Relationships and revival metaphors
warning, this will be LONG and rambling (but fun if you like to analyze)
I was rewatching the revival once again, fourth fully including the musical, I’ve watched certain parts (ahem Logan parts ahem) more times but the revival as a whole including the unusual musical (I’ve come to the conclusion, the musical is hilarious, what I can’t understand is how the biggest grumps (Tom and Sophie and Gypsy) and the most honest person with Taylor (Babette) are so starry eyed over this… maybe it is to enhance Lorelai’s mortification but the musical was meant to be bad, hilariously stupid just like many other Taylor ideas,to the power of 10, but my peeve is them all being so on board with it given the way they are). I still come to the same conclusion and theory. The engagement of Logan is an arrangement. Yes of course this is only a theory and as all theories it could be wrong but the way things are put in the revival I see a few things that make me say this with a lot of certainty:
- We don’t see any interactions or even know anything about Odette, not even her face, there are no photos no knick knacks of a woman, no nothing not a trace of hers in his apartment. Sure she hasn’t moved in yet but really? no presents? no photos? Logan has photos in his apartment, of his adventures and places but no portraits of a girl, no couple photos, no stuff that’s clearly been bought by a woman in his apartment? How is that a relationship? - He’s been single all these years he hasn’t married anyone he hasn’t had one serious relationship with anyone apparetly (or else he’d be married already, because the Huntzberger pressure to increase the family should be heavy) since Rory, for 10 years and when we see them we have to assume their relationship isn’t new because of the domesticity the way they behave around each other the comfort they take in their interactions.
I think Logan was waiting for Rory to go back to him. Now, I’m not saying he waited pining away for her behaving like a monk (lol) because that would be unrealistic in this day and age, but he was waiting for her. While I don’t agree with some things in the revival and even though I love the characters and the stories created by ASP, I’ve come to the realization is more my desire, my wishful thinking, what I would have wanted to see, that could have suited the story as well, but it isn’t MY story to tell, and if I really think it through from the characters POV and the writers POV it does make sense. He’s giving into his family, not to maintain his status quo in money, after all we know he can certainly work on his own, but is about him giving into the desires of his family because, why not? If he can’t have the relationship he wants with the woman he loves, because she still keeps a (small) length of space between them, still keeps him a little at arm’s length in a way, then why not try and keep the family happy even if he could keep postponing the marriage, they could be engaged forever and eventually end it. She could have her own reasons as well.
Let’s put this Rory and Logan thing in time. We don’t know how long they had this Vegas thing going on, if it started like that from the begining, if it’s been steady for how long or if it’s been on and off. He is engaged and she knows it perfectly well. However his engagement seems very bizarre because is almost like it was non existant.
We have this idea of Rory and Logan together when we see them in the revival, they look so in tune so perfectly happy with each other and with their routines and their domesticity already in place, they look married, actually, or like a couple who has been living together for quite a while. (yes and them BAM Vegas and such but more on this as we go on)
Someone once asked if there were parallels between Romeo and Juliet and Rory and Logan like ill fated lovers the world separating them… I think that’s a little much, life happens, sh*t happens, we all have to take responsability for our actions and behave like adults and be aware that our actions have consequences. I think these two are not ill fated lovers, no, I think they make or break their own lives due to fears in one side or resignation and why nots, in the other that result in lack of communication because they are afraid to burst their bubble, him of having her in any terms possible, her of having him but no strings attached (the roles have reversed from the original show but pretty much they both want the same, each other).
However I see a few things that could be taken from Shakespeare if we want to draw some parallels… Odette to me, the fact they never show her face that we barely hear her voice once, that she doesn’t have an actual real presence, reminds me of how Paris was only a prop to force Juliette’s hand. Romeo and Juliette’s Paris, if we think about it, doesn’t really have a story or anything much, because he wasn’t relevant, is the same with Odette and who’s to say she’s not in it for the same reasons, to keep the family at bay and to prevent them from forcing a more permanent setting while staying in this arrangement and keeping the family happy. Paul would be Rosalynd; someone quickly forgotten as soon as love comes by, someone who doesn’t appear to have relevance any longer.
