Entertainment

I’m Glad 'GG's Luke & Lorelai Never Got Married

by Emily Lackey

Today is the day, Luke and Lorelai lovers. Had Luke married Lorelai in Gilmore Girls on the date they had set during Season 6, June 3, 2016 would have marked the 10-year wedding anniversary of our favorite Gilmore Girls couple. And as heartsick as I was at the time that Luke and Lorelai never did walk down that aisle, hindsight is definitely 20/20. Because I am so glad that Luke and Lorelai never got married in the original Gilmore Girls series. I know to say such a thing is considered blasphemy, and that to utter such words gets me super close to being exiled from the Gilmore Girls fan club, but hear me out. It’s not that I am rooting for Luke and Lorelai’s demise. Au contraire. I have never wanted any fictional couple to end up together more. Promise. But there are some key things that happened in the final season because of their breakup (and some exciting things we can expect from the revival) that make me totally glad that these two never did say “I do.”

First thing’s first: Happy endings are not everything. I’m not saying Lorelai and Rory don’t deserve their own respective happy endings. I’m just saying that they deserve happiness that is not contingent upon their marital statuses. Period. End of story. Plus, for two women whose storylines always ran in parallel lines beside each, it would have been structurally all wrong if one of them got married and one of them did not.

But there’s also this other reason why I’m glad Luke and Lorelai didn’t get married ten years ago today, and that is this: Having these two in a state of imaginary limbo for the last nine years in our minds makes things way more exciting for the Gilmore Girls revival. I’ll admit it: The revival would seem puny without the anticipation of seeing what became of Luke and Lorelai. With both Rory and Lorelai’s love lives on the line, this revival has way more build up than it would have had if Luke and Lorelai had gotten married. What would we be looking forward to then?

Danes babies? Please. We can still look forward to that.

So, even though Luke and Lorelai’s breakup back in 2006 felt like a straight shot to all of our Gilmore-loving hearts, it seems to me that this love story — like all love stories — did just what it had to do in order to get us to where we are now.

Image: Warner Bros. Pictures; Giphy