‘Gilmore Girls’ Fans Still Don’t Understand Sookie St. James’ Season 7 Storyline
The seventh season of Gilmore Girls certainly felt different than all the others. There was a good reason for that. Amy Sherman-Palladino penned the first six seasons, then a new team came on to finish out the show’s final block of episodes. Some weird things happened during the show’s final season, but fans seem to take serious umbrage with how some of the show’s secondary characters were portrayed during the show’s final run. Most fans hate the way Lane Kim’s story ended, and they are equally irritated by Sookie St. James’ shocking third pregnancy.
Fans found Sookie St. James’ season 7 storyline really strange
During the seventh season of Gilmore Girls, Sookie found herself unexpectedly pregnant. The Dragonfly Inn’s renowned chef shouldn’t have been pregnant because her husband, Jackson Belville, had a vasectomy after the couple welcomed their second child. In fact, Sookie set up Jackson’s appointment herself, so, clearly, something was not right. No, Sookie didn’t cheat on her husband. Instead, Jackson just didn’t go through with the vasectomy and never bothered to tell his wife.
Sookie was mad at Jackson, but her reaction to the unexpected news was pretty muted, considering the fact that she was basically coerced into having another baby. At least, that’s the way fans saw it. Yes, Sookie mentioned being a bit resentful and angry, but the way she reacted, and the way the people around them responded to the news, didn’t feel right. In the end, the pregnancy became a completely unimportant storyline. In fact, it was deemed so insignificant that fans never even found out the sex of the baby, and the baby’s birth was never mentioned.
Fans hate the way Season 7 made Jackson Belville look
Jackson, for the majority of his time on Gilmore Girls, was an utterly loveable and eccentric character. His pairing with Sookie made him even more endearing to fans of the series, but season 7 did him no favors. One Reddit fan noted that the entire story arc made Jackson seem like a truly terrible person. The fact that Sookie, more or less, ignored the fact that she was tricked into a third pregnancy made the situation even creepier.
Jackson’s behavior would be considered sexual abuse today. By refusing to tell Sookie that he did not go through with getting a vasectomy, he took away her ability to make reproductive decisions for herself. According to The Guardian, reproductive coercion is the act of controlling someone’s right to make reproductive choices for themselves. Reproductive coercion is now considered a form of sexual abuse and, in some cases, can be regarded as assault. Jackson’s decision to withhold information about his fertility would fall into the category of reproductive coercion.
Amy Sherman-Palladino never addressed the pregnancy in the revival
It’s possible that Sherman-Palladino hated the pregnancy storyline just as much as fans. During Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, Sookie’s third child is never mentioned. In fact, if a fan hadn’t seen season 7, they’d have absolutely no idea that Sookie and Jackson brought a third child into their family. Sure, it was easier to ignore because Sookie only appeared for a brief cameo in the revival season, but what would happen if a second revival were to take place?
Melissa McCarthy’s lack of involvement in the first revival truly saddened fans, so it is assumed she’d have a more significant role if a second revival ends up happening. If that does happen, Sherman-Palladino will need to do some serious work to make sense of that third pregnancy. As of now, Sherman-Palladino doesn’t need to worry about it. A second revival is far from guaranteed. While a now-active Instagram certainly has given fans some hope of a new season, no official announcement has been made.
