7x22 Bon Voyage

[7.4/10] Some series finales are epic climaxes, that pay off long-running feud or solve longstanding mysteries. Some are challenging exits that leave things painfully open-ended or uncertain. Some are greatest hits albums that just revisit the show’s high points and favorite bits.

And others, like Gilmore Girls’, are part victory lap, part pat on the back, and part quilt.

That makes “Bon Voyage” a good, not great finale. It’s full of perfectly pleasant, even outstanding moments, but they don’t really amount to a whole so much as they are deposited one after another into a mosaic that doesn’t really go anywhere. Nominally, we are building to Rory’s exeunt to the next great adventure while she spends her last three days in Stars Hollow before jetting off to cover the Obama campaign (replete with a “only in a finale” visit from her hero, Christiane Amanpourr). But in reality, we’re just checking in with everyone and nodding to every major relationship on the show before it’s time shut things down.

That means we also get one last heaping helping of town color, which much of the valuable real estate in the finale being taken up by the usual local yahoos putting their heads together in order to give Rory an impromptu send off to show how much they care. Taylor gets rebuked. The likes of Kirk and Miss Patty and Babbette all get up to their usual antics. And we get a perfectly pleasant pan of the lot of them cheering as the show’s eponymous duo arrive at their surprise party.

None of it’s bad exactly, but it tends to go on and on in an episode where every major interaction feels like it just barely has time to breathe. I could certainly have used more time to explore Lorelai’s feelings about her daughter leaving, and less time with Babbette talking about her weather-predicting ankles.

Still, the dribs and drabs of character and relationship grace notes are each well done. I’m glad the show took time to tie a bow on Rory and Lane, with each remarking on how far they’ve come and how much the friendship has meant to them. Their connection took something of a backseat once Rory left for college and their lives started to proceed more and more on different tracks, so it’s nice to have some final reminder of how much that relationship meant to the show over its run.

There’s also a number of great little moments involving Richard and Emily. There’s no real conflicts left to resolve between Rory and her grandparents, so we get a bit of warmth instead. Emily’s “It is a privilege to be your grandmother” is said with such conviction and feeling that it carries the day, and the sad realization that this will likely be their last Friday dinner as a quartet for some time.

There’s more to the elder Gilmores’ interactions with Lorelai though. Richard getting a little sentimental, almost-but-not-quite admitting his regret for how they’ve reacted to her life choices, and telling her that it takes a “remarkable person” like her to warrant this sort of treatment is a sweet moment that shows the growing respect Richard’s developed for his daughter over the course of the series.
Better yet, Emily is insistent upon Lorelai building a spa or a tennis court or some other addition to her inn for reasons that are initially mystifying. But then her scheme becomes clear -- she’s worried that with Rory gone, Lorelai will give up the family’s Friday night dinners, and she wants to create some leverage to ensure they continue.

Instead, Lorelai gives Emily all she could hope for -- the implicit assurance that Lorelai will continue to visit her parents on a weekly basis, without any financial blackmail necessary. It’s my favorite part of the episode, not just because it provides a lovely grace note to the eternally complicated but ultimately loving relationship between this mother and daughter, but because it’s the most understated in a finale that (naturally and forgivably) wears its heart on its sleeve.

The same can’t really be said for the Luke/Lorelai business here, which lays the “maybe Luke and I are done forever, he just never shows me how he really feels” shtick on thicker than thieves. It’s the plainest sort of a television show protesting too much to where you just know they’re going to pull the trigger on putting the uber-couple back together, and all the supposed indications and declarations to the contrary feel like grandstanding.

Still, once again, the moments where they stop pretending this isn’t going to happen and instead build to it happening are well done. Luke organizing the town to throw the party early, getting this collection of knuckleheads in gear in time, and even stitching together a makeshift party tent himself overnight at the last minute is the sort of “go the extra mile” stuff Luke always does. To be frank, it’s why Lorelai’s protests to the contrary and Rory’s statements that he always acts a little slowly feel pretty inaccurate.

It’s heartening enough though. Luke telling Lorelai that he just wanted to see her happy, and their kiss that’s accented with a crane shot, leans hard into the cheese. And the predictability of the reunion takes away some of its impact. Still, you have to give Rosenthal, Kirshner, and the rest of the writing staff credit. They spent the time to set up Luke and Lorelai getting back together, and laid plenty of groundwork, rather than slapping together a make-up at the last minute to send the crowd home happy. (Hell, they even use a light touch with chekov’s necklace, which I didn’t expect.) It’s not perfect, but it’s sound, which is my generally feeling about this episode as a whole.

That just leaves Lorelai and Rory, and the story of a mother realizing this is really goodbye and not wanting to face it quite yet. It’s a storyline that I wish had more time, maybe even its own episode, to breathe. As it is, Lauren Graham finds one last opportunity to soar with her performance. Rory feels a little hurt that her mom isn’t more broken up about her departure, only to find that when she asks Lorelai what the deal is, Lorelai admits that she’s focused on details and planning right now, because she’s not ready to deal with the emotional difficulty of confronting Rory leaving until it’s actually happened. And Graham’s face is perfect, with the right combination of “I love you” and “I’m putting up a good front, but I’m barely holding it together.”

The last couple of scenes lay it on a little thick, but such is the provenance of a series finale. Rory telling her mom “you’ve already given me everything I need” is the sort of on-the-nose dialogue that normally makes me wince, but in a final episode, you can get away with a little sap. Likewise, there’s something a bit too neat about the show ending with the two exchanging their usual banter at Luke’s, while replicating the same shot from the pilot, but I can hardly fault a show for getting a little sentimental with its bookends in its final frame.
Let’s face it; finales are hard. You have to find some way to sum up the entire run of your shown without it feeling contrived or too easy. Gilmore Girls doesn’t always escape that trap in its last outing. It’s a collection of feel-good moments that work when you’re watching them but don’t really crystalize into something cohesive or stronger-by-association when the credits roll.

Still, what it lacks in advancing the characters or delivering any grand bit of meaning beyond what we already know, it makes up for in its utter amiability. That was always this show’s strength. Even when its storylines started to sag, or its characters made inexplicable choices, or everything came too easily to its heroes, it was a world you always enjoyed spending time in. Whether it was Stars Hollow or Hartford or some other Norman Rockwell-esque locale, Gilmore Girls showed its viewers someplace where the people were always witty, the bon mots and references were thrown about fast and furiously, and the bitterness was there, but sweetness always followed. “Bon Voyage” gives the fans one last dose of that sweetness, and while there’s not much substance to it, it’s still worth that final, sentimental bite.