vanillamountain

To be honest, ASP can spin it however she wants, but she is not a subtle writer, and I really think she was originally setting up the ending so that *Lorelai* would be the one who was pregnant. The dream scene in "Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days" in Season 3 (where Lorelai and Luke were expecting twins,) and the scene in Season 5's "Blame Booze and Melville" (where Lorelai starts eating apples and thinks she's pregnant with Luke's child,) seemed to telegraph that the show would end with Lorelai's pregnancy. Plus, in Season 6's "New and Improved Lorelai," Lorelai explicitly told Luke that "kids would be good." (Which is why it was bizarre that ASP made it sound like Luke and Lorelai apparently never talked about having kids again after the original series ended. Lorelai was pushing 39 at the end of Season 7, so the issue of kids definitely would have come up.) But since the Lorelai character was supposed to be 48 in the revival and likely couldn't conceive naturally at that point, I think ASP was just like, "well, in that case, I'll have Rory be pregnant instead." Kind of like how Lane was originally supposed to marry Adam Brody's character, but then ASP had Lane marry Zack instead after Brody left the series. (5 years later though, I still hate the ending of the revival. Ending the show with Rory unexpectedly pregnant just seems like such an awful way to end a show that was always about wish fulfillment and fantasy. The original Season 7 ending - where Rory became a journalist for an online political magazine like Politico and followed Obama on the campaign trail - seemed like a great ending/career arc for her character.)

I have mixed feelings on A Year In The Life - so in my head, I tend to treat is an "alternate ending." I know many fans dislike Season 7, but I loved the way David Rosenthal ended her story: Rory was single, on her own two feet, following the Obama campaign, and pursuing a career in digital media. Back in 2007, there was no doubt in my mind that Rory would go on to write for Politico or Huffington Post or any number of outlets. Rory's ending in A Year In The life isn't "bad" - it's just disappointing to me for a show that's supposed to be all about wish fulfillment. Although to be fair, it's not like Rory will ever have to struggle the way Lorelai did. Rory has the money Trix left her, Richard's trust fund, and a town full of Stars Hollow folks who would be willing to babysit at a moment's notice. Plus, it was already established that Lorelai wanted more kids (but was past childbearing age,) so I could see her happily jumping in 100% and helping out if Rory ever needed to travel to promote her book.

Emily's sister talked about this in an Instagram post after the tell-all, but it sounds like she has struggled with disordered eating. She probably "lashes out" at Sasha because when he talks about restricting, it triggers her. Michael seems like a nice guy. I almost feel like he deserves an honorary Green Card at this point for putting up with Angela's shenanigans. (Not going to lie though: the idea of anyone having sex with Angela, let alone 38 times in 14 days, makes me nauseous.)

I think my favorite part of this evening was when Angela randomly started taking things out of her bra, and the camera zoomed in on the cigarettes and lighter that she left on the table. Also, Tom's sister was reading Darcey like a book, and I was 100% here for it: "Tom, she doesn't want to get to know you as a person. She just wants a wedding ring." Boom. Honestly, Teri looked like she lost a bunch of weight and gave it to Avery.

Anfisa is so delightfully bitchy. I laughed when Jorge asked whether there was enough space in the closet for him, and she was just like, “no.” I also loved when Jorge asked whether Anfisa would be honest when talking to the marriage counselor, and Anfisa said, “I’m always honest.” She’s got a point there - love her or hate her, she’s always been upfront about who she is and what she wants.

I would be shocked if these are still together a year from now. Aside from the language barrier (which is considerable,**) Pedro and Chantel just do not communicate well at all. A lot of the drama could be resolved if they sat down with a counselor and/or translator and had an honest and candid conversation about their income, how much they planned to contribute to household expenses, and what role their parents will play in their lives. ** = I know Chantel said she met Pedro while she was in the Dominican Republic to practice her Spanish, but I speak elementary Spanish better than she does, and I am NOWHERE near being fluent. And while Pedro's English has improved considerably since the first season, it's going to be a long time before he's anywhere near fluent. Maybe I'm just projecting, but I can't imagine what it would be like to be in that situation and to be unable to have a discussion with my significant other about life, family, or politics, in a meaningful way.

