This episode, like others in Gilmore Girls, has a subtle theme built into it. I’d like to say that theme is about moving on. In ‘I’m Ok, You’re Ok,’ we contrast three different relationships all in stages of “moving on”: Mrs. Kim & Zack/Lane, Luke & Lorelai and Rory & Logan.

In the case of the Kim drama, Lane has accepted Zack’s proposal, but Mrs. Kim doesn’t know anything yet. Zack goes to tell Mrs. Kim – and, though she’s initially put off, Mrs. Kim does not throw him out. Instead, she helps him plan his music career. This is a huge step for her, after the life she’d wanted for Lane is clearly falling apart. Mrs. Kim is getting over her own prejudices and lost dreams – she’s moving on and realizing how to just support Lane.

With Logan & Rory, Logan persuades Rory to believe he didn’t cheat on her. She says ‘I guess’, but you can tell her heart isn’t ready to believe or to forgive Logan. So she hasn’t moved on, though clearly she wishes she could.

And lastly, with Luke & Lorelai, we see a different kind of “moving on” in their future. Lorelai is very hurt by Luke’s distancing in their relationship, though she’s trying her best to be understanding. She’s especially hurt when Luke lets Anna give him a new bag, when he told Lorelai not to get him one. It makes Lorelai feel like an outsider even more.

It’s clear that neither Rory nor Lorelai are ok. Yet neither are willing to admit it to themselves yet. Why do you think this is?

Watch “Gilmore Girls” ‘I’m Ok, You’re Ok’:

Check out Gilmore Girls on TheWB.com here.

Image: TheWB.com

In, ‘That’s What You Get, Folks, For Makin’ Whoopee‘ Lorelai confesses to Sookie that she didn’t want to tell Luke about Christopher, but she thought it was the only way Luke would believe it when she said “no” to his proposal to go elope. Lorelai truly does not believe that Luke wants to marry her. Of course, it doesn’t help that Luke is already calling Christopher Lorelai’s boyfriend and saying he’s “over it.” Put perhaps Luke has doubts too… doubts that Lorelai really wanted to marry him if she was so quick to return to Chris.

Photo: Scott Humbert/The CW ©2006 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Meanwhile, Lane is back from her honeymoon, admitting that it was quite a disaster of a trip. She realizes she married “that man” and is feeling sick and horrible. Well, we know why she’s feeling sick, but it sucks for her that she didn’t at least enjoy the process of getting that way on the honeymoon ;)

So, why does Lorelai have her doubts? Do actions speak louder than words? Or is she doubting herself too? And later, was Luke mean to her as payback for Lorelai’s infidelity during their fight? Or is he just dealing with his own doubts and jealousies again? And is Lane now doubting her marriage too? Or is that purely hormones?

Watch “Gilmore Girls” ‘That’s What You Get, Folks, For Makin’ Whoopee’

Check out Gilmore Girls on TheWB.com here.

In ‘Will You Be My Lorelai Gilmore?‘, Gilmore Girls re-captured my attention with a classic Stars Hollow episode. And, more than that, what I now consider the “perfect” baby shower. Ok, despite the fact that Rory has to run off to New York for her interview with the New York Times, and despite the fact that Lane has to be wheeled to the party in her bed, it comes off perfectly!

So, let’s take a look at the ‘ingredients’ that went into creating this perfect baby shower for Lane:

• All the Stars Hollow friends are there – a mix of young & old, man & woman
• Decorating the onesies at the "Onesies Painting Station"!! They then get hung up to dry on a clothesline and become part of the decor!
• Lots of music, including Zack singing a lullaby while a big cake with candles is wheeled out
• Over-the-top decor: streamers & balloons, banners, storks, co-ordinating fabrics and ribbons, twinkle lights, a big sign outside with "Lane & Zack’s Baby Shower"
• Fab little gift bags for all the guests with tiny blue soaps
• Pictures of Lane & Zack from their wedding with computer-morphed images of what their babies could look like
• A collage of photos from when Lane was growing up
• A "How big is Lane’s stomach" guessing contest
• Lots of themed food – chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with blue icing, candy pacifiers, fruits & veggies, punch, etc.

Watch this episode of Gilmore Girls on TheWB.com here.

Photo: Scott Humbert/The CW ©2006 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

So whatever happened to Rory’s best bud, Lane Kim?  In the wild and wacky world of TV-land – where Jason Ritter dates Lorelai Gilmore, then her daughter Rory – Lane has become a high school grief counsellor.

We’re sending some Gilmore-love and bestest wishes to Keiko Agena (Gilmore Girls’ long-suffering, hair-tousling, twin-toting bad-ass-drummer Lane Kim) who will guest spot in the upcoming ABC Family ‘mystery’ show, Twisted.  The show centres on a charismatic sixteen year guy just out from five years in juvenile detention, re-connecting with his two female best friends from childhood.  Sounds like he had a mum like Mrs Kim.

Might Lane have actually become a counsellor?  I can see her and Zack raising the twins to play rhythm guitar and keyboard and they play fusion country rock at family-friendly festivals with their loving, nutty uncles, Brian and Gil.  Freebird!

Man, Lane and Zack’s twins, Steve and Kwan, would have just turned six years old.  But Keiko will always look 17.  We’ll have some of what she’s having, thankyouverymuch.

What was your favourite Lane Kim moment?  What do you think she’s up to now?

Pics c/o Chris Keiko Agena and hepalien

In the Gilmore universe, weddings are a time for joyous celebration, expressing soppy feelings and destroying at least one other relationship to keep the karmic balance.

As you know, there’s a real life Gilmore Girls wedding waiting in the wings, where I envision Kirk DJ-ing and TJ wearing tights.  But what lessons might be learnt from weddings past?  

For better or worse, timing is everything.  Let’s kick off with Sookie and Jackson’s wedding:

Jackson: You won’t let me wear shorts in public and you’re gonna let me get married in this?

