Hello! Welcome to Return to Stars Hollow - a spoiler-free, retrospective podcast about Gilmore Girls! This is the podcast for our Season 7, Episode 18 - Hay Bale Maze.
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The next podcast will post on October 18, 2018 for Season 7, Episode 19 - It's Just Like Riding a Bike.
First of all, I can't believe how close we are to the end. Didn't you just start this podcast?
ReplyDeleteThis feels like they're giving us one last Paris episode and it's all so perfectly fitting for her. I love how Rory always has pro/con lists and Paris has a point system. Her breaking up with Doyle because she can't stop herself from factoring him in and this wasn't supposed to happen yet, was very in character. Doyle not accepting the breakup would be creepy in any other circumstances, but here it was really sweet. Do we know what Doyle is doing right now, btw? He is older, has he already graduated? I love the talk between Rory and Paris at the bar. We don't often get discussions between them that are this serious and long and well throught through. And Paris raises a very realistic point with Logan being in San Francisco and Rory aiming to live in New York. One thing though is that I don't think Paris Geller should be a doctor. Sick people freak her out! The god complex is a good counter argument though. I would have preferred her to go to law school still. She could crush anyone in a court room.
It sounds mean but I love that Rory doesn't get the Reston fellowship. She and everyone around her seemed sure that she would get it. I have no idea how good her chances really are or how these things work, or even if Rory is really a good journalist because a lot of signs we've seen point towards the opposite. It makes for a much better story for her not to get it. She hasn't dealt well with setbacks in the past, so I'm curious to see how she handles this. Yes, it was her dream but it would be nice to see, as we're coming towards the end of the show, that she has learnt how to deal with negative things in a more productive way than stealing a yacht for example. Overall I enjoy how they've been dealing with Rory's upcoming graduation over different episodes this season, from the anxiety of not knowing what she wants to do, to the hopes and dreams and disappointments of it all.
I kind of love all the meta imagery in these last two episodes. Removing the gazebo for the corn maze (although it magically reappeared later), trashing Lorelai's jeep and dollhouse, and using the images to make statements about character change and life change AND creator change with the new showrunners in this season. It's all working for me a lot and making me feel nostalgic about the past - and not just for the ending of the show but mostly for the ending of this podcast! I discovered podcasting when I was breastfeeding - and then pumping for - my first born. Pumping is a hugely time consuming process where you spend hours a day hooked to machines and unable to really do much. I found your podcast during this time and decided to do a rewatch of the Gilmore Girls with you. My son is three years old now, and I'm six months pregnant with my SECOND son, and I just don't know how I'm going to do his babyhood without you.
ReplyDeleteI really liked how this episode had Paris really showcased as a dark version of Rory - the Rory that Rory could have been if she hadn't been so loved and grounded. Paris and Rory struggle with the same issues - even have the same coping strategies ultimately - but their respective comfort levels with relationships leads to them being two totally opposite people.
I also really appreciated Paris reminding us how she didn't get into Harvard, and now seeing her get all the acceptance while Rory gets the rejection. Paris's rejection from Harvard never made sense to me when compared with Rory's acceptance. The show always made it perfectly clear - at least in my mind - that Rory never worked as hard as Paris did, and this sort of an outcome makes so much more sense to me than the reverse.
On a personal note I felt Paris's struggle so personally - I married my husband sixteen years ago when I was 19 and I chose NOT to go to the Ivy League schools and pursue that life at that time. For me I've never looked back, but I remember the heavy weight of that decision because to do it all really seemed impossible at that time. In my mid thirties now I feel much more like Rory about it - it's not a deal breaker and you can make it work. But Rory had the long distance experience that I didn't have, and I was naïve and, frankly, just a lot more like Paris than Rory in general.