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— M&M
What’s Wrong With Episode 136? It’s Making Me Realize I Actually Like Season 7
By Megan
Something peculiar is happening to Maggie and me as we make our way through season 7: We’re kind of into it? Wow, sorry! I’ve long maintained that season 6 did the crime and season 7 did the time, and I feel very vindicated. Because even though there’s a lot I don’t enjoy about this season, much of the baseline nastiness — the mean-joke streak I attribute to the Palladinos — is just gone. “The Great Stink” is all about a disgusting pickle spill, which is a weird storyline, but it’s benignly goofy. The Seth McFarlane energy has departed, and good riddance! I do not miss it. (I’m so relieved that I’m not even bothered by the fact that we already saw this storyline in season 4, with Kirk’s forgotten Easter egg saga.)
And as much as it pains me to say this, because I really do stand by my on-the-record statement that Christopher shouldn’t really have been A Thing past his season 1 appearance, and I hate Lorelai and Christopher together, the show has actually crafted a narrative in which it makes sense: Lorelai, like Carrie Bradshaw in season 6 of Sex and the City, is in her late thirties, single, and has just weathered yet another disastrous breakup with the emotionally avoidant man the universe of the show keeps telling us is her one true love. This is the kind of emotional turmoil that leads Carrie to throw away her identity for Mikhail Baryshnikov, which, she would not be the first lady to do that! I’ve read Gelsey Kirkland’s memoir! But the point is that this is a vulnerable space to find yourself in, and Lorelai’s muted, underwhelmed appreciation for Christopher is really just the reverb from her deep sadness over Luke. Of course she’d rebound with the person she always rebounds with, and of course, this time, she’d try to make it something bigger than it is. Who among us, etc.
The writing for Christopher is also doing real work in this storyline, because he’s getting a much more nuanced treatment. I actually feel bad for him (!!!) because it’s obvious that he feels deep guilt and shame about his shortcomings as a parent, something we have NEVER seen before, and he and Lorelai, despite being a terrible combination, at least communicate like adults. The drama comes from a conflict between what they want: Lorelai wants a temporary sense of comfort and Christopher wants to be a full-time family. In a way, this is the conflict they’ve always had. It’s just been blown up within the context of a real relationship, and the drama feels earned and true to who these characters are.
Somehow, Rory and Logan are also communicating like adults in this episode. I’ve never been a Logan fan, but his arc in season 7 is the only time watching this show that I’ve understood why someone might be. He’s largely out of the picture, so we get to see Rory having her Yale life all to herself, with female friends for the first time, and zero appearances from Colin and Finn, who are rightly excised from the show. (In the words of Nikki Glaser on FBoy Island, a deranged show I have of course watched: Fboy? Fbye!)
When Logan does show up in “The Great Stink,” it’s to give Rory a nice surprise dinner, during which Weird Rory makes a return in a conversation about the lifespans of mayflies. Alexis Bledel’s delivery sounds smart and natural again, she’s even dressed in a more age-appropriate way, and Logan and Rory’s dynamic feels much more functional and respectful than where they’ve been previously. Past Rory — like Gelsey Kirkland, Carrie Bradshaw, and Lorelai before her — basically ignored her own personality to be with a charming but poorly matched man. We hate it!
But this iteration of Rory is way smarter, and Logan is much nicer. Basic adulthood looks good on him! He gets her special takeout! He has a job and a pitch meeting that he isn’t too hungover to attend! And even the conflict that comes out of his visit — Rory feels threatened by Logan’s fancy new yuppie life and is upset that his colleagues, who are ridiculous people, don’t seem to take her seriously — is an interesting conflict. Season 6’s Rory didn’t take herself seriously enough to even think about something like this, and so when she speaks up for herself in this episode, it feels more aligned with the inner conflict Rory experienced at Chilton, when she often felt like an outsider but knew she was just as worthy as the snobby kids at school. Maybe the old Rory isn’t dead after all! Maybe a part of her lives on! Dare I dream?
Rory shouldn’t feel inferior, though, because Logan’s business associates are the silliest people who have ever appeared on this show, but unlike Colin and Finn, it’s clear that the show realizes they are, and doesn’t try to turn them into recurring characters who make Rory seem foolish through sheer proximity. Thank you! Again, a win for David S. Rosenthal & Co. and yes it DOES feel very strange to say that.
But we haven’t even gotten to the best part of this episode, which is that the entire town smells like corroding pickles! Taylor explains the caper (ha, ha) thusly: “As those of you who take an interest in civic events may recall, three days ago a train derailed just east of town — luckily, no one was injured. However, three-and-a-half tons of pickles and pickle brine were scattered along the tracks. And due to some inevitable delays in cleanup, those pickles have been baking in the sun for three days.”
OK, as a former morning news editor at a daily paper, I LOVED this storyline, because bizarre truck and train spills ARE a real thing that happens fairly often, and unlike a lot of what’s reported in the early morning (it’s a lot of fires and homicides), they tend to be absurd and not tragic. I remember many a fond morning of waking up at 5:30 am and assigning my reporter a story about a truck that spilled some kind of surprise substance — milk, fish, stuffed animals — onto one of several freeways around Seattle, with WSDOT crews working hard to clean it up to get the morning commute going again. That report from Taylor — right down to the “luckily, no one was injured” — reads like an early-morning traffic report, and as a journalist I love it.
