WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27
Someone casually mentions that today is our last day on the set of Lorelai’s house. Wait, what? For the first time I realize we are really and truly near the end. Ten days left of filming. How did that happen? It occurs to me that I should take something from the set as a memento. For years journalists have asked whether I took anything from the set of the old show, which I didn’t, since we had no idea at the time that our last day was our last day. My blue coat was something I went home in one day and sort of forgot about until it was time to come back. Besides, they always seem more interested in intentional hardcore theft anyway. I’m not sure at what point taking things from sets became a time-honored thespian tradition—I can’t picture Ingrid Bergman stealing from the set of Casablanca. But I know I’ll be asked, so I start looking for something. I text Alexis to see if she wants anything. She hasn’t left for the day yet, and says she’ll come down to the set and look too.
There is no stranger feeling than the two of us wandering around our house trying to find what we want to take. “Was this here before?” we keep asking each other. So much has been reconstructed, plus Lorelai’s kitchen has been updated, so everything is sort of familiar, yet also new. Alexis takes a Yale banner down from the wall of Rory’s room. I take a pink flamingo made of tin that hung on the wall in the kitchen. I had no particular connection to this flamingo, but I do now, because it will always be the story I’ll tell about the thing I took. I also take a few framed photos and an apple-shaped magnet with Rory’s face on it that says YOU’RE THE APPLE OF MY EYE. Alexis cracks open a split of champagne she’s been saving, and Alexis, Amy, and I share a brief toast before going back to work. So long, Lorelai’s house! It’s sad to say goodbye, but at least this time I know it’s our last day together. Although…does anyone else notice that the ending is really more of a cliffhanger?
THURSDAY, APRIL 28
The producers of The Royal We, which I’m supposed to be adapting right now, call to ask how the script is coming. I take a deep breath, put my most professional writer hat on, and call them back and say something like “La la la la la la, I can’t hear you.” Luckily, they’re nice about it.
We find a part for Gary! He can play the docent in the whaling museum scene with Kelly. But the part shoots Monday and Gary is in New York. Can Gary get to L.A. by Monday? Gary is going to look into it.
MONDAY, MAY 2
Three delayed airplanes and one harried overnight journey later, Gary makes it from New York! After his scenes, we sit in my trailer, catch up, and talk about all the long days and late nights we shared for seven years. For some reason, reminiscing with him makes me realize, really for the first time, that we’re almost done.
TUESDAY, MAY 10
It’s the second-to-last day of work. Getting Melissa back was the final, and in some ways to me most important, piece of this puzzle. I can’t tell you what a joy it was to be back in the kitchen as Lorelai with my best friend, Sookie. I’d missed Melissa terribly in real life too.
After work, Melissa and Yanic and I go out for a drink. We talk for hours, and I could have stayed for hours more, but I have to try to get some sleep. Tomorrow is our last day, and it’s going to be a long one.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 11
The day we’ve all been waiting for is finally here! I’m not just talking about our final day of work—it’s also the day I must answer the deep philosophical question this book’s been asking, which is what will I eat instead of dehydrated meatballs? I think you’ll be relieved to know I went with coconut chocolate balls. Finally, with this global political issue settled, you can return to your lives!
Alexis and I spend most of the day shooting a scene that takes place in a New York City hotel room. Rory comes back after having a fling and worries it was a mistake. Lorelai tries to counsel her. Alexis plays the scene with a perfect blend of panic and humor. The rest of our sets have been taken down already—this is the only one left—and as we finish up the scene, I’m already feeling sad. I’m going to miss Alexis so much, as well as the special connection we share.
The last shot of the night, and of the show, is a re-creation of a sort-of tunnel that Lorelai, Luke, and Rory go through, a short pickup of a shot that we started outside at night but didn’t have time to finish on the back lot many weeks ago. It will make sense when you see the show, but it’s part of a sequence that’s sort of magical; it’s set to the Sam Phillips song “Reflecting Light,” and has no dialogue. I can count on one hand the number of scenes I had over the years on Gilmore Girls that didn’t have dialogue, which adds to the strangeness of it all. Some people have started to assemble near the monitor: members of our production staff, our ADs and their assistants, some folks from the office. There’s nothing to see exactly, but I know they’re gathering around us to say goodbye, to be there for the end, and there’s an electricity in the air. We three pass silently together through this passageway five or six times.
And then, finally, that’s a wrap.
I’ve shed so many tears over these weeks and months that while I’m very emotional, I’m also nearly dry-eyed—almost like I’m in shock. Amy and I hug. Scott and I hug. Dan and I hug. Alexis and I hug. We all stand around, a bit awkward, not exactly sure what to do next. We take some pictures, trying to capture a moment that’s impossible to capture. In them, I look completely dazed.
Later, still dressed in the pajama bottoms I wore in the scene (and a top too, don’t worry), I meet some cast and crew at the Smokehouse, our neighborhood haunt, and we talk for a bit and say thank you and look at each other, still a little dumbfounded. We did it! Right? I mean, we did it, didn’t we? No one knew if it would ever happen, and we still almost can’t believe it really did.
After a drink or two, I head back to my trailer to pack up a few more things before it gets too late, and I realize I can’t find my blue coat. Did I leave it on set, like I always do? A call down to the stage tells us it’s not there. The ADs get on the walkies. They’ve all seen this coat around me, or on me, or near me almost every day, so everyone knows exactly what they’re looking for. Plus it’s long and puffy and blue—it can’t have gone far. But no one has seen it. When was the last time I had it? Today? I don’t think so. It was boiling hot all day, just like it was yesterday…yesterday! I remember now. It was cool in the morning, but by lunch it had heated up. I walked my bike over with Yanic and Melissa to the stage where they were serving our farewell lunch, then left the bike outside the stage, with both the green leather jacket I’d been wearing in the scene and my blue puffy coat draped over the handlebars. I wore the green leather jacket in a scene again today, so wardrobe must have picked up the blue coat too. Phew. They’re still here packing up—Brittany probably sent it to the cleaners for me. But, in the wardrobe trailer, she tells me that when she grabbed the green wardrobe jacket from my bike yesterday, the blue coat wasn’t there.