At its core, Gilmore Girls has always been a series about the relationship and love between a mother and daughter, Lorelai and Rory Gilmore. Over the course of seven seasons on The WB and The CW, as well as a mini-series revival on Netflix, Gilmore Girls explored the ups and downs of this relationship as it grew and changed over time, and as Rory developed into an adult and made her own share of mistakes that Lorelai never wanted her to make.
Yet as much as the series focused on this central relationship, it also often veered off into different directions, especially when the romance department was concerned. As a teenager and eventual young adult, Rory had her fair share of romantic relationships – most of which are, in retrospect, fairly troubling if not outright insulting. The gender politics of the series was never at its best when it came to Rory’s formative relationships, which is a shame, considering how strong it could be in other areas.
When it came to Lorelai’s relationships, however, the series had a much better grasp on the world of gender dynamics – but still managed to fall down on the job time and again. There’s no possible way to make her relationship with her ex, Christopher, into anything remotely palatable.
However, as it turns out, Lorelai’s central romance with diner owner Luke had its fair share of faults, too.
With that said, here are the 20 Things That Make No Sense About Luke And Lorelai's Relationship.
Their entire season seven storyline
Gilmore Girls’ seventh season is widely considered to be the series’ weakest for many reasons. It was the first – and only – season to air on The CW following the merger of The WB and UPN. Making matters worse, however, was the departure of series creators and writers Amy Sherman Palladino and Daniel Palladino. Without their signature brand of wit behind the wheel, the series quickly lost its footing – and, in the process, the relationship between Lorelai and Luke took a real turn for the unfathomable.
Following the essential explosion of their relationship at the end of the sixth season, Lorelai goes on to engage in a relationship with Christopher, while Luke keeps his distance, brooding and stewing from afar. It takes almost half of the entire season for the two to even talk to one another again after the initial tension subsides, which is just… not Gilmore Girls.
Everything that happened in A Vineyard Valentine
Every series has an episode or two where you really just have to sit and wonder, “wow, someone wrote this, and thought it was a good idea?” For Gilmore Girls, there’s no other way of approaching the overall awful sixth season episode “A Vineyard Valentine”. The episode finds the series’ two current couples – Luke and Lorelai, and Rory and her privileged college boyfriend, Logan – going away for a Valentine holiday on Martha’s Vineyard.
The episode seems only to exist in order to portray Luke and Lorelai in unflattering lights, together and apart, and to prop up the relationship between Rory and Logan with no real grounds as to why. No one’s behavior in the episode makes sense, and in a series full of otherwise consistent characterization, it’s an episode best left unseen.
Lorelai was never really that bothered by Luke fighting her ex
As much as Gilmore Girls presented itself as a show about women, and for women, the series really struggled with a serious masculinity problem when it came to men overexerting their stake in relationships. Macho displays of violence and possessive behaviors happened on a far too frequent basis whenever anything remotely resembling a love triangle threatened to appear. Luke Danes was particularly guilty of having undue feelings of jealousy, even long before he was in a relationship with Lorelai.
But it was his behavior with Lorelai’s ex, and Rory’s biological father, Christopher, that raises the most eyebrows. Christopher was hardly a saint, and never a character worth rooting for at that, but the number of times that Luke and Christopher got into physical altercations is truly alarming – especially considering Lorelai never really seems all that bothered by it, or the pattern it suggests.
Lorelai expected Luke to side with her over his family, even before they were together
The second season of the series finds Luke’s troublesome nephew, Jess Mariano, abruptly arriving in Stars Hollow to stay with his uncle. Jess causes nothing but conflict between Luke and Lorelai for his entire stay in the sleepy little town, culminating in the episode “Teach Me Tonight”. After Jess and Rory get in an accident while driving around town, Rory winds up with a fractured wrist, and Lorelai places all the blame on Jess.
Beyond that, however, Lorelai expects Luke to immediately side with her and Rory, rather than his own nephew. She oversteps and tries to tell him what to do with Jess, the teenager he’s been raising on his own for the past year, and the two wind up getting into an extremely intense fight that jeopardizes their own friendship.
Luke keeps Lorelai's horoscope in his wallet for 8 years and nothing ever happens to it
It took four long seasons for Luke and Lorelai to finally get their acts together and it their feelings to one another. So when the fifth season finally allowed the two to go on a real, proper, traditional date, it was a moment fans had waited more than long enough for. The date was about as sweet as it could get, with Luke at the most romantic that he had ever been in the series.
