bracebridge

Rewatching the season 3 premiere and I’m still so moved by the Mimi scene/reconciliation. That said, here’s a thought experiment - if that scene hadn’t happened, how do you think Luke and Lorelai would have reconciled? I say this because Luke seemed pretty hell-bent on hanging to his grudge even when Lorelai entered the diner. What would have taken for him to let go of it?

I'm still bummed out I never got the chance to read it, but I feel better now knowing more about it, so thank you 😄

Thank you so much! So it's pretty much the interlude between where the penultimate chapter of Danes Family Rules left off -- the Rory/Jess wedding -- and the flash-forward of how everybody's lives turned out at the end. That sounds amazing. Just another question, though (not sure if the spoiler tag applies since it's not about the show) --

Could anyone share what was State of Grace about? I've heard so many good things about it that I feel like I'm missing out. I do know it's a continuation from the Danes Family Rules series... so there's that.

On rewatch, I’ve come to the realization that I find Luke and Lorelai's dynamic to be pretty similar to Emily and Richard's relationship, with a more relaxed, optimistic if somewhat immature personality that would only get fired up on principle (that would be Lorelai and Richard) that served as a counterbalance to the other's uptight, responsible and perpetually passionate persona (Luke and Emily). Luke and Emily are both caretakers, fiercely devoted to their respective persons and always willing to attend to their needs, while Lorelai and Richard light them up and make them feel more at ease. This only helps illustrate my point that Luke and Lorelai complement each other perfectly, which is why I think they work so well as a team and as partners (which is what they are, whether they’re in a committed relationship or just platonic BFFs).

I really liked Luke and Emily’s relationship in the early seasons. Their talk in “Forgiveness and Stuff” is one of my favorite scenes, for instance. Luke’s not intimated with her, and she’s genuinely kind to him, and they found common ground and got real with each other. It’s pretty good stuff all around. I also enjoy this small interaction between them in Haunted Leg: ASP could’ve really developed this relationship along these lines, but instead she chose to dumb down Luke and make Emily a moustache-twirling villain for the sake of drama even when it didn’t make sense for either of their characters.

I think another post from quite a while ago hit the nail right in the head when saying that you can't define "close friends" in the same way for everybody - especially when we're talking about an introvert like Luke who's not the type to get together with people frequently. That said, I do think he socialized with Lorelai plenty for his standards - they saw and talked to each other at the diner everyday and were almost always up to what was going on with the other. Luke came over for dinner at her house and for the Casablanca movie night at Lorelai's invitation. They had lunch in the gazebo for the town basket event. They ate together in Thanksgiving every year. He went to Rory's birthday party and Lorelai's engagement party (even though I'm sure that he wasn't fond of crowded environments and he would've had declined to attend had it not been for them). Lorelai helped him paint the diner, accompanied him to Louie's funeral, helped him look for an apartment for him & Jess, bailed him out of jail, and gave him advice on Rachel, Nicole and Jess. Luke taught her how to fish, built a chuppah for her wedding, practically dropped everything to be there for her during a family emergency, shoveled her drive when it snowed, fixed the catwalk at the inn solely for Lorelai's sake and went to the Bracebridge dinner to support her. Not only does he insist on doing all the repairs in Lorelai's house (going as far as lecturing her for wasting money by hiring someone to do something he could gladly do for free) but he loans her a major amount of money without as much as a moment's hesitation. And while it's true that they rarely hung out in a lot of formally scheduled plans, there's no doubt in my mind that if it came down to it - as in if for some reason Lorelai's circumstances changed or she couldn't come into the diner anymore, they would've worked out a way to spend time with each other. Furthermore, I think the way they act around each other is pretty telling in its own right. They're never more comfortable and truer to themselves than when they are with each other. Lorelai confides on him in a way she can't with Rory, Sookie or Chris. And the same goes for Luke. When he's feeling troubled, when he needs a second opinion, when he just needs someone to vent to - who does he call? Who does he go to? When all is said and done, who is the one person he cares about the most? Lorelai. In my opinion, LL are extremely close friends who consider themselves as such (hence why Lorelai is incensed when he doesn't tell her moved and Luke is so taken aback when Lorelai tells him that they are not friends). That's actually the reason I ship them - they love each other both romantically and platonically, but the platonic part was just as important. As a matter of fact, their closeness lent credence to their reluctance to acknowledge their feelings and pursue a romantic relationship - they were practically family to each other. Why on earth would they want to jeopardize that?

Beautifully said. They could really lean and rely on each other which is a massive deal for two people who stubbornly prided themselves on being independent. Another moment between them that I really love is Lorelai pouring her heart out to Luke about her insecurities in "The Ins and Outs of Inns" after her massive freak out with Sookie over the inn, she's sort of putting herself down. But Luke? He's not taking it. I think this illustrates one of my favorite aspects of their relationship: their endless support towards each other and their willingness to tell each other what they need to hear rather than what they want to hear. And the best part of it is that she gets it. She gets over her fear of failure and makes up with Sookie in the very next scene.

