Gilmore Girls struggled to get Luke (Scott Patterson) and Lorelai (Lauren Graham) together. Even when they did, there were still hurdles to overcome. A major hurdle was Lorelai’s ex, Christopher (David Sutcliffe). Fans may have been frustrated whenever Lorelai would go back to him, but Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino defended the Christopher stories.
Sherman-Palladino was on a Television Critics Association panel for Gilmore Girls in 2005. By season 5 there were already some setbacks with Lorelai and Christopher, but Sherman-Palladino explained why those stories occurred.
Christopher wasn’t just a plot device in ‘Gilmore Girls’
Sherman-Palladino said she was careful with Christopher on Gilmore Girls. She didn’t want him to become just a plot device.
“There’s always a danger in overusing any plot device,” Sherman-Palladino said. “There are some shows where I’m like, ‘Seriously, you’re going to sleep with him again? It’s going to be different this time?’ But, you know, we don’t think about the plot on this show in the terms of, ‘Okay, we’ll get them together and then we’ll split them up and then we’ll get them together.’ That’s not the way we arc things out. We put our relationships together and then the relationships almost dictate to us at what point we want to take it in a different direction.”
Christopher would always have a connection to Lorelai
Christopher was always going to be a factor in Loerelai’s life, regardless of any affairs they had.
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“Now, the Christopher thing is always going to be there because he’s Rory’s father,” Sherman-Palladino said. “That is a bond that is never, ever, ever going to be broken. That is always going to be an issue and a sore spot.”
Luke and Lorelai wouldn’t get married until the end of A Year in the Life. So Sherman-Palladino didn’t know where they were going, and after her departure from the show, Lorelai would marry Christopher. This wouldn’t be totally inconsistent with Sherman-Palladino though.
“If Luke and Lorelai get married and live happily ever after, Christmastime comes and Christopher comes over with some eggnog, someone’s getting mad at someone else in the kitchen,” Sherman-Palladino said. “That’s life, you know. My parents still have people that they get into huge fights over when they call. Usually it’s me, but sometimes it’s someone else.”
‘Gilmore Girls’ would never be done with Christopher
When Sherman-Palladino returned for A Year in the Life, she undid some of the later Gilmore Girls seasons. If fans hated Lorelei and Christopher together, rest assured it wouldn’t last. But back in season 5, Sherman-Palladino knew there was some validity to keeping Christopher around, and Luke and Lorelai were never guaranteed irrespective of Christopher.
We’re not looking at it like, ‘Oh, well, Christopher will be the reason that…’ Luke and Lorelai could split up over many reasons that couldn’t be Christopher. Luke and Lorelai are very independent people who have built very, very separate lives. And to me, part of the interesting thing about getting them together was not just that they would make a very handsome couple, which they do, but it’s the fact that you got a woman who’s done it all her whole life, by herself. She raised that kid by herself, she bought the house by herself, she’s got a business on her own. You’ve got a man who’s done the same thing, and both of them have their lives the way they like it. When you got two people, then, who try to mesh those two lives, that conflict is going to come from people being very separate. So I’ve never looked at it like the one thing out there that is going to be break them up and get them and put them together is going to be Christopher. There’s many, many other things that they’re going to have to overcome or deal with, whether they’re together or apart.
Amy Sherman-Palladino, Television Critics Association panel, 1/22/05
