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In ‘Farewell My Pet‘, which was perhaps one of the better episodes of Season 7, things have obviously fallen apart between Lorelai & Christopher. After seeing Luke at the hospital, after finally getting there, Chris had disappeared for two days. Chris is very angry that Luke was there and that Lorelai didn’t send him away. Lorelai is angry that Chris took “time off” their marriage.
Although Chris later admits he shouldn’t have taken off, he can’t let go of the Luke issue (just like Luke was also irrational about Chris). He is, however, taking some of the blame on himself (finally) for not giving Lorelai enough time or space to get over Luke. He’s ready to give up on their marriage, but Lorelai wants to work through their issues. Chris doesn’t buy it, and maybe he is right in supposing that Lorelai’s not being honest with herself.
Lorelai admits to Sookie, later, that she still has feelings for Luke. She considers cutting Luke out of her life, but Sookie asks Lorelai a good question: would Chris be “the one” if there never had been, or never would be, a Luke? All day, Lorelai grows more somber with that thought until, finally, she comes home and has this conversation with Chris:
Lorelai admits that Chris was always a possibility in her life, but that it doesn’t feel right – Luke or no Luke. As much as she wants to love Chris, she can’t. The “you’re the man I want to want” is incredibly touching. Why do you think it is that Lorelai can’t love Chris? And I mean, outside of Luke, since Lorelai is now realizing that Luke isn’t the only reason she can’t love Chris.
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443 days ago
I think that Lorelai can’t love Chris cause she knows in her heart that hes not there for her. And never was. And when they got maried in Paris Chris didn’t want Rory there and Lorelai did. Lorelai is still and always will be in love with Luke.
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443 days ago
Lorelai can’t love Chris because she can’t truly trust him. Every time she thinks he’s going to be there for her and that they are on the same page he does something to mess everything up. I believe that she wants to be with Chris because she feels that would be best for Rory. In her heart she knows that it’s not what is best for her. Chris loves Lorelai in a selfish way. He is prompted by his desires not what is best for her. Luke just wants Lorelai to be happy and loves her unselfishly. It’s hard to walk away and be with somebody else when you’ve had “the best”. Luke is Lorelai’s best.
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443 days ago
She probably realised that even though they always had that kind of chemistry, it was only based on a teen friendship. They grew up and grew apart at the same time.
She needs someone who can be there for her and she knows that he’s not the one for this, even though he does love her.
I do think they always mistook their friendship for love. But I guess they had to try – it’s so hard for me to say that! :-)
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443 days ago
Lol! Mac – I appreciate how hard it was for you to say that!! :)
You’re right they did have to try and it’s a shame they couldn’t make it work, I still insist that they truly loved each other just so much happened over the years that it was always going to be be hard. Even at this point though the chemistry between these two actors is incredible – the two best portrayals of the characters in the show IMHO! Kelly as Emily too is up there!
The scene above makes me cry every time – this was what was submitted to the Emmy comittee for Lauren & how she didn’t get a nod i’ll never know! “You’re the man I want to want” just epitomises their whole relationship they do love each other and prob always will but their love has evolved over time. I definitley think these two had to happen before anything could progress with Luke. Beautiful!
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443 days ago
If you’re meant to be with someone it shouldn’t take 20 or more years to get married. If Lorelai hadn’t gotten pregnant, Chris probably would have been one of those boyfriends you have in high school for a while and think of occasionally when you are older and married to someone else. But since they had a child together, they were forced to be in each other’s lives and the possibility of them being together never went away. But I agree that they did have to try married life before both of them knew it wasn’t right for them and they weren’t meant to be together.
Lauren should have gotten an Emmy for that scene alone, she is amazing in it! It still brings tears to my eyes every time I see it!