Christopher: This is absolutely unbelievable. I’ve waited years for this, Lor. You, Rory, the whole perfect picture and now…
Lorelai: Listen, I have to walk down the aisle in a minute and be really happy for Sookie and right now I’m having a little trouble standing so maybe it would be better if you would just go.
(2.22 I Can’t Get Started)

This episode was a great end to the second season, bringing us ‘Oy with the poodles already’, Rory’s Bambi face, Paris and Rory winning student President and Vice-President, Chris and Lorelai deciding to give it a go for about 6 hours but their timing is bad and Jess returning to Stars Hollow from car crash exile – surprising Rory and getting a kiss in return.

Then there’s Liz and TJ’s Renaissance wedding:

TJ: Well I wrote something down but for all the good points about tights and there are a lot,  they don’t have pockets. So I gotta go off the cuff… I love ya.
Lorelai: Aw, that wasn’t so funny.
Luke: Nah that wasn’t funny at all.

Luke: You want to dance?
Lorelai: Really?
(Cue Sam Phillips’ Reflecting Light)

Jess: You’re ready and I’m ready for this, you can count on me now!  I know you couldn’t count on me before but you can now, you can!
Rory: No!
Jess: Look you know we’re supposed to be together.  I knew it the first time I saw you two years ago and you know it too.  I know you do.
(4.21 Last Week Fights, This Week Tights)

… In which Dean rescues Rory from an awful date – incidentally setting up their poorly timed encounter at the Dragonfly grand opening.  Luke, finally, asks Lorelai out and Jess tries to take Rory away, but blows it.

There’s Richard and Emily’s renewing their vows after a period of separation, where Emily’s Machiavellian machinations backfire with Lorelai.

Lorelai [to Emily, with menace]: You and me, we’re done.
5.13 Wedding Bell Blues

And Lane and Zach’s two weddings, where Lorelai very publicly confronts not getting married:

Lorelai: But, hey, do you know what date I’m not getting married? June 3rd. Do not save the date. Do you hear me? Do whatever you want on June 3rd, because there’s nothing at all happening on that day.
(6.19 I Get A Sidekick Out Of You)

Lastly, there’s the impromptu wedding we don’t see in France, that nobody is invited to, including Rory.  And I guess there’s the wedding we hope for, at the end, when it seems that maybe – just maybe – the planets have finally aligned. Like I said, timing is everything.

Favourite or least favourite wedding moments?  If Lorelai and Luke got hitched, who’d be on the receiving end of the karmic stick?  Most importantly, do you think Jackson honoured the tradition of wearing nothing under his kilt?

He was the Mister Snuffleupagus of Stars Hollow. The oft-referred but never seen father of Lane Kim and husband to Mrs Kim. Throughout the show, Lane talked about her parents, but we saw neither hide nor hair of Mr Kim – not even at special occasions or family weddings.

Do you think writing him into the pilot episode was a mistake?  The writers never explained away other drastic changes, like Dean’s metamorphosis from suave reference-picker-upper in the pilot episode to the fumbler we see thereafter.

Was he merely a running joke, that wasn’t that funny?

Or a reference to absent fathers… perhaps Mr Kim represented the attitude that the presence (or absence) of a father figure doesn’t necessarily make any difference to a girl’s life.  It’s Gilmore Girls after all, not Gilmore People.  And Luke was originally written to be a woman – which would have made for a very oestrogen-rich environment. Why add another unnecessary male to the mix?

Certainly by not having him on-screen, Lane’s tortuous life was far easier to directly compare with Rory’s, both having strong mothers, apparently distant fathers but very different outcomes.

Can you imagine a scene with Mr and Mrs Kim?  Scolding Lane or banging a tambourine?  I can imagine him being a good fit for Stars Hollow and very watchable, if only to see his coping mechanisms in action.

Personally, I think Mrs Kim kept him chained up in a dungeon under the shop.  What do you reckon?

Pic c/o TheWB

The mighty John Cabrera (Brian with the deviated septum) tweeted last week that he, Keiko Agena (Lane) and Todd Lowe (Zack) jammed earlier this month, reprising vocals and drums for a rendition of The White Stripes’ Fell In Love With A Girl.  How cool?  Damn cool.  Photographic evidence right here.

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Walking with her best friend, Rory Gilmore, through the small town of Stars Hollow, she strips off her jacket and puts on a Woodstock ’99 tee. Lane Kim is introduced on Gilmore Girls as the girl who hides her love of “evil rock music” from her very traditional Korean parents; parents who want to see her in line to marry a Korean doctor before she’s even graduated high school. By the end of the series, Lane Kim has revealed her true self to her mother, the formidable Mrs. Kim, playing as part of her own band, Hep Alien, marrying the ‘bad boy’ guitarist Zach Van Gerbig, and having twin boys, after a single and unsatisfying honeymoon excursion.

To say that Lane Kim is the most underrated character on Gilmore Girls would be an understatement. For 154 episodes, actress Keiko Agena helped bring Lane Kim to life on screen for us. Helped Lane blossom from a quietly rebelling high schooler into a mature, confident and quirky mother-of-two who is not afraid to stand up for herself and those she loves.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Keiko Agena, who plays Lane Kim, a couple of weeks ago, during a break in her filming schedule before she was expected to return to the Gilmore Girls set for her final day of filming. Keiko was on set this Monday, filming a bittersweet last day on Gilmore Girls, wrapping up what promises to be a fitting tribute to an amazing series.

“It was really sweet and exciting and like a reunion, I guess. I’ve never been to a class reunion. I assume it’s something like that, where you see people and you’re kind of catching up to what they’ve been up to. It’s been a very nice experience.”

Me and my #gilmoregirlsrevival stand in, Roxy! :) this is my last day of filming… Sad, but glad we got the opportunity. Thank you to EVERYONE who has ever shown support to our show. It makes a difference. #lanekim #gilmoregirls

A photo posted by keikoagena (@keikoagena) on May 9, 2016 at 11:53am PDT

Last "last day" #gilmoregirlsrevival pic. It's me and Andrew|@mikegandolfi ! #gilmoregirls #lanekim

A photo posted by keikoagena (@keikoagena) on May 9, 2016 at 6:36pm PDT

From what it was like to audition for the part of Lane Kim to the mystery of Mr. Kim to the feeling of being back on set, read on for more insight from Keiko Agena.

