Gilmore Girls’ “Final 4 Words” Renders Entire Series Pointless

On Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, those "final 4 words" were finally said. Unfortunately, they render the entire series pointless.

SUPER GIANT MASSIVE SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN GILMORE GIRLS: A YEAR IN THE LIFE.

SERIOUSLY. I'M ABOUT TO SPOIL EVERYTHING. TURN AWAY NOW.

FINAL WARNING!

The final 4 words are: "Mom..." "Yeah?" "I'm pregnant."

Those are the words Rory spoke to Lorelei as they look at the sunrise after Lorelei and Luke finally get married. Yep, that's the big reveal. Rory is pregnant. "But Gavin, I'm sure Rory is married by now and this was clearly a planned pregnancy with someone she loves!" Nope, after watching Rory succeed at Yale, go off to follow Barack Obama on his campaign trail, and typically make the right choices, Rory spends most of A Year in the Life hooking up with Logan, who is still drizzling garbage water. Oh, and Logan is engaged to someone. Rory knows this and doesn't care. Rory also cheats on her longtime boyfriend with Logan because fidelity is overrated.

HE'S THE WORST. ALWAYS AND FOREVER

What's so upsetting about how Rory was handled is how good the rest of the revival was. Sure, the "Summer" episode was pretty awful (the Stars Hollow Musical bit went on toooooo long) and "Fall" episode had the terrible Across the Universe segment which I thought was a dream sequence (which Gilmore Girls was never known for). Lorelei and Luke finally getting married definitely brought this softy to tears, along with Luke's amazing speech beforehand. But man, that ending is rough.

It makes everything we've been through completely pointless. There is a line that Emily Gilmore says in Season 6 (by the way, Kelly Bishop completely owns the role of Emily in the revival. Definitely the MVP) when Rory has left Yale and is living in the poolhouse. The line is "We haven't failed until that girl comes home pregnant." It was meant as a shot at Lorelei's promiscuity and teen pregnancy. So, does this just mean everyone has failed now?

The entire series was built around Lorelei doing whatever it takes to make sure Rory doesn't make the same mistakes that she did. Lorelei was determined for Rory to go to Harvard (before Rory chose Yale), become a journalist, and take the world by storm. The end of season 7 left us with the notion that that was going to happen. It was an ending of hope. Is it albeit a bit unrealistic to think that everything was just going to work out? Sure, and I get that sometimes life happens and it takes unexpected turns. That's realistic. But I don't watch Gilmore Girls for it's gritty realism. It's not The Wire.

The whole point of the revival was to give closure to the fans (and creator Amy Sherman Palladino). And it ends with the "I'm pregnant" bombshell. Most articles chalk this up to the series coming full-circle. We are just to assume that Rory takes Lorelei's path, becomes a single-mom and eventually ends up with her soulmate, in this case, Jess. But why couldn't Rory have a happier ending? Isn't that we as fans deserved?

The revival sends the clear message that no matter how hard you try, no matter how hard the people around you try, you are doomed to make the same mistakes as those before you. Even if it takes an extra 16 years to do so.

Maybe they will do a second season of the revival. I don't know. But I do know that if I rewatch the series again, the entire time I'm just going to be thinking "Oh, hey, Rory ends up pregnant and alone so all of this is meaningless." Lorelei and Emily may not have failed Rory, but Amy Sherman Palladino sure tried her best.