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# Recap: Gilmore Girls, A Year In The Life, "Fall"
- URL: https://go-fug-yourself.ghost.io/recap-gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-fall/
- Published: 2016-12-15T07:52:50.000Z
- Updated: 2016-12-16T00:54:02.000Z
- Author: Heather
- Tags: #wp, #wp-gallery, #slideshow, #Import 2026-10-07 07:49

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall1-1481765794.jpeg)

This is exactly what my room would look like, were I trying to hike the Pacific Coast Trail. I don't know how Lorelai got all that stuff to California if she can't get it in her bag now, but I relate to this rubble, is what I'm saying. What even IS half of it? It looks like she brought two small pieces of pool noodles over there on the right.

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall2-1481765808.jpeg)

I love Lorelai's hat. It's so delightfully goofy. I'm pleased that she apparently has enough disposable income that she can buy a whole new hiking wardrobe (but not pay Michel more, or give him more to do).

You might recognize that actress from *Bunheads*, but I of course know her from *Friday Night Lights* as Tyra Collette's older sister Mindy. She is one of the many cookie-cutter hikers who've come to the trail, all apeing either the book *Wild* or the movie (there's a running gag there about their authenticity). In case you're wondering, Lorelai is book. Which is weird, because it feels to me like RORY would have been book, and Lorelai would've been movie.

In fact, one beef I have about this: It took Lorelai away from Rory, and I think Rory needed this as much as her mother did. This could've been BOTH of them getting away and reconnecting and serving each other's lives and stories (in addition to spirited debates about book vs movie). So while I understand the need for Lorelai to have her own adventure, story-wise it could've been richer if it brought them together.

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall3-1481765824.jpeg)

Jason Ritter, a.k.a. Lauren Graham's first major love interest in *Parenthood*, guests as a park ranger who has to tell them they can't start due to winds. He had nothing to do except stand there and give us time to go, "Aww, yay, *Parenthood*!"

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall11-1481765963.jpeg)

Peter Krause, Lauren's *Parenthood* brother but real-life beau, gets a better scene. He's the ranger on Day 2 who won't let Lorelai pass because she can't find her permit. And she cannot sweet-talk him into it, and yes, I did sort of wish she had chucked it all and run off with Ranger Pete here. WOULDN'T YOU?

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall4-1481765838.jpeg)

Rory, instead of self-discovery, is on a journey across town to her desk. She even DRESSES like a college student from... whatever year she graduated. Not that she looks inappropriate; more that you could believe this show having picked up where it left off. And you could believe Rory thinking she's still 22.

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall5-1481765856.jpeg)

Poor Luke is a mess, and not just because there is flour all over his shirt. He thinks Lorelai going *Wild* is a sign that she wants to leave him, and Jess helpfully agrees. It's nice to see Jess and Luke trying to connect this way, and it's actually sort of right that Jess would be unable to sugar coat things for his uncle. 

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall6-1481765870.jpeg)

And then the DIPSHIT CREW arrives. Question: Other than their commitment to nice costume coats, did anyone at all miss The Life and Death Brigade? Did ANY of us want to see more of Logan's mouthy, entitled group of shitbirds, much less have them eat up a bunch of the show and treat Rory like their den mother?

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/Screen-Shot-2016-11-26-at-11.44-1481766564.jpeg)

Also, why is there not a single solitary soul on the streets of Stars Hollow? It's not THAT small. It's NEVER this empty. Maybe all the locals hate the Life and Death Brigade too, so they're just staying home.

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall7-1481765889.jpeg)

Conveniently, they all get to stop and screen Kirk's movie from the last episode. Because apparently they paused skipping through the streets long enough to haul the equipment outside. I kept wanting Rory to be like, "No. I'm sorry. You guys don't DESERVE the chance to make fun of Kirk."

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall8-1481765907.jpeg)

And then they go to an absurd tango club -- which one of the dipshits decides to buy -- before riding off in a car while drinking in the backseat, and ending up at a B&B that Dipshit #1 ALSO buys, because his whole persona involves saying things like, "I love money." BORING. Are we meant to think Rory is charmed by them? Or that she has willingly entangled herself in them, or doesn't see through them for the sad pile of man-children they are? I suppose they're symbolic of her inability to move forward, but... what an annoying symbol.

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall9-1481765931.jpeg)

This B&B does give good bathrobe, though.

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall10-1481765948.jpeg)

This is how Logan takes a mental photo of Rory that must last him forever, and honestly... to me, a dude who SINCERELY frames your face with his fingers as a way of portraitizing you in his brain TOTALLY needs to be dumped with a quickness. It's pretentious.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/bf/b9/bfb99790-924d-4e41-a7e6-5e3c6e04fe57/content/images/static-gofugyourself-com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall23-1481766150.jpg)

This was wrenching. Lorelai of course couldn't hike, so it took stumbling upon this vista behind the general store to open the floodgates. This means Lauren Graham gets to deliver her speech about Richard in the kind of understated but heartwrenching way only Lauren Graham can do. The scenery is great, her outfit is impossibly good for a casual hiker, and it was just... lovely. I wish it hadn't happened over the phone. These characters need to be *together*.

