Gilmore Girls and Lane Kim Deserved Better Than Her Surprise Pregnancy Storyline
#TeamLane.
Fans of the WB show Gilmore Girls, and its Netflix revival Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, argue about a lot of things. Who was Rory’s best boyfriend? Are you #TeamLuke? Do you hate April? Did you love/hate the revival? Yet, for all of our infighting, there are a few things we can rally around: Season seven was the worst season of the show, and Lane Kim deserved better.
The drummer and founder of Hep Alien, who spent most of her early run as a character pushing against her mother’s traditional Christian/immigrant upbringing to form her own identity, Lane really never ended up achieving anything she wanted. Her band, which truly became successful with her mother’s help, sort of fades away, she gets married to a mediocre man, has terrible sex on her wedding night, and then immediately gets pregnant with twin boys.
When we see her again in the revival, her life is barely explored. It’s partly the continued sidelining of that character, but also, there isn’t much there to see. It always sort of felt like Lane was there to show that Rory had some social skills, but once Paris took over as Rory’s more equal friend, Lane’s purpose slowly faded.
Keiko Agena, who played Lane, spoke with US Weekly about the second pregnancy bomb that rocked the show (the first being Gigi in season two). “It was so sudden. Everything that happened in Lane’s life—especially at the very end—was really quick. She’s fighting with Zack, and then all of a sudden she’s engaged to Zack, and in an instant, she gets pregnant after having sex for the first time during their honeymoon. It does make it harder later on because, I think story-wise, it’s hard for Lane. I wish she was able to do more with music.”
The pregnancy stopped Lane from going on tour, and her entire romance was very rushed, in my opinion. Agena says that if Adam Brody’s character, Dave Rygalski, hadn’t left when Brody went to be on The O.C., that relationship would have continued—especially since Helen Pai’s husband’s husband’s name is … Dave Rygalski. (Pai was a GG producer, the basis for Lane’s character, and Hep Alien’s anagrammatical namesake.)
What does Agena wish she had been able to do with her character on the show? Hang out more with M.V.P Paris Geller, for one thing: “I think selfishly I wish Lane and Paris (Liza Weil) had more of a relationship, because I just think Liza is so funny and so great and so intense. I wish they had more of an interaction. And I get it—it makes more sense that they are sort of separate parts of Rory’s life and separate friends, but that’s definitely something selfishly, as an actor, I would have liked.”
We agree.
What are the characters you wished the revival spent more time on? Who is your favorite Gilmore Girls character?
(via US Weekly, image: The CW/The WB)
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