‘Gilmore Girls’: Scott Patterson Describes Lorelai’s ‘Blind Spots’ and He’d Know
Gilmore Girls got seven seasons out of Lorelai (Lauren Graham)’s relationships. Fans may have hoped she’d settle down sooner, but then the show would’ve been over. This kept Scott Patterson employed as Luke, too. Now that Patterson is rewatching the show, by season 4 he’s got some thoughts on Lorelai.
Patterson answered listener questions on the Feb. 22 episode of his I Am All In podcast. When listeners asked him to weigh in on Lorelai’s personality as of season 4, Patterson had some thoughts.
Lorelai’s major ‘Gilmore Girls’ flaws are her blind spots
Patterson didn’t watch Gilmore Girls while it was on because he was too busy memorizing his lines each week. Now that he sees it all in context, he can analyze Lorelai’s personality.
“Major flaws, I think, are just sort of there’s kind of a lack of self-knowledge,” Patterson said on I Am All In. “I think she has several blind spots because of her very strong feelings about her upbringing and what happened and the choices that she made in having Rory, that whole experience with her mother and father going through that, being estranged for all those years and then coming back into the tornado that is that dynamic. So I think he’s got to gain some insight and she is gaining some insight into her own feelings which I think is fascinating to watch.”
Diagnosing Lorelai on ‘Gilmore Girls’ based on real life
Patterson acknowledged that he’s talking about a fictional character. Amy Sherma-Palladino created her and then maintained her for seven seasons, with other writers stepping in towards the end.
She is so reactionary and so all over the map emotionally. I don’t think she has a handle on – she’s got this sort of survivor’s emotional life where she’s good at that and she knows from that. But as far as healing old wounds and really understanding why she is the way she is, I don’t think there’s a lot of self-awareness there. She’s just in such defensive mode all of the time. All of the cracks and all of the jokes and all of the put-downs, right in front of her parents. I know this is a TV show so this is serving us, the audience but if we’re to be completely clinical about it, there’s either a tremendous amount of self-awareness where she’s moved on and accepted the fact. Or the opposite where there’s none and it’s all fear-based covering.
Scott Patterson, I Am All In, 2/22/23
Luke had a lot to learn too
Not to completely bash Lorelai, Patterson got self-reflective about Luke, too. And by the way, Patterson is on record saying Alex Lesman (Billy Burke) was a good partner for Lorelai.
“I think what Luke learned from all of these relationships, whether it’s Lorelai or Jess, is that his heart’s in the right place,” Patterson said. “His intentions are good but the road to Hell is paved with… So I think he’s finding out that he’s not particularly good at them. Because I think he’s a little bit of an isolated guy and he’s got his own little set of phobias that come to the surface when he’s put into these situations that he’s not capable of dealing with. So he either just shuts down or he overreacts or he runs. It’s like the fight or flight response. He likes to run a lot. So that’s what I’ve learned about Luke.”