I actually agree with the poster in another thread who pointed out that it feels like Amy Sherman-Palladino wanted to end the show with a pregnancy - and since Lorelai is (presumably?) past childbearing age**, she made Rory pregnant instead of Lorelai. The original series always seemed like it was foreshadowing a "surprise" pregnancy for Luke and Lorelai (i.e. the episode where Lorelai had cravings for apples and thought she was pregnant; the episode where she dreamed that she was pregnant with Luke's children; the episode where she and Emily talked about buying a house because Luke and Lorelai were planning to have children, etc.) Since Amy Sherman-Palladino has said that she didn't like the way Rory's storyline ended in Season 7 and that she had "bigger and better" plans for her, I really want to believe that she wouldn't have been cruel enough to make a 22 year old Rory single and pregnant before she even got her career together. ** = I say "presumably" because according to Wikipedia, there are many women who are 48 and over who have conceived healthy children naturally. Hell, Janet Jackson is 50 now and pregnant, so maybe Lorelai could have taken fertility treatments or something.

Mindy Cohn on The Facts of Life was the best! If I remember correctly, by the time she was Nicole's age (towards the end of the series,) she had slimmed down a lot and looked beautiful. The "Natalie" character was also very intelligent (she turned down an acceptance to Princeton in one episode,) and independent - two qualities that Nicole sadly does not seem to have.

If you see their audition tape, the original pictures she sent him were from the chest-up (to accentuate her chest,) and I'm guessing most of the video chats were like that too. Azan probably thought she was a voluptuous girl but didn't realize that she was a bit pear-shaped standing up. It is also possible that he thought she was more active than she is (where she appeared to be out-of-breath lumbering up the stairs to the restaurant.) I actually didn't think Azan's comments were that bad in the grand scheme of things. He didn't say she was a cow or that he wanted her to be a size zero - he told Nicole that he would like to exercise with her and eat healthy foods with her. And if you're going to marry someone and spend the rest of your life with them, that's fair enough - ideally, you would want them to be healthy and active so they can live a long life. Unfortunately, Nicole's immediate reaction was: "he's not attracted to me," and to begin pouting like a child. Sigh.

Just echoing the comments upthread that Nicole is a stage five clinger. I thought it was telling during her one-on-one interview when she said that she wanted Azan to hug and kiss her in public "just to show me that he still loves me." That comment just reinforced something we had discussed during the thread for the last episode - which is that she appears to have very low self-esteem and that she measures her self-worth based on whether she has a man. I'd probably have more sympathy for Nicole if she didn't have a child back home (did she even mention May once this episode?) I'll be shocked if these two are still together by the end of the season. Chantal and Pedro . . . ugh. Someone needs to tell Chantel that if she's not grown up enough to tell her family the truth about Pedro, she's probably not grown up enough to get married. Once again, Anfisa was my favorite person on the show. I love that there is zero B.S. with her - she's open about the fact that this is a business arrangement and she's just doing the show because she wants to be famous. Can't hate on her for that. When she was telling Jorge she wants $10,000 a month in a clothing allowance, my first thought was: "get it, girl!"

Maybe I have very diminished expectations for this show (the writing has felt very "off" ever since they left middle school,) I enjoyed this episode. I saw it as the writers' attempts to talk about Donald Trump's platform and the 2016 election without referring to it directly, and emphasizing that we are a nation built on acceptance and diversity. (Not trying to go off-topic and start a political discussion - just saying that I think this episode was partly a response to his platform/some of the news headlines from this year.) Like some of the other posters, I thought it was odd that the writers didn't mention the Holocaust, slavery, or the Pol Pot regime by name. It actually reminded me of how children's programming has changed since I was a kid. For example, I remember when "Saved By The Bell" did an episode where Jessie researched slavery and found out her ancestors were slave owners, and she and Lisa had an honest discussion about that. I wonder if a kid's show would have an honest discussion about those issues today.

