Rewriting the revival because I’m procrastinating

Note - this is just for fun

Will probably edit this post to add new parts/ideas etc

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It Begins:

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Lorelai rushes through a cold, wintery Stars Hollow and heads into the diner, manically shouting at Luke as she does

The paper she’s waving at him is the New York Times, with Rory’s article

Luke offers her coffee, but she turns him down. “I’m too buzzed for coffee”

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Lorelai and Luke are good, same as ever, but married now. Their wedding photos are all over the house, which is pretty much the same too

Rory is based in New York, as is Jess, and they’re on good terms. Friendly, meeting up from time to time, nothing too involved or serious though

Logan is in London, living his pre-ordained life. We’ll get to him later

And Christopher… Eh I don’t know, I’m not that interested. Got a feeling he’s still living off his grandfather’s inheritance, maybe restoring and selling old motorbikes. That feels about as much as he can do lol

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Rory is at some flashy journalism party with a lot of exciting conversations happening after her article

Paul does not exist btw

She’s getting a lot of different offers, and starting to feel a bit overwhelmed. She knows this is her moment. This is what she’s been working towards. But if she takes the wrong opportunity she might blow it

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Overwhelmed, she catches up with Jess for coffee, who suggests she go home to Stars Hollow for the weekend. “You’re not a city girl, go clear your head for a couple of days with the mundane goings on of town meetings and Patty’s gossip”

So she does. Lorelai is over the moon to see her, as is Luke, Paul Anka and April - who is home for the holidays and staying with them

Over coffee at Luke’s, Rory and Lorelai discuss her options. Lorelai thinks she should explore the exciting opportunity to guest write for an English paper as she knows how much Rory loves travelling. Luke prefers the web-based start up that promises an actual office, a full-time paid job, stability etc

Rory’s still not sure

They go and visit Emily the next day, who is singing Rory’s praises after her Times article. They’re expecting her to be totally smug and gloating to all her DAR friends and their underachieving grandchildren, but she’s disinterested in it all. She’s still not adjusted to life without Richard - forgetting to get the ice bucket because he normally would have done it

Emily encourages Rory to go to England. The trip is covered by the paper and it’s no-commitment, it’s just to explore the possibility of working together

She heads back to New York, where Jess has already gotten her a guidebook to London. He’s finally matured into a supportive, sarcastic fiction editor as the small press in Philadelphia has expanded

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While Rory is busy exploring London and taking meetings with various newspaper staff, she bumps into Logan

This is their first proper contact since she rejected his proposal. Ever the laidback gentlemen, or as he appears to have grown into, he invites her to dinner that evening. He notices no ring on her finger, she tells him she’s just been concentrating on work. “I know Ace, I saw it in the Times” She sees the ring on his finger, and he reluctantly admits that his now ex-wife couldn’t deal with him working so much. “Logan Huntzberger working, what is the world coming to?”

Mitchum arrives - the Huntzbergers use this restaurant a lot when they’re in London - and he congratulates Rory on her piece in the Times and says he can’t wait to see what she does next

After he leaves, Rory admits to Logan that she’s struggling with what to do next. “It’s so much pressure. This has to be better, has to be bigger than my last article or else I won’t get these opportunities again”

He thinks she should go for the England job. “Come on Ace, I can show you all the best places here”. She’s not sure. The trip has been a bit of a whirlwind and she’s not had time to really consider it or get a feel for the place

”So stay longer. You can stay with me” Logan offers

Rory agrees, and she’s a little sad to see wedding photos of Logan and the mysterious ex-wife at his place. Not wishing it was her, but remembering how close they once were and how odd it now feels to be a stranger in his life

They talk, and Rory asks why he still has the photos out if they’re no longer together. “Odette didn’t want them” And he’s not quite processed it all yet either

Logan and Rory get back together, and are sad to say goodbye a week later. But Rory’s made her mind up, she’s taking the England job and will move there for a couple of months while she settles in

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Christopher makes a mostly unwelcome appearance in Stars Hollow after Rory’s article. Lorelai tells him she’s in England about a job, but invites him to have dinner with her and Luke. Chris reacts badly when he realises Luke knows a lot more about Rory’s life than he does, and makes a pointed comment about how Luke and Lorelai don’t have a child together

Lorelai throws him out, and unbeknownst to Christopher starts to get upset afterwards. “It’s my fault” she cries at Luke. “It’s my fault we couldn’t have kids”. Luke reassures her. “Look, we tried, and it didn’t work out. That’s okay. I wouldn’t change anything about our life together”. He then offers to let her eat leftover pizza without telling her off for it and she starts to feel a bit better

