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In ‘Chicken or Beef‘, Rory finds out that Dean and Lindsay are getting married. Nobody had told her. Of course, Dean invites Rory to the wedding when he sees her, and that’s just awkward in itself.
However, what I wanted to ask is this: were you surprised to hear Dean was getting married?
I can argue both sides. On the one side, we know that Dean is definitely a “serious relationship” kind of guy. He’s had 2 relationships before, including Rory, and he goes all-out on them. There’s no “dating” in Dean’s vocabulary. On the other hand, he’s been seeing Lindsay for less than a year and he was “supposed” to be very in love with Rory prior to that. So was he simply trying to forget Rory by marrying Lindsay?
Watch this episode of Gilmore Girls on TheWB.com here.
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263 days ago
No I wasn’t surprised, Dean is a giant weenie and nothing he had done ever shocked me. I kind of fall in Luke’s perspective when it comes to Dean.
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263 days ago
I don’t think Dean was a “giant weenie” as Katelai so affectionately puts it, I think he was just so in love with Rory and so heartbroken when she chose Jess that he didn’t know what to do with those feelings, so he married Lindsay in hopes of easing the pain. Right thing to do, absolutely not! And so unfair to poor Lindsay who obviously would have walked on water for him if she could. Dean was a romantic soul who only wanted Rory, and although most of the time he went about things the wrong way I think his intentions were for the most part good. Nah, I wasn’t surprised to see Dean get married because it set up the storyline for Rory to want him back. As we all know, we all want what we can’t have!
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263 days ago
I have a hard time seeing supporting characters in TV shows like this as anything but one dimensional or transparent. I don’t think Dean gets to step out of this evaluation, he was so predictable and played a huge part in why the show got to be extremely stressful by the time season 6 rolled around.
I’m glad he left, but I think a little bit of maturity on his part would have gone a long way and maybe surprised some people.
Still, he’s a weenie and I stand by that statement. And I still feel really bad for Lindsay.
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263 days ago
I initially thought this was a wasted episode just to show how Rory would deal with irreversibly losing a lasting relationship with someone she had cared deeply about. Seemed like we had just kind of covered that theme with the disappearance of Jess. Of course the real reason we get to see this was more sinister as ASP was merely setting up Dean to be the selfish jerk of a fall guy for the romantic disaster for Rory at the end of season 4. Bad ASP, bad, bad, bad…..
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263 days ago
And just so we’re clear, I don’t say “weenie” with any affection at all ;)
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263 days ago
I wasn’t surprised when Dean got married. He is a very conservative and traditional man. I expected him to marry young, work construction, and have kids before the age of 25. It’s why he and Rory would have never worked out.
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263 days ago
One thing surprises me though: Gilmore Girls was not a traditional show at all and yet when people get married they tend to be very traditional:
Dean gets married, drops out of school to support his wife and pays for the bills because of course Lindsay, as a very good wife, doesn’t work adn only thinks about cooking good stuff for her dear husband.
Lane and Zach get married and Lane drops out of school too, ends up being a waitress and pregnant
even when Lorelai gets married with Christopher, they play the perfect family for Christmas for example.
That is so not the spirit of GG.
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263 days ago
Before it gets lost in my post, I think Alexis Bledel’s reaction at the end of this episode really showed her maturity as an actor. Yes, her eyes looked beautiful, as did she with her new haircut, but the look on her face, a mix of confusion, anger, and sadness was beautifully done.
To mcityrk, on my above point, I think Amy was up to something more “sinister”, to portray Rory as someone completely unprepared for her own emotions, why we will never know, or if Amy had something to say about it. Running off to New York for Jess at Lorelai’s expense (or her graduation’s expense) seemed troubling but innocent. The look on Rory’s face when she sees Dean married says so much more, especially that she pursued him, called him on a bad date, had an affair with him, and would not listen to reason. And dropping out of school was not solely about Mitchum; it was clear his status as Logan’s father had as much of a role to play there, not accidentally after Rory was told to be with Logan she could not be the professional woman she dreamed to be. Rory’s emotional reaction to Dean’s marriage, is a big warning sign. And the fact that Lorelai kept so much of it from others as Rory’s best friend and let it develop IS the story.
To Mac, I think you’ve hit on the point of the show, but also miss it a bit – I don’t think Amy and Dan have a very traditional view of marriage. I think it’s pretty clear the Dean and Lindsey marriage is not held up as ideal. We don’t know what they would have done with Lane and Zach, or Lorelai and Christopher. I suspect the former would have been more rock n’ roll in Amy and Dan’s hands, less pregnancy. I doubt Lorelai would have married Christopher so quickly.
Lorelai’s aversion to marriage when it’s not “just right,” compared to Richard and Emily’s separation, are bold counterpoints to Dean’s idea of marriage, so I think what you highlight is the point of the show, at least on marriage.
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263 days ago
When I first watched GG, I was rather surprised that Dean was getting married. I also felt really bad for Lindsay because Dean treats her so badly in their marriage.
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263 days ago
Dean wanting to get married at that time came as a pretty big surprise to me. He was only eighteen, for Pete’s sake. I couldn’t see any reason for the rush, no pregnancy, and only to get back at Rory, that would have been so low on his side, he wouldn’t do that. Obviously, he would.
I remember thinking: That’s NOT gonna end good, it’s the writers plotting something. Because, characters on TV shows getting married fresh out of HS are usually a plot device for phony drama, and I was proven to be right.
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262 days ago
I think that Dean is a ‘weenie’ too!
He was so hurt by losing Rory that he thought the best way to deal with it was to make sure that he wouldn’t be left alone again. Sadly, he took Lindsay down with him.
