History Repeats Itself, But Comfort Shows Can Change

Maggie watches episode 144 "I'd Rather Be in Philadelphia"

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What’s Wrong With Episode 144? “I’d Rather Be In Philadelphia?” I have to tell you, I’m no longer comforted by this show

By Maggie

You know, Megan and I started this newsletter in the depths of 2020, when it seemed there would never be a COVID vaccine, and we’d lived through nearly a year of isolation and fear and misinformation and four years of a Trump presidency. And, in fact, we sent our first issue just weeks after the 2020 election had been called for Biden. 

Strangely, here we are exactly four years after that first newsletter, and two weeks after we have, here in the United States, made a definite sharp turn back toward what certainly feels like impending darkness. I desperately need a comfort watch these days, but I have to admit that GG is really no longer scratching that itch for me. Maybe I’d feel differently if we were back in season 1, 2 or 3, but this episode, the second time Richard has been hospitalized for a heart attack during the series, the millionth time Emily has been rude to people employed to help her, the billionth time Christopher has been a disappointment and Luke has showed up for Lorelai simply because he cares about her deeply, and the gazillionth time Logan is lauded for being unbelievably rich and privileged while retaining a shred of decency as a human being is just exhausting me. 

At the midpoint of the episode, while Lorelai and Emily go to the cafeteria to eat and discuss how terrible the hospital food looks, they have a conversation about clichés. 

LORELAI: Well it's hospital food. 

EMILY: What's that supposed to mean? 

LORELAI: I'm just saying it's a cliché. 

EMILY: What is? 

LORELAI: Hospital food being bad. 

EMILY: Exactly! 

LORELAI: What. 

EMILY: It's a cliché for a reason, clichés are just true things people are tired of being true. Like a "penny saved is a penny earned", well it is, if invested wisely. 

LORELAI: I don't think that's a cliché mom. 

EMILY: What do you mean, of course it's a cliché. 

LORELAI: It's not a cliché, it’s more an overused saying like um "Sweating bullets" or "It's as cold as ice". 

EMILY: Well some overused sayings are true, like "Children should be seen and not heard" LORELAI: "Mother knows best" 

EMILY: "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all"

It’s kind of a strange interaction, because I think it’s clumsily written and I’m not sure if Lorelai is saying that clichés are different than overused sayings or that she doesn’t believe all clichés are true. Regardless, clichés are overused sayings, often to the point that they become boring, meaningless, trite, bland. And sorry but by the third voicemail Lorelai leaves Christopher —  who, if you recall, left her at the end of the last episode — begging him to show up at the hospital because her father was in mortal peril and she wanted him there, I was bored, because we are living a cliché in the worst way.

Christopher has never been an interesting character. He is a trite man-child who Lorelai liked to have sex with when she was feeling out of control in other parts of her life because he would always be up for it. What he wasn’t up for was parenting his own child (and eventually, children) and I know he was 16 when Lorelai got pregnant and things were complicated but I’m sorry I don’t know how you ever come back from that and agree to marry the guy while you are still completely heartbroken over a very complex broken engagement with the man you really love who has always really loved you. 

We are not, not one of us, surprised by Christopher not coming to the hospital the whole episode, not answering the phone when Lorelai calls, not sending an “OMW” text message, only to show up at the last moment and tell Luke “Yeah, you should go,” as though he has any damn right to tell Luke what to do or where to be when he’s once again abandoned the Gilmores while Luke has shown up to help, even though he is of course only treated like shit by Emily because he’s working class (because guess who else hasn’t changed?!?!).

And I know, I’ve harped on all of this before, but at some point during this rewatch I can’t help but just feel like YOU KNOW, THESE CHARACTERS HAVEN’T CHANGED BUT I SURE HAVE. And I’m officially too old, tired, and radicalized to consider this comforting anymore. The world is crumbling around us so I’m sorry if I have no sympathy for the guy quoting Ronald Reagan in his hospital bed who has the means to move an entire library of vintage books and records into his hospital room while he recovers from heart surgery which I’m sure he will have no trouble paying for because I’m sure his insurance is amazing. Nor do I care to swoon even a little bit over the millionaire who took a helicopter to see his girlfriend at the hospital because her grandfather had a heart attack, and who has a shred of decency to not answer his cell phone for a few hours while he’s there to comfort her even though he’s in the middle of an “internet company deal.” Nor do I even feel emotional when the woman who has been treated like shit her entire life (because women are silly and meaningless but they also have to handle literally everything) is scared of losing her husband because she is so attached to him that she’s willing to buy out literally the entire ocean of sea creatures to keep his cardiovascular plaque from building up again. And truly I hope I never rewatch another sitcom episode from this era only to hear the name of a New York businessman turned reality television host as the butt of a joke who is now, today, the person threatening to take down American democracy as we know it and, I guess, succeeding — because yes, we get a nonsequitor Donald Tr*mp mention here, too, because of course we did.

The only moment of this entire episode that brought me comfort was the cold look of fear on Christopher’s face when Luke stared him down after Chris had the audacity to respond when Luke said he was about to get going. That and the idea that Babette was borrowing a potted tree from Lorelai’s house to help make her bedroom into a makeshift jungle for a sexual fantasy she and Maury are playing out, because at least the writers are keeping Stars Hollow Weird! And, of course, the last lines, when Emily realizes she’s again speaking to Lorelai in clichés while trying to make her feel better about Christopher, which at least reminded me that, perhaps, the writers were also bored at this point in trying to complete the herculean effort of rescuing a once beloved but now stagnant show from the impossible ashes of early 2000s television. 

All the Other Things Wrong With This Episode

• Truly, everything. And mostly, why, in the seventh season of a show about New England has wardrobe still not figured out that the characters should be wearing actual COATS when it is snowing? As I said, YAWN.

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