Yet within all the schmaltz and cuteness that the night allowed for, something truly puzzling occurs. During his romantic speech to Lorelai about the moment they met, Luke produces from his wallet the newspaper clipping horoscope Lorelai had given him over eight years earlier. Somehow, we’re to believe that Luke kept this small scrap of paper in his wallet for all that time, and nothing happened to it? It didn’t disintegrate, or fade, or get messed up in any way? We don’t think so.
Luke often oversteps and tries to parent Rory on his own
It’s an inevitability, given how long Luke and Lorelai have been friends and how close they have grown over time, that Luke would feel a real sense of attachment to and protectiveness over Rory. It’s something that Lorelai encourages, and that Rory welcomes, especially given how absent her own father has been for much of her life. Yet, for as close as this proto-family unit may have been all this time, the fact still remains that, for much of the series’ run, Luke is in no way yet her father.
However, that doesn’t stop him from overstepping on countless occasions and trying to parent Rory on his own, even when it goes directly against Lorelai’s and Rory’s own wishes. One particularly egregious example can be found following Rory and Dean’s early break up, when Luke decides he suddenly has a vendetta against the poor kid.
The total lack of clear communication
Communication is a key part of every relationship succeeding. Unfortunately, since this is a soapy television series we’re talking about here, miscommunication comes as natural to these characters as anything else does in their lives. Luke and Lorelai are both incredibly stubborn, incredibly independent characters who will almost never it to fault in any circumstances. As a result, they really struggle with the whole communication thing, especially when it has to do with feelings of any importance.
It’s practically impossible to count how many scenes, especially in the series’ sixth season, culminate with one or both of them staring off with a faraway look and myriad unexpressed emotions in their eyes. It’s frustrating for fans, and even more frustrating for the storylines themselves, which would be resolved much more smoothly and with better writing had these characters ever truly developed and grown in any meaningful ways in this area.
Luke tries to set his nephew up with Lorelai's daughter - despite their own feelings at the time
Almost as soon as Jess sets foot in Stars Hollow, Luke is going out of his way to try and set the troubled teen up with Rory in whatever way he can, even if it just means that Rory takes Jess under her wing and tries to set him on the straight and narrow however she can. Lorelai, of course, is entirely resistant to this idea, not wanting Rory to get caught up in the appeal of the bad boy the way she once did in her youth with Christopher.
But of course, over time, a spark develops between Jess and Rory – which leads to some real problems for the both of them, and the town as a whole. Yet, all of this goes on while Lorelai and Luke are struggling with their own attraction to and feelings for one another, which makes Luke’s initial intentions somewhat uncomfortable.
Lorelai just goes along with postponing the wedding without expressing her feelings
When Luke and Lorelai get engaged at the start of the series’ sixth season, it should be a moment of pure joy for these characters. However, the moment of bliss is nonetheless dampened by the fact that Lorelai can’t share in the celebration with her daughter, Rory. The couple decides not to get married until fences have been mended between mother and daughter.
Eventually, the bond is repaired, and a date is chosen for June 3. As the wedding date approaches, however, it becomes clear that Luke is having some doubts – and as we know, even if Lorelai doesn’t yet, this hesitation stems in large part from the fact that he has just learned he has a daughter. So when Luke eventually requests an additional postponement of the wedding, one would expect some substantial conversation to happen here. Yet nothing ever does, leaving Lorelai to bottle up all of her feelings in an unhealthy manner.
He keeps major life events from Lorelai and lashes out when she's hurt at learning them
We’ve already expressed our frustrations regarding the lack of communication between these two thick headed characters. However, what really grinds our gears where Luke’s concerned is not only his total refusal to communicate with Lorelai regarding important, emotional matters, but the way in which he frequently then gets mad at her when she’s hurt by his lack of openness.
When Luke takes his annual dark day and hides away from her, Lorelai is left to fill in all of the blanks on her own – and when she makes a genuinely comionate gesture to connect with him as a result of it, he lashes out at her. Similarly, after hiding the truth of his secret daughter, April, from Lorelai for almost half a season, Lorelai eventually meets April in a very public, humiliating way – and any attempts at communicating with Luke regarding this matter are guaranteed to result in one fight after another.