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall24-1481766163.jpeg)

Emily seems pleased to hear it. AND HAS BEDHEAD. IT IS A BRAVE NEW WORLD.

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall25-1481766179.jpeg)

Luke, meanwhile, is feeding Paul Anka perfectly cooked steak. Because that's who he is. (I just thought you'd want to see Paul Anka one more time.)

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall26-1481766197.jpeg)

Lorelai comes home, and Luke IMMEDIATELY launches into a spiel where he unloads every feeling he's ever had: He never dreamed he'd get the girl, basically -- and THIS girl, not just any girl -- and pledges to support her in every way she needs, because he is so wholly satisfied to be living a future he had never imagined. "This, right here, is all I would ever need," he says, along with: "You need the space, and I need YOU."

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall28-1481766222.jpg)

And then SMOOCHING, because Lorelai's response to all that is, "I think we should get married." None of this really tracks for me -- why wasn't Lorelai wearing her engagement ring, anyway? Why did Luke have to go get it from a closet? What am I forgetting? -- but it's a satisfying big kiss nonetheless. We've gotten nothing like it in these episodes so far. Hooray for love. I'M STILL ALIVE INSIDE.

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall29-1481766238.jpeg)

Meanwhile Emily has bought a place in Nantucket and is LIVING THE LIFE in her wine cardigan. Can I come, Emily? We can be The Golden Girls together. (You'll have to let Kevin and the beans live there too, but we can still pretend that you're Dorothy and I'm Rose.)

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall30-1481766252.jpeg)

In case you've wondered what kind of scarf Emily Gilmore would wear to a museum about whaling: I am here for you.

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall33-1481766297.jpeg)

Michel gets the best line of the entire series right here. When they're interviewing his future replacement, he faces off against a girl and drawls, "Your name is Molly. WHY?" I love you, Michel. Don't go to New York. Lorelai needs a Get-A-Grip Friend. I mean, she HAS you and she STILL gets very few grips. What if you were to leave? NO GRIPS AT ALL.

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall34-1481766313.jpeg)

This show provided a lot of lovely shots of people walking around in good outerwear. Lorelai is successful with hats. It's a gift.

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall35-1481766328.jpeg)

But aha, what's afoot here: The nuns of Stars Hollow are vacating, and Lorelai wants to expand the Inn, so she's going to take their space. I don't know if she means MOVE the Inn here, or just start a second outpost, or what; she's talked at length about not having room to expand or add a spa at her current location, but I don't know how the center of town helps her with that. I'm not going to fight it, though. It's Lorelai moving forward again, and I am pleased about it.

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall31-1481766266.jpeg)

Rory decamping to Chez Gilmore provides a lovely moment where she looks at the dining table and sees one of their old dinners. It's a touching use of old footage.

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall32-1481766281.jpeg)

As is this, which is what Rory's mind's eye sees when she enters Richard's study. She sets up there to write, but not before I get all misty, because: RICHARD. 

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall38-1481766371.jpeg)

Emily does pop back to town for her DAR meetings, and is so deliciously bored by all her old shallow shenanigans that she actually gets up in the middle of a meeting to get a cookie. THEN she uses the words "tits" and "bullshit" in quick succession, before essentially dropping the mic on that whole experience. Bye, y'all. She has some small tourist children to frighten.

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall39-1481766387.jpg)

Lorelai's kicks are so cute here. And she clearly inherited her mother's wine cardigan game.

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall40-1481766402.jpeg)

Ah, Christopher. He has an office, where he has conversations while the windows are open..

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall41-1481766416.jpeg)

... and then occasionally close as if by magic. 

This scene was interesting, because when we arrive at it, ostensibly it's about Rory wanting to do research for her book -- which involves asking him how he felt, or feels, about Lorelai raising her alone. He babbles about how Lorelai was a force of nature and he couldn't stand in the way of her will. But Rory concludes, with a tinge of sadness, "You let her do it," before letting Christopher convinces her and himself that, hey, it all seems to have turned out the way it should have, because the duo of Lorelai and Rory was destiny. In retrospect, Rory was clearly aware she'd gotten pregnant by a guy -- Logan -- who is every bit the rich privileged man-child her father was, and she's trying to decide what to do. *\[NOTE: It's true that we don't know it's Logan's, and they could change that. I do think RORY believes it's Logan's, and I think it's a story copout to have it be anything else, so I'm going with it.\]* I really like that layer. The scene makes sense with the info we have at the time, but so much MORE sense once we learn everything later, and that's clever.

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall42-1481766431.jpeg)

Speaking of full circle: Lorelai asks Emily if she can take the trust Richard left for Luke. (Which, see, is a rude thing to do; leave money for your DAUGHTER to expand her business, not her boyfriend! If Richard weren't Edward Herrmann, I would be so much madder at him!) Lor wants to fund the Dragonfly's expansion, and Emily agrees... on the condition that they guarantee visits to Nantucket. It's done with a knowing twitch of the lips, though, from both ladies. THAT is the kind of Full Circle But With Growth And Warmth that I would've liked to see in the ACTUAL ending.

