Although Dean’s Gilmore Girls role was often beset by the many misunderstandings between himself and Rory.
A Subtle Gilmore Girls Season 2 Moment Makes Lorelai's Backstory So Much Sadder
In one underrated season 2 moment, Gilmore Girls offered a subtle insight into the secret sadness that underlies Lorelai's pre-series backstory.
Rory and Dean seemingly never saw eye to eye, despite their best efforts, and often misunderstood each other. Similarly, Rory’s Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life storyline was defined by her struggles with communication. She couldn’t find the words to succeed as a journalist or author, she couldn’t bring herself to break up with her fiancée, and she couldn’t even put a name on the toxic dynamic she shared with an engaged Logan years after their official breakup. Lorelai fell victim to these limited communication skills too, as did Luke in one infamous Gilmore Girls storyline that fans hated.
Rory’s Marty Story & Luke’s April Plot Were Oddly Similar In Gilmore Girls
Both Gilmore Girls Storylines Saw Characters Hide Relationships For No Good Reason
While Gilmore Girls season 6’s April Nardini plotline was widely derided, the storyline is strikingly similar to a plot that Rory was embroiled in around the same time. Marty and Rory’s weird lies about their existing friendship mirrored Luke hiding April from Lorelai, as both sets of characters had no real reason to hide the truth for so long. When Luke first found out about April, he could have immediately explained everything to his fiancée and expected her to stand by him. If Lorelai couldn’t handle this surprise, then the pair clearly weren’t meant for each other.
When the truth came out, the impact on Rory’s friendship with Lucy was disastrous.
Similarly, when Marty pretended that he had never met Rory in front of Lucy, Rory could have instantly corrected him and saved everyone a lot of awkwardness. Rory met Marty a year earlier, and they briefly flirted before the pair settled into distant friends. There was never anything substantial between the duo, so there was no reason for Marty to cover up their prior meetings. However, Rory inexplicably went along with his lies. In later meetings, she never mentioned the fact that they had met before, and, when the truth came out, the impact on Rory’s friendship with Lucy was disastrous.
Marty & April’s Stories Both Threatened Major Gilmore Girls Relationships
Both Luke and Lorelei And Rory and Logan Struggled With These Cover-ups
While Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life changing the show’s style and tone earned the ire of many viewers, the events of seasons 6 and 7 were arguably just as deleterious. Rory and Marty pretending not to know each other when Lucy introduced them mirrored Luke refusing to tell Lorelei about April’s existence, with both plots feeling convoluted and goofy. The consequences of these choices were major in of the show’s overarching plot, leading to Luke and Lorelei’s canceled engagement and a breakup between Marty and Lucy. However, they never felt rooted in the show’s existing characters.
Rory was at her most feckless when she was dating Logan, so it seems out of character for her to meekly go along with the weird scheme of a guy she never really liked in the first place. Luke was often apt to blurt out secrets even when they weren’t his own, so his decision to hide something as monumental as a secret daughter from Lorelai was unforgivable and tough to believe. The show’s characters ittedly grew and changed over the years, and Jess’s Gilmore Girls character growth was one of its best character arcs. However, these plots simply rewrote characters for drama.
Both Plots Highlight A Major Problem With Later Gilmore Girls Seasons
The Conflict Of The Comedy Drama Became Less Organic
It is tough to see why either Luke or Rory would continue to lie once things became awkward, and the answer in both cases seems to be because season 6 needed some conflict and had no organic stakes. Lorelai and Luke’s unexpected happiness left them in an atypically stable place in season 6, while it was clear that Logan and Rory weren’t going to break up over anything less than a show-shaking dramatic twist. Thus, Gilmore Girls season 6 invented conflict by changing Rory and Luke’s personalities to suit these storylines, and the two subplots never rang true as a result.
Luke and Rory’s dishonesty was so out of character that the subsequent problems that it caused didn’t feel real or even rooted in the heightened world of Gilmore Girls.
Both of the plots had wide-ranging fallout for the show’s main characters. Luke’s lies indirectly resulted in Christopher and Lorelai’s terrible Gilmore Girls marriage, while Rory going along with Marty’s inexplicable charade put Rory and Logan’s relationship under more strain than ever before. The problem was that it was tough for viewers to care about these issues when the source of the conflict felt airdropped in from another, soapier series. Luke and Rory’s dishonesty was so out of character that the subsequent problems that it caused didn’t feel real or even rooted in the heightened world of Gilmore Girls.
The Marty & April Stories Show When Gilmore Girls' Problems Really Began
The Beloved Cult Hit Struggled Well Before Season 7
While viewers might not like to it it, ’s problems weren’t the beginning of the show’s downfall. Even viewers who think that the exit of the show’s original showrunner between seasons 6 and 7 caused its critical failure might be unreasonably optimistic in their recollection. Between these hated plots and Lorelai and Rory’s multi-episode feud from season 5, it is fair to say that the decline of Gilmore Girls occurred well before its original final season and revival. With Marty and Luke, season 6 sowed the seeds of many of season 7’s most hated twists.
Luke’s uncharacteristic mishandling of this situation ruined his romance with Lorelai.
While Gilmore Girls season 4 set up Rory’s future decades in advance, season 6 set up Christopher and Lorelai’s inevitable reunion when Luke first met April. Luke’s uncharacteristic mishandling of this situation ruined his romance with Lorelai, depriving the show’s central couple of the stability they had earned after years of pining for each other. Meanwhile, Rory’s decision to play along with Marty’s games undid all of her character development, proving she was nowhere near as independent and bold as she seemed. These two plots proved that by Gilmore Girls season 6, the show had lost touch with its own main characters.
GIlmore Girls and A Year in the Life are available to stream on Netflix.
