having a child after that fact, while still a major life-changing event, just doesn’t carry the weight that ASP so desperately wants it to. And it completely ignores the fact that while yes, Lorelai struggled immensely, she still worked her way up into a good job and built a happy life for herself. If the show thinks Lorelai could do all of that beginning at 16, what makes them think Rory couldn’t do the same in her twenties or thirties with significant advantages?

But you know who did suffer from having a child at 22? Lane. Lane, who had sex once and immediately got knocked up with twins, had her life completely derailed. Instead of discovering herself outside of her mother’s control, living her dreams as a drummer in a kickass rock band, and getting out of Stars Hollow, Lane married Zach, had his kids, and stayed in the town she’d lived in her whole life. Aside from one episode that actually takes the time to seriously consider how having kids in their early twenties will affect them, the show treats Lane as a joke and afterthought. To her credit, ASP did not write this and was disappointed by it, especially since it limited her options for Lane’s character in the revival. But it’s still a canon part of the Gilmore Girls universe where everything is a Very Big Deal for Rory and practically inconsequential for everyone else.

There’s no evidence that Rory even wants to be a mother. She was always career-driven and focused on her studies and even when her romantic relationships took precedence, domestic life never seemed to appeal to her. This makes sense, given that she was raised by a single mom who did most things herself and taught her independence. What would’ve stopped Rory from getting an abortion? In both scenarios, she would’ve been of age and even if she wasn’t, Lorelai would’ve signed for it (at least I’d like to think so–the Gilmore Girls writers are weirdly puritanical for a show supposedly about female empowerment). Maybe an abortion would’ve ruffled Emily’s feathers but there’s more than enough canon proof that they would’ve reconciled. You know who should have been allowed to consider an abortion? Lane. #JusticeForLaneKim

Lastly, ASP’s ending just never fit the tone of Gilmore Girls to begin with. The show was known for being a comfort watch with low-stakes storylines. Sure, there were some heated and dramatic moments but most things would get wrapped up in a neat little bow by the end. Even the more open-ended conclusions had a happy, optimistic note to them. To end the series with Rory’s unexpected pregnancy announcement and Lorelai’s shocked facial expression goes against everything the series was about. It ends the series on a note of drama and tragedy, the complete opposite of a show whose theme song is a warm melody sung by Carole King.

If that was the ending always intended by Amy Sherman-Palladino then I’m glad the finale was left in the hands of someone else.

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Thanks for reading! This was a very impromptu post inspired by my recent deep dive into Gilmore Women. If you celebrate the holidays, have a safe and happy week, and I’ll see you before New Year’s with a list of my favorite media of 2023.

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