‘Gilmore Girls’ Rewatch: 3 Times Luke Danes’ Feelings for Lorelai Gilmore Impacted His Business
Luke Danes and Lorelai Gilmore ended up together in the end. The Gilmore Girls couple were our endgame couple all along. Still, it took until season 5 for their relationship to be truly realized. There was plenty of foreshadowing along the way, and a lot of aspects of the couple’s lives were affected by their feelings for each other. We collected three instances in Gilmore Girls when Luke’s feelings for Lorelai actually affected his business.
Luke Danes’ business was shuttered when he needed to drive Lorelai to the hospital
Luke Danes didn’t take many days off. He didn’t shut down his diner, except for on his dark day, and he didn’t close early. He did all of that if Lorelai Gilmore required help, though. In season 1 of Gilmore Girls, Luke shuttered the diner while people were still eating, all so he could drive Lorelai where she needed to go.
In the season 1 episode, “Forgiveness and Stuff,” Lorelai discovers Richard Gilmore is hospitalized. The call came in while she was at Luke’s, making Lorelai panic. Luke jumped into action, telling a diner full of patrons to get out so he could drive Lorelai to the hospital. His quick thinking and sudden closure cost him a fair bit of money for the night.
Luke offered up free coffee when he found out Lorelai wasn’t planning to marry Lorelai
Luke never showed that he was dismayed by Lorelai’s decision to marry Max Medina. In fact, he acted as supportive as he possibly could about the potential union. Luke even handcrafted a chuppah for the happy couple. Despite initially showing support, he was thrilled when Lorelai called off the wedding.
Once Sookie St. James spilled the beans, Luke offered his entire establishment free coffee. While he didn’t say it was a celebratory cup of coffee, it was. Ultimately, a pot or two of coffee was relatively inexpensive, but it’s an example of how Luke’s feelings for Lorelai impacted his business’ bottom line.
Luke’s bad attitude led to a lack of customers during his breakup with Lorelai
Luke Danes was the one who ultimately called an end to his relationship with Lorelai after Emily Gilmore interfered a little too much for his liking. Despite ending the romance, Luke was clearly in great emotional pain. He expressed his feelings by being surlier than normal, leading to a sharp decline in the quality of his food and the number of people willing to patronize his business.
By the time Luke eventually hooked back up with Lorelai, he had served Kirk Gleason fishy eggs and burnt toast. He broke the door on his oven and tossed countless customers out of the diner. The quality of Luke’s food and his general attitude rebounded after he got back together with Lorelai.