I do have to say though that I also have my suspicions about Paul, why would this guy, any guy regardless of how much of a doormat he may want to be, would accept to be in a relationship with someone he NEVER sees? They don’t live together and she forgets about him even while he’s in the same house… how does that work? We don’t know how their previous two years were but he alludes to the fact that he doesn’t see her much. Who would be so much of a saint or so much of a doormat to take that? To be in a relationship with someone they never see and who constantly forgets about him…? Is Paul some sort of shield for Rory? We know they have said that at the moment we see them they’re going through the motions, and ASP has said is a bad moment for Rory… so perhaps the relationship was real in some way but Rory actually kept him as a sort of shield but forgot about him in every other way when he wasn’t present right next to her?? Paul could be Romeo’s Rosalynd, someone that was a relationship but faded into non existence the moment true love comes around. And lets face it, if anyone is actually braver in the story is Juliet more than Romeo…
I don’t think, however that Rory and Logan themselves fit so much in the Romeo and Juliet metaphor but they have some resemblances in their relationships during the revival. I am convinced that both Odette and Paul are symbols. Paul is a symbol of how much Rory is lost in herself and is trying to keep this guy as an anchor to prevent her from drifting but she doesn’t really care about him, she’s just there and keeps him around because he’s her excuse for not getting involved, her excuse for not fighting for what she actually wants with Logan, he’s her symbol of stability to show that she’s a mature adult because she’s with this guy who is stable and kind and serious… but forgettable.
Odette is the symbol of status the Huntzbergers want for Logan, the rich heiress marrying the rich heir, to give pedigree, to bring more heirs to the name, to bring potential more successful business deals, to take an international market perhaps, both families want the convenience of a union that would be profitable for them, economically beneficial to them (I’m having Sabrina flashbacks here hehe). They want this beneficial relationship and engagement. And if that were the case (“engaged to a girl who lives in another country, smart”, zero photos or things of her in his apartment, her being in there right within earshot distance when he’s talking to Rory) who’s to say that Odette isn’t in it for the same reasons Logan is?
Maybe to have a relationship that isn’t serious for them but keeps the family at bay (why not marry them already if Logan was ACTUALLY moving on with his life and trying to forget Rory?) while they are together but not so much (the old arrangement you have your things I have mine, we each have our lives but are also together to keep the elders happy) And if they were all in this agreement, who’s it hurting that Rory and Logan are together? Truth is Odette is a symbol to create the conflict to put a body (but not a face) as the bump in the road that always prevents Rory from fully commiting to Logan, because if you add someone else to the mix, even if the someone else is in the practicalities, nonexistant, then you’re not the one with commitment issues, is just that you are not IN the picture. However THERE IS NO PICTURE. Odette is a metaphor for the invisible thing, a bump, an obstacle that Rory and Logan can’t seem to be able to throw aside to really be together, him because he’s leaving the decision to her because he already asked and every time he tries to know more she shuts down, Odette and Paul are each shields of a kind, the difficulty they need to overcome, the problems where they need to shed light in order to get past them. There’s a reason why Odette is literally nobody, she’s a non existent conflict, she’d dissapear as soon as they spoke clearly to each other.
Only Rory doesn’t know that because she cuts Logan off when he wants to explain about Odette, and she doesn’t want to tell him about Paul yet she freaks out when she finds out Odette is moving. If she didn’t care, if they were only in this vegas, sex buddies relationship why would she care that he’s engaged to someone else? why would she care and freak out about her moving in? why would she ask about not wanting to find another girl’s things when she’s staying with him? why would she care if she didn’t want him fully, in an actual real relationship the same way he wants her? Is perfectly clear Logan has been waiting for her and is still waiting for her to make up her mind.
“The twilight zone: he was willing to wait 40 years and come back as an old man just to spend those last few years with her”. (I know this wasn’t ASP’s season but who knows if she had brought this story to the table for discussion and they decided to use it? They do mention the Twilight zone in earlier seasons so this could have very well been ASP’s idea to bring later on). He might have come to the end of it now that he kept waiting and she said goodbye to him. However I think it will be on Rory this time that this goodbye isn’t forever. This baby, their baby was concieved out of love. And while the man in her life is secondary, as much as I love him, he’s secondary to the story, he will be there for her, he has always been there for her, he’s waiting for her to give him a sign to reach out her hand. He will never force her because he knows that doesn’t work with her, he’s always asking for her permission and her approval before he does anything concerning her.
When he and the boys arrive to surprise her in fall, he’s waiting in the background then he approaches carefully and presents her with the hat and coat, he could have easily put the hat on her, told her to turn around to help her in the coat, yet he pauses to look at her, to give her a questioning look “is your call, Ace”, he’s always allowed her to call the shots, is no different with this small gesture, she can say no and they’ll go away but she accepts it because she’s not ready to say goodbye to him, she’s not ready to let go of him for good, she doesn’t want to but she can’t utter the words that would keep him by her side for real, fully and for good. This pregnancy is important to her path because Rory needs to focus on her life, this new relationship, this mother-child relationship that will come is what is going to re focus her life, that is going to be her new anchor to get her to find her path. She’s nervous and scared sharing the shocking news but she’s her mother’s daughter after all, she will go through with it and she’ll find her own path, and secondary to that path will be her relationship with Logan, because the more important will be the mother and child.