I've always been annoyed that when Luke and Lorelai start dating, she has to "make" him go to town meetings and even Sookie is surprised to see him there as though that was a rare occurrence considering we are shown that Luke attends willingly (and punctually) to almost every town meeting that we see through Seasons 1 to 4.

Indeed! Luke and Lorelai never seemed truer to themselves than when they are around each other. There's such a genuine connection in their bond, like an unspoken agreement that no matter what comes to their way, they can always rely and confide on each other and have each other's backs. A "you and me against the world" kind of dynamic, if you will. They're partners way way before they become romantic. That's why I can't agree that Chris really 'got' Lorelai - he got her humor and her references, sure, and they bonded over anecdotes of their childhood and teenage years, but at the end of the day, he didn't know the person Lorelai had grown into. Meanwhile, Luke knows Lorelai better than anyone - he doesn't hold her in a pedestal. He calls her on her crap, and he trusts her to do same for him. He knows her quirks, her flaws, her insecurities. He's seen her at her very best and at her very worst - and that doesn't deter him in the slightest. He loves her just like she is.

I think the quote above by ASP encapsulates the reason I love LL so much. I love their friendship in the first four seasons. It’s beautiful and one of the best things about the show — the longing looks, the charged banter, the sweet moments in between that showcased the depth of their connection. I think that from the beginning, both of them were in love with each other but alas, deeply in denial about it. I think both of them were so unwilling to acknowledge their romantic feelings because they were afraid of jeopardizing their friendship. I love that in spite of how different they were in the surface, they really seemed to ‘get’ each other far better than anyone else (Luke can instantly pick up when something is bothering Lorelai, for example), confided expansively on each other, and truly possessed the ability to get through each other’s thick skulls and make the other person listen when they were at their most stubborn. And I think it’s adorable that they both get a kick out of their bickering! It’s the little things – the affectionate glances they throw at each other when the other one’s not looking, the ease and comfort they demonstrate around each other, the fact that it’s only around each other that they feel secure enough to let down their guards and allow themselves to vulnerable. They really know and appreciate the other person for what they are, without any false beliefs or any childish presumptions but rather a fundamental understanding and respect towards one another. I read somewhere that the reason they work so well is because Luke’s a grumpy misanthropist and Lorelai’s a cheery misanthropist and together they can bond over their shared bemusement over the craziness of Stars Hollow and the rest of the world. What really sells their relationship for me, though, is how much they cherish each other. They have their ups and downs, sure, but you can tell that Lorelai thinks the world of Luke and highly values their friendship, and that Luke considers Lorelai as family and would genuinely do anything for her. TL;DR Luke and Lorelai are best friends who love and support each other unconditionally and who would’ve had an amazing romantic relationship in the hands of a more capable writer.

I came across this old interview with ASP back when the show was airing mid-season four, and this is what I found: “Sherman Palladino hinted that Lorelai and Luke (Scott Patterson) might get together someday, but she doesn't want to rush it. "’I think it's what we're all working toward, whether we do it before the end [of the series] or at the end," she said. "It's one of the key touchstones of our show. You've got this woman working so hard to make it and her partner is right around the corner. If either one of them would just let the wall down for five seconds and keep the quips to a minimum and maybe say something real to each other, their lives would be very different.’" http://web.archive.org/web/20050319140230/http://www.post-gazette.com:80/tv/20040116owen0116fnp4.asp So it seems like the ratings' drop and the negative fan reaction to Lorelai and Rory's separation prompted her to get Luke and Lorelai together in season 4 and that she was seriously considering the possibility of resolving the will they/won't they at the end of the series - which is why she didn't know what to do with them after they got together and felt compelled to throw all sorts of obstacles in their way - and thus, the result is an unrealistic lack of physical of affection, a plot-induced inability to communicate with each other and Plot Devices™ that are straight out of a soap opera (Emily & Christopher in S5 and April & Anna in S6).

9, 12

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100% agreed on Christopher’s unrealized potential, @clack. I really like his season 1-3 appearances because even though the backstory was muddled, he always brought great, cohesive drama into the episodes. The writers really dropped the ball on him on Season 5. ^^^This. I would’ve killed to watch some Luke/Christopher interactions in the early seasons before Luke dated Lorelai. From what I gather, Luke doesn’t appear to like him even as early as season 1 - he knows he wasn’t around to help Lorelai raise Rory, and then deduces that he was the reason that Lorelai stood him up to paint to the diner (“Christopher Returns”). He throws what is... probably not a cinnamon stick in the chai latte that Christopher orders (“Presenting Lorelai Gilmore”). He seethes silently in the background while Christopher yells at Lorelai in the diner (“It Should’ve Been Lorelai”) and later comforts her when she herself tells him how Christopher broke her heart (“Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer”) so I could understand Luke feeling protective of her, even from a platonic standpoint, because he doesn’t want to see her - or Rory - hurt again. Anyhow, I would’ve liked to see a scene between them - not quite as dramatic as the shouting match that took place at the vow renewal, but Luke always has an... underhanded way of showing he doesn’t like certain people - something as simple as telling him off for something minor, like using his cellphone at the diner, while the audience understands there is a double meaning to their conversation, for example.