Today I (re)watch: Gilmore girls, 1.21

Aaaaand we have reached the end of Season 1. Oy with the poodles already! (We’ll get there…)

So, Love, Daisies and Troubadours: This episode is all kinds of cheesy, mostly causing some projectile vomiting. There is some breaking up, some getting back together, some proposing. Some troubadouring (is that a word?)… And a lot of daisies!

SPOILER ALERT. I have seen all the seasons before, so I am reviewing retrospectively. SPOILER ALERT.

Luke, oh Luke.
It is a mixture of thoughtful and creepy that Luke fixes things at Lorelai’s house without, y’know, asking first? But he wants to be close to Lorelai which is shitty for Rachel but good for the rest of us. Rachel tells Luke not to wait long to tell Lorelai. 3 years, Luke. THREE YEARS YOU MADE US WAIT.

It is sad when Rachel leaves Luke, even if we never have enough time to care all that much about the relationship. Rachel wanted to make it work and Luke was basically hiding from her the entire time. At the same time, there is a difference between dating someone and living with someone, and not wanting to live with someone doesn’t mean you don’t want the person. I hate this monogamous, heteronormative, working-up-to-marriage model in every single media thing, including TV and including, of course, Gilmore Girls. I think Luke could’ve just told Rachel that some space (like, I don’t know, a separate apartment) was all he needed. That breakup served to spark the Lorelai x Luke ship further but the break-up was entirely avoidable.

Enter testosterone:
Oh my god. The testosterone showdown between Max and Luke is so funny but so annoying. “I do a lot of fixing around here for Lorelai” Seriously, Luke?

Max: So are we going?
Lorelai: Yeah. Just wanted to make sure you two were finished swinging those things around. Someone’s bound to lose an eye.

Lorelai Gilmore, calling shit out like it is.

Okay, let’s talk about jealousy?
I do not understand why talking about past relationships or people you sleep with while you are not (monogamously) together with someone is such a big deal. It has, by definition, absolutely nothing to do with you. Why do both Lor and Max get so upset? Why does Max think he is entitled to an explanation about Luke? And then, after that disaster of a conversation…

A proposal. What the fuck. “Hey, we clearly suck at communicating feelings and past relationships to each other but we want to lock each other up from other people so, let’s get married!” It’s not romantic. It is immature, desperate and ridiculous. And grand gestures like a thousand yellow daisies do not make that better. I hate grand gestures and I especially hate grand gestures when they are accompanied by zero actual communication, or logic, or consent. I am sorry, kids, but love is not enough.

Tristan is the douchey-est, rapey-est in this episode, and here is why.
First of all he gets tickets for a show he doesn’t even know what the music is, but I guess that is what you do when you are a silly boy who has all the money but none of the brains to figure that that’s not how you get a girl like Rory to like you. That’s silly, but so far it’s not creep territory just yet. He tells Paris, Madelaine and Louise that he is going with Rory, though. Even though Rory obviously said no. That’s douchey and intentional and makes him worthy of my wrath because you do not mess with a beautiful blossoming romance friendship like Paris and Rory’s . But the thing that makes me the angriest is when he follows Rory around pretending that Rory is playing hard to get, and not taking no for an answer. He feels entitled to take Rory to the concert and tries to put it on her that the tickets cost him his dad a lot. He gets his stupid white boy feels hurt and takes Rory’s books and tells her she will get them back when she agrees to go with him. So, let’s recap:

– Not taking no for an answer: check.
– Manipulating the person’s friends into believing she wants it: check.
– Arguing that because he spent that money “on her”, she should say yes to him: check.
– Blackmailing her with something she needs (her books), coercing her to say yes: check.
Woohoo. Four points for the potential rapist.

And here comes back the original fuckface:
This episode only gets worse when Dean shows up and has a small fit about seeing Rory “with” Tristan. And heck, him being so delusional, possessive and ridiculous to think that Rory would ever go out with Tristan, is further proof that he doesn’t know – or deserve – Rory. He behaves like a baby, pouting and making a scene, “Your boyfriend is waiting.” Seriously? Ugh I want Dean to fall off a cliff. Or be kicked off one, rather. Dean kind of coerced Rory into BEING READY to say ‘I love you’ when he broke off with her, wouldn’t even talk to her at all, made a scene at the school there, and threatened to leave and go back to not talking to her.

The key part in that sentence being YOU IDIOT.

I don’t like this season finale. The Gilmore Girls seem the happiest now, but I am miserable because Dean has a long way to annoy me before he disappears from this show (Damn it, Supernatural, couldn’t you have taken him away sooner?!). On the other hand, Season 2 is way more fun, so yay!