I also love this episode’s final scene, as Christopher, Lorelai, and Rory drive back from the Elder Gilmores’ and Lorelai and Rory reject Christopher’s radio choices until Jay and the Americans’ “Come a Little Bit Closer” comes on, and then everyone grimaces as they arrive back in Stars Hollow, and the pickle scent invades their nostrils yet again.
I love this scene for a number of reasons: It shows Rory and Lorelai connecting through one of their strongest love languages, the shared music and pop culture they love, and it explains why, even though it’s clear to almost everyone who knows them that it’s a bad idea, Lorelai and Rory both are drawn to a life as a family of four with Christopher and Gigi. In the early seasons of the show, Rory often expressed regret and sadness that her dad wasn’t really there for her, and Lorelai felt like she kept missing her chance to be with him.
This season shows what happens when you finally get what you want and realize you don’t want it — this even applies to Rory and Logan, a boy she once cried over, who she’ll ultimately realize isn’t the one for her — and that’s so much more interesting than anything that occurred in season 6. It’s blasphemy, but I’m calling it now: Season 7 is better than season 6. I don’t miss the Palladinos and I’m glad someone else came in, like a cleanup crew after a pickle spill, to pick up their stinky mess and get it out of the way to make room for something better.
11 Other Things Wrong With This Episode I Noticed That Aren’t Necessarily Bad, But Some Are
Logan’s pitch meeting is about a Facebook knockoff — an invitation-only MySpace — and having recently rewatched The Social Network (it holds up!), I couldn’t help but wonder: Is Logan the Eduardo Saverin of the fake Facebook website in the Gilmore Girls universe? Because I would probably have fewer complaints about Logan if he was played by Andrew Garfield.
One of Lorelai’s more remarkable outfits in this episode is crazy blue boots with a brocade skirt, and I like it! I’m glad her adventurous-bordering-on-wacky dressing has returned.
Christopher says Sherry is very into gardening now, but doesn’t she live in Paris? Paris apartments don’t really lend themselves to gardening. Maybe this is just a very ambitious window box? Maybe she’s moved to the banlieue? Or maybe she hasn’t changed and she’s LYING.
Lorelai declines a second lunch because she’s eaten too many Lunchables with Gigi and Christopher at the park. But if you aren’t four years old, Lunchables aren’t that filling, and Lorelai would never decline a second lunch.
Like Justin Timberlake, as alleged in Britney Spears’ memoir, Christopher says “Fo’ shizzle” out loud. I would like to wash my ears out.
This episode establishes that Rory is an English major, which is great because it course-corrects the idea that you need to major in journalism to be a journalist. You don’t! It’s a scam! Most liberal arts colleges don’t even offer journalism as a major, nor should they.
I think I had a conversation with my dad identical to the one Richard has with his students about Franz Ferdinand, archduke of Austria and also my iTunes library ca. 2006.
These season 7 episodes MOVE. Why were so many of last season’s episodes so plodding?
I just love that we’re getting more scenes with Sookie and Lorelai where they’re actually having realistic friend chats. Also, the way Melissa McCarthy says “you’re usually quite frank”? I love Melissa McCarthy!
Michel masking up and cleaning aggressively amid the pickle stink hits different in a world where I now get an annual COVID shot.
These lines are absolute bangers:
PARIS: Of course they did, multiple ships, and by the time he died, they promoted the guy to rear admiral. Do you think the British royal navy ruled the world in the 19th century by letting that much natural talent and leadership capability go to waste just because a few whiny complainers wanted more breadfruit and less scurvy?
LORELAI: You know, I'm actually looking forward to Friday night dinner. Because, as you well know, the Gilmore house, like very expensive vodka, is completely odorless.
Where was this energy when we were suffering through season 6? I feel cheated.
Gilmore Women is a weekly newsletter from journalists Maggie Mertens and Megan Burbank examining everything that’s wrong with Gilmore Girls. All of our current episode issues are sent for free, but past seasons will go behind the paywall starting Dec. 31, 2023. It’s fun on the other side; please join us!
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Ohh so agree that season 7 fixes a lot of what went wrong in season 6. Christopher telling Lorelai about the Sherry letter is such a relief because our Luke trauma has us bracing for yet another THIS COULD BE SOLVED WITH A CONVERSATION situation and then they actually solve it! It made me wonder if I would have rooted for Christopher more all along if he was written by a different person — because ASP could never decide if he was a motorcycle-riding bad boy who couldn't hold a job, or a torch-carrying nerd desperate to marry Lorelai but she was too cool for him, and it always added up wrong. (That said, I really could do without Christopher getting rich(er). One of my least favorite details about him and season 7 really leans in hard!)
I have rewatched season 7 a number of times and I am glad that other people are now agreeing with me that it really is not bad! I had a lot of episodes in season 7 that I did like (the upcoming French Twist notwithstanding because I don’t care how much it made sense for Lorelai to try dating Christopher, it made zero sense to go as far as marrying him to me). I love that Rory seems so much less annoying than she did in season 6 and is getting to act more like her old self.
I may watch the Christmas episode of season 7 with Christmas so close because I did like Lorelai’s letter about Luke.