fakejazz.com

Season finale! Gilmore girls in crisis! Amazing cliffhanger! My worry the past few weeks has been that Ms. Sherman-Palladino would leave all corners not-so-neatly untucked. However, the show's surprise and last scene - and the answer to the "Who will propose?" teaser the WB advertised all week - completely tucks in the Luke and Lorelai relationship. Down with the patriarchy! We are all fools! While message boards were ablaze with arguments over whether it would be Luke or Logan doing the proposing, it was actually Lorelai. In a Max-like spur of the moment decision, she clings on to the one stable part of her life. And it made sense. While Luke's reaction to Rory's issues was completely male - if you've got a problem, yo I'll solve it, even if the only solution I can come up with is completely impractical and slightly inane - the fact that he had her back and she could trust him completely to stay on her side provides more than adequate inspiration for popping the big question. Now this completely tears to shreds the whole "I wanted to be just like dad" storyline involving selling the Dragonfly and leaving Stars Hollow, but you didn't really think she would leave, now did you?

While Luke and Lorelai's relationship may finally be finalized - and they would be cheating the viewers to have Lorelai's career be the impetus for another season of will they or won't they - Lorelai's relationships with Rory, Emily, and Richard are in complete turmoil. The string of events that started last episode with the impromptu performance review, boat-jacking, and call from prison spiraled further out of control as Rory made the decision to leave Yale until she finds out what she wants to do with her life now that she has been deemed unfit for journalism. Lorelai's decision to go to her parents for help took a certain amount of humility. Granted if there's anyone who would push for staying at Yale it would be (or rather should be) Richard, however asking her parents for help is something Lorelai has hardly ever mustered the courage to do. The fact that they then went back on their word and decided to coddle Rory, using Lorelai's empty threat of "you can't mope around Stars Hollow and work at the book store" as reasoning that she should move into their house.

Who do I side with? No one, really. Moving in with the grandparents is probably the best way for Rory to land on her feet. While Richard and Emily can guide her through a posh internship back to Yale, all Lorelai can really do is nag her. "Shouldn't you go back to Yale, now?" "No, you can't work at the Dragonfly; go back to Yale." However, it was wrong for Richard and Emily to go against their word and, even worse, fully resolve the issue without letting Lorelai get involved. You can't turn away your granddaughter when she is crying on your shoulder, but you don't have to cut her mother off at the knees either.

With the cliffhanger, there's more than enough plot to fuel Season 6. Also, it reduces the number of locations from 3 to 2 - this season was strained a bit since Rory and Lorelai spent so much time apart. Now, Rory and the grandparents will be in Hartford, and Lorelai will be in Stars Hollow, either preparing for her wedding or already eloped. Rory's move gets Richard and Emily more involved, who were pretty underutilized this season. Plus, all the Stars Hollow oddities will still make their appearances, although the Kims storyline last night was weak and nonsensical - a waste of a Sebastian Bach appearance.

Gilmore Girls at Amazon