Dean and Luke : Same Thing?
Timing is Everything
Season Five.
Luke and Dean are shifting Taylor Doose’s cannonballs (dirty!) and moving boxes at the old Twickham house from Taylor’s oddly spellbinding diorama.
Judging by his hair – and we always judge his hair – Dean recently had a run-in with a 1970’s blow-dryer.
In this, Dean’s final appearance in the Gilmore Girls’ lives, he is at his most bitter yet most philosophical. He has gained and lost Rory (to Jess), only to regain and lose her again (to Logan) and can’t help but measure his lot against Luke’s nascent relationship with Lorelai.
Dean They want more than this. Don’t you see that? And all you are is this. Luke Rory was a kid, Dean. She grew up. She moved on. Accept it. Dean You accept it! This town is all you are and it’s not enough. She’s gonna get bored and you aren’t gonna take her anywhere. You’re here, forever. Luke It’s different. Dean It’s not different. You and me. Same thing. s05e18 To Live and Let Diorama
Like a lot of TV and movie love stories, we see the good bits – the flirting and the getting together and the temporary breaking up before the second coming – but we don’t see what happens in the end. Maybe Dean went back to college, enrolled in some clinical testing to help pay his way, becomes a think-tank boffin and makes and marries a Rory clone. Or a girl named Rory.
Maybe Luke’s ex-girlfriend Rachel moves back to Stars Hollow and is able to give Luke the reassurances and stability he needs – then gets knocked up immediately so he can’t back out.
Where I’m going with this is: What if Dean was right about Luke and Lorelai?
We mostly acknowledge that Dean was a great first boyfriend for Rory, but ultimately wasn’t the one and Dean is coming from a dark place… with his post-Rory mess of a love-life.
However, he speaks from his own personal experience and despite the Bop-It Incident, I question whether he’s saying these things out of spite, to hurt Luke.
I wonder whether he’s trying to be a bro, to save Luke some heartache.
Dean and Luke: Same thing?
If Luke and Lorelai became a long-term thing, which one of them would have to change more?
Or is Dean just plain wrong?