Amy Sherman-Palladino loosely modelled the character of Lane Kim after her friend Helen Pai, a Korean-American writer, director and producer, who worked on the show, doing everything from script coordination to set design. Helen Pai is also an anagram for the eventual band name, Hep Alien, which would become the foundation of how Lane Kim begins to find herself.

Keiko Agena, who grew up in Honolulu, auditioned for the part of 16-year-old Lane Kim when she was 26. Keiko credits her age as one of the factors that helped her relax in the audition process:

“Three things that made me completely relax in the audition: First, I had never been through a network test experience, so I was completely naive to that,” Keiko notes. “I didn’t know the process, which I think helped me. Second, I had just gotten a small recurring role in Felicity, so I was more distracted by that. And third, I was 26 at the time, and thought ‘I’m way too old to play this character, I won’t worry about it. There’s no way they’re going to choose me, so I’m just going to go in there and just say the lines.’”

“When I read the script, I realized, ‘I don’t need to do anything, this character is written so well. I just need to come in and say these great lines and then leave.’ There was no spin in there for me to put in, I felt. I guess it happened to work!”

Given that the role of Lane Kim was based upon Helen Pai, and the character was originally well-defined, I was curious if Keiko felt she had influenced Lane over the years in any way.

“Amy is very specific about what she wants on the day when everything’s written, but I do think that she and Dan, like every great writer, are influenced by what is happening,” Keiko shares. “There are definitely times where I feel actor worlds and writing worlds kind of mesh. I always think back to Kirk and Cat Kirk. Kirk has this love of animals. And Sean, if you follow him online, loves cats, and I think had a cat that was pretty vicious that he really loved. It’s little things like that come into the writing world, because they are open and listening to everything at the same time, from politics and pop culture and what’s happening in the actor’s lives; what they’re breathing into things and bringing into things.

In the case of Sean, where he went from being a one-day player to becoming a series regular, or Liza Weil, who auditioned for Rory’s part and they created a part for her, because she was so great, are a couple of how what the actor’s brought helped influence what kind of story developed.”

Of course, the same can be said for Lane. Although she’s perhaps too close to the character to ‘see’ it, Keiko believes that her own personality shines from within Lane:

“I’m kind of neurotic and that kind of seeped into the Lane world. I think she started out much cooler and more of an observer, than a neurotic stress-case, but I think I brought those elements into it,” Keiko jokes.

The ability for Amy and Sherman-Palladino to recognize talent, and cultivate it, is what has allowed these powerful characters to evolve. We’ve seen, even during the filming of the revival, how storylines have been adapted to include additional actors, both returning and new, such as was the case with the return of Melissa McCarthy. Keiko admits that she was originally skeptical about the return of Gilmore Girls, but once it was moving forward, she always held out hope that Melissa McCarthy would return:

“I never expected Gilmore Girls to actually come back! I think people have been suggesting it for a long time, and my response is always, ‘That’s a lovely thought, but there’s no possible way it’s going to happen.’ And I’m a little bit of a pessimist, so even as it was all unfolding, I was like ‘Well, we’ll see.’

I feel so grateful that all the pieces worked out and that it was possible to do and that very last thing, that Melissa was able to come in and work on the show, is perfect. I was still holding out hope that that would happen, and the fact that it’s happening is just phenomenal.”

Although the introduction of platforms such as Netflix have opened up new possibilities for revivals, with television shows attracting a whole new generation of viewers, Keiko has some thoughts on what has helped Gilmore Girls stand the test of time:

“Amy Sherman-Palladino has created this unique world,” Keiko explains, “The environment she created is so specific and unique in television-land where this fantastical little small town where everybody is so smart and quips at a million miles an hour. It’s a sort of quaintness and innocence and this hyper-intelligence at the same time.”

Keiko also gives credit to Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel, whose “acting chops” and dynamic helped set the stage for success. Keiko also believes that Rory is a very unique character on television:

“The Rory character is intriguing. She’s a young girl who is more interested in books and expanding her mind and doing well than maybe the things that most 16-year-old girls are interested in, at least on the television landscape.”

Lane, too, is one of the more unique characters on television. Although the relationship between Lane Kim and her mother, Mrs. Kim (played by Emily Kuroda) has been criticized as being heavy on the stereotypes, if we look beyond that, we see a very unique mother-daughter relationship. We perceive Lane as rebelling against her mother’s strict rules: changing how she dresses, hiding her music and decor amongst the floorboards of her room, expressing herself only in the safety of her best friend, Rory Gilmore, and her surrogate ‘fun’ mom, Lorelai Gilmore. And yet, while the teenage rebellion is not unique to television, Lane never acts out against her mother with anger or hatred.

Keiko once shared that Lane, much like Helen Pai, may have disagreed with her parents, and may have hidden a great deal of her life from them, but she “wasn’t angry and didn’t rebel in the same way” that other teenagers would have. Keiko expanded on that feeling for me:

“I think instinctually, I felt that way. I had a point of view about that. I think it’s also true about Helen herself, so that might be just the way it was written, but I think that there was always this gut feeling that no matter what Mrs. Kim is asking, the root of it is this fierce ‘Mama bear,’ need to protect. It was coming from a fierce love. A love that’s too intense.”

From Mrs. Kim’s perspective, it was all based on love: “It always felt like Lane was topmost in her mind. It never came form a place of diminishing her or controlling her, even though everything that she’s doing is controlling Lane, but the impetus of it felt like a strongly good place.”

Mrs. Kim was motivated by love, and as such, “It never seemed like Lane hated her. I never felt a fight in Lane to hurt her mom.”

Could the absence of Mr. Kim, the biggest mystery of the series, play a role in the dynamic between Lane and her mother, Mrs. Kim? Keiko shares her own feelings on the absence of Mr. Kim and why, just perhaps, he may not actually be absent after all.

