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Gilmore Girls: That's What You Get, Folks, For Makin' Whoopie
(S07E02) Holy out-of-character, Batman! This is what fans were afraid was going to happen during the new Rosenthal regime: a slowish episode where people do and say things that no one has ever seen or heard them do, punctuated by forced "classic Gilmore" dialogue that neither flowed right nor made much sense in the context of the episode.I've got to say, I was immensely let down here, in more ways than one. How many ways, exactly? Well, right now I can count five:
1. Predictability - As soon as the cold open started and we saw Luke driving in his truck with a map in his hand, we knew exactly what was going to happen.
I mean, the thought that popped into my head was "Oh, so he's going to go punch Christopher now?" And that's exactly what he did. Nothing at all unpredictable happened; Christopher didn't duck, he didn't come back at Luke, Luke didn't cock his fist then think better of it, nothing. He just got off the elevator, knocked on Chris' door, punched him, then got back on the elevator. Then the credits rolled. Not good. Also, something else happened in this scene which leads me to problem number two...
2. Dumb behavior - Why didn't Chris look through the peephole before he answered the door? You'd think if he did that and saw Luke there, he wouldn't have bothered to even turn the knob. But I guess that would have killed the oh-so-unpredictable cold open, right?
Another issue was how idiotic Luke sounded when he encountered Lorelai as they were crossing the street. "I'm OK," he said idiotically. "So we're not getting married; I guess I don't think it's as big a deal as you do. I mean, you were the one who proposed." As much pain as Luke was in, I don't think the Luke of the Palladino era would say something stupid, even if he was just trying to protect himself and hurt Lorelai.
Of course, he realizes later, when he's with T.J. and Liz, that the two of them weren't right for each other, but when he just "happens" to see Lorelai in the frozen foods section of a huge supermarket, he goes ahead and tells her that, too. "You can just go back to being Lorelai Gilmore and I'll just go back to being the guy behind the counter who pours you your coffee." I don't know. It just seems too easy. It's only been a couple of days, but even a hard-shelled guy like Luke would be more sensitive than that, no?
Oh, and T.J.'s just an irritating idiot. But he's always been like that. I just wonder why Luke isn't taking the insurance money and getting a real contractor to do the work on the diner rather than have him and T.J. do it. I guess if he did that, we wouldn't have an excuse to bring back Liz and T.J....
3. Lane has been replaced by a lame Lane-alike - Lane was always one of the most underrated characters on the show, because of her alt-bubbly enthusiasm, her love of music, and her constant fight to not be like her mother. Then she gets married and becomes her mother. She has clumsy beach sex with Zack and she decides that she hates sex and that every woman who has said sex is good is part of a conspiracy. Then she gets pregnant (Lucky shot, Zack!) and frets that she won't be a good mother. What happened to the confident Lane that we saw as recently as last season? I want to see her back.
4. Extreme Gilmore-ness - I'm talking about when Lor decides to decorate her house in a kitschy Asian motif; she did so to make Rory, who wanted to go to Asia with Logan, happy, but it looks like she was running an Oriental novelty shop out of her living room. Don't get me wrong, Lor and Rory have ventured into this kind of nuttiness before, but it seemed to be a little much here, especially when they had the whole discussion about "dessert sushi". Something about it didn't flow right, and it just brought the scene to a halt. When Rory finds out about Chris and Lor -- Chris leaves a message as they're watching a Bruce Lee movie -- the moment doesn't have the emotional punch it should have, maybe because it was in an odd spot. Or it could have been because of Alexis Bledel's limited acting range; I'm not sure.
I did like the picture of Sandra Oh right next to the one of Mao. Why was she up there? "Well, she's a goddess," says Lorelai. I wholeheartedly agree.
5. No Richard and Emily - Not even a mention of them. Granted, they're not in every episode, but just the mere notion that they're involved in every decision Lor makes, whether she thinks so or not, just isn't evident here. That opposing force is necessary for the show to drive in the direction it does; without it there, it's aimless. And, also, the snappiest dialogue often comes during the scenes between Emily and Lorelai; the absence has been palpable in the first two episodes.
I do think what Liz told Luke, that he and Lorelai were never really in synch, was necessary. It sounded like Rosenthal and the writers addressing the fans through Liz, but at least someone had to acknowledge that Luke's behavior when April came into his life wasn't normal. The "space-time continuum" stuff (and T.J. pulling "string theory" out of his ass) was just a goofy bow on the package. But I knew as she started talking about Luke and Lorelai being on "different planes," she was going to mention The Lake House. So maybe this should go under item one on my list.
The only thing I really liked about the episode was Kirk's opportunistic business venture: Kirk's, an outdoor diner that looked suspiciously like Luke's, down to the backwards cap and flannel shirt Kirk was wearing. The scene was too long, but at least it was funny. That's more than I could say about the rest of the episode, which moved with a pokiness that I haven't seen on this show before. It was written by Rebecca Rand, and I wonder if Rosenthal did any major rewrites like AS-P used to do. It doesn't seem like it; the rhythm of the episode was just off from the beginning, which is something Rosenthal would have probably fixed given the chance.
We'll see how the rest of the season goes; Christopher will come back in the picture next week. But the optimism I had about the seventh season last week is starting to waver a little.
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