‘Gilmore Girls’: ‘Bon voyage’

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Maybe, just maybe, this was the only way ‘Gilmore Girls’ could have ended.

And that’s a good thing.

With all the positive strides the show has made in the last few episodes, I found myself hoping that the rumors would turn true and the CW would get another season out of it. Even a shortened one.

But after seven years as television’s hippest – and most critically acclaimed -- mother-daughter twosome, Lorelai and Rory ended their journey in a touching finale that drew the show to a comforting close.

The focus of the hour, like so many of the best ‘Gilmore’ episodes, was on the girls, as they planned a roller-coaster-seeking summer of fun. When Rory unexpectedly landed a job, however, they slowly began sobering up to the idea of having to go their separate ways.

But not before the girls (and the show) finally overcame long-term hurdles in dumb love (Rory turned Logan down – hurray!), surprise daughters (April gave Lorelai an alleged reason to dump Luke and then moved far, far away) and meandering (see any and all episodes involving Rory and the Daughters of the American Revolution).

As things began to wrap up for ‘Gilmore Girls,’ the show returned to feeling like one helluva coffee fix with friends: a sassy, low-key affair, high on caffeine and free of melodrama.

Tuesday’s finale was light on its feet and poignant in all the right spots. Lorelai tried hiding her separation pains as she manically helped Rory pack for her new job on the road, until Rory questioned her distance and Lorelai confessed, ‘It’s too soon.’

For fans who have followed Luke and Lorelai’s will-they-or-won’t-they relationship since Season 1, the inevitable resolution came in a single, urgent kiss. A brief but super-charged moment, it was more than enough to satisfy.

Yet cast members Kelly Bishop (who plays Emily Gilmore), Liza Weil (Paris) and Scott Patterson (Luke) have gone on record with their disappointment over the abruptness of the show’s cancellation and the lack of closure in the finale.

In fact, the series’ ending was all about new beginnings. Instead of closure, viewers were given reassuring glimpses into the future.

Lorelai volunteered to continue Friday-night dinners with her parents sans Rory. She and Luke are back together. And Rory is about to kick-start her journalism career as an online reporter covering the Barack Obama campaign.

Viewers who tuned in for one last stroll through Stars Hollow couldn’t have been disappointed either. Though Emily and Richard were sidetracked – but gave a wonderful song-and-dance sayonara to Rory in the penultimate episode – Rory’s best friend, Lane, got a proper and deserved send-off. The now mother of two and Rory hung out on the porch talking about their future as adulthood loomed. Kirk spent his last odd night a la David Blaine in a glass box suspended above the town. And Babette (Sally Struthers) got to run through town shrieking at the top of her voice one last time.

The goodbyes are bittersweet, but the void the show leaves in primetime is the real reason to mourn: a mother and daughter who communicated intelligently, fiercely and, at their best, with creator Amy Sherman-Palladino’s trademark rapid-fire wit.

It’s anyone’s guess how the series would have ended had Sherman-Palladino remained at the helm. But I do believe the ‘Gilmore Girls’ has bowed out with grace.

-- Denise Martin