“In my mind, and I’ve never discussed this with anybody, even Emily or Amy, Mr. Kim was always there,” muses Keiko, “Even though we never talked about Mr. Kim, and it was never explained to me logistically where he was, but for some reason, I felt that they were married and that he was just somewhere. I know it doesn’t make any sense; he didn’t come to the wedding, and so on, there’s no logical reason for me to feel this way. In my gut, for some reason, my mother is a married woman.”

Keiko believes that Mr. Kim was simply “Travelling. He was away from home. I don’t know the specifics, but I felt like religion played a part in it somehow.”

Initial seasons of Gilmore Girls often referred to “Lane’s parents,” and Lane sometimes refers to her father, but the subject quietly disappears. Was it intentional, to create a mystery? Keiko jokes, “The unexplained!” However, the subject of Mr. Kim has not been one that bothered Keiko, who surprisingly has never asked about it:

“I don’t know if it’s the fact that Emily and I are both Japanese or what, but Emily and I never had a conversation about it. Amy and I have never had a conversation about it. And for some weird reason, that felt okay? It shouldn’t. I don’t know if that’s some weird voodoo Amy put out into the world, at least for me, for us, but I don’t know why. And I don’t know why I never asked her or Dan about it!”

Readers here at GilmoreNews can now wonder if Keiko decided to ask about it on her last day of filming this week! In Part 2 of my interview with Keiko Agena, Keiko shares what it has been like to be back on set, the fandom surrounding Hep Alien, and what other projects she’s working on now.

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Keiko Agena brought life to Lane Kim, breathing into her character all the nuance of a funky, nerdy, music-obsessed girl who slowly transforms into a self-confident woman. In the first part of my interview with Keiko Agena, we heard Keiko’s theories on the mysterious absence of Mr. Kim, the unique relationship between Lane and Mrs. Kim and what it was like to audition for the role of a much-younger Lane Kim. In Part 2 of our interview series, Keiko expounds on on the fandom around Hep Alien, her favourite and most challenging scenes on Gilmore Girls, what it was like to be back on set for the revival, and some of her other projects.

Lane, aside from her relationship with her mother, grew exponentially as a character during the original series. We see Lane Kim struggle to express her love of music, with her passion hidden away under the floorboards or relegated to Rory’s room. When her passion could no longer be contained, Lane began creating music. She learned how to play the drums. Keiko, who previously only played clarinet in junior high, shares how it felt to be given the gift of music on the show:

“I remember driving around Los Angeles when I got the phone call. I think it was Patricia Palmer, who was one of the producers at that time, told me that they were going to develop this for the Lane character and that they were going to set up drumming lessons for me. I was floored. I just loved the idea. And I continue to love playing drums and music after the show.”

The passion for creating music has followed Keiko, who now jams regularly with her husband Shin Kawasaki’s group, MidTones, and played drums in the secret Hep Alien reunion show at the ATX Festival last year. Hep Alien, which was created from the anagram of Helen Pai’s name, has been a fan-favourite element of Gilmore Girls. I asked Keiko why she thinks Hep Alien has resonated so well with fans:

“There are all these little moments that I think the fans are amazing that they notice it. I think, in my mind, Hep Alien is one of those things that they just like. There are all these moments in Gilmore girls that it’s just this eclectic off-the-main-road item. The fact that the fans like it is sweet, and it’s a testament to them how much they pay attention and invest in that.”

Hep Alien underwent its own shift during Gilmore Girls when original guitarist Dave Rygalski (based on Helen Pai’s real-life husband) left, when actor Adam Brody joined The O.C. Replacing Adam was Sebastian Bach, who joined the series as Gil, a guitarist with a long history in “rock and roll.” Sebastian, known as the frontman of Skid Row, came to the series as a seasoned musician amongst a group of actors-playing-musicians. Keiko shares that, despite that, she never felt pressure from a musical standpoint:

“If Sebastian had come in as a singer, maybe that would have been a lot of pressure on us, as non-musicians, to kind of live up to that. Sebastian does not play guitar at all, so the fact that initially he’s this guitarist and he’s coming in as an actor, which he has done, but not a lot at this point, and he comes in like a ball of energy and eagerness, and a joy, he made it just fun from the very beginning. I never felt weird pressure, musically.”

I believe it also helps that the group of actors has always had amazing chemistry on-screen, reflected by their continued friendships offscreen, even to this day. Of course, filming a show like Gilmore Girls for 7 seasons would result in some amazing relationships, but also some amazing memories. Keiko shares what two of her favourite scenes were:

“When we shot the pilot, because there was a scene, I think it was the very very first thing we ever shot, was me and Alexis doing a walk-and-talk in the cold, and remembering that we had to talk faster. I think we shot that three times. I think it was the Dean scene, where we ended up hiring Jared Padalecki after three times of re-shooting that scene.

And when Mrs. Kim finally finds all the stuff under floors. When Mrs. Kim is walking into the room and seeing everything exposed, finally, after so many years of hiding. And just the look on her face, on Emily’s (Mrs. Kim’s) face! ‘The jig is up, this is it, there is no more wiggle room. something is shifting right now.'”

The years of hiding were over, and the discovery was both surprising and painful, but it gave Lane the freedom to move on and pursue her dreams in the open. We, as readers, saw a different side to Lane after that day.

Some scenes stick out for different reasons, however. Keiko describes one such challenging scene in ‘Hay Bale Maze,’ which has remained with her to this day:

“I remember there was a particular walk-and-talk where there was the whole town involved, it was some harvest festival, and I felt so bad for this extra background artist in the back, who at the very beginning of this walk-and-talk had to move this bale of hay from one pile to another and then, at the very end of the scene, Lane gets very heated, and I think we’re walking into a beauty shop or something, and it’s like ‘Stop, Freeze!’ and there are a couple of lines I would flub a little bit. On Gilmore Girls, we’re word-perfect, and I would just think, ‘Why can’t this particular line come out of my mouth?!’ And not that the guy ever complained, but I just remember trudging back across town thinking ‘Oh no, I’m going to make this poor man keep moving this hay bale thing!’ I’m sure he’s just thinking ‘Girl, just get this line right, so we can move on to the next scene!’”

