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During the seven seasons of the original Gilmore Girls series, few clues were doled out about Michel’s background and personal life.  We knew that he was French, was so surly that it seemed improbable Lorelai would employ him, was obsessed with his weight and his dogs and Celine Dion, and was boldly confident about his skills as a dancer.  Other than that, there was no mention of some crucial points.  There were no details about his upbringing (other than us seeing his mother in one episode), how he’d ended up in Stars Hollow, where he lived, or who he dated.

Now, with A Year in the Life, we found out Michel is at this point married to a man and both are looking to adopt a child.  Yanic Truesdale spoke to Business Insider about this revelation:

I found out about it when I read the script.

Yanic had never previously discussed Michel’s sexuality with Amy Sherman-Palladino.  He along with everyone else was left to wonder:

Some fans thought I had a secret crush on Lorelai. I mean, everyone has their own take on him.

These new details gave Yanic more to work with:

You know, the fact that he’s married, the children issue, the crossroads with his work, and having to make big decisions in his life made me connect with him at a deeper level. And that was great. I’ve always wanted to have more personal stuff for him, because it’s satisfying to go there for an actor. So I’m happy about it.

For Yanic, sexuality was never a defining factor of how he played the character anyhow.

Mostly, he’s defined by his irritants or being French and everything that entails. This is the foundation that I’ve worked with, so either way, for me whatever his love life was didn’t affect my choices as an actor.

In the end, the gift to Yanic is that his character affected the larger story–something that Michel had never really done before.  At most, he had provided comic relief.  Here, because Michel needed to make more money to support his growing family, Lorelai was motivated to give Michel a bigger stake by expanding her business.  This dovetailed nicely with the storylines about Lorelai’s need to move forward in her life and the money Richard left to Luke, plus it cemented the bond between Michel and Lorelai.  Hopefully if there are more episodes, we’ll see them build their new Dragonfly Spa, with Michel as the manager. Apparently we already missed a pivotal scene about the purchase of the building!

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The “Fall” episode of Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life features Lorelai going “wildly” out of character by following in the footsteps of Cheryl Strayed as chronicled in her book Wild to hike the Pacific Crest Trail.  When Lorelai gets there, she finds many other women also trying to find themselves by doing the hike.  Amy Sherman-Palladino parodies the scenario and the women but told Buzzfeed that she wasn’t making fun of Wild:

I just thought [Wild] was a really great, beautiful platform that was resonating amongst women.  At the heart and soul of Gilmore Girls … it is a show about women: interesting women, smart women, grappling with more than just romance. They’re really grappling with who they are.

Although Amy Sherman-Palladino does give allow the women hikers to voice some geniune reasons why they are attempting the arduous trip, she parodies the trendiness of these types of phenomenons, with so many quick to jump on the latest bandwagon to emotional and spiritual enlightenment (wasn’t it Eat, Pray, Love just a few years ago?).  She also gets into the class system within this trendy movement, where the hikers are divided by “book or movie”, meaning whether they were inspired by Cheryl’s book (deeper, more genuine hikers) or Reese Witherspoon’s movie adaptation (trendy types who just saw the movie on a plane or cable). However, if you’re going to go on an emotional/spiritual quest, isn’t hiking better for you than joining a cult?

For our hero, Lorelai, even though she is following the herd as much as anyone else, she is taking herself way out of her comfort zone in hopes of getting unstuck.  In the end, she discovers by accident that she has to find her own path.

The use of Wild in A Year in the Life was as much a surprise to Cheryl Strayed as anyone else–she told Buzzfeed that she found out when she saw the trailer and spotted Lorelai reading Wild poolside.

The fact that the writers of this show decided to tell my story within their own story, I feel honored and amazed.  Like truly amazed, and deeply flattered.

When asked about the fun poked at the hikers, being asked “book or movie”, she said:

That’s one of the things that makes people love Gilmore Girls so much, is there’s often truth and poignancy layered among ridiculousness and humor.  That was obviously a spoof or a comic moment, but there were some pieces of real truth in there, too.

In terms of the mother-daughter dynamic in Gilmore Girls, Cheryl says she identifies with Lorelai and Rory:

Wild is about two things: It’s about my hike on the Pacific Crest Trail, and it’s also about my love for my mother, and my grief.  It’s the story of our life and our relationship, and so I was so identifying in what I was seeing in Rory’s journey, too.  I was that girl who wrote about the complexities of the love and bond that I have with my mother.