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall12-1481765977.jpeg)

Hello, Jess! This is the requisite shot of him peering in through the window at Lorelai's, gazing upon Rory, and thinking, "I would totally tap that if she would let me." I have to say, there are all these fan theories that it would be super romantic if Jess raised Rory's and Logan's baby as his own, just like Luke sorta did with Rory, and I am not in on that. But I was never in on Jess to begin with. From what I remember (though maybe it's just Milo's general mien), Jess talked down to Rory all the time. Rory has never actually dated someone who viewed her as being on the same level. I think Dean saw her as above him, Jess sure came off like he looked down on her a lot, and Logan *tried* to look down on her to cover the fact of his own inferiority complex. FRESH BLOOD PLEASE.

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall44-1481766461.jpeg)

And of course we get Dean, who still stars at Rory with the intensity of a man who wants to lick her face -- and, given ten more minutes, might just do it. He's happy with a gajillion kids, but of course they have to give 'em a moment where it seems like maybe he too looks at Rory and thinks WHAT IF. Maybe I read that wrong, but... I feel like it's a consistent throughline that Everyone Longs for Rory On Some Level.

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall49-1481766530.jpeg)

Oh, Lorelai, NO.

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall50-1481766543.jpeg)

Oh, Rory, NO.

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall48-1481766517.jpeg)

Oh, Kirk... well actually sure, I'll take this.

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall45-1481766475.jpeg)

Finally, near the end, we get Sookie -- who has shown up at the Inn long enough to make about ten different wedding cakes from which Lorelai can choose. And also shoot pastry cream out of a tube while making very McCarthian faces. The thing is, though, it's such a relief when she shows up. There's a warmth that comes back to the screen. 

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall46-1481766489.jpeg)

And this look on Lorelai's face encapsulates it for me. Whatever was actually happening in this moment, it FEELS like Lorelai realizing she will never truly have Sookie again -- not really, not the way she needs her -- and that her life will be the emptier without her best girlfriend. Which is true. It's a shame this didn't work out for Sookie to be in it more, but a double shame that what they DID do was make it as if Sookie just sorta ghosted Lorelai and the Dragonfly for her own self-absorbed gardening reasons. I have notes, Palladinos.

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall47-1481766504.jpeg)

This is the reaction of the tourists listening to Emily's new and improved whaling spiel, and it's in this moment that I realized: Emily Gilmore IS Paris Geller IS Emily Gilmore. No wonder I love them both.

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall17-1481766052.jpeg)

SNIFFLE. I want this portrait for my house, also.

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall19-1481766084.jpeg)

The last shot we get of Emily is her sitting on her bench, in the wine cardigan, with a big ol' glass of something red. Emily is my life goals now. 

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall13-1481765991.jpeg)

Meanwhile, Lorelai and Luke have decided it feels weird to be playing coy on the night before their wedding, and weirder still not to just go ahead and marry. So, because Television!!, they go ahead and do it. Never mind that Kirk worked all day to turn Stars Hollow into a wonderland -- in some cases, actual Wonderland -- for the big to-do the next day. Which I guess can still happen, but... sigh. WILL NO ONE THINK OF THE REVELERS.

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall15-1481766023.jpg)

It's mighty convenient that Lorelai had a fedora that matched her oddly depressive wedding gown.

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall14-1481766009.jpeg)

It's also convenient that the dancers were all free to perform as Lorelai got swept up in the magic. But, it's Stars Hollow. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow of that town's little mysteries.

I cannot go with the flow of her dress, though. WHY IS IT BLACK. Why is she GRIEVING HER MARRIAGE.

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall18-1481766067.jpeg)

She nailed the shoes, though. Red with a black-and-white wedge? SOLD. While it's wonderful to see Michel there, it's very jarring to have JUST seen Sookie cooking twenty cakes and then not have her standing there for the vows. At LEAST get a shot of Melissa McCarthy wheeling a cake across town and crying so that we know Sookie was there. Michel is not the new Sookie! Michel is MICHEL.

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall20-1481766105.jpeg)

And the final shot echoes the first of the new episodes, but flipped: Rory is on the right now, and Lorelai is on the left, which is a pretty way to illustrate that their situations are getting flipped here too. 

![](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall22-1481766135.jpeg)

And then, shot from behind (weirdly), we get The Words and Lorelai's reaction to them. Not a lot of joy here, huh?

Also, the Gilmores drank SO MUCH BOOZE in all four episodes. Rory was not, I don't believe, shown consuming any Champagne at what appeared to be an all-night four-person wedding celebration. SURELY Lorelai would've been ragging on her to knock back a glass for HOURS now and grown suspicious. Maybe that's just *my* womb-watching style.

[Recap: Gilmore Girls, A Year In The Life, "Fall"The last four words, some great wedges, and what I realized about Emily.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/bf/b9/bfb99790-924d-4e41-a7e6-5e3c6e04fe57/content/images/static-gofugyourself-com/uploads/2016/12/gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-recap-fall23-1481766150.jpg)](https://go-fug-yourself.ghost.io/recap-gilmore-girls-a-year-in-the-life-fall-12-2016/)