Why the Last 4 Words Are the Perfect Ending to Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life

If you've made it this long without hearing Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life's mythical Last Four Words and you still want to hear them for yourself, it's time to slowly back away. If you know or don't care about spoilers, it's time to talk. I may be in the minority (in fact, I'm positive I'm in the minority), but I love the way the series ends. Rory tells Lorelai she's pregnant, and we get this brilliant and delicate acting moment between Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel:

Truth be told, that's probably how I reacted too. These words have practically become an urban legend over the years, and this is it? These are the words Amy Sherman-Palladino has thought about all this time? I actually would have been less satisfied with this ending had it been the button on season seven. While the reboot has its fair share of issues, the way Sherman-Palladino brings things full circle makes a lot of sense.

I'm not a fan of Rory having an affair with Logan, but I do appreciate that their relationship (again, not the affair part) mirrors that of Lorelai and Chris. Sherman-Palladino even told Entertainment Weekly: "We wanted Rory to date her father. Every girl has a father issue, and Logan was Christopher. Logan was charming, smart, and not quite the dependable soul that you need. Or, at that time, was not the great dependable soul." Of course, she said this before the revival was unleashed on the world, and we had no idea how literal she was being.

Sure, we can speculate that Logan isn't the father. Matt Czuchry himself admitted to The Hollywood Reporter that "their intention was to leave that open and put that out in the universe for fans to talk about and debate." Perhaps the father is a random Wookiee, or maybe the baby is the result of a decision Rory made and carried out with Paris's help, but we all know what's the most likely option, and his name rhymes with Hogan Luntzberger. Rory and Logan aren't meant to be together (trust me, I don't want that to be true), but they are destined to be in each other's lives because of a shared child, much like Lorelai and Chris.

That's what makes the "Fall" scene with Chris and Rory so poignant. She's asking him if he thinks it was the right thing for Lorelai to raise Rory by herself, not because she's writing a book about their relationship but because she wants to know if she should raise this baby on her own. It's a layered moment that she's asking Chris, because in Sherman-Palladino's eyes, Chris is older, wiser Logan. Here, watch it again:

She doesn't get the answer she needs. She wants to put this monumental decision onto Chris (Logan's surrogate here), and while he doesn't know what she's really asking, he refuses to let her off the hook. "I think it was exactly what was supposed to happen and I think she'd back me up on that," he says. Rory is going to have to make her own decision, just as Lorelai did all those years ago. Rory isn't a teenager at odds with her straight-laced parents, but she is temporarily without a job and a permanent home — a failure by her own standards.

It's as full of a circle as they come. It's a perfect orb.