#He's like...the estranged uncle that shows up randomly without warning

[frazzledsoul]

So about that love triangle

This is your official #TeamJess Vs. #TeamLogan post. The usual warnings shall apply.

So I think when it comes down to it I am a de facto #TeamJess person.

Going outside of the context of what happened in the original series, the revival definitely seems to be pointing in a #TeamJess direction. Jess Mariano as presented in the revival is basically a perfect human specimen. He’s succeeding in a profession that he’s passionate about. He comes home to support his crazy mom and stepfather. He comforts his lovelorn uncle/surrogate dad, and the two of them appear to be very close. He supports his directionless ex girlfriend, and encourages her to pursue a project that would give her purpose and direction. It appears that he and Lorelai grudgingly reached some sort of peace years ago (Rory aside, he is a family member, but more about that later). Unlike Rory, he still reads, and he does it in tight T shirts that show of his best um, assets. And he looks like this.

He’s not quite as perfect as Jack Pearson, but it’s not for lack of trying. Forget about Rory. Call me, OK, Jess?

Ahem. I think I had a point here.

Of course, anyone who watched the original series knows that teenage Jess Mariano was not the best of boyfriends. He and Rory shared a lot of mutual interests in common, but they were never meant to last: she was headed for an Ivy league college and he had zero ambition for anything at all. Still, it didn’t have to end as disastrously as it did. Jess tries to get Rory to have sex with him, gets into a fight with her ex-boyfriend, blows off Luke when he has to pick up the damage from this incident, avoids telling Rory he has ruined her chance to attend prom, and then leaves town without telling her goodbye, and doesn’t contact anyone he’s hurt for months. When he blows into town again, he spends most of his time screaming at Luke for trying to exert a positive parental influence on him, but also takes the opportunity to tell Rory he loves her before running away. Later on, he makes peace with Luke, but seems to think randomly chasing Rory down and trying to get her to run away with him (after months of not being in touch in her) is an enticing romantic strategy. Alas, it is not.

I don’t blame Jess for everything that he did when he was a sullen, confused teenager. Given how scatterbrained Liz was as a parent to her second kid, I think it’s something of a miracle he even reached adolescence in the first place. I also don’t think they’re compelling reasons to choose him as a partner after all this time has passed.. Everything that sells Jess as the perfect man started in his later appearances in the original series, when we see that he’s accomplished something of merit and he encourages Rory to get on the right path. We see that he’s built this life for himself and that he’s not that angry, self-destructive teenager anymore. He’s in a place where he can be a supportive presence for Luke and Rory, whereas Rory is in many ways an absolute mess who doesn’t know what she’s doing.

Eleven years later, it’s much the same for Jess and Rory. He’s practically perfect, and she’s still spinning her wheels.

It seems that the show wants us to think that Logan is the charming, irresponsible cad who resembles Rory’s charming, irresponsible biological father. Like Rory’s father, he will never be in a position to support Rory or their child. Jess is the supportive, sweet friend with gigantic arm muscles who has always been there to support Rory, much as Luke was the supportive, big-hearted friend with gigantic arm muscles who was always there to support her mother. The show seems to want us to believe that Jess will help Rory raise her child, like Luke helped Lorelai raise Rory, and that he’s ultimately destined to be the love of Rory’s life, much like Luke was the love of her mother’s life.

I have to admit I am mostly sold on this outcome. Since Luke was raised by Jess and seems to to have inherited the Danes qualities of being sweet, loyal, and extremely jacked, one figures that a girl could do a lot worse in life. The fact that by the time the revival came around we had seen Milo achieve perfection in his other TV role of being a devoted, generous dad to a squadron of rambunctious kids kind of completes the vision in my head.

But #TeamLogan is not to entirely sold short here.

First of all, look at him.

What’s so maddening about Logan in the revival is that there’s so much about him we’re just left to guess at. We know that he’s given up the independent life he was pursuing in the original series and has returned to being the gilded heir. We know that he’s somewhat successful at his job. We know that he’s still the king of grand gestures and looks great shirtless. We know that he’s willing to cheat on his fiance with Rory. We know that he still cares about Rory and is actually very supportive of her. We also know that he still plans to marry the fiance and go forth with his family-approved life, and that Rory does not fight him on this. But we have no idea how he feels about any of this, and if he’d be willing to leave it all behind if Rory asked him to do it.

