4x22 Raincoats and Recipes

[6.0/10] With four data points to consider, I think it’s fair to say that Gilmore Girls season finales just don’t work for me. I tend to enjoy the show when it’s using a lighter touch, or giving us little character pieces, or giving stories time to breathe. Finales in general, but Gilmore Girls’s finales in particular, tend to be more bombastic, more plot-heavy, and feel like the show wants to roll everything from the season into one big ball.

Basically every simmering storyline from Season 4 froths to a boil in “Raincoats and Recipes.” Luke’s romantic journey and Lorelai’s romantic journey finally collide. Richard and Emily’s discord is pulled out into the open. Rory reflects on Jess and her recent obsession with Dean hits a point of no return. And last but not least, The Dragonfly Inn has its (sort of) opening day, with room for all the local color and mishigas that ensues.

Frankly, contrary to my normal feelings about the show, those little comic relief bits on the margins are one of the best things in the episode. I’m not going to sit here and defend the “Kirk has night terrors” storyline, where the broad comedy from him has really started to become grating in the back half of this season, but a lot of the rest of the episode’s shtick works.

Sookie having overhired in anticipation of attrition, and then getting frustrated when all her employees are fantastic because she has to fire two of them is a good bit. Babbette remarking on Kirk’s not so subtle nudges to Luke by saying “I think Kirk wants you to go upstairs and make love to him” is the funniest thing the character has said. And gags about Jackson’s bias for the food, Tom being a “suit guy,” and even Taylor’s anal retentiveness got a laugh or two.

But the main storylines each leave something to be desired. The easiest one to diagnose is Richard and Emily. This has been a long-burning thing on the show, and to spend five minutes on their discord, bringing it out in the open to Lorelai, just gives it the short shrift. I’m sure they want to include these characters in the finale, but it would have been better to just nod toward their marital difficulties and kept going rather than tried to shoehorn in a major development on that front without giving it enough time or space to really get going.

Plus, Lorelai’s whole scheme to out them on this is really mean and unfair to them. It’d be one thing for her to say to one or both of them directly, “I can tell something’s wrong. Please tell me what’s happening.” But using familial guilt to shove them in a room together until they cry uncle is a bad look for her, even if it’s “the Gilmore way.’

And then we get to the two big storylines in the episode, which both have a romantic bent. Let’s start with Rory’s. There is something true to life about how, with a little maturity and perspective, she starts to realize that however passionate and mysterious Jess seemed, he was also unreliable and not always good to her, with Dean representing the exact opposite qualities in a boyfriend. It’s underlined a bit too heavily, but I at least like the idea of Rory having the realization that in Seasons 2 and 3, her teenage hormone feelings for Jess did not necessarily lead her in the right direction.

But her regrets about Dean don’t lead her in the right direction either. I’ll say this for Gilmore Girls -- I haven’t really liked the Rory/Dean storyline this season, mostly because the entire time I’m groaning and going “oh god, don’t” and also because it has that WB teen melodrama element to it that never plays well with me as a crusty thirtysomething -- but it at least seems like they weren’t just doing this one for The Drama and instead built this as a wedge between Lorelai and Rory, which I appreciate.

It is naive of Rory to buy into the “it’s not working out” story with Dean and become the other woman. It is understandable that, in her minimal romantic experience, she would take her romantic feelings for Dean and regret about has she lost him as justification for what she does here. And it’s just as natural for there to be a huge disconnect between Rory seeing her first sexual experience as a beautiful expression of her and Dean’s love, and Lorelai seeing it for what it is, something fraught with embellishments if not outright lies, and people who’ll be hurt, and romanticized ideas rather than realities.

I don’t care for most of the Rory/Dean material here, in large part because it falls into some pretty tired young adult clichés in how it’s written. But the Lorelai/Rory fight that ensues is fantastic. It feels real; it feels appropriately emotional; it feels true to both characters’ perspective and level of experience. And it turns this cheesy romance storyline, which Rory can’t seem to avoid even she’s mostly unattached throughout the season, into a point of disconnect between mother and daughter rather than just another entry in the “boyfriend drama of the week” file. Lorelai’s surprise and disappointment, and Rory’s pain at having this blissful moment punctured by reality, are both palpable and well done and almost redeem this uninspiring storyline.

And then...then there’s Lorelai’s romantic storyline. When it’s all uncertainty and walking on air, it’s delightful. I love the tack of Lorelai being pretty sure that she’s dating Luke, but not being 100% and so kind of unsure how to take everything. The continuing physical comedy of her being flustered by Luke’s presence and then falling over/bumping into/running over something/someone is delightful. And sweet moments like Luke getting her flowers and the way her face lights up over it are outstanding.

But then Digger happens, and I just don’t know what to do with this episode. Count me among those who thought Digger’s exit from Lorelai’s romantic life was too abrupt and out of whack relative to the characters’ relationship. The problem is that “Raincoats and Recipes” never really addresses that, it just has Lorelai with her dander still up over the “suing my family” thing without digging any deeper into it.

Instead, Digger is really just there to be fodder for one of the lamest clichés in romance stories -- the wacky misunderstanding. His only purpose for existing here is to have Luke get the misimpression that Digger and Lorelai are still dating and getting all in a huff about it so that Luke and Lorelai can have an overdramatic argument about it that ends in a kiss.

It’s the exact opposite of the prior episode, where the show let the attraction and warmth between Luke and Lorelai blossom naturally, in little gestures and little moments with big impacts. Using a love triangle cliché to get Luke and Lorelai’s feelings out in the open is a disservice to what the show’s built with those two characters over four seasons, and a crappy way to get to this point which was, otherwise, been done really well over the last couple of episodes.

Hell, I didn’t even like the kiss! The kiss we’ve been waiting for for four seasons! The “would you stand still for a minute” bit is just too cutesy for what should be a momentous, natural moment between the two of them. Instead, it’s steeped in romcom clichés and the show’s worst, showy and over-the-top impulses.

Half of the time, this show is Mad Men -- full of well-drawn characters with rich inner lives who have multi-layered interactions with one another. And half the time, it’s Full House -- wacky comedy and contrived situations and over-the-top moments. Finales, aiming to cap off a year’s worth of storylines and intrigue a WB fanbase for the next season, tend to lean much more toward the latter, full of broad humor and dramatic flourishes, and I’m just sitting here waiting for the meaningful, understated resolutions that will never come.