Now that's more like it

Here are some excerpts from a Chicago Tribune interview with Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino in which they articulate what's happening with Luke and Lorelai and Rory and Logan.

Amy on whether the show will continue next season without her and her husband at the helm: "We have no say over how long this goes. It's all due to the network. They sort of decide year by year if they want another year. A couple times we thought [it was the last season], we thought Season 5 was the last year, but then we had this uptick, so, 'Oh, there's a Season 6'!

"We always put things in place [for the next season]; we've got a big, huge season cliffhanger finale this year, probably one of our biggest. Whatever happens next year, whether we're here or someone else is here, it leaves the show with really good momentum and lots of good places to go."

Amy on Lorelai and Luke: "We've got a lot of Luke-Lorelai stuff we're playing this year. A lot of ups and downs and twists and turns for them, in getting these kids to the altar. And we've also got Rory and Logan too, they're having a tumultuous year also. They’'e working their way back together. In ['Friday Night's Alright for Fighting'] Logan came through for her in a way she needed. He stepped it up a notch in that episode. That's their reconciliation. For now.

"We brought Luke's daughter in not so much to play 'Oh my God, there's a long lost daughter,' but more to play, 'Who are Luke and Lorelai to each other?' They're two mid-thirties people who have built very independent lives, needing no one, they've got their own homes, their own businesses; they've got things just the way they like them. They're incredibly independent and strong-willed and stubborn, and those are tough lives to mesh.

"The daughter thing was just a way to tap into an aspect of Luke that makes things interesting for the Luke-Lorelai relationship. Luke is very duty-bound and honor-bound and he feels great responsibility to family, even though family is something he scoffs at a lot. He's also a very single-minded, tunnel-vision person. So he's going to feel he's got to take care of this responsibility before he can take care of any other responsibility. Right or wrong, it's who he is.

"It’s a great device for us because [the daughter plot] taps into that without bringing in another woman or another romance, because nobody's going to believe that. These two people are meant for each other, the only think keeping them apart right now is their own baggage.

"And Lorelai, being an incredibly independent, proud person, she’s not a pusher. She's not going to say, 'But what about me?' It's sometimes their own lack of communication abilities that have kept them single this long, and that causes our conflict -- so we don't have to bring in the big elephant or the earthquake or 'We're trapped in an elevator' or someone's in a coma."

Dan on Luke and Lorelai and Rory and Logan: "We're really playing through the Lorelai and Luke thing, there will be something that will sort of put a cap on where we've been leading them. And Rory is dating a guy who -- Rory is a one-guy girl, very stable, and she's dating a guy who's not very stable. And that's always a part of their relationship. Now, they may get married at some point and live together for 50 years, but that instability is always going to be there, because they're different people who need each other for some reason. We're going to be playing out aspects of that friction over the next seven or eight episodes."

Amy on Logan and Rory: "There are deeper layers to Logan or she wouldn't be with him. Logan is a kid whose entire life has been preplanned for him. Rory grew up in a household where it was like, 'Anything you want, kid, you go for it.' He never had that. He grew up with all the money privilege, but he didn't grow up with any freedom. His freedoms are sort of self-imposed, 'I'm going to go act like an idiot, because I've never gotten a chance to explore who I am.' I think Rory sees something deeper in him. This is a very smart guy, and if he ever got his [stuff] together, who knows.

"There are also aspects of Christopher [in Logan], there's a little daddy issue there. Christopher was also a very rich, charming kid who had no focus. It's a little bit of daughter and mommy making similar choices. Who knows, years from now, if he gets his [stuff] together, I think they could be long-term. Right now, he's trying as far as he can try, but he has limits to who he is.

"And he's done some things for Rory that on the surface seem kind of bad, but I think in the end, are very good. Because Rory was very subdued and needed to tap into a strength in herself that maybe she wasn't doing so much, because she has a very strong mom and strong friends. She never really had to do that. She never really had to dig down deep and find out who she was. And this guy made her have to do that. So when you talk about it on that level, there could be more there [between Rory and Logan]." 

I find those explanations of the relationships very satisfying and encouraging.

Here's a possible schedule for the rest of this season's "Gilmore Girls":

6.16 -- Bridesmaids Revisited (Scheduled airdate, Feb. 28)
6.17 -- Rory visits Anna's store (Airdate To Be Determined)
6.18 -- The Real Paul Anka (Scheduled airdate, April 11)
6.19 (I'm guessing this will air the first Tuesday after sweeps begin, May 2)
6.20 (Guessing this will air May 9)
6.21 (Guessing this will air May 16)
6.22 (Guessing this will air May 23, last Tuesday of sweeps)

During this lull between episodes, I also read an alternate version of "A Vineyard Valentine" that felt emotionally plausible and interesting (although I'm glad it didn't happen). By the same fan fiction author, there's a really well-written piece that surprised me, and yet seemed entirely logical. Enjoy -- and tell the author if you like them.

Comments

[Tracy]

Mmmmmm...Yummy! Thanks so much for your gift to We Who Are Lovin' the Double G.

[Melanie Lynne Hauser]

I always know I can get my Gilmore fix from you! Thanks!

[Elizabeth]

Ah, someone else who shares my love of Gilmore Girls!!!

Thank you for all this delicious information... I am SO glad that the writers are being true to the more complexe issues that Luke and Lorelei would be having trying to blend two such independant lives without leaning on a crutch like the whole "new man/woman on the scene" to provide conflict!