Hello! Welcome to Return to Stars Hollow - a spoiler-free, retrospective podcast about Gilmore Girls! This is the podcast for our Season 7, Episode 21 - Unto The Breach.
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The next podcast will post on November 8, 2018 for Season 7, Episode 22 - Bon Voyage.
To me, this is a pretty perfect finale for this show. Every character gets some closure and a happy, hopeful ending. Stars Hollow, the town, is such a big part of this show and what makes it so great and I love that they go all out on the Stars Hollowness here. I always want to immediately start watching the show from the beginning again after this finale, because I feel like I already miss all of these characters.
ReplyDeleteThe one thing I don't love is the Christiane Amanpour meeting. It's a nice idea per se, but her giving Rory her card and telling her to send her some stuff, that is too much.
Rory coming in and announcing she got a job could feel a bit too easy but it works. It's not her very first try and we know that she has been writing articles for this online magazine even though it's not constantly talked about. And we see that Rory is willing to put in the work with all her resumes. By the way, how does the application process work in the US? Because here, you don't send only a resume and also you don't fold your application, which is why I was confused by Rory's small envelopes.
I also like the job itself. It's not what she dreamt of, it's not a big daily newspaper, but it's a great opportunity. Her reaction feels very real, swinging back and forth between joy and excitement, and not being sure if she can do a good job and not feeling ready to leave so soon. In this last part, this episode reminds me a lot of the season 4 premiere, with both Lorelai and Rory thinking they would have more time together before having to part and hurrying to get things done. Only now it's an even more permanent departure.
I love the moment Rory tells Lorelai that she has given her everything she needs. It's such a small, simple line that has so much packed into it. In that, it reminds me of the pilot, when Luke tells Rory that she doesn't want to become like her mother and Rory answers that it's too late for that. And then of course, the last shot, also mirroring the last shot of the pilot, is perfect. They are exactly where they should be and no matter what happens in the future, these two women will never lose that bond.
I also love how we leave things with the grandparents. It's somewhat heartbreaking to see Emily again trying to make a deal with Lorelai because she is afraid that now that Rory is leaving and they don't have a deal anymore, she is going to loose Lorelai again. It's great to see Lorelai take this step and assuring her that they will continue friday night dinners. The relationship between Lorelai and her parents is such a big, fascinating part of the show and it has grown and changed a lot through many, many ups and downs. Even a few years ago, when Lorelai paid back the Chilton loan, she said they would see each other and have dinner occasionally, but now she's saying no, every week. At the same time, their relationship is still not perfect, neither of them is, and they immediately have a silly argument about the dress code.
DeleteI think it's interesting that it's Emily who still can't quite express how much this means to her to Lorelai's face. We've had Lorelai telling Emily she knows how hard it must have been when she left. And here we have that great scene with Richard. The Gilmores are not a mushy family, they don't really tell each other that they love each other (Rory and the grandparents being the exception), and it fits that this gets acknowledged here with Emily interrupting him. After seeing how proud of Rory they are, it's lovely to hear Richard also now express admiration for Lorelai and the life she's built, and for the first time regret that she had to do it. We have never heard the grandparents really take part of the blame for what happened, it was always, Lorelai was a wild child or at the best, they "lost" their daughter, which is still a pretty neutral way to describe the situation. Lorelai has been trying to explain herself to them for years and it means a lot to finally hear him say this.