So. Gilmore Girls ended yesterday. I downloaded the episode this morning and came home to excitedly start watching it, and got through the intro before I realized I was going to sob. I called my mom and we agreed to watch the show together, so I waited a few hours for her to get home and download it.
We watched it over the phone together... my sophomore year of college I would call her sometimes and she'd watch an episode I didn't have and turn up the sound really high so I could hear the dialogue. It was usually an episode I'd seen enough times before to know the script by heart, so even when I couldn't hear I knew what was going on. Gilmore Girls has been OUR show since... since my junior year of high school. I was Rory's age, going through exactly what Rory was going through, when we started watching the second season. We watched the first season via reruns, and it quickly became "our" show. I was Rory. Mom was Lorelai (she was dating my teacher, after all). For a couple years it seemed like the show's writers were stalking us and writing the show directly ABOUT us; sometimes the scripts were downright spooky. Shows would contain actual conversations we'd had. We started calling ourselves the Ford Females (my mom's maiden name is Ford). We took up drinking black coffee once I got to college, and longed for our own Luke's to hang out at. When Rory freaked out and took a year off, I was going through my own "should I take a year off" freakout. We went through breakups at the same time. I'm telling you, it was WEIRD.
When the shows came out on DVD, they became my "study movies." Season One came out while I was in OChem, and I will forever associate Dean and alkanes (actually, that's a good thing; I loved OChem). Season Three I associate with recovering from my grandmother's death. Season Four, which my mom taped and mailed to me weekly as the shows aired, got me through biochem.
The last two or three seasons haven't been quite as spooky. I graduated early and Mom had a baby, which totally diverged from the show's plotline. But the Gilmore Girls had become such a part of our lives that it seemed like the diversions weren't so great. I still felt like Rory, identified with her, and felt like advice from Lorelai to Rory was advice from my mom to me. Watching Gilmore Girls every week was as close as I could come to going home on the weekends to do laundry and eat non-dining-hall food, and once I got out here to Connecticut (with Mom joking the whole time that I HAD to go to Yale, 'cause I'm Rory), the weekly fix of Gilmore Girls was sort of my rock. It was my connection to my family. In a weird way, the show WAS my family.
I knew it was ending. I've known since last summer. I didn't believe for a second that they'd change their minds and make an eighth season, though I prayed they would. So I should have been preparing in the last few weeks, getting ready to say goodbye to this show. It's been a strangely huge part of my life. But of course I'm never ready to let go of anything. I sobbed through the whole episode, crying all over the phone, while my mom asked if it was raining outside my apartment or inside. I laughed and apologized, and she said her own phone was getting a bit teary.
Where do we go from here? How does a TV show come to mean so much to a person? How did I end up wrapping so many emotions and so much love into this one hour a week? It's going to be difficult to let go of Rory, and to stand on my own two non-Gilmore feet; to go forth without my life recorded and scripted and set in an adorable Connecticut town. And to feel quite as close to my mother. No more Wednesday-night "Did you watch yesterday's episode??" phone calls. No more Friday-night dinners.
*sigh*
A few notes on the show...
I think it was fitting that the show ended with Rory single. (Haha, no, not just because I'm single.) She was too young to get married, and she needed to get her own life together before she tied it to Logan's. I don't know if I think they'll get back together or not, and in some ways I think Logan was stupid to propose, but I think being single will be good for Rory. She needs to make her own way in the world.
I'm glad Luke and Lorelai reunited. I've been pulling for them since the first episode I watched. I think it's key that he said he just wants her to be happy; I think they've both figured out a lot in the last few years, and things will work out this time. They'll get married and have a baby and life in the Gilmore world will continue to echo life in mine.
I'm gonna go watch it again and cry some more.
We watched it over the phone together... my sophomore year of college I would call her sometimes and she'd watch an episode I didn't have and turn up the sound really high so I could hear the dialogue. It was usually an episode I'd seen enough times before to know the script by heart, so even when I couldn't hear I knew what was going on. Gilmore Girls has been OUR show since... since my junior year of high school. I was Rory's age, going through exactly what Rory was going through, when we started watching the second season. We watched the first season via reruns, and it quickly became "our" show. I was Rory. Mom was Lorelai (she was dating my teacher, after all). For a couple years it seemed like the show's writers were stalking us and writing the show directly ABOUT us; sometimes the scripts were downright spooky. Shows would contain actual conversations we'd had. We started calling ourselves the Ford Females (my mom's maiden name is Ford). We took up drinking black coffee once I got to college, and longed for our own Luke's to hang out at. When Rory freaked out and took a year off, I was going through my own "should I take a year off" freakout. We went through breakups at the same time. I'm telling you, it was WEIRD.
