Christopher and Luke Deserve To Be Canceled
Megan Watches Episode 141: "Merry Fisticuffs"
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What’s Wrong With Episode 141: “Merry Fisticuffs”? I Didn’t Think I Could Dislike Christopher More, But It Turns Out I Can? And Luke Isn’t Much Better!
by Megan
I have a sad and controversial opinion to share after watching this episode: I don’t like Luke anymore, and I haven’t probably since season four. I think he is actively a bad person. He can’t stop fighting Christopher, who deserves it, but please grow up! He is obsessed with getting partial custody of April, and yet when Liz leaves his baby niece under his supervision, he panics. Basically, he is a men’s rights activist now, the kind of guy who listens to J*e R*gan and idolizes El*n M*sk. I used to be Team Luke over Team Christopher, but now I’m Team No One. Lorelai, have you considered just staying single? Being in love is great, but it can also ruin your life, and if I were given the choice between these two men, I would simply run away. You know how in Sex and the City, Samantha rejects Richard Wright once and for all by saying “I love you, but I love me more?”
Lorelai, love yourself more!
And speaking of Christopher: I understand that we have to get him out of the picture, but this episode advances that plot a little TOO effectively by making it clear he’s pushing Lorelai into even more commitment too quickly (kind of amazing given that he has ALREADY coerced her into a MARRIAGE) by pressuring her to get pregnant, and I wish I could wash my brain out after the scene where he says — and I’m sorry to repeat it — “Let’s make a baby!”
LET’S NOT!
Given its track record, I don’t expect this show to handle any discussion of pregnancy or sex with any realism, and I think the show wants us to see Christopher’s behavior as abhorrent (or at least I HOPE it does because otherwise we have much bigger problems here), but still… this very much reads to me as barely a step above reproductive coercion. What’s next, Christopher? Are you working up to becoming a birth-control saboteur?
I am only Team Lorelai at this point, and I want her to get the fuck away from both of these angry, childish men!
And there are even more of them! This is also the episode where Lucy and Olivia finally find out about Marty’s deception w/r/t his previous friendship with Rory. I kind of like that Logan becomes the voice of reason — good for him! we like character development! — but I don’t really care about Marty at all at this point and I like seeing Rory have relationships with people who aren’t her boyfriend or his insufferable friends, so I don’t enjoy that this dramatic turn that suddenly makes Rory’s friendships with other women all about a (boring) man.
I’m being hard on this episode because these missteps are pretty egregious, but it’s far from the worst we’ve endured so far. The show’s dialogue is getting snappy in a new, less Palladino-inflected way, and it’s really clicking with Emily. “I’m sorry for her tardiness; it’s rather habitual” is such a mean thing to say, and her meddling in Christopher and Lorelai’s relationship and terrible advice are all very on-brand for her character.
We also get some nice moments with Lorelai and Rory, including this very truthful exchange about men being terrible, which I guess is the theme of this episode:
RORY: Tell me it gets better when they get older.
LORELAI: It gets better when they get older.
RORY: It does?
LORELAI: Well, it gets more confusing, more complicated, and more complex. Does any of that sound better?
I love this moment between them. It’s very reminiscent of this scene from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a show I haven’t watched in years and whose creator I will never forgive for making me feel kindly toward Zack Snyder, the director of Sucker Punch. (Google these guys if you need to know more; I am not going to say anything else about them because I like you and want you to have a nice time.) But so much dialogue from Buffy nevertheless sticks in my brain, especially tender moments like this one between Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy and Anthony Stewart Head as Giles, that address the complexity of growing up:
The scene between Lorelai and Rory doesn’t hit the same emotional high, but it’s real, and a reminder that even though Rory is growing up, she’s still very young, and navigating all the confusion that comes with early adulthood. I love that the show isn’t resorting to nonsensical narrative arcs to make this point anymore: We don’t need to see Rory become a stranger to herself just to understand that she’s in a tricky spot, and by the end of the season, she’ll be choosing herself over a drawn-out relationship with someone who isn’t right for her. Moments like this lay the groundwork for that to happen.
And maybe because it’s not trying to be anything more sophisticated or complex, this turns out to be a smart and effective direction to take Rory’s character in, and you can see in Bledel’s acting that even she’s more comfortable with it.
I wish Lorelai’s romantic arcs had been treated with the same care.
7 Other Things Wrong With This Episode
We’ve harped a lot lately on the lack of chemistry between Rory and Logan, but this episode really drives it home. I love Matt Czuchry and Alexis Bledel, and I don’t even mind them together, but they have the energy of strictly platonic best friends, or long-time coworkers who get lunch together once a week, the kind who could never advance a friends-to-lovers plot, and that’s fine! But it’s silly to act like this long-term relationship has any endgame potential.
I don’t enjoy the way this show is so dismissive about any food that isn’t, like, Emily’s under-seasoned pork or other bland WASP fare. Have you eaten Welsh rarebit? Because I have, and it isn’t very good! There is a reason we have to drink so much gin before dinner time and it isn’t JUST that we don’t want to talk about our feelings.
Speaking of unhelpful attitudes toward food: Christopher policing Lorelai’s food choices in Doose’s was such a bummer. She’s a grown woman and you knew about her toddler palate when you married her. Let her eat her Cap’n Crunch in peace.
Did Lorelai get a new bed? It looks different.
When Luke meets with his men’s rights lawyer, the lawyer asks if Luke has attended anger-management classes, and Luke says he doesn’t need to but he definitely does!
I continue to hate the Stars Hollow bar that did not exist until this season.
I can’t really even talk about the final fight between Christopher and Luke. It’s staged in a goofy way that’s mildly funny, I guess, but it’s tonally really out-of-place on this show. If you want to watch grown men fight, there are SO MANY socially sanctioned ways to do that. Gilmore Girls shouldn’t be one of them.
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