‘Gilmore Girls’: Lauren Graham Said Season 6 Luke/Lorelai Drama ‘Wasn’t My Favorite Stuff to Play’

Gilmore Girls fans stuck through the show for seven seasons and the Netflix revival series, A Year in the Life. They’re still hoping for a second season of Year in the Life, but that’s not to say it’s always been a smooth road. The later seasons saw the departure of creator Amy Sherman Palladino and some questionable story points, and star Lauren Graham agreed. 

Graham appeared on a Television Critics Association panel for Gilmore Girls Season 7 in July 2006. Looking back on season 6, Gilmore Girls star Graham shared her difficulties with the previous season.

What happened in ‘Gilmore Girls’ Season 6?

Season 5 ended with Lorelai (Graham) proposing to Luke (Scott Patterson). So Gilmore Girls Season 6 dealt with a lot of their wedding planning. Luke wanted to take more time, to which Loreleai reluctantly agreed.

Complications arose when Luke found out he had a 12-year-old daughter. Furthermore, he didn’t want Lorelai to meet her just yet. By the Gilmore Girls Season 6 finale, Lorelai tried to convince Luke to elope, but he called off the engagement entirely. 

‘Gilmore Girls’ Season 6 was hard for Lauren Graham 

Having played decisive, headstrong Lorelai for five seasons, Gilmore Girls Season 6 frustrated Graham as much as it did Lorelai. 

“It wasn’t my favorite stuff to play, to kind of be dictated to by Luke,” Graham said. “It was a believable conflict and a believable obstacle between them, and that’s why the end, to me, made perfect sense, because she tried to kind of be in a place that wasn’t natural to her, that wasn’t who she is. And so ultimately she couldn’t take it anymore.”

Conflict was necessary for drama 

Graham did concede that if Gilmore Girls Season 6 hadn’t presented Lorelai and Luke with problems, there would be no drama. 

“But I think you had to have that build-up to get to where we got,” Graham continued. “I mean, if everything had gone the way the fans wanted it to go in terms of that relationship, the show would be over. Or, I would just be calling Rory, like, ‘What are you doing tonight?’ To me, this is a relationship with a lot of built-in problems between two people who are very different, who are trying to find a common language, and so it made sense to me.”

Graham also conceded that she questioned the storyline in which Lorelai and her daughter, Rory (Alexis Bledel), became estranged. 

“The year before when Lorelai and Rory had such a long separation, I wasn’t a huge fan of that either,” Graham said. “There wasn’t really an explanation given except that it made sense in terms of where they were taking the story and to be patient. Something big was coming, but it was a different structure then.”

It worked out for Luke and Lorelai, but not until the 2016 revival series.