Another day, another former Gilmore Girls castmate has joined the Netflix reboot: Danny Strong will be back for the Gilmore Girls revival. Strong played Doyle McCaster, which hopefully means the former editor of the Yale Daily News is still going strong with Paris Geller, whose already confirmed to return. Sure, we all love Luke and Lorelai. And we all have a boyfriend that we think was Rory's best. (And, with all three of them coming back to the revival, we may get to see this battle of Team Dean, Jess and Logan finally come to an end.) But when I think of the show's best romance, I can't help but award aParis and Doyle the title of Gilmore Girls ' best couple.
The Yale University sweethearts were the kind of couple you don't really think about until they get together and then you think,"Why didn't I see this coming sooner?" Paris and Doyle just made sense: two passionate people, who were very focused on themselves and didn't have the best people skills, making a lot of their interactions with others, very awkward. Case in point, their own first encounter was a bit awkward when the two went home together after a rather unfortunate speed-dating experience. Doyle even got on a three-way call with Paris' life coach Terrence to talk about the events.
Soon, though, they were working together to learn the self-defense of the Israeli Special Forces in case of any possible problems at their Yale apartment. And, perhaps, coming up with some of the best foreplay. They were the twosome whose passionate, adventurous sex life was common knowledge to anyone who knew them. The couple who does Krav Maga together clearly stays (and slays) together.
This was the Gilmore Girls couple that best balanced one another's craziness. They loved each other for who they were, even if those were the same reasons they got on other people's nerves. Yes, they could be annoying as roommates, but they were there for each other — even if it took them out of their usual comfort zones. A usually squeamish Paris, who was pre-med despite the fact that sick people freaked her out, even helped nurse Doyle back to help with a little assist from Nanny. Paris was a control freak, but somehow Doyle helped break her barriers down. But he wasn't trying to change her. Doyle proclaimed his love and devotion for Paris in the show's final season by telling her, "You are the strongest, most infuriating, most exciting woman I have ever met in my entire life, and there is no way I’m gonna let you go."
While we know that Rory is single and dating, and can speculate that Luke and Lorelai gave it another try, it's hard to even imagine that in the eight years since the finale Paris and Doyle aren't still together, furiously working to take over the world with prepared jokes and dance numbers. Doyle made it clear he was going to put her first, whether she liked it or not. Even if she moved to Alaska. "I’ve always wanted to go dogsledding," he told her, only to have her respond, "That’s ridiculous, with your low threshold for cold."
Though we know life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans and that things can change when you least expect it, Paris and Doyle's future together seemed a given. Of course, that doesn't mean their college plans for the future have changed in the near-decade since we last saw them. Doyle was planning to be a journalist, but maybe he's a television writer, not unlike Strong, who is a writer and co-creator of Empire. Paris was planning to be a doctor, but who knows? Maybe she's now a lawyer, some political fixer or a politician herself. Whatever Doyle and Paris are doing now though, they're likely doing it hand-in-hand. As it should be.
Images: Warner Bros. Television; tvmiss/Tumblr