As we move to current day, Lane is no longer the shy and restrained teenager, nor the rebellious twenty-something seeking her new life. As we left Lane in Season 7, she was a mom to twin boys, left on her own as her husband, Zack, pursued life on the road as a guitarist. Although Keiko admits she’s unsure her character would have followed that path, under Amy Sherman-Palladino’s direction, it nonetheless became the “reality” of her character, and they all moved forward from that point. The “new” Lane, though mom now to young boys, is still true to herself:

“I think that Lane, even being a mother, feels very much like Lane.”

Somewhere on the spectrum from Lorelai Gilmore to Mrs. Kim, Lane has found her own path as a mother, and we’re going to see that in the Gilmore Girls revival. Although Keiko couldn’t share with us where Lane is at now in her life, she feels we’ll be happy with the end result:

“I think it’s very well written and my hope is that people will enjoy it very much. There are things that are written that wrap up certain storylines, and yet…

It’s definitely much more of a closure for everyone that the way we left it at Season 7. Season 7 was just heartbreaking because nobody knew if we were coming back for Season 8. So, in that way, definitely. I don’t think you could have any more weird non-closure. Well, maybe you could, but it was definitely an ‘up in the air feeling’ at the end of Season 7, so I’m glad we’ve had this chance to come back.”

Coming back, after many years away, and as a more seasoned actor, has been emotional for many members of the cast. Thankful for the chance to come back, and knowing it’s such a brief experience, has changed how many actors approach their time on set, including Keiko:

“I think I was more relaxed, maybe, as an actor. I had more fun during the filming of it. I think Lane, and Amy’s writing, is just so great that, as soon as we started, you could just feel the rhythm come back into it. I think we all felt it right from the table read, even before filming started, but just hearing people actually say the words again feels so familiar.”

Of course, as Gilmore Girls sets to wrap filming this week, many of us are looking ahead. Wondering if we could see the storylines picked up for more instalments, following the successful model the BBC runs with Sherlock, which inspired Amy’s take on Gilmore Girls: Seasons.

“I don’t know!,” notes Keiko in reference to coming back for more instalments. “I would like to maybe get through, successfully, this series first, and hopefully everybody’s happy with it. The fans and everything! That would be my first hope.”

Over the years since the end of Gilmore Girls, Keiko has pursued many interests, including puppetry, a variety of artistic pursuits, from her original Mango Pop line to her new drawings, which she hopes to transform into an adult coloring book, her jam time with MidTones, her acting, her script writing (crossing our fingers for a Keiko Agena film!) and lately her new podcast, the Drunk Monk Podcast with Will Choi.

“One of the things I have the most fun with right now is the Drunk Monk Podcast with Will Choi. It’s the thing I most enjoy doing at the moment. I feel like it’s a strange platform to use to be honest and revelatory, but it’s what has occurred. We talk about the show [“Monk“], and that’s the jumping off point, but beyond that, we do improve and have recurring characters and kind of talk about things that matter to us. And there’s also, the fact that we will bring an Asian-American perspective to whatever we’re talking about. I thoroughly enjoy it!”

Keiko and Will are a part of an improv team, Renegade Justice Patrol (RJP), that perform at IO West, and Keiko is a part of three additional improv teams, Ham Radio and a new group out of UCB called Totally Heather, and Dunovan, also out of UCB. Keiko welcomes fans to come see any of her shows, whether it’s jamming with the MidTones or performing in an improv sketch, stay tuned to @KeikoAgena or Facebook for all the details on her latest work.

And lastly, we have the most important question to put forth to Keiko. Is she Team Jess, Team Logan or Team Dean?

“I’m still Team Jess!,” insists Keiko, who gets asked this often. “I was almost going to say ‘I’m more open to Team Logan,’ but that’s just not true. It’s just because Matt’s so great, as a person. There’s so many Logan lovers. I’m just not with it. I can’t! He’s great. Is he handsome? Yeah. He has a lot of money? Yeah. He’s not great as a boyfriend. I just can’t do it. Sorry!”

Thank you once again to Keiko for sharing with us this insight into the mind of Lane Kim!

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I ran across a Tumblr user who is creating some amazing aesthetic collages for Gilmore Girls that I just had to share! Each collage is inspired by a character on Gilmore Girls, a particular quote from the series, then mixes in photos from the series with visuals that best represent each person. The whole series is worth a visit, but these three are my ultimate favourites!

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Music is integral to Gilmore Girls; it’s woven into the storytelling, it’s a key theme in the many pop culture references within the show, and it’s a key passion to many of the key players. Rory and Lorelai both share a passion for music, but it’s through Lane Kim (Keiko Agena) that this passion finds voice and through Hep Alien that we are allowed a place to rock out with abandon. Joining forces with Lane in Hep Alien were Dave Rygalski (Adam Brody), Brian Fuller (John Cabrera) and Zack Van Gerbig (Todd Lowe), and later Gil (Sebastian Bach).

It’s through the absence of Dave that we are given a better introduction to Zack, who ultimately becomes Lane’s husband and father to her twin boys. I had a chance to talk with Todd Lowe about his role in Gilmore Girls, how he felt about his shift into this leading-man role, and what it was like to return to Stars Hollow for Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.

Todd Lowe joined Gilmore Girls as Zack van Gerbig in Season 3 after auditioning for the role with a Pixies song sung half in English, half in German:

“I came in way back in 2002 or 2003 in the third season,” Todd shares, “I read and they asked me to sing something. At the time I was performing in a comedy band where we pretended we were pop singers in Los Angeles from Germany, so I sang a Pixies song in half German, half English. I got the call a couple of days later! I thought it was just a one-off, but they kept adding more and more episodes.”

Little did Todd know that his role would grow to one that would encompass 42 episodes across 5 seasons of the show. Todd came to Gilmore Girls early in his acting career, three years after finishing his degree at the University of Texas. It was at university that Todd also explored his interest in music. “I went to school at the University of Texas in Austin and they kind of hand you a guitar when you go to that town! I had picked one up in high school and started playing. In Austin, I used it in comedy acts and played in little bands. It stayed by me, I stuck with it. I wish I was better than I was, but I enjoy playing and I enjoy singing and trying to tell jokes at the same time.”