When the shows came out on DVD, they became my "study movies." Season One came out while I was in OChem, and I will forever associate Dean and alkanes (actually, that's a good thing; I loved OChem). Season Three I associate with recovering from my grandmother's death. Season Four, which my mom taped and mailed to me weekly as the shows aired, got me through biochem.
The last two or three seasons haven't been quite as spooky. I graduated early and Mom had a baby, which totally diverged from the show's plotline. But the Gilmore Girls had become such a part of our lives that it seemed like the diversions weren't so great. I still felt like Rory, identified with her, and felt like advice from Lorelai to Rory was advice from my mom to me. Watching Gilmore Girls every week was as close as I could come to going home on the weekends to do laundry and eat non-dining-hall food, and once I got out here to Connecticut (with Mom joking the whole time that I HAD to go to Yale, 'cause I'm Rory), the weekly fix of Gilmore Girls was sort of my rock. It was my connection to my family. In a weird way, the show WAS my family.
I knew it was ending. I've known since last summer. I didn't believe for a second that they'd change their minds and make an eighth season, though I prayed they would. So I should have been preparing in the last few weeks, getting ready to say goodbye to this show. It's been a strangely huge part of my life. But of course I'm never ready to let go of anything. I sobbed through the whole episode, crying all over the phone, while my mom asked if it was raining outside my apartment or inside. I laughed and apologized, and she said her own phone was getting a bit teary.
Where do we go from here? How does a TV show come to mean so much to a person? How did I end up wrapping so many emotions and so much love into this one hour a week? It's going to be difficult to let go of Rory, and to stand on my own two non-Gilmore feet; to go forth without my life recorded and scripted and set in an adorable Connecticut town. And to feel quite as close to my mother. No more Wednesday-night "Did you watch yesterday's episode??" phone calls. No more Friday-night dinners.
*sigh*
A few notes on the show...
I think it was fitting that the show ended with Rory single. (Haha, no, not just because I'm single.) She was too young to get married, and she needed to get her own life together before she tied it to Logan's. I don't know if I think they'll get back together or not, and in some ways I think Logan was stupid to propose, but I think being single will be good for Rory. She needs to make her own way in the world.
I'm glad Luke and Lorelai reunited. I've been pulling for them since the first episode I watched. I think it's key that he said he just wants her to be happy; I think they've both figured out a lot in the last few years, and things will work out this time. They'll get married and have a baby and life in the Gilmore world will continue to echo life in mine.
I'm gonna go watch it again and cry some more.
I just finished watching it.
Date: 2007-05-17 05:51 am (UTC)From:I think the end was fitting.... I would have liked to see more Luke/Lorelai, but the kiss and necklace seemed to pretty much cover it. All ends seem to be woven in and tied off. And it's good.
And I want to watch it again too.
Oh, and I love your new GG icons! They're fab ;)
Re: I just finished watching it.
Date: 2007-05-17 01:47 pm (UTC)From:I would have liked to see more L/L too... but the kiss was good, and the making of the breakfast and whatnot was good. Damnit I wish there was another season!
I did watch it again. I think the first time is the best, but I'll probably watch this episode over and over again for the next couple of weeks.
*sigh*
Hehe,
Re: I just finished watching it.
Date: 2007-05-17 04:15 pm (UTC)From:I'm sad it's over :( But hey, now I can start watching it marathon style from the beginning to end :D If I cram 22 episodes into one day, I only need 2 hours of sleep before I start the next season... It would only take 7ish days. :P
I am kind of sad about the "all or nothing" response from Logan. Ugh, men! lol
Oooohhh! Those icons are gorgeous!!
Re: I just finished watching it.
Date: 2007-05-20 02:59 am (UTC)From:Ohmygod. You can't watch the whole series in a week, you'd die! I have a hard enough time watching a season in a week! Hehehe, you'd TURN INTO a Gilmore!
Yeah, the Logan ending was kind of sad. But I'm glad she didn't marry him too. It was truer to character that way.