Show: Gilmore Girls (WB)
Episode: Partings – Sixth Season Finale
Originally Aired: Tuesday, May 9th 2006
Rating: 3½ out of 4 stars
Quick Synopsis: “Partings†was such sweet sorrow.
Long Synopsis: The show opens with a great scene as Sookie is playing a loud version of the quiet game with her son as the family tries to leave without disturbing Lorelai who they think is still asleep on the couch. She is disturbed but not by the goings on around her but with her relationship status with Luke as is shown by her sad gaze into nowhere.
The show continues on with Lorelai avoiding Luke, Rory wishing Logan didn’t have to leave for a year and the town being overrun by troubadours.
Rory has a confrontation with Logan’s dad in the elevator and he states that he isn’t sending Logan away from her but because it is time for him to grow up and stop his foolishness. Since Rory agrees with that assessment of what Logan needs to do she ends up throwing a London inspired going away party for his last night there.
Emily has decided to ambush Christopher with a blind date at Friday night dinner. The woman turns out to be a psychiatrist with whom Lorelai ends up having as session with from the back seat of the woman’s car.
Lorelai comes to the conclusion that she needs to make a decision about what she wants. What she wants is to get married now. She confronts Luke about it and wants to elope right then and there. He doesn’t like the ultimatum and says he needs to think and doesn’t answer her really. She says she has to go and walks off. He doesn’t try to stop her. She goes to Christopher’s because she doesn’t want to be alone and Rory is spending her last night with Logan before he leaves for London.
The show closes with Lorelai in Christopher’s bed after having spent the night. Christopher is getting his daughter off with the nanny and then we see him slip back into bed with her. The whole time she has the same nowhere gaze the show opened with.
Review: “Partings†are such sweet sorrow. Rory and Logan, Luke and Lorelai, us and another season of the show and of course the Palladinos and the show itself. Yet the episode was classic Gilmore Girls to me. Witty banter, light comedy, drama and heartbreak. What would the show be like without them?
The bookending of the opening and closing scenes was fantastic. The books that made up the story in-between were quite well done as well.
The banter between Rory after the graduation and Lorelai arriving home from Sookie’s was absolutely great. Could they have stuffed any more into such a brief conversation? It only lasted about a minute and a half but let’s see there was a role reversal, a Chachi reference, a Fatal Attraction reference, Lorelai shaking her head no while telling Rory everything was all right, a joke about a restraining order being why Rory is avoiding Logan’s family and more. Amazing how so little can tell you so much.
The Friday night dinner setup conversation at the table. Lorelai making outlandish conversation until her mother can’t take anymore and all conversation stops saving Christopher. Then being followed by the backseat unloading of all that Lorelai has been carrying around lately. Really, what could that woman “do with a couch?â€
The side story with the town being overrun by troubadours was classic. Who new that Chloe could take time out from saving the world with Jack on 24 to sing a little ditty about her Volvo in Stars Hollow.
The course of the show next season will be interesting with a new show runner. Many will not like what happened last night as they have been complaining about this whole season. Not liking what has been done to the characters. The separation of Rory and Lorelai, putting Luke and Lorelai together only to pull them apart and what they seem to think is a loss of the fun times on the show. To me it seems much like it has always been but the characters have grown. Can you say the same only different?
It has been funny to me to read about how people don’t like the direction the Palladinos have taken the show this season. Then after the announcement that they were leaving the show lamenting about how they can’t imagine the show without them at the helm.
What did you think of the sixth season finale of Gilmore Girls? Where do you think the story will go next season?