Seeing how his relationship with Lindsay evolved, you can clearly see what a bad fit him and Rory would have been. He just has a totally different vision of what life is.
Lindsay should have thrown him out the window along with his stuff ;)
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262 days ago
It is really fascinating to see so many people think less of Dean for getting married so quickly, and yet so many people also among Gilmore Girls fans are over-the-top giggly about the idea of Luke and Lorelai getting married as if that is “the end”/”happily ever after” — or worse wanting Rory to get married right out of university, which for most young people is what “high school” was to people generations ago.
Dean represents small town life and old ways of thinking, where you are not expected to leave home and go to university or have a specific professional ambition. He was supposedly not good at math but he read books but may not have had the encouragement Rory had from his parents, who must have been supportive of this marriage, like Lindsey’s parents were. And while she was a victim of the Dean-Rory liaison, she was immature as well (not wanting to work but to have a husband work for money for her while she stayed at home “bored”). And the enthusiasm of her mother for this marriage is disturbing on just as many levels.
Millions of people marry this way and end up in divorce, and Dean was no different in this respect.
Far too many people think marriage is the answer, the dream, the fantasy (This includes Lorelai, who bailed out twice after rushing into both like a silly schoolgirl the way she planned them once she realized she was caught up in the fantasy, not reality.) When our culture tells everyone that they should dream and aim for marriage, when they have little else, are we surprised people marry so young?
I think the Palladinos were pretty clear that there was a real contrast between marriages that worked with conflict (Sookie-Jackson, Richard-Emily) and these idealistic, fantasy views of marriage.
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262 days ago
When Dean first announced that he wanted to get married, in 3×20 “Say Goodnight, Gracie”, yes of course it was “surprising”, because we had almost completely forgotten about Dean at that point – we don’t see his life anymore, not really, we don’t know what his relationship with Lindsay is like, all we know is what Rory sees, and since Rory is shocked it makes sense that we are too. It wasn’t a smart/realistic decision probably since Dean told Rory in 3×10 “That’ll Do, Pig” that he actually did get into a college, and he’s planning to attend, and I don’t know of too many people who get married when they’re only 18 even though they still plan to go to college – but it wasn’t completely unrealistic. Of course after Dean admitted to Luke while totally drunk that he still loved Rory, that’s where Dean was simply wrong to be marrying Lindsay – but it doesn’t surprise me that he did it, it would have been radical of him to call off his wedding and try to win Rory back again, and Dean’s not really a radical kinda guy – he tries to hold onto the idealized versions of his relationships, even when they’re not truly what his relationships are.
Now about what Marie said about the look on Rory’s face at the end of 4×04 “Chicken or Beef?” – I realized for the first time while making this fanvid of mine: Where I Stood – Jess/Rory/Dean/Lindsay http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QX4_nkWdeo just what that face meant – or at least what I thought it meant, from Rory’s point of view. At the very least I think it was Rory thinking that Dean was happy, and her a little sad because she’s not happy with Jess nor Dean anymore, she’s currently alone. But really when I first posted that fanvid of mine I clearly remember GreysLOSTAnatomy (now GreysALIASAnatomy) commenting on it saying that when she was watching the show, she thought Rory was confused/the writers weren’t sure what they were doing exactly… but then watching that fanvid of mine it seemed like it suddenly all made sense. I kinda agree. Once I put season 3-5 Dean/Rory in the perpective that I put them in in that fanvid, I felt like I understood exactly how Rory felt. She didn’t really love Dean anymore… but she wishes she appreciated him more while they were dating and she’s sorry that she hurt him and she feels bad for him and even wishes she could love him more than she does, because in a lot of ways Dean is so great.
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262 days ago
Hi Marie-
A few quick comments about your first post. I too liked the final reaction shot of Rory as the episode comes to a close, and the confusion and sadness I get, but curious what you mean by the anger. Who was she angry with? Was Rory angry at herself for treating Dean badly and thus contibuting to his desperation leading to the marriage, angry at Dean for selling his potential so short, angry at Lindsay for pushing him into a hole from which he would never escape, some combination of these or something entirely diffent?
As to ASP’s sinister intentions in setting up Rory’s psycological makeup/defects in how Rory would react to Dean over the next half season, while I like your thesis, I suspect you are giving ASP way to much credit in looking this deeply at Rory’s charatcter. It was not necessary to marry Dean off to get him back together with Rory later at the end of the season 4 for additional drama in early season 5. This rekindled relationship would be DOA even without the marriage since Dean would never be comfortable with the Yale environment and what that meant in terms of the other guys Rory would interact with. However, with a married Dean, ASP gets the scandalous tabloid plotline to appease her bosses at WB and generate some cliffhanger buzz at the end of season 4. To me this marriage was all about plotline commercial considerations and any additional insight we believe we get into the characters psycology was entirely circumstantial.
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261 days ago
I don’t really need to add anything here, you guys have all made good points.
But I do want to comment on the marriage thing, concerning Luke and Lorelai, anyway. I don’t think of it as the happy ending, I want that storyline because I enjoy seeing these characters interact. I enjoyed them as a couple (aside from when Luke went all “guy” on her, hiding April, then pushing Lorelai away…)
I thought of they would have that “conflict” yet working relationship, much like Sookie & Jackson and Emily & Richard.
They had that thing, you know. They get along, respect each other but speak their minds.
I don’t have to see a wedding, but it’d be nice to. I think it would be a great story. Events in Stars Hollow are bomb. Plus I can just imagine all the chaos, happiness, touchy-feeliness of it all :)
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260 days ago
Hee! I think that a Luke/Lorelai wedding of some sort of one big thing most of us agree on or really wanted to see. The drama llama of seasons 6 and 7 was really quite stressful for us, we deserve it ;)
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