While I totally understood the need to keep the story moving in different directions, I have to admit I struggled with the Lorelai/Rory separation this year. It went on for a while, and Lorelai was so crabby with Rory for several episodes, not to mention that I missed my favorite scene partner. I’d never played a character for this long, and while it’s a bad actor cliché to say “my character would never do that,” the line between personal and professional starts to get so blurry, and after a while you start to feel like what’s happening to your character is sort of also happening to you. I remember talking about it with Amy, who felt it was important developmentally that this always-close relationship hit a significant growing pain. Still, I felt bad in scenes where I kept holding a grudge.
Also during this season, Lorelai adopts Paul Anka (the dog, not the person), and Rory and Logan in love are extremely fun to watch!
Times were different: Lorelai attempts to clean house but refuses to part with most of her VHS-tape recordings of old television episodes like Knots Landing and 21 Jump Street, partially “because the commercials are the best part.”
Fashion and hair: All my blazers look too short—either that was the fashion that year or I had a growth spurt. Oh, and puffy sleeves on everything—an adornment that my already broad shoulders don’t really need. I also seem to be experimenting with wacky necklaces, and wow, my devotion to Diane Von Furstenberg wrap dresses really kicks into high gear this season. The same designer plays an important role in the reboot too, but in an unexpected way…wait and see!
What I love: I love the scene with Kelly in the private plane where she blames herself for Rory’s troubles. Vulnerable Emily is so compelling, especially because Kelly only lets her out once in a while.
The best part of this season: Episode 9, “The Prodigal Daughter Returns,” where Lorelai and Rory reunite! On the lawn outside Lorelai’s house, Lorelai tells Rory she looks so much more “silver” than she remembers. I just love little poetic touches like that. And that reunion hug was for real! We were both excited to get back to happier times.
Season finale: In Episode 22, “Partings,” Lorelai has a recurring dream of being smothered by a walrus, and gets a therapy session in her car over her hesitation about marrying Luke. (Side note: Will someone please write a thesis paper on all the bizarre dreams these characters have? I still need help deciphering them.) Logan says “I love you,” then leaves for London. Luke doesn’t like ultimatums, and Lorelai ends up in bed with Christopher. This has all the earmarks of a classic, juicy wacky season finale that tees up the next season wonderfully. But “partings,” indeed—I didn’t know it then, but this was Amy and Dan’s last episode…until eight years later.
SEASON SEVEN
Well, in many ways, this was a tough year and sort of a jumble for me, memory-wise. For example, apparently during this season Christopher and Lorelai get married in Paris. Okay. I have to admit, this seemed so odd to me back then (especially after all that time apart; I just didn’t think Lorelai would get married without Rory present), that I somehow managed to completely forget it ever happened. While we were filming the reboot, Dan Palladino had to call one of the superfan assistants in the office to have her explain the whole episode to me in detail. Even then, I wasn’t sure she was telling me the truth: “No. Really? Are you sure? No. Paris?” I kept saying to her.
Plus, our network, the WB, merged with another network, UPN, to form a new network, the CW. Like any company, changes at the top trickle down to its employees. The good news was that we survived the merger when many other shows did not. The bad news was that Amy and Dan faced a tough renegotiation and ultimately couldn’t agree to terms. Our new show runners were talented writers who knew the show well. But just like when David Lee Roth was replaced as the lead singer of Van Halen, no matter how hard we tried singing the same songs, they just didn’t sound quite the same. (Apparently, I stopped listening to music in the 1980s.)
Alexis and I were at the end of our contracts as well, and about halfway through this season we started renegotiating too. It was a confusing time. For starters, after almost seven straight years of extremely long hours, we were both just plain tired. Creatively, we weren’t sure where the show was heading, and we were starting to feel a bit uninspired. To both of us, Rory graduating from Yale actually seemed like a logical place to end the story. We both stood to get a raise if we stayed longer, but we loved the show far too much to keep going for that reason alone if the content wasn’t good enough. So conversations with our representatives went back and forth, and nothing had been decided by the last day of work. Our director, Lee Shallat Chemel, worried about how best to handle the episode, given that none of us knew if we were filming the last one or not. Ultimately, she decided to mimic the final crane shot from the pilot, where the camera pulls back over Lorelai and Rory talking at their table at Luke’s diner. I think she did a fantastic job this season in general, and with that episode specifically. She didn’t want to jump the gun, but she also wanted to give the fans some closure in case this was indeed farewell. That last day stretched into the night and ended up being more than twenty-one hours long. I said a bleary and brief goodbye to everyone as the sun was coming up, but it wasn’t the quality send-off any of us would have given if we’d known this was the end.
Over the next few weeks, various scenarios were discussed: returning for a full season or possibly a shorter farewell season of just thirteen episodes, trying to entice Amy and Dan to return, or letting the show go altogether. In the midst of these discussions, I was out to dinner with a friend, and right after we ordered, the waiter came back over to our table. “Your agent’s on the phone,” he told me. He led me over to the bar and handed me the receiver.
“The show’s over,” my agent said. And suddenly, before the appetizers had even arrived, that was that.