I don’t think ASP & co. did a lot of thinking when it came to Logan. It seems that their thoughts began and ended with DADDY ISSUES and that’s as deep as it got. My entire inclination to think more of Logan comes almost directly down to how Matt played him and the fact that he was written as a stable, supportive, loving boyfriend by the Season 7 writers. The fact that Matt has stated that he played it as Matt being in love with Rory this whole time and that he’s not sure that the writers saw it the same way kind of makes me think he was left on his own when it comes to all this. This is a major reason why I don’t want to read ASP’s interviews anymore: her explanations and justifications just seem so shallow when it comes to her actual product, as flawed as that product might be. However, I do think Matt was mostly successful on selling me that Logan is a lot more than just a cheating cad.

What’s funny about this to me is that prior to watching the revival and forcing myself to view the last season and a half of the show, I always figured that Logan was a better mate for Rory than Dean or Jess was. After all, Lorelai did sent her off to prep school and Yale so that she could move in those high society circles and have access to anything she needed in order to conquer the world. I figured that Rory might want a high-powered husband to help her navigate those political or journalism circles, and I didn’t see her as being as independent as her mother was, so I figured she might settle down earlier in a personal sense. I see Logan fitting into that plan a lot more easily than Jess or Dean would, and if Rory didn’t settle down specifically with him, it would be with someone who was much like him.

As we all know, that’s not what happened. I think that no matter what happens with Rory’s pregnancy or love life, that globe-trotting, high-powered lifestyle is something that’s in the distant past. Logan as he currently exists does not fit in with her life anymore. I think that a hardworking, self-made hipster probably is a better fit for a woman who writes novels and is probably raising a child on her own. However, I also remember Logan visiting Star Hollow and how actually seemed to really fit in there. I remember how he made an effort to reassure Lorelai about his employment situation, how he worked to get along with the townies in ways that didn’t involve using money to buy anyone’s affection. I remember how supportive Logan was in both the original series and the revival. I remember how badly Christopher failed at all of these things. He tried to buy the affection of the townspeople and ended up ruining their events. While he did occasionally have his not-terrible moments, for the most part he was never there for Lorelai as a friend or a partner. His rare moments of parental attention to Rory almost always seemed tied to getting close to her mother. Luke supplanted his role in Lorelai and Rory’s life because he was always selflessly there for both of them, no matter what his personal relationship with Lorelai was at any given time. I don’t think Logan is as great as Luke is, but I also don’t think he’s as bad as Christopher.

I think that Rory’s potential future with Logan would depend on whether he is willing to leave his fiance and privileged life behind. I think he is probably going to have to leave it behind if he’s going to have an active role in his child’s life, regardless of whether he reconciles with his or her mother. I do think he will do the right thing when it comes to his kid. I think it’s possible for him and Rory to exist on decent terms and have him be a real dad to this kid, even if they don’t end up together. I also think their lifestyle differences aren’t something that’s an inherent part of Logan’s personality, and that they could cobble some sort of life together where they meet somewhere in the middle.

I want Rory and Jess to remain friends/extended family members and for them to work on her book together, regardless of what else happens in her life. I think Jess will always be there in some sense, and the fact that they didn’t see each other for four years has more to do with the fact that they were geographically separated than any real estrangement or lack of (platonic) affection between them. I don’t think he spends his days pining for her, because he has a job and a life of his own in a different city, but that doesn’t mean he’s totally given up on the idea, either. However, things have clearly changed to the point where Jess is an accepted part of the Gilmore/Danes household and while that’s a great development in itself, it’s also a credible argument against Rory and Jess becoming romantically involved again. While I think he would make a great partner for Rory if she ever gets her shit together, it’s clear that he’s always going to be a part of her family, and at the end of the day they are first cousins by marriage. It is not an insignificant obstacle to their reunion.

I don’t think we’ll ever know the answer to any of this, of course, and perhaps it’s best to leave it an open question. ASP is an unpredictable showrunner who seems to delight in causing her characters misery and torture. I’d much rather imagine a possible future where things work out okay for all parties in either scenario then have everything screwed up again. So the various teams can root for their preferred outcome, and neither will be proven wrong.

I imagine that in all cases, Luke and Lorelai will be there to provide support for the various members of their errant brood and usher the grandkid out of the way when the love triangle shenanigans get too contentious.

#queue #sitting in my drafts #long rambling thoughts #team jess #team logan #rory gilmore #jess mariano #logan huntzberger #luke x lorelai #the gilmore/danes household and their many offspring