Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, ‘Summer’
Lorelai (Lauren Graham) sits on the advisory board for Taylor’s (Michael Winters) play about Stars Hollow. Rory (Alexis Bledel) tries to save the local newspaper.
Lorelai is quippy, witty, and comedic. She’s fun to watch and I wish I could be as quick on my toes as she is. My favorite thing though, is when people don’t get her jokes. In the beginning of “Summer” Luke (Scott Patterson), Rory, Lorelai, and April (Vanessa Marano) are having dinner and all of Lorelai’s banter goes over April’s head. It was amusing and Lauren Graham felt at the top of her game and the most settled in her character at that moment.
Rory is taking over the Stars Hollow Gazette. She’s always been a Stars Hollow girl. She attended or volunteered at every town event. The Stars Hollow Gazette is the first newspaper she ever read. I think it’s suiting that she’s there. To be fair, it doesn’t pay and she isn’t doing hard hitting reporting but while she’s back (“I’m not back”) it’s a fitting position.
I loved “Stars Hollow: The Musical.” It was peak Taylor. Peep Sutton Foster was amazing in Bunheads and she was amazing in her cameo. She was meant for an Amy Sherman-Palladino world. Her final song had me, and Lorelai, in tears.
Well, I want to go to Stars Hollow’s secret bar. I’m upset it’s not real. I do love that the 5O is just Taylor, not any actual police. Michel (Yanis Truesdale) and Lorelai go for drinks because Michel is leaving the Dragonfly. Lorelai can’t expand the inn because the property doesn’t have any room for expansion. But the inn is small and doesn’t offer a spa or gym or jacuzzis. While he doesn’t really want to leave he needs more responsibility, more to do, and more money. It was really touching to see a real friendship between Lorelai and Michel. You always knew it was there but it laid buried beneath layers of snark.
Jess (Milo Ventimiglia) is back! He was the worst boyfriend out of all of Rory’s boyfriends. Even worse than Dean (Jared Padalecki), who sucked actual eggs. Jess is better as a friend than a boyfriend. He and Rory have a lot in common. They challenge each other and force each other to take a hard look at their lives. That was always the positive of their relationship. Jess comes back because his mom and TJ accidentally joined a vegetable cult and he and Luke have to try and fix it. But while he’s in town he sets Rory on course. Just like when she dropped out of Yale. It was symbolic.
“Summer” is light on Emily’s (Kelly Bishop) storyline. Emily has fallen into a funk. She is sleeping until noon, had Richard’s gravestone commission five times, and is deeply uninterested by the DAR. Rory checks in on her once and then both Lorelai and Rory go with her for the unveiling of the newest gravestone, but ultimately “Summer” is about Rory and Lorelai.
After talking with Jess, Rory has found her path. She is going to write a book about her and Lorelai. Lorelai dismisses it though. Her reasoning being that she kept her life private and a book would be putting things out there she never wanted others to know. Lorelai and Rory end “Summer” on a rocky note.
Lorelai and Luke end on an unsure note too. They have a giant fight in Luke’s Diner because they both have been keeping things from one another. Lorelai never told Luke her mom stopped going to therapy and that she was going by herself. Luke never told Lorelai her mother came to show him real estate listings for the franchise Richard wanted him to start. They finally come to crux of the problem which is that they still live separate lives. They haven’t fully integrated their responsibilities and familial obligations. It’s extremely sad.
The play has one additional song for the advisory board to review. Like I said earlier the song had me and Lorelai in tears. Lorelai heads back home and tells Luke she needs to leave for a few weeks. She’s going to do Wild (the book, because liberties were taken in the movie).
This third episode has felt the most Gilmore Girls-esque. The Gilmore girls were living together again. Their relationship felt comfortable and in sync. The world started to feel lived in again. “Summer,” though, has left thrown relationships into uncertainty. It is a very familiar pattern of the series. Each season seemed to contain a giant fight, breakup, or running away from someone of something. It’s how it goes.
