7x20 Lorelai? Lorelai?

[7.3/10] Everybody has setbacks now and then. It’s an inevitable part of life. Nothing goes your way all the time. What makes the difference is whether you can make peace with them, find a way forward afterward, and find the good things waiting for you even if you didn’t get exactly what you wanted.

The most obvious setback in the episode is Rory missing out on the New York Times fellowship she was gunning for, followed by a polite no from the Chicago Times, and a supplicating phone call that ends in a “sorry, we already filled the position” with the Rhode Island newspaper she’d turned down earlier. As Lorelai herself notes (and the show finally acknowledges) Rory is used to getting everything she goes out for, and so she’s not necessarily used to or good at dealing with failure.

We see that in her stress dream in the cold open, a lovely bit of formal inventiveness that the show only goes for sporadically. Her reverting back to her days at Chilton (replete with a presumably final appearance from her old headmaster), imagining her biggest lifeline (her mom) jetting off to unreachable Hawaii, and picturing Paris and Doyle taking pity on her with their big success while she’s again picking up copies of the New York Times on the side of the road rather than writing for it is a brilliant encapsulation of her biggest anxieties rolled into one big nightmare.

I don’t mean this in a cruel way, but it’s nice to see Rory suffer. It’s often when she’s the most interesting as a character, because it calls on her to try things and respond in ways we don’t normally see from her. After seven seasons, it feels like we’ve seen almost every side of Rory in tons of situations, but this one still has mileage left in it, as Lorelai gives Rory permission to “melt down” a little and bounce back, even if her dream may have been delayed a bit.

Lane’s dream has been delayed a bit too, when she bows out of following Zack when goes to tour as the lead guitarist for Vapor Rub. Lane is genuinely excited for her husband, and the possibilities that lay before him as he gets to realize his rock and roll dreams playing renowned venues on a legit tour. She has possibilities herself, not only of seeing these famous stages and musicians firsthand and backstage, but as Brian suggests, maybe with the opportunity to fill in for the band’s lush of a drummer.

But Lane, in the midst of her feverish preparations, realizes how impractical it would be to take two newborn babies on a 25-city tour, and demurs. It is an incredibly mature decision (one Lane attributes to the maturity genes that fire when you become a mom) and one that shows both how Lane’s priorities and perspective has changed. At another time in her life, she might have been crestfallen at not getting to be a part of that tour, or privately miffed that Zack gets to go when she doesn’t. But now, she says that the tour is only two months and “life is long,” faces the realities of the situation head on, and comes out of it ready to do what makes sense for her kids and be happy even if she has to wait a little longer for a little more.

Luke has a similar trajectory here. He and Lorelai are back to their banter-y ways, with another sign of their reconciliation coming when Luke takes Lorelai’s advice about April, something he was resistant to not too long ago. But all that goes to pot when April gets into a special science camp that runs during their planned boat trip. Luke is, of course, gracious as all get out and tells his daughter he’s proud of her and not to worry about it at all. But when he hangs up the phone, you can tell he’s disappointed, that this is something he’d planned for and excited about and had to set aside.

Still, he realizes, in a roundabout way, that even if he doesn’t have this trip with his daughter, he has his friendship with Lorelai back. The moment where he walks into the karaoke bar right when Lorelai is singing “I Will Always Love You” could easily have been too cheesy, but the performances absolutely sell the moment. Lauren Graham shows the perfect switch from standard karaoke stiffness, to the awkwardness of singing a song about enduring love when your ex walks in, to a certain earnestness that comes when the words hit too close to home. And for his part, Scott Patterson displays a similar, subtle transition of emotions, from friendly encouragement to a hope and comfort from the words his former love is singing.

Lorelai is, however, ostensibly singing for her daughter, as part of a multi-pronged attack to cheer Rory up. And in the end, it works. Rory doesn’t know her path just yet, but after a brief moment of panic, she’s ready to take her last final and get back into the game. Much of this last chunk of the season for Rory has been about anxiousness about the great unknown beyond the campus walls, and for once, it seems like Rory is a little more ready to face it, even if she doesn’t have a plan yet.

But someone has a plan for her. The second Logan walked into the Gilmore Girls’ house and told Lorelai that he knew Rory wasn’t home, you just knew a proposal was in the offing. In an episode full of good performance, Matt Czucry has the right blend of nervousness and sincerity to make his request for Lorelai’s blessing feel real. And Lauren Graham, ever the pro, carries the weight of the moment, the idea that her little girl may move halfway across the country and be more apart of a new family than hers.

When setbacks hit, we look for the silver linings, the things that make it easier to be where we are. For Lane, that’s Zack getting to try their dream on for size, her own new family, and the possibilities that still lay ahead. For Luke, it’s a renewed friendship that helps make up for time apart from his daughter, in the same way that time with his daughter once helped make up for that friendship dissolving. And for Rory, her failure to get her dream job may offer the silver lining of a new life in a new place with a man she loves. We’ll just have to wait and see.