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Rory catches up with Paris in New York before she makes the move to England. She, Doyle and their two kids are getting on great. Paris is running the clinic, her wardrobe is freaking impeccable and Doyle is a stay-at-hone dad. He’s very proud of Rory’s success and attributes some of it to him being her first editor. She points out that Paris was actually her first editor and there’s a sweet nostalgic moment for them all to enjoy. It’s then promptly trampled on by Paris who, efficient as ever, wants to know what Rory is doing next. “Yeah yeah, so you have a contract with the Times now?” Rory tells her she’s taking a guest writing job at a paper in London, and will live there for a couple of months as she settles in. After that, she can pretty much write from anywhere

Paris is sceptical. She doesn’t think early 30s is the time to be doing the whole nomad thing. She also knows Logan is in London, and is naturally wary

They agree to catch up at the Chilton reunion in the Spring and Rory makes the last few arrangements before heading to England

Jess sees her off, and she’s picked up at the other end by Logan’s driver. This girl doesn’t always learn does she?

Luke and Jess catch up at the diner, and Jess mentions that he saw Rory off at the airport. “You don’t still have a thing for her, do you?” Luke asks. Jess denies it instantly, but we all know there’s a bit of truth in what Luke says

Emily is bored of functions and tea parties and decides to move over to their place in Cape Cod or the Vineyard (whichever one it was they went for). She’s been putting on a semi-brave face to Lorelai, pretending to be her usual bossy self. It’s not until she’s far away and closes the door that we see the mask fall and realise how truly lost she is without Richard

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As Spring settles in, Rory is almost done with her time in England. She and Logan have a relaxed type of relationship going on. It‘s a kind of friends with benefits, except they have all that history and deep care, love and affection lingering from their Yale days

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Rory arrives back in Stars Hollow before her Chilton reunion, along with presents from London. As she leaves, Luke and Lorelai reminisce about her Chilton days and wonder if they’d had another child, would they have sent them to Chilton as well

At her reunion Paris wants to hear all the news. Rory is enjoying her guest writing spot, and other than that she’s relatively open in terms of freelance writing work. Paris, in her kind but patronising way, offers Rory a job, which Rory politely turns down. Headmaster Charleston, who is surprisingly still the headmaster there, is also not overjoyed to hear that Rory is in between permanent jobs and not sure someone of her skill and talent should be freelancing. He offers her a teaching job at Chilton if she gets her masters, which she promises to think about

Back in the Hollow, Lorelai has suddenly freaked herself out. Where did all that time go? Think of all the missed opportunities. She starts looking into adoption, which Luke kindly but firmly tells her to stop doing - their life is great as it is, they haven’t missed anything, it’s okay

At the Dragonfly, Sookie and Michel agree with Luke and reassure Lorelai. Sookie tries to get to the bottom of what’s bugging Lorelai, who’s been acting more sporadic than usual lately. “That’s grief honey” she tells Lorelai, who has been generally avoiding the topic of Richard’s death

After a fight with Luke, Lorelai ends up sat outside her parents’ house. Exactly like the pilot episode. Except no one’s there

”Where is this all coming from?” Luke wants to know “What is it that’s so wrong with our life right now?”

”Don’t you feel it? Something’s missing” she cries

Really it’s just Richard that’s missing, and she won’t admit it

Rory arrives home to find her mom gone, and Luke fills her in. She drives around trying to find her, eventually going to Richard and Emily‘s. They stare at the door, remembering all the times they were afraid to knock, and end up sitting on the doorstep instead

They have a proper talk about Richard, and Rory admits to being so focused on work that she’s not allowed herself to stop and really grieve

“Was it always this big?” she asks, looking up at the old house that has not changed in the slightest

They head home, and Lorelai makes up with Luke

The Gilmore/Danes have a family dinner with Jess and April. Jess is surprised by how distant Rory is being, and wonders if the job in England isn’t working out. Luke tells him it’s probably delayed grief, until Jess sees a text from Logan pop up on Rory’s phone, and leaves her be

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Rory moves back in with Lorelai and Luke, and soon begins panicking about work. She’s still feeling immense pressure and is creatively blocked as a result

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Procrastinating, she catches up with Lane, who is now a successful music producer and Zach is less insufferable - a relief to us all

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That’s it for now, might come back and add more later

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EDIT: part 2 is up now

https://new.reddit.com/r/GilmoreGirls/comments/t1gj40/rewriting_the_revival_part_2/