In the penultimate Season 5 episode, ‘Blame Booze and Melville,’ Rory hits a wall at the paper when Mitchum tells her she doesn’t have that “certain something” for journalism. That being smart makes her a great assistant, not a great journalist. Now, given that he’s had Rory being his gopher, I can’t see how he’s basing his decision on her journalistic skill. Can you?
Should Rory have done more, put herself out there and speak up more, regardless of just being an intern? If so, does having to learn these things make her any less of a good journalist in the long run? If Mitchum is just saying these things to crush Rory, why do you think he’s doing it? What’s his purpose?
What I’d love to know, above all, is why Rory is so crushed by this? She’s hit walls before and overcome them – like how overwhelmed she was at Chilton and then at Yale, at first. Why does this one break her down – why does her world fall apart? And when it does, what the heck prompts her to want to steal a boat?? This always tore at me and I’d love to know your thoughts.
Some other time we’ll talk about the Lorelai pregnancy scare in this episode – that’s a whole topic unto itself!
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I seriously doubt if any fan of the series thought “Gee, what a clever plotline” when they saw this episode. That Mitchum would be quickly judgmental and minimalize Rory’s prospects as a future newsperson was no surprise. It’s the prerogative of the upper executive right or wrong to make quick decisions based on next to no information. That Rory would quickly adopt a “his girl Friday” persona to fit in well, get the lay of the land, and possibly play it too safe was no surprise. That Rory would further overreact when she got a performance review the opposite of what she expected was no surprise [see the “Deer and the test quandary” or the “you’ve got to drop a class” episodes].
However, that she would overreact to the point of being criminally stupid was ridiculous and merely shows lazy writing by the powers that be in setting up a dismal first 6-8 episodes of season 6. Hard to believe that after 5 years of carefully crafting a unique character that ASP could just flush her for dramatic license. But then she did it again with Luke by introducing April and then her successors did it again with the Lorelai/Chris elopement. While it has often been said that ASP knew what four word phrase she would use to conclude the series, it is agonizingly obvious that she did not know what to do with most of the last 40 or so episodes to get to that phrase.
This is a pretty complex thing to summarize succinctly, but I’ll throw a few things out there.
1. Rory was totally caught off-guard by the corporate world. She could lean on her mother for guidance for getting through school, but the only people who could really help her here were her father and grandfather and she didn’t have that kind of relationship with either.
2. It is dangerous when an employee does not know what the employer is looking for. I think this is what made things so difficult to swallow for Rory. In school, she always knew what people wanted and was talented enough to deliver. At the paper, Rory was being judged and she didn’t really even know it. She thought she was doing what everyone wanted. She was doing what everyone wanted except for the most important person.
3. This was her first taste of true failure. Most people have had some sort of major failure by that age. Not her. It isn’t like Paris handled her first failure (the Harvard snub) gracefully.
4. While stealing a boat was obviously over the top, I’ve seen some crazy things in the office. The cops had to come to break up a fight one time at my office five years ago. The term “mid-life crisis” didn’t emerge out of thin air – working in the corporate world can do crazy things to people.
@mcityrk I agree the writers were flailing around in the dark at this point in the series. I think it started when Rory got to college. They didn’t know how to portray college life and they couldn’t figure out what to do with the various relationships. The Jason arc was a reasonable stopgap, but pretty much all of the other major plotlines were weak.
Hi Y-
Agree with most of your commentary except I do not think Rory really failed at the paper. While initially taken aback, she quickly adjusted and came to believe that simply filling routine needs was what was required of her. She did not appreciate that Mitchum was looking for possibly the next Pulitzer winner willing to work for an interns salary. While a mistake in not confirming his expectations, that does not constitute failure as most people behave similarly in their first real job. You simply learn to ask the right questions so you do better with your next opportunity. Her real failure was in accepting one person’s opinion as the final judgement without fighting back at all. That seemed to be the polar opposite of her normal character.
Additionally the work environment displayed was pretty mild compared to the real world; i.e. congenial coworkers putting in standard work weeks at Mitchum’s paper as compared to tired, 24/7 overworked, sometimes quarrelsome collegues anywhere else fighting over whose approach best solves the issues at hand and knowing that whoever is right will get the budget to advance their projects and this in term will determine the rate of professional advancement through their organization.
Mitchum was erm how can I put this politely – lets just say not a nice person and leave it at that. He has grown up with money and power and by way of these has been used to getting what he wanted when he wanted it. He didnt want Logan to be with Rory but didn’t get his own way. This could have lead to him trying to crush her for the hell of it or to try and break her and logan up. I doubt it was really due to her lack of talent as mentioned above she wasnt really in a position to ever show that.
Rory is not used to not getting what she wants either. ~If you remember she didnt exactly handle the D at chilton well either. Add to that that Lorelai whilst meaning well has always put rory on a pedastool and told her she can be what she wants to be. Suddenly to be told other wise must have been a big shock. The size of the shock coupled with the recent adrenalin rush of the ‘Jump Jack Jump’ Jump which has made her see another side to life may well have culminated in the boat debarcal.
two more factors that could have come into play, rory has always been a big fish in a small pond (except briefly when she started chilton) sudently she is out of her comfort zone at the paper. Add to that the fact that many people go a little crazy at uni, no one knows them, they can reinvent themselves and be who they want. All factors considered I dont think it is entirly unbelieveable.
I think that this is a plot line and a different type of wall. This type of wall is different because Rory has always dreamed of being a journalist and has worked all her life towards becoming journalist. Now she has an internship at a newspaper and she is told that she doesn’t have that ‘something’ to become a journalist. I think anyone would be crushed to find out from some powerful guy that they can’t fulfill their dreams because they don’t have what it takes. Rory also does overcome this wall. Yes, it takes longer but she does overcome it eventually… with Jess’ help.