For better or for worse, I have once again immersed myself into the Gilmore Girls‘ world of Stars Hollow. (For better because it’s a fantastic show, for worse, because it is a real hindrance to getting anything else done when there’s more Gilmore Girls cued up on the Netflix.)
The main reason I started it up again is that I started listening to the Gilmore Guys podcast. (Again, for better or for worse: great to listen to on the bus, but I’ve been putting off all my other favourite podcasts because of this weird compulsion to catch up to where they are in the series.)
In listening to other people painstakingly discuss in incredible detail something you are SO so familiar with, inevitably there comes these moments of frustration, when they miss something obvious, or forget details. (Rory is the one who wants Jess to read Ayn Rand, he hates her and calls her a political nut; stop using that as an example of why he sucks!) There are also those moments of unease when you hear something that hadn’t occurred to you in the 10 years of repeated watching and throws a strange light on something you always felt you could rely on. (I seriously did not notice how self involved those wonderful Gilmores are until it was pointed out, repeatedly.)
Ultimately, though, what this re-watch and podcast delve has led me to is plotting out some of the (occasionally inconsistent) points along Lorelai and Rory’s Stars Hollow timeline.
Points of interest:
- Luke famously claims on their first date that he and Lorelai first met 8 years ago. That puts it in the late ’90s a full decade after Lorelai took up residence in the potting shed at the Independence Inn with 1 year old Rory.
- Sookie explains why Lorelai didn’t know about Luke’s “very serious girlfriend” Rachel by explaining that she had an 11 year old and was just moving into her house. That puts Luke’s breakup with Rachel about a year before Lorelai goes into Luke’s diner for the first time. So THAT’s why she doesn’t know about Rachel!
- Fran allegedly gave a 1 year old many cookies. That’s kind of irresponsible.
- Luke explains that his dad died 15 years prior to his blow up at little Mrs. Thompson. That means that when Lorelai and Rory first show up in Stars Hollow it is still William’s Hardware. So maybe it took Luke a couple of years to convert the store into a diner, and then took Lorelai about 5 more years to figure out that it wasn’t a hardware store anymore. Taylor does complain that people might not realize what Luke’s business is, since he doesn’t take down the old sign.
- How does Lorelai afford her house? SHE LIVES IN A POTTING SHED AND DOES NOT EAT DINER FOOD FOR 11 YEARS. She works her way up from Maid to General Manager. She makes friends with the chef, Sookie, who makes sure she stays fed. And avoids paying rent for a decade. Aside from birthday blowouts, movie rentals, and junk food, what is she spending her money on? Savings! Plus, it’s a small town, guys. My parents bought their small town house for $20 000 (albeit in the ’70s and in Quebec). It happens.
This was incredibly fun to draw, and fun to try and rationalize the unlikely reality of it all! Hope you enjoy it!