Is it wrong that I think Anfisa is kind of amazing? I love that she makes zero pretense about the fact that this is all a business arrangement to her. I laughed during the scene where she arrived at the airport, and she was like, "you carry the bags, and I'll carry the flowers." And then he asked her what she thought of his new car and she said, "I hate it." I actually wouldn't be surprised if the "secret" about Jorge that TLC keeps teasing is that he's really into domination and humiliation. Nicole . . . wow. She seems like a sweet enough girl, but she's in over her head and Azan is clearly not that into her. You could tell by his body language and the expression on his face during the one-on-one interviews that he wasn't feeling it. Mark seems nice enough, but there's something "off" about him, and I can't put my finger on what it is. Judging by the previews, I guess it will come out that his other three wives were gold diggers or strippers.

I may have misheard, but I thought Shawn meant that he first met Maya when he was 32. Since that was roughly three seasons ago, that would make him 34 or 35 now (per Wikipedia, Rider Strong is actually 36 in real life.) This wasn't one of the better episodes, but it was OK. It was never really explained what happened to Shawn's job where he was traveling the world, or why he is suddenly living in upstate New York. Does anyone know if Rider Strong has signed on as a semi-regular now? If he hasn't, I'm not sure how they're going to keep explaining his absences if he and Katy get married.

Just saw the first new episode on YouTube and thought it was OK. It seems like the show is still trying to find its footing with the new setting and characters. I liked the part where the new high school students pointed out that they've always hung out at Topanga's coffee shop, but that Riley and her friends never noticed them before because they were "in their own little world." Nice touch there. The tone of the show definitely seems a lot darker and more adult than the previous season, especially since this is a Disney Channel show - I was surprised by the frank discussion of Ava's parents' family problems. The Ava character has improved by leaps and bounds - this was the first episode where I didn't think she was shrill and annoying, and I actually felt sorry for her. Disney Channel shows don't seem to last longer than three or four seasons, so I'm curious to see what happens this season. Hopefully all these changes don't scare viewers off, and we'll get at least two more seasons. I thought the show did a really good job with the casting too. It's funny, because I know we were discussing last season how Lucas in particular was starting to get too bulky to pass for a middle schooler, but he actually looked 15 (or however old the character is supposed to be,) standing next to the football players. Also totally random, but did you post under the MethodActor85 username back on TWOP? If so, nice to see a familiar face around these parts - I remember posting with you in the MTV "Made" thread back in the day :)

Amy Sherman-Palladino did an entire show (The Return of Jezebel James) about a girl who agreed to be a surrogate because her sister couldn't have her own kids. So with ASP's track record, I wouldn't put anything past her. Maybe Lindsay (Dean's Lindsay) could be Lorelai's egg donor? (I kid, I kid.) I wanted to like Luke and Lorelai together, because that's what the show set up, but Lauren Graham just never seemed very comfortable to me in her scenes with Scott Patterson; in contrast, she seemed to light up in her scenes with David Stucliffe. The writers also wrote Luke as being very aloof and distant, and it didn't seem like he and Lorelai communicated very well. Christopher, at least to me, seemed to "get" her a lot more - to the point where in the final season, he just needed to see the look on her face to realize that she wasn't "all in" where their marriage was concerned. But I also never saw Christopher as a "bad guy" the way a lot of the fandom seems to. Was he a deadbeat dad? By "real life" standards, maybe, but within the fantasy world of the show, they seemed to go back and forth on how Rory/Lorelai felt about that. In the early episodes, it almost seemed like Lorelai wanted to raise Rory without his interference or input, the way Anna Nardini did with April. We don't know if he paid child support, but Rory and Lorelai were able to eat out for meals 3X's a day and buy the latest fashions, so it wasn't like they were ever truly in need. Lorelai was also so proud about making it on her own that I doubt she would have wanted or asked for child support either. Tl;dr, I always saw Christopher as a guy with a good heart who, to paraphrase Emily, is "weak." I also think, as Lorelai herself admits in the final season, that she and Christopher would have made their marriage work if she wasn't still in love with Luke.