The conversation with Christopher is a clear sign of what will come, she’s asking him, begging him to tell her, why didn’t you fight for me, why didn’t you stay next to me, why did you let others make the choices for you. She doesn’t want to be this person anymore, and that’s her great fear, that she will become this figure in the back, this cookie cutter mold that just because her mom did it in a way that she must be the same, she wanted her father in her life, she yearned to have him there, no matter how much her grandfather and her mom had been the parental figures in her life she wanted her dad, she doesn't want to be in this preordained path and to just accept that her child will have the life she had, as wonderful as it was, and she will find the fight inside her to do things her way, she’ll find the fight in her to not let anyone run her over this time (Mitchum, Shira, Elias Huntzberger). Brave Rory, determined Rory has always made up her mind and kept it, she needs to find it again. The conversation with Chris about Lorelai, “yes she’d back you up”, that it was meant to be, but that doesn’t mean it will be the same for her because she knows Logan WOULD fight her on being a part of the life of his child and Logan isn’t an inmature 16 year old boy he’s a man with a well positioned status and more important a man who loves her and would want to be a part of the life of his child, and if she lets him, to love her fully and be with her, be a permanent full part of her life. She always yearned for her father and she never filled that gap. Richard was a father figure of many sorts but he came when she was already a teenager, Luke was more like a pal than a father figure and even he didn’t help bring Rory up, he was though a stable figure, not an authority figure but a stable friend, a part of her support system. And that’s what she needs, the full picture and she can get it because is in her hands, she’s not going to shut Logan out because she knows what it was like for her. She’s going to give him the choice, and he will choose her and their child.
Now, Jess. I watched the revival once more and got to his part and I have to admit it, I don’t hate Jess, I don’t even dislike him, but his extreme fans make me want to reduce the (albeit little) importance of his character in the revival, because he does have a significance there.
He is family now, (ASP’s ONLY words on the Jess subject) he came, he listened to her woes, he does know a little about her because whoever knows Rory knows her passion for words, and he comes from that world of words, so he took a chance and gave her an actual good advise. I don’t think now, after putting a pin (A GIGANTIC ONE) on the extreme Jess fans who think he’s God come to live and Rory’s saviour (and apparently she’d be the Virgin Mary because according to them the baby would be his so it would be an immaculate conception all over again) I don’t think now that it was a command or just a random idea, I do believe he listened to her and he knows, coming from that world that she needs to find her footing into writing what she knows, the idea had to come from someone who wasn’t so much involved, and Jess’ job was that, to come and listen for once, and to be a friend who gives advise, nothing more. And let’s face it, if we go to the nitty gritty they don’t really talk personal things and she barely touches him, she grabs his jacked while jumping up and down. Is odd for someone who hasn’t seen a friend in four years, it gives you the impression that they’re not really close or that the relationship between them is not one of much trust.
The look through the window is not longing is regret, because he could have been a part of that world WITH her but it was never in the cards, and I think that now after seeing her again he’s also closing this chapter, maybe with a regret of what might have been, but closing this chapter and finally moving forward himself. He said it himself when she asked him about what was going on with him, he said “nothing stable” that means there IS someone just not someone he thinks worth mentioning or discussing with her, so he is involved with someone, much like Rory with Paul. However since they aren’t in that close contact he just gets away with saying as little as possible on the subject, and finally realizes his role was that, to be the last drop that spills the water in the glass, to be the friend who gives good advise then goes his way again (I do NOT include season 7 in good advise he came, yelled and went away that’s not advise that’s not even conversation in the subject). Is clear they aren’t close because she hasn’t asked him to read her pages, he hasn’t asked him for advise, she goes to Logan, and she doesn’t really discuss what light would she show him (Jess) in her book because it was so brief it doesn’t really matter that much.
We see the difference in communication and closeness when she randomly bumps into Dean. She hugs Dean. SHE HUGS DEAN!!! She knows all about his wife and his kids and his life, they obviously keep in touch, and when she discusses what she would say of him in her book, jokes aside, she says “you were the best boyfriend you made me feel safe” she knows all about Dean’s life and his wife and his kids and his sister yet about Jess she only knows what she’s been told they haven’t seen each other in four years or more and they still don’t discuss much details “nothing stable nothing permanent” that means Jess DOES have someone just nobody of importance, yet because we don’t see her the whole issue isn’t made this big thing the way it is made with Logan simply because there’s a name and a specific openly discussed situation.
