The Only Official ‘Gilmore Girls’ Valentine’s Day Episode Is Almost Universally Despised
Gilmore Girls never shied away from celebrating holidays and special occasions. Stars Hollow was known for its festivals and town events. Still, a couple of holidays were treated as mere footnotes. Valentine’s Day, for example, was given just one dedicated episode in season 6 of the series. While the holiday was a perfect one to celebrate on Gilmore Girls, the one dedicated episode missed the mark. Fans largely despise it, and we do too.
The season 6 episode, ‘A Vineyard Valentine’ is the only dedicated ‘Gilmore Girls’ Valentine’s Day episode
In season 6, Gilmore Girls’ writing team decided to pen a Valentine’s Day episode. In the episode, Lorelai Gilmore is feeling blue about the status of her relationship with Luke Danes. Sensing a need to shake things up for her mother and soon-to-be stepfather, Rory invites the duo on a weekend trip. With Rory and her beau, Logan Huntzberger, Luke, and Lorelai head to Martha’s Vineyard.
The weekend doesn’t get off to a great start and seems to spiral nearly out of control before Logan swoops in and saves the day. Everything is quickly spoiled when Mitchum Huntsberger shows up on the scene. While the episode had a lot of drama, it lacked a key ingredient for a Valentine’s Day episode. It was short on romance, and fans noticed.
The episode is among the lowest rated
While it is pretty hard to mess up an episode about love and romance, Gilmore Girls somehow managed to do it. “A Vineyard Valentine” is one of the lowest-rated episodes of the entire series.
According to IMDb, fans of the series rated the only Gilmore Girls Valentine’s Day episode 7.5 stars out of a possible 10. It is the 17th least-liked episode of the show’s 153 episodes. The episodes that are even less liked generally revolve around Christopher Hayden and Lorelai Gilmore’s season 7 relationship and marriage. Episodes centered around Lorelai and Rory Gilmore’s season 5 and season 6 estrangement are generally hated, too.
So, why do we hate ‘A Vineyard Valentine’?
“A Vineyard Valentine” had all the makings of a romantic episode. A romantic trip, for two couples, on a holiday dedicated to love? What could be better? Well, it would have been great if everyone on the trip hadn’t acted totally out of character.
Luke Danes, the lover of all outdoorsy activities, acted as if he’d never spent a second outside of his diner in his life. He bemoaned the sound of the waves, hated the cold, and acted as if the beach getaway was a prison sentence. It simply didn’t make sense, considering he was a man who enjoyed camping and fishing. He was also completely awful to his host, who hadn’t been anything but welcoming to him.
Rory Gilmore’s behavior struck us as odd, too. Never once did Rory mention her sudden affinity for cooking or even prepping foods that looked marginally healthy. She only appeared to enjoy a day at the gym with Logan Huntzberger on the prestigious island. If Rory had picked up cooking or working out, we feel like it would have been mentioned beforehand.
Logan was mostly true to his character, but Lorelai’s sudden need to concede to Luke and his grumpy mood felt a bit off, too. In fact, we walked away wondering where spunky Lorelai had gone and why Luke, who had been in love with her for years before they finally got together, was trying so hard to sabotage his relationship. We didn’t walk away from “A Vineyard Valentine” feeling warm and fuzzy, and that’s all we really wanted from a Gilmore Girls Valentine’s Day episode.
