Image courtesy of Everett Collection
By
Cathal Gunning
Published 7 minutes ago
Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020.
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Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents:
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While Gilmore Girls season 6 featured a major breakup for two of the show’s most prominent supporting characters, the show sadly failed to commit to this plot twist later in the series. The cast of Gilmore Girls were great, but the show’s writing didn’t always do their characters justice.
In fact, Gilmore Girls betrayed its audience more than once with some plot twists that felt like they were imported from another show entirely. Logan’s near-death experience was an absurdly soapy storyline that the series seemingly abandoned a few episodes later, while Luke’s refusal to tell Lorelei about his daughter April was wildly out of character.
Around the same time as that infamous season 6 twist, the also show offered viewers one of its most unexpected breakups. This twist was surprisingly welcome, as it broke up a couple who never seemed all that good for each other in the first place. Sadly, it didn’t stick, and the pair were soon back together for good.
Gilmore Girls Season 6 Episode 10 Broke Up Zack and Lane
Zack holds a ring while proposing to Lane in Gilmore Girls.
In season 6, episode 10, “He’s Slippin’ Em Bread, Dig?” Gilmore Girls finally broke up the perpetually feuding Zack and Lane. Although Zack and Lane’s initial courtship was relatively sweet, the bandmates soon fell into a toxic character dynamic that doomed their once-promising chemistry. It didn’t help that Lane already had a pre-existing love interest that fans preferred.
Adam Brody’s Dave Rygalski was Lane’s first serious love interest, but his actor left the series to star in The O.C. While this might have been Brody's breakout role, the exit left Lane without a love interest, and the dim-witted guitarist Zack soon replaced him. Less sweet than Dave and more boorish, Zack was a harder sell for viewers.
Todd Lowe managed to make Zack somewhat likable with his gruff performance, but the character paled in comparison to Lane’s first love. As such, it was a welcome surprise when the pair broke up in “He’s Slippin’ Em Bread, Dig?” with Lane moving back in with her mother after living with her bandmates in a shared house.
Gilmore Girls Season 6 Always Needed A Major Breakup
Lauren Graham as Lorelei and Alexis Bledel as Rory in Gilmore Girls.Custom Image by César García
While Rory and Lorelei disagreed about Rory rekindling her relationship with Dean while he was married in the season 4 finale, it wasn’t until Rory’s acting out in season 5 that the pair’s feud started in earnest. For multiple episodes in a row, Lorelei refused to talk to Rory after she dropped out of Yale.
Rory went to live with her grandparents and soon learned why Lorelei resented them so much despite all the house’s creature comforts, but her mother kept her distance. After all, Rory had crashed a yacht with Logan, so her mother wasn’t quite ready to forgive a misdemeanor that would have ruined her life if she were less privileged.
Since “He’s Slippin’ Em Bread, Dig?” is the episode where Rory and Lorelei finally reunite after their lengthiest feud ever, the outing always needed to have another breakup to keep things interesting. Thus, Lane and Zack’s brief breakup was born, although this plot twist also played another secondary function in the series.
When Luke learns about his daughter, April Nardini, in season 6, he makes the bizarre decision to hide her existence from Lorelei even though the pair are engaged. This indirectly leads to their eventual breakup and Lorelei and Christopher’s infamous Gilmore Girls reunion at the end of season 6.
Gilmore Girls Should Have Kept Zach and Lane Separated
A pregnant Lane sitting next to a bassinet in Gilmore Girls
Lorelei and Christopher go on to get married, albeit briefly, and Luke and Lorelei’s relationship trajectory is irrevocably altered. Although the duo does get married at the end of the 2016 revival, A Year in the Life, it is only after another decade together. Thus, Zack and Lane’s breakup also helped throw viewers off the scent in season 6.
When Lorelei and Rory finally patched things up, Luke was hiding a child from Lorelei. Any viewer could have easily guessed that Lorelei would break up with him the moment she found out, but it did still seem possible that Luke might come to his senses and tell her in time.
This feeling was reinforced when Lane and Zack broke up, as it seemed as though this would be season 6’s big breakup. Instead, of course, the bandmates swiftly reunited, leading to their wedding, Lane getting pregnant in season 7, and the pair resenting their relationship forevermore.
Given what a rebellious rocker Lane was in the show’s early seasons, many fans find her eventual fate to be the worst Gilmore Girls storyline ever. The revelation that she didn’t enjoy losing her virginity to Zack, along with her decision to keep a pregnancy that she openly doesn’t want, was a bleak, unfunny ending for a promising, charming character.
Bizarrely, A Year in the Life doubled down on this storyline by revealing that Zack and Lane were still together, but not any happier. This weirdly mean-spirited gag didn’t sit well with viewers, and it all could have been avoided if Gilmore Girls had simply stuck to its guns and kept the couple apart after they initially broke up in season 6.
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We want to hear from you! Share your opinions in the thread below and remember to keep it respectful.
Do you think Gilmore Girls made a mistake by not committing to the breakup of Zack and Lane in season 6?
Cathal
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7 minutes ago
Some fans may feel that the show missed an opportunity to explore the characters' growth and development independently, while others might argue that their reconciliation was more true to the characters' relationship dynamic. Ultimately, the decision to have them reunite could be seen as undermining the impact of their initial breakup.
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