And although Lorelai did not end up making the same physical journey as Cheryl, the emotional journey was similar:

I always say to people when they ask me if they should hike the PCT, it’s not so much about specifically hiking the PCT or following in my footsteps.  You can’t replicate what I did, but go find your own journey.  Go do something that makes you feel.

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In Lauren Graham’s new book, Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls, she details how she started her TV career playing the “Gal About Town”, a post-college type that many actresses want to hang onto before they’re consigned to the dreaded “Mom” roles, i.e. the wasteland of female roles.  Traditionally, The Mom is the one who reacts to what her husband or kids are doing instead of having a life or dreams of her own.  When Lauren first read the Gilmore Girls pilot, she was 31 years old.  She was asked if she’d be worried about getting typecast at such an early age as a mom, but she says:

I never once thought about it.  To me, Lorelai was equal parts Gal About Town and The Mom, plus a magical mix of smarts and humor that made her totally unique.

It did help that along with being a TV mom, we also saw her as Emily’s daughter, rebellious and sometimes bratty.  Lili Loofbourow in The Week writes an essay of appreciation about how Lauren has redefined the TV mom:

Graham’s combination of Katharine Hepburn’s grand dame confidence with an almost vaudevillian gift for slapstick goes a long way toward explaining how she so convincingly restored the single mother to glamour, great boots, and something other than pathos.

Of course, a great actress also needs great writing.  Lorelai Gilmore is the creation of Amy Sherman Palladino and Dan Palladino and the article traces the roots of this new TV mom to their stint writing for the show Roseanne.  Roseanne Conner was a revolutionary character–a mother who could be sweet but also abrasive, sarcastic, overbearing and hilarious.  She was allowed her own internal life with her own hopes and dreams that didn’t necessarily involve her kids or husband.  Lili adds:

But Roseanne was married, and Lorelai Gilmore wasn’t.  Funny single mothers in fiction are few, and it’s a testament to Lauren Graham’s raw comedic talent that she managed to convey the struggles without collapsing them into the typical vocabularies of pathos and heroism.

Although, to be fair, Murphy Brown blazed that trail almost a decade before as a single mother on TV, being so apparently transgressive that she was actually denounced by then Vice President Dan Quayle who seemed to think Murphy Brown was a real person and could single-handedly end civilization as it was known.

I would add that Lauren provided something new–sex.  Although she was devoted to being a mother, it didn’t mean she couldn’t be stylish and “Juicy” nor that she couldn’t flirt with and date men.  Now, that was unusual for a TV mom.

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As you well know, Gilmore Girls first aired in 2000. Watchers who were then Rory’s fresh-faced 16 years of age would now be older than the 32-year old Lorelai who faced Headmaster Charleston in the get-up above.  Man, you can feel Emily rolling her eyes from space.

My friend Jack reads The Lord of the Rings every few years and finds different parts affect him with each read, because he’s changed over time. Which led me to wondering (drum roll please):

Did you previously identify with Rory but now think of yourself more like Lorelai?

It’s a bit of a nonsense question since Rory didn’t become Lorelai, she became older Rory. And I think this is where a lot of Rory-related fury about the new episodes comes from, because those who identified with Rory wanted to see her succeed or at least do more than stall.

I’ve talked before about Rory’s stalled trajectory being necessary in order to get to The Last Four Words but perhaps her course was set long before A Year In The Life. Clearly she would never become Lorelai because they were completely different people with very different characters. Compare young book-smart Rory with young feisty Lorelai.

Also, Rory rarely had to fight for what she wanted. In fact, did she ever really know what she wanted, other than what Lorelai or the many other loving people around her wanted for her? It was Lorelai that put college into Rory’s head. It was the boys that lined up to throw themselves at her, rather than her actively pursuing any boy. Her only active decision that comes to mind was to steal the boat.

So as much as I love Rory and was so very proud of her on so many occasions, compared to Lorelai she might have been a teensy bit… boring? But again, that’s a nonsense question since Lorelai is the poster child for mania. Still. In the end, I think I’d rather have Rory over for game night but go out dancing with Lorelai.

Out of interest, did you previously identify with one character but now think of yourself more like the other, or a different character? I feel like I started out as Richard and now I’m grumpy black-cap Luke fast en route to Taylor Doose.
Looking back at Lorelai’s eye-catching Chilton get-up, I’m reminded of our Gilmore Girls Cosplay Competition.  Which Gilmore Girls character would you dress up like today? I’m feeling a bit of Kirk, recognizable by the caged swans.
Do parts of the show resonate differently as you’ve gotten older?
Do you think Rory ever really knew what she wanted?