Must be a fan of The Notebook. Gilmore Girls star Scott Patterson has a theory as to how Luke and Lorelai’s love story may end one day.
“I think we will obviously be together. These two — we’re going to end up in our 90s — and I hate to sound morbid but it’s going to be one of those things where we are so connected that once she passes or I first then she is going to pass one minute later,” the actor, 59, exclusively tells Us Weekly. “It’s going to be the ultimate romantic ending for us. And I hate to even put that out there because I think these two are so eternal and so universal.”
But before then, Patterson envisions Luke and Lorelai (Lauren Graham) as parents still living in Stars Hollow. “In 10 years I really think he is still going to be running that diner. He may have a couple of other franchises at that point and be a big time CEO. I think he will still be doing the same thing because that’s Luke, he’s got to pay the bills,” he says. “I think that they are going to have a child, I do. I always thought they would.”
Luke and Lorelai’s romance began after years of flirtation — and coffee. And after years of yearning (on Luke’s end), they finally kissed in the season 4 episode “Raincoats and Recipes.”
“It was a big deal on set and it was a big moment. There were a lot of people from Warner Bros. — executives — that came on the soundstage to watch that moment. Because that was a big deal and everybody knew it. And we just wanted to get it right. I know it’s hard to screw up a kiss but there is a little more that goes into it. You don’t want to do it too hard or too passionately. You want the right tone of the kiss,” Patterson recalls to Us.
Of course, a little humor was sprinkled into it too. “Plus, there was that moment when Kirk — when Sean Gunn comes running threw naked holding a pillow over himself. So all of that had to be timed out well,” he adds, laughing. “It’s sort of a less romantic mood on set because you know you’re going to deal with a naked Sean Gunn running. So trying not to laugh while we are kissing. But we were caught up in the moment knowing that it was a big deal. As artists our main concern was getting it right and working that out with one another and how we both were going to feel comfortable doing it and what we thought was the best way portraying it. Because how many times in your life do you really have that type of kiss when you’ve been pining for somebody for years and years and years and here’s the moment?”
Years later, the beloved TV couple would finally get married in Netflix’s revival, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life. But before filming the four 90-minute episodes, the cast all reunited for a table read.
“It was all of the big Warner Bros. executives and cast and it was in the Warner Bros. main conference room and all kinds of people were there — Netflix. It was this really special place to be. We realized what a big deal it was to go into that room and to all be reunited,” Patterson explains. “A funny side note is they had Lauren and I sitting next to one another and we both pulled out our reading glasses at the same time and put them on. We looked at each other and laughed.”
Patterson always knew Luke and Lorelai would end up together — even when she briefly got back together with Rory’s (Alexis Bledel) dad Christopher (David Sutcliffe). He quips: “Come on! Who is going to compete with Luke? I mean, seriously. There’s no competition.”
In fact, Patterson says it’s probably “accurate” to assume that Luke and Lorelai’s love story is comparable to that of Rory and Jess (Milo Ventimiglia) while Lorelai’s romance with Christopher is like Rory and Logan’s (Matt Czuchry). “Although, again, nobody can compete — let’s just put that out there again,” he says. “That’s full circle and good storytelling.” Recap: In the final scene of the Gilmore Girls revival, Rory reveals she’s pregnant after calling off her affair with Logan.
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It was kind of a mixture of that’s inevitable and a little bit of shock,” Patterson says of the pregnancy bombshell (the final four words)! “It’s the logical next step so it made a lot of sense. That helped to camp down the shock a bit. My reaction as the character was, ‘I’ll find that SOB and I’ll beat the tar out of him!’ But then I realized it’s probably someone that I might approve of.”