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8 days ago
I totally agree with lynn! Had Lorelai not gotten pregnant her and Christopher would not have the ‘relationship’ they have. Chris is selfish and only thinks about the fact that he WANTS lorelai. I believe this is proven when they agreed that they wanted another kid together when they got married but Lorelai wants to wait a bit. Christopher threw a fit and went after Luke. And I have to admit I was extremely saddened when Luke and Lorelai didnt get married :/
443 days ago
This scene always makes me cry too, for two reasons; 1) because of the ‘you’re the man I want to want’ line and 2) because I know it means there’s still hope for Lorelai and Luke and she still loves him.
I think Lorelai did love Chris, but not in the way she wanted to. Chris is the father of her child so there will always be feelings there and he will always be in her life, she loved him as Rory’s father not as her soulmate/partner.
I also think that Lorelai wanted it to work because it was the easy option, in a way. Chris was Rory’s father and he was the kind of person her parents wanted her to be with, he fitted in with that lifestyle. But, as we know, Lorelai didn’t so he was never going to be what she was really looking for.
If there had never been a Luke I don’t know if Lorelai would have ended up with Chris, in one way (easy option) I think she might have done, but then knowing the character she would have always been looking for that something else so maybe it wouldnt have worked.
The thing is there was Luke and I believe that Christopher was who her head was telling her to be with and Luke was who her heart was telling her to be with. It just took Sookie’s comment for Lorelai to finally listen to her heart and be with who she wanted.
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443 days ago
i think Lorelai does love Chris but she will always be In love with Luke and Chris has never really been there for her and Luke has. i think she want him to be the “one” because that would be best for Rory but she will always belong to Luke! =) i just saw the episode on ABC family where their telling Rory they got engaged and i was soo mad i was like why did u marry him! lol but we all know it doesn’t work out soo yea anyhow that’s all i have to say for that lol bye-nancy
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443 days ago
And here’s where the quality of the season starts to improve (better late than never I guess). I think Lorelei probably loved Christopher (or she lied to him about 30 times in Paris) but she was definitely more in love with the idea of him than anything else. Back in Season 3 she basically admitted as much when she told Luke she wanted “the whole package.” Who wouldn’t want to have that perfect life: marrying the father or your kid, raising a family with that guy, growing old with that guy. But the problem is that Christopher was just that friend she slept with in high school. Sure they had chemistry and he was always a “what if” but that quickly went sour as soon as Lorelei got a taste of her “what if.” Chris isn’t that bad (before this season anyway) but he just didn’t fit.
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443 days ago
That good question,I think Lorelai can’t love Chris,because he never there for Rory and her.She still feeling and fall love in with Luke,because Luke alway there for Lorelai until 1 season not Chris.
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443 days ago
This is one of Lauren Graham’s best performance (that’s saying a lot).
Luke or no Luke, Lorelai and Chris were just not meant to be; however, they don’t know that they are not meant for each other unless they actually try to date. These two never formally dated since Rory’s birth. As Lorelai said, Chris has always been a “possibility”. Without having an adult relationship with Christopher, she will always wonder “what could have been”.
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443 days ago
I think after all the years of Lorelai raising Rory as a single parent she built a wall against Chris because even though he came through in the end I think he crossed an unforgiving barrier when he missed every birthday, school thing, and outing for Rory. Plus I think Lorelai was in love with the idea of a “perfect” family… Rory finally having her parents together… it’s a nice picture but Lorelai and Luke For-ever.
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442 days ago
I think she can’t love Chris because deep down, she doesn’t respect him. Everyone paints Chris up to be a stand up guy that wanted to marry her when she got pregnant with Rory. HOWEVER, where did he go then? For someone who wanted to marry her, he sure did disappear. Chris is technically Rory’s Dad, but he was never really a father to Rory.
I mean, the first episode we met Chris . . . Rory didn’t even know who he was at first. Lorelai had to say, “Christopher,” for Rory to know who it was. He is in the picture and out of the picture, and has never cared enough about being a Dad to Rory to move close and stay put.