Todd continues to play music, currently in a band called LA Hootenanny, which Todd describes as a “bar band” – a group of 11 musicians who love music and get together in some form whenever they can.

Zack Van Gerbig has always remained a bit of mystery on Gilmore Girls. He joins the band without being the “primary” guitarist, taking a back seat to Dave Rygalski (Adam Brody), who immediately strikes it off with Lane Kim. Zack, though, has always been the one who shared Lane’s seriousness for music, even if the rest of his character lacked seriousness or depth, at least initially. Given how little we are told about Zack, I asked Todd his opinion.

“Well, he was just a guy,” shares Todd. “I think he might be a couple of years older than Brian and Lane, who just showed up in Lane’s band. He lived in Stars Hollow, probably working slacker-type jobs, but wanted to be a musician. Was very serious about how we had to be ‘True Rockers.’”

Todd shares that playing Zack has always felt comfortable, thanks to the insight of Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino: “A good writer will talk to their actors and will learn their speech patterns and rhythms. I mean, it’s not a second skin I had to jump back into when I came back to do this again. The character fits me pretty well. Maybe she could have made him an amateur theatre guy, because that’s a little closer to who I am. I spend a little bit more time doing plays than I do music, but she kept it in my voice, I think, and never stretched it too far.”

Todd notes that his character was given more depth and focus when Dave Rygalski took off. This was not the original plan for Gilmore Girls, but rather happened with actor Adam Brody left to join The O.C.. Todd shares with us how this opened the door for Zack, “Since Dave Rygalski took off, I think he was slated to be Lane’s love interest, and then I guess I was the next guy in line. So they kind of wrote for me and her to get married.”

This shift in love interest has been rather polarizing for fans, who believed that Lane belonged with Dave. Indeed, it’s very likely that was the path Lane was on. “I think he was the next choice of what they wanted to do with the storyline,” muses Todd. “It’s pretty common knowledge that Hep Alien is an anagram for Helen Pai, our music coordinator, and she married a musician named Dave Rygalski and I think that Amy probably had that in her head. Amy and Helen were friends growing up, so she paralleled that with Rory and Lane and so she just kind of wrote from what she knew. So I was the next man up, and lucky me!”

While many fans believe that Lane and Dave were ‘meant to be,’ an equal number grew to respect the relationship that grew between Lane and Zack and the maturity of Zack through the seasons. By the end of the series, Zack had matured into a caring and doting husband, nervous about his new role as a father to twins. On the surprise pregnancy, Todd notes, “From what I remember, we went to Mexico and with the aid of a faulty prophylactic, was how the conception happened. And bam, there we are. We’re in it. I think a lot of people it happens to that way.”

For Zack, it was a moment that helped shape him into a stronger person, “I’d like to think that with an impending pregnancy… that’s going to sober a good man up and I think that Zack was a good guy,” notes Todd. When we left Zack & Lane at the end of Season 7 of Gilmore Girls, Zack had landed a role as guitarist for an opening band, going on tour while Lane stayed home with the boys. Todd sees this as Zack’s way of taking responsibility for his kids, “He used the tools that he had to go out and perform while his wife stayed home. He’s got to go out and win some kind of bread! So, he did what he knew how to do…”

I asked Todd what he think happened to Zack in the 9 years before when we see the series pick back up for Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, and Todd suggests that Zack perhaps continued to play music “with maybe another act,” but that likely he stepped up to find other work. “I don’t want to spoil anything and say what’s going on now, but he followed that dream as a young musician and Lane gave him a blessing and so he went off and did his stuff and came back after a few months on tour… and probably had to look for other work.”

Just as we would hope for Lane, which I discussed recently with Keiko Agena, we all hope that Zack continued with his pursuit of music. Todd notes, “I think he would try to strike a balance of both. Find a job, like any struggling musician or artist, to pay the bills while he does what he wants to do at night. And Lane is also in the band too! But once the babies come, where do you put a drum kit when you’ve got two bassinets?”

Although we won’t know the answer to that one until we see Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, we all hope that music continued to be a part of their lives. Of course, it’s quite promising that all members of Hep Alien are confirmed to return for Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life. Indeed, the fandom surrounding Hep Alien is quite intense, as evidence at the recent Hep Alien secret show at the ATX Festival this past summer.

Indeed, we can give credit to Todd for the first live performance of Hep Alien at the ATX Festival, featuring Todd Lowe, John Cabrera and Keiko Agena, “That was something that John and I… we were just sitting and having coffee and we were like ‘We’re going to this festival’ and Austin is my hometown,” Todd shares, noting that he made some calls and the band, supplemented with some additional musicians, began rehearsing. In the end, the response was overwhelming. “It went over great. It was hot as hell! It was 110 degrees in that asphalt parking lot on South Congress. I was sweating big time! But Man, I felt like The Beatles! There were just screaming when we came out! We had a police escort off the stage… or patio I should say.”

#HepAlien Reunion!!! #ATXTVs4 #ATXGilmoreGirls #gilmoregirlsreunion @johncabrera @KeikoAgena @Todd__Lowe pic.twitter.com/am1kdp4wk9

— Alexa Gonzalez Wagz (@alexagwagner) June 6, 2015

The fandom surrounding Hep Alien could mirror non-fictional band and is a part of Gilmore Girls that has given rise to a very unique fan base. Todd suggests that Hep Alien resonated because they were relatable, “They picked smart covers that we did; they are fun songs. We aren’t the best band, so maybe people can relate to it. Very few bands become huge mega acts and I don’t think Hep Alien is ever going to be selling out arenas! I think it’s relatable. The chemistry within the band between Zack and Brian, I mean they all lived together. Hopefully we landed a couple of the jokes on the series! We don’t sound bad, half the time!”

