Gilmore Girls will celebrate its 25th anniversary this year, and it still remains one of the most popular shows on Netflix year after year. The picturesque fictional New England town of Stars Hollow provides the perfect backdrop for the relatable life challenges Lorelai and Rory Gilmore face. And fans can’t get enough of the mother-daughter besties. However, there is one storyline during the show’s 7 season run that even Lauren Graham isn’t a fan of, and I’m right there with her.
Throughout the course of the series, Gilmore Girls covered disapproving parents, being a single mom, typical teenage trials, and finding love and losing it. However, on the Call Her Daddy podcast, the Parenthood actress revealed there was one storyline she felt didn’t work well, and it involved a fight with her TV daughter:
There's a year when Alexis [Bledel] and I were in a fight. Rory and Lorelai were in a fight for a long time, and we would talk about it. And Amy [Sherman-Palladino] was like, 'You know, you can't do a show for this long and not have conflict.' I forget even what the conflict was, but it went on for a while. And that’s the one that I would hear from people that they didn’t like.
The conflict in question happens when Rory decides to drop out of Yale in the Season 5 finale, after newspaper head honcho Mitchum Huntzberger tells her she doesn’t have what it takes to accomplish her dreams. Not to mention, she gets in a spot of legal trouble after a wild night with her boyfriend. Disappointed in Rory and not willing to watch her throw her life out the window, Lorelai cuts her only daughter off.
I’m surprised Lauren Graham doesn’t remember the reason for the explosive argument. For half a season, the mother-daughter duo lived separately and didn’t speak. This estrangement spanned months for the characters, with some pretty big milestones passing during this period, like Luke and Lorelai’s engagement and Rory’s 21st birthday.
I honestly feel so validated hearing the Parenthood actress say this out loud though. I personally refer to the majority of Season 6 as The Dark Ages of Gilmore Girls, because I really struggled to get through those episodes.
As someone who is a late-in-life Gilmore Girls fan, I binged it all with my Netflix subscription back in high school. I flew through the first few seasons up until this point in the series. I get what Amy Sherman-Palladino was trying to do with a conflict storyline, but this one just wasn’t it, and I think I know why.
Jess, Rory’s ex-boyfriend, sums it up best when he meets her and Logan for dinner in Season 6. This iconic moment in Gilmore Girls is part of the reason why he’s my personal favorite of her beaus, and he truly speaks what likely was on everyone’s minds:
@gilmoregirls ♬ original sound - Gilmore Girls
The whole storyline felt out of character for Rory, and I think that was the main reason why it didn’t land with fans. Her careless attitude and actions were difficult to watch for everyone. I can’t say I blame Lorelai for giving her the cold shoulder. Oftentimes, when the mother and daughter fought, I found myself siding with Lorelai. Usually, the fights were over poor decisions Rory made that didn’t align with the character’s morals, like being the mistress in Dean’s marriage.
At the end of the day, what made the season less than enjoyable was that these actions were keeping the Gilmore girls apart. After all, it’s their dynamic, that witty and loving give and take, that was so relatable and comforting for audiences.
Thankfully, eventually, the duo made up, and the show carried on and even got a revival. Co-creator Amy Sherman-Palladino recently commented that she’s always open to the idea of more Gilmore Girls, and Lorelai herself admitted the 4-part revival didn’t feel like the end of their story. The original set still stands today, so all we need is a good idea and a green light. I will always tune in, so long as the Gilmore girls are together.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