I do think she doesn’t trust Chris, but I think more than that, she doesn’t respect him. Lorelai is a hard working single mother. Chris can never get his life together, and he didn’t even have to raise their child. So, I bet Lorelai has trouble with that.
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442 days ago
Oh, Sara, you’re reading WAY too much into that first episode. Chris had cut his hair, Rory says, and he had a helmet on – that’s the explanation for not recognizing him at first, and if they had known that he had that bike, they probably would have known who it was. Watch the DVD – Rory knew EXACTLY who he was when he took off the helmet.
If we take the episodes of Season 7 (and 5-6) on their “merits,” Lorelai’s behavior is horrific. If she didn’t love Christopher it was manipulative to sleep with him again when she had rejected him over and over, and then to MARRY him just because she was “hurt” by Luke. How can people actually defend this behavior?
Lorelai is a character who pushed Christopher away and turned down his marriage on the grounds that “he’s not ready” for marriage – this from a woman who ends up breaking TWO ENGAGEMENTS and going to Christopher BOTH TIMES. It’s pretty clear even from the Palladino’s writing that LORELAI was not ready for marriage and projecting her insecurities onto Christopher. To marry him on top of that after not loving him – NOT DEFENSIBLE.
Of course, the writers of Season 7 are the same ones that let Luke commit an assault and battery – hitting Christopher with no legal provocation (not to mention the fact that Luke drove Lorelai to Christopher by his own emotional abuse, calling Lorelai a cartoon character, among other things). Except for one bit of banter in the town square where Lorelai tells Luke he should have hit her instead – passed off as a joke – Rory and Lorelai go right back to treating Luke as if he never punched another human being in the face.
But this is all part of the “make Chris a punching bag” approach the Palladinos started. In the pilot through Episode 6 of Season 1, we’re told Christopher has always been in touch with Rory smart. By Season 5 the Christopher character is being REWRITTEN to be a moron: Witness Rory saying “Every time you come back Mom ends up crying” FALSE. Through the first two seasons of the show – especially after his first appearance – Lorelai lets him go over and over without shedding a single tear. It’s just more sloppy writing by the Palladinos – one that Lauren Graham made clear that she found unpalatable in trying to pass this off as a credible love triangle.
The Palladinos wrote Christopher out of the show with a soap opera plot and didn’t put Sutcliffe under contract, so he was unavailable for the end of Season 3 and Season 4. The Palladinos’ solution? Make him even more of an absentee than before.
So Lorelai “couldn’t love Christopher” because the writers were determined to go for the romantic comedy cliche – have her “destined” to fall in love with the friend who was right in front of her after they banter and deny their passion for years and of course end up together. It was a foregone conclusion, and Christopher was turned into the boob of the moment to drag out the inevitable.
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441 days ago
You can’t basically say that “Christopher was smart character but the writers wrote him into a stupid character over 6 Seasons.” If he was written to be stupid over six seasons then he’s stupid because that’s the way he was written. He’s imaginary. He’s not a reality TV star that did more off camera that was smarter but the editors just chose to show his stupid behavior. The character was written as not right for Lorelei so guess what, he’s not right for Lorelei. And the point of that would be that just because you have a kid with someone and are infinitely more superficially attracted to them than say a local diner owner, that doesn’t mean it’s gonna work because that’s too storybook. The whole show was about a character defying convention and sure falling in love with Luke isn’t all that surprising (falling for Jason would have been the way to go if you wanted to surprise people). But you can’t just say that Christopher is better than the writers gave him credit for because he wasn’t. No more exists but what the writers gave him.
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440 days ago
Chris was just a high school sweetheart. They should have went to seperate colleges and say their goodbyes. Instead, Lorelai got pregnant. He had to be in her life, though it wasn’t meant to be. They both held on to the thought that they loved each other, hoping that that was enough. But twenty years later, it would take more than love. Chris was never there for her, and that doens’t make him any more lovable. Also, after getting out of a serious relationship with Luke, how could they rush into marriage? In my opiion, eloping was more eagerness than love.
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