Taking part in 42 episodes, I asked Todd which episode was his favourite. “I like the scene where I lose my shit and take it out my band at the big showcase. We get in a big fight,” Todd shares. “I think Dan wrote that episode… it was inspired by that movie Dig!, and in fact the title of that episode was ‘He’s Slipping’ ‘Em Bread… Dig?’ and then we had that guy Joel from the The Brian Jonestown Massacre band [featured in the Dig! documentary], and they re-enacted a scene from that documentary where it’s a big show and the egotistical musician wants to micro-manage everything and it creates a terrible tension and explodes on stage. That was a lot of fun to shoot.”

Co-star John Cabrera also mentioned this episode as one of his favourites, in a past interview with GilmoreNews. The on-screen chemistry between the members of Hep Alien was mirrored offline with friendships that have continued to this day. I asked Todd who his favourite person to work with was, and he remained faithful to his bandmates, “I’d have to say who I’m closest with, and that would be Keiko and John, and I’d have to say when Sebastian Bach came in, that was just a shot in the arm that was unexpected and made those days really fun. Even when we’d have to have rehearsals to prep the number that we were going to do on the show, spending time with those guys was just a blast and I think it reflected in our chemistry on the screen. And I got to work with Carole King, that was pretty cool.”

It was recently revealed that talks of a reunion began almost as soon as Gilmore Girls went off air, though only more seriously in the past two years. I asked Todd if he believed Gilmore Girls would come back. “No. I knew it was playing 2 or 3 times a day on ABC Family after the series went down, and then when the original came out on Netflix a couple of years ago, it got an enormous second wind. I was working on True Blood, which was a really high profile show, but then I started getting a lot of people – like friends of my girlfriend’s kids, they’re high schoolers – and they would know me from Gilmore Girls, which was a while ago. I’m so impressed that… it was very 2000s and a lot of very topical reference to the time, and now the younger people of today are still getting them, or maybe they’re Googling what was referenced on the show and remembering back to bands like The Shins, and things like that… you can’t underestimate the generation younger than you, because they’re just as smart, if not smarter, than we are.”

Todd shares that he heard about the Gilmore Girls revival initially from John Cabrera, who sent him a text with the news, and then it was a waiting game to see if his character would return. “Well, then it was ‘Ooh, boy, I wonder if they’re going to use me? I assume they’re going to use me, unless they’re going to write me out and say Zack died on tour and Lane’s raising the kids by herself! It was a bit of a waiting game and they I finally got a call from casting that said, ‘Yes, hold Todd for these available dates in the Spring.’” And the rest is history!

Todd says he returns for Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life for more than one episode, and that little has changed, apart from his pant size and hair color. “I probably have the distinction of being the person who’s aged the most,” Todd jokes. “My hair’s completely grey. But I’m just saying that as a pre-emptive strike if any Internet hate flies my way.”

Todd says that being back in Stars Hollow was amazing, “The art department did an incredible job! I show up and there’s Luke’s Diner and there’s new signage about smartphones and such that you would expect. But yeah, there’s Taylor’s Market, it looks exactly the same, they put the gazebo back. I thought they would just build set-by-set, but no, they built the whole town, all at once. And there we were!”

Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life will give fans 4 new episodes, 90-minute each, and Todd says we’ll be happy with the material. “Oh yeah, oh yeah yeah yeah. Don’t worry! I thought it was funnier this time around! Now, maybe there’s an imbalance between the funniness and the heartfelt stuff, but the table reads were a riot. And yes, it’s got its heartfelt moments too. I think fans will be pleased. I hope so!”

Of course, with the talks circling already about more Gilmore Girls episodes, I had to ask Todd if he would be game to return for more: “Of course! Of course! That was the first big job I had in Los Angeles and it has a special place in my heart and I’m so grateful to Amy and Dan. I mean, I did 40 or so episodes, I paid off my student loans, it kind of validated me.  ‘I can play a part in a tv show, I’m doing the right thing.’ Because it’s kind of scary to move out to Los Angeles and try this and yeah, it gave me the validation like, ‘Hey, I can work on television, this is nice’,

Of course, no GilmoreNews interview would be complete without the question, is Todd Team Dean, Team Jess or Team Logan? “I would say that I’m Team Logan,” Todd asserts. “He seems the smartest. Rory’s a smart girl.”

If you miss seeing Todd regularly on television, for Gilmore Girls or True Blood, you may soon find him in a new digital series for Verizon’s Go90, the same platform currently hosting Milo Ventimiglia’s new series, Relationship Status. Todd’s new series is called Cold.

“I shot a little pilot / digital series for the upcoming Verizon Go90 platform. I shot this in Sudbury, Ontario. It’s not a Canadian series, but it’s set in Canada. I play an incarcerated man in a Canadian prison. I hope it’s a hit! It’s a young Canadian director, her name is Emily Diana Ruth, so we’re seeing what the response is on that and seeing if there’s another season. It’s called Cold series. Produced by Ron Howard and Brian Glazer. They shot like 2 hours of material that they’re going to release in 10-minute episodes, like 10-minute series. They hope people will binge it like they would a normal series.”

Stay tuned for more information about Todd’s new series, as it becomes available. And tune in on November 25th to see what Zack is up to now on Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.

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From what I understand, Season 7 of Gilmore Girls was judged as less than, as compared to the previous six seasons–maybe even a travesty.  Something was missing.

That something was creators Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino.  Beyond being showrunners, they were auteurs, creating a complete living-and-breathing fictional world.  Along with writing and directing episodes, they supervised every plotline, word and image .  The show had their distinct voice, especially evident in the dialogue and characterizations of Lorelai and Rory Gilmore.  This took a lot of work and after six seasons, the Palladinos rightfully asked for extra staff to help ease the grind.  Despite excellent ratings for the network, Warner Bros. turned them down and did not renew their contract (they took away their parking spaces suddenly, like a slap in the face).  Fans were and are still angry about this, feeling that although the show continued and came to somewhat of a conclusion (Rory graduating and getting a journalism job, Lorelai and Luke reuniting), the show felt unfinished.