And we come back to Logan. I think Logan shares some personality traits with other men in the show. He’s loyal, loving, he loves Rory and doesn’t want to force her hand by making her do something she doesn’t want, but he also can’t really communicate so well because of the way he was brought up, he loves Rory he’d do anything to make her happy including trying to stay away from her if that’s what she wanted, he has always shown her this world of adventure and he has had his many flaws but he has grown from those, he has learned from them and he always looked for Rory to try and be better for her. For him this woman doesn’t want anything from him as others usually do, the status, the money, the hot guy to brag about, so he wants to give her the world but she’s scared of being trapped inside a family with so much power and money because she doesn’t trust herself to not relive her terror… her grandmother’s life, she doesn’t want to be the "bored society wife” role, and wait a lifetime to have an individual life. She’s been raised in a way that committing to someone equals the end of her freedom the end of herself and she needs to learn that’s not true. She’s been raised to be afraid of loving someone deeply and staying forever because other than her mom, she didn’t have a stable figure close growing up.
She thinks Logan is gong to make the choices for her when he never has. Rory shares a lot of traits with both Christopher and Lorelai, she has the lack of commitment skills of her parents, she has this fears that she won’t be enough like her dad, and Logan is a lot like Lorelai, this force of nature that comes into her life and suddenly an entire world of adventures shows up to this little bookworm and she’s happy experiencing all, but she’s always afraid she’s going to get steamrolled, she’s going to get overwhelmed by money, that’s why she pulls away like her mother, like her father. Logan shares traits of Lorelai and Christopher as well but also has the good qualities of Luke and Richard a bit without being exactly a mirror of them, just as Rory isn’t a mirror of her grandmother and doesn’t want to be, nor is she a mirror of her mother. Lorelai Leigh is her own person even though she loses herself from time to time and I think that this story of the baby would be the key piece of the puzzle what would force her to develop her strenghts and finally stand on her own two feet.
Is not about the guy, like ASP says, although the guy is a big part of the picture but is about Rory standing on her own, Rory solving her own issues so she can finally realize she’s stronger than the trappings and that Logan wouldn’t make her weaker, all the contrary he’d make her stronger. Despite the fact that her love life is secondary to the story, this child will bring her back to her path.
If we go back for a moment to the Oz metaphor, for when she says goodbye to the guys like Doroty from the Tin Man, the Lion and the Scarecrow… Dorothy needs to find her way back home and she’ll find it with the baby, the baby will be sort of her red shoes, she’ll find her footing because everything changes and is not about the guy although in this case is not like in Lorelai’s; he’s not an immature afraid teen and neither is she, she’s not a force of nature, he is, she’s undecisive, he isn’t, she’s not as confident as she was in the past when she confronted Mitchum when she kept her distance from him, she got crushed because she respected him and he thought her untalented but she’s finding new footing and she is a writer, she can be a writer and still be a reporter. (Season 1 her interview with headmaster Charleston maybe I’ll travel the world and write books about what I see I just want to make sure I see something). She didn’t want to marry him because she thought he would keep her from the world when in reality he wanted to share the world with her. I think once she finds her path “back home” we’ll see that the full circle has come, only what happens after the start point is going to be different this time. Because Rory’s “home” is not stars hollow, is her own confident, stubborn, feisty self, ready to fight the world and eat it up. She’s now forced to find new footing because this new life is going to require her growing up, she’s leaving the land of childhood but this time she’s going to the adult world to find that her love is waiting for her, only now it has to be on her to say the word and get him back.
She would tell him because “why didn’t you fight her why did you just let her, did she push you away” she’s making this new path because she’s finding her footing and the baby though is something scary (“I want to remember it all”, she’s leaving the life of immaturity she’s leaving Oz) is a new adventure and she’s not going to be frozen in time anymore. To me the fact that the only permanent figure for her was Logan and the fact that Lorelai is now in this new path as well (she’s actually now fully committed to Luke, not because of the piece of paper but because they finally found permanent footing and open communication) means she can’t stay in Oz she can’t play childhood life in her childhood bedroom she needs to move forward and for Rory that means physically out of Stars Hollow. In her growing up that this new relationship of mother child would bring, the way things were led in the revival I strongly believe that she would go back to Logan not because of obligation but because she’d realize that the excuses and the barriers are flimsy and the fact is that she always goes back to him and he always wants to go back to her because they love each other, they belong together. To me the baby would be the final piece of the puzzle to get Dorothy out of Oz and into the real world, with her child, with her own life, with her love.