Stopping By Stars Hollow: A Critic’s First Watch of 'Gilmore Girls'- Season 1, Episode 21

Here we are the end of a season. Not summer, that hasn’t even started yet (even though every day here has been as hot and humid as mid-August). I’m talking about the end of a television season! Season 1 of Gilmore Girls is in the bag and Season 2 is taunting us in the horizon, but before we move forward, we have to stop by Stars Hollow to pick up the last batch of this season.

Season 1, Episode 21: “Love, Daises and Troubadours”

So the loose ends we tied are made of romantic ribbons, and I’m glad. Now while I don’t necessarily care for the romantic plot lines of Rory and Dean or Lorelai and Max, I am glad they are the focus of this episode because it ends the emotionally tumultuous progression of the past five episodes on a happy note.

This episode is really a feel-good episode, like the end of of romantic comedy. Everyone gets together in grand spectacle and the audience is left wondering what the future of each couple looks like while having hope that someday a person will propose to them with exactly a thousand yellow daises. But hopefully they won’t be proposed to by someone they hardly know during a fight.

I’ve expressed my concerns of the Max and Lorelai pairing multiple times in past articles and I can safely tell you that despite how much they “talk on the phone,” my feelings are unchanged. Max and Lorelai are sex buddies, nothing more, nothing less. They have absolutely no deeper connection other than their physical attraction to each other and knack for witty dialogue. So seeing this proposal has given me hope for one thing: the Max and Lorelai relationship will come crashing down in a ball of fire even bigger than before.

Rory and Dean’s reconciliation was sweet… and that’s all I can really say about it. It was great to watch the awkward “teenager in love” tension between her and Dean in the moments when Rory gave her speech at the town meeting and Dean drove to Chilton to meet her but… I knew they were gonna get back together because the reason for the breakup was not big enough to be a relationship ender—it served as more of a learning experience.

Now with these two lackluster reactions to the plot of the episode, you may be wondering why I am so happy with this episode instead of being nonplussed. It’s very simple. I am happy that season one ended with romantic resolutions because it means that all of the familial drama is still an open sore waiting to be poked and prodded at next season. My favorite parts of this series so far have been the interactions within the Gilmore family. Every episode where the state of the Gilmore family is the focus has been some of the most dynamic characterization and storytelling I have seen on television. By leaving the status of the Gilmore family relationship in question at the end of season one, we are promised more great family drama in the next season and it leaves us wondering and wanting.

Season 1 of Gilmore Girls is an exceptionally strong first season of a television series, and while it did have to work out a lot of kinks, those kinks never stopped the progress. There was never an episode that dissuaded me from eagerly awaiting the next one because the themes and heart of the series as a whole were so well established. Every moment, be it lacking or in surplus, left me waiting with baited breath to see how it would play in the future.

Let’s keep this ball a rollin’ as we say goodbye to season one and move…

Onto Season 2, Episode 1: “Sadie, Sadie”