The team that Warner hired to replace the Palladinos were certainly talented and “kept the lights on”, but the show wasn’t the same.  And ironically, they had to hire extra writers anyhow to make up for the vacuum left.

Ratings sagged and the show was cancelled.  The cast and crew didn’t find out until after the season’s wrap party, robbing them of a proper goodbye.

As Gilmore Girls fandom has grown over the years, with the series binge-watched and debated (i.e. the Gilmore Guys podcast and more), Season 7 has been generally derided.

However, when asked about Season 7, Amy Sherman-Palladino said she did not watch it at the time, but has caught up with it on re-runs.  She didn’t diss it–seemingly more interested in seeing where the storylines had gone.  She obviously wanted to note this information in case she had a chance to finish the show as she had intended, last four words and all.  And now she has her chance.

For me, Season 7 is a mixed bag, good with the bad.  It’s a testament to the world and characters the Palladinos built so well, giving the new team a clear template to work from.

The biggest problem for me is the handling of Lorelai and Rory, and since they are the center of the show, it is big hole, but not quite a sink hole.

Here’s the good and bad, at least to me:

The Bad

Chatterbox Lorelai barely speaks in the first two episodes.  After grieving the end of her relationship with Luke, Lorelai does start speaking once again and generally the dialogue is good, sometimes sparkling although the signature pop-culture references are muted.  Character-wise, she seems to go with the flow and doesn’t drive the action.  She falls into marriage to Christopher, then out, then spends time tending to Emily and Rory.  However, I did like the way they repaired her relationship with Luke slowly and in an unforced way (Luke calls Lorelai when April is sick, Luke shows his new neice to Lorelai, Luke comes to help with Richard is in the hospital, Luke stitches together the tent for Rory’s goodbye party).

Rory was a biggest letdown for me.  We got to know her as a super-bright, super-ambitious girl who dreamed from an early age about attending Harvard and then becoming Christiane Amampour.  She pursues these dreams with great persistence despite the many bumps and detours along the way.  Relationships are important to her but what we truly admire is her ambition and talent (yea Team Rory!).  In Season 7, she becomes a simpering girlfriend type, mooning over Logan, seemingly helpless without him.  His ups and downs domiante her life.  She’s not the Rory who faces down Paris, talks back to Emily, or takes charge of the Yale Daily News.  Also, her passivity over handling her future–fearing a void after graduation, worrying she’ll never get a job as a journalist.  Maybe it’s realistic–I had no clue when I graduated.  But Rory was always self-driven, better and smarter than us mere mortals.

Paul Anka turned into a fairly regular and rarely seen pooch.  Disappointing.

The Good:

Generally, I found there were some terrific moments in Season 7–actually some of my favorite.  Plus in general, the supporting characters and eccentric Stars Hollow happenings were handled much as before.

Here are some of the moments I loved the best:

• Luke and Christopher’s Neanderthal fight in the town square, wrecking the Christmas decorations.  This was so primal and satisfying, a long time coming.
• Lane being wheeled through the streets on her bed, Monkees’ style to her baby shower.
• The Knit-a-Thon that Christopher ruins, showing how he doesn’t get or belong in Stars Hollow.
• Lorelai heartbreakingly singing “I Will Always Love You” while Luke looks on.
• Kirk wrecking Luke’s Diner and then opening Kirk’s Diner across the street, taking advantage of the situation, even offering Luke a job application.
• Christiane Amampour giving Rory advice in the final episode, “Bon Voyage”.
• Emily in jail.

In general, I liked how Emily was handled, feeling she stayed in character–as controlling and clueless as ever.

I especially loved Lane’s pregnancy–which apparently Keiko was not thrilled about–because it brought her in direct conflict with her mother.  But through this, Lane began to understand her mother’s motivations a bit more, while also hating how much his mother and Zach bonded over the pregnancy.

Paris was as Paris as ever, whether typically crazy detailed plans on her pre-graduation plans or breaking up with Doyle to not influence her choice of graduate school and career direction.  I’m always happy whenever there’s a scene with Paris.

And finally, I think they got Luke right.  In the absence of Lorelai, they filled the vacuum his family and the other supporting characters–April and the custody battle, his sister Liz and her husband T.J. having a baby, plus Kirk and Zach at the diner.  Throughout, Luke showed what an upstanding guy he was and why we got to love him so much.

All in all, whatever the merits or demerits of Season 7, things did feel unfinished leading now to Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.  More Gilmore Girls, finally!  So for that, I judge Season 7 to be a success.  Huzzah!

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In a new interview, Todd Lowe reveals that we will see a bit of insight into Zack’s marriage to Lane,

“It’s about seven years later and we’ll see how married life has affected them,” Lowe, 39, tells Us. “They fell in love by just proximity to each other and sharing musical interests. They just happened to mesh really well.”

In my own interview recently with Todd Lowe, he talked about what it was like to be a “rocker-turned-father” and how that would have caused him to struggle balancing family with his musical interest. It sounds like, from this new interview, that Zack is still very much a “rock snob,” and we can’t wait to see where they are and to meet their now grown-up twins, played by Ezra Dewey and Lucas Jay!

#gilmoregirls audition with @actorlucasjaye . We booked it and got to hang out at #warnerbrostudios for the day.

A photo posted by Ezra (@ezradewey) on Apr 3, 2016 at 4:42pm PDT

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Keiko Agena just did an “ask me anything” (AMA) on the Reddit Gilmore Girls page, asking a wild variety of amazing fan questions such as:

• Who owns the Secret Bar?
• Her favourite scene to film in the revival
• The obligations she felt in creating a well-rounded Asian character
• Confirmation that Lane’s house scenes were actually Sookie’s old house
• Her mixed feelings about working at Kim’s Antiques and her hope that Lane has more left to her story
• Keiko’s opinions on Jess & Logan, which are the best

I also had a chance to interview Keiko prior to the revival, which you can read here. I do hope, if one day we get more Gilmore Girls, that the story of Lane gets its own arc, aside from the peripheral views we saw through either Rory or Lorelai. It would be super satisfying, I think, to see her face her own challenge. 

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