Gilmore Girls may center on the tumultuous relationships of the Gilmore family, but many of the secondary characters have interesting stories. Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and Rory’s (Alexis Bledel) friends, like Sookie (Melissa McCarthy), Paris (Liza Weil), and Lane (Keiko Agena), all have their own struggles throughout the series, but they don’t always get the focus they deserve. Take Lane, Rory’s lifelong best friend, as an example. There are many problems with Lane’s story arc, specifically her ending. The music-obsessed girl escaped her mother’s control only to give up her dream career for a traditional life she never expressed interest in. However, as much as people like to complain about her ending, one much earlier Lane-centered storyline that wastes a lot of potential is her brief relationship with Henry Cho (Eddie Shin).
Henry Brings Out Another Side of ‘Gilmore Girls’ Lane
Way back in Season 1, Lane attends a Chilton party with Rory and unexpectedly meets Henry and develops a crush on him, and surprisingly, he is everything her mother (Emily Kuroda) wants for her. He’s Korean, he’s religious, and he plans to become a doctor. Still, Lane chooses to hide Henry from her mother because she fears her mother’s approval will ruin it. She has her first relationship with Henry, though “relationship” is a generous term. In fact, Lane and Henry never actually go on a date, instead sharing phone calls where Lane calls him “Rory” to hide the truth from her mother. Lane sabotages her relationship with Henry because he fits her mother’s standards, but letting them date with Mrs. Kim’s approval would have been an interesting story for Lane. The show could have allowed Lane to explore her identity and relationship with her mother by expanding her relationship with Henry.
While Lane’s other boyfriends share her love of music, Henry shares a part of Lane’s life that is rarely explored: the part that Mrs. Kim controls. As much as she loves playing in her band, the well-behaved, church-going girl that her mother knows is a part of her as well. This is how she has lived for most of her life, and although she rejects her mother’s values, that is a heavy influence on her life. While Henry fits Mrs. Kim’s standards, he still accepts Lane for who she is, which might help her find a much-needed balance between her two identities.
When Lane meets Henry, she is actively hiding any traces of her rebellion because she craves her mother’s approval, but she also wants more. However, Henry represents a balance between Lane’s interests and Mrs. Kim’s expectations. He is able to do things like go to parties, talk to girls his parents didn’t set him up with, and attend school dances without lying to his parents, but he still is everything Mrs. Kim wants for Lane. By somehow fitting into both Lane and Mrs. Kim’s worlds, Henry would have shown Lane that she could embrace her own life without outright defying everything her mother stands for. This lesson would have been an important step in her self-discovery on Gilmore Girls, and might have made her ending less jarring.
‘Gilmore Girls’ Wasted a Lot of Potential by Not Giving Lane More Time With Henry
Allowing Lane to date Henry longer would have given her a relationship with unique challenges. Her relationships with Dave (Adam Brody) and Zach (Todd Lowe) always faced the same obstacle: Mrs. Kim. Both have to work for Mrs. Kim’s approval, resulting in a similar plotline for Lane, but Henry could have given her a drastically different story. Gilmore Girls shows Lorelai dating men her parents adore, like Christopher (David Sutcliffe), and others they could never accept, like Luke (Scott Patterson). Even Rory has Dean (Jared Padalecki) and Jess (Milo Ventimiglia), who fit into her Stars Hollow life, and Logan (Matt Czuchry), who is from her grandparents’ world. This variation shows both women to be complex in their desires, and Lane deserved the same. With Mrs. Kim’s approval already assured, Gilmore Girls could have used Henry to explore what Lane wants in a boyfriend.
Related
This ‘Gilmore Girls’ Storyline Starts Off Bad and Only Gets Worse
I now pronounce you… a horrible mistake.
Henry also could have been used to bring Lane a new perspective on her mother. As Lane becomes a mother herself, Gilmore Girls briefly explores the respect she has for her mother, despite the fact that they never see eye to eye, and a relationship with Henry could have done that earlier. Lane believes that seeing her mother approve of Henry would make him no longer attractive to her, but that never happens because she never allows them to meet. If Mrs. Kim did meet and approve of Henry, the series could have shown Lane learning to understand why her mother is so insistent about her plans for Lane’s future. Mrs. Kim is controlling, but there is still love there, and perhaps if their desires aligned for once, Gilmore Girls could have shown that.
‘Gilmore Girls’ Should Have Brought Henry Back Later in the Show
While Dave is clearly the best of Lane’s boyfriends, Henry has a lot of potential and should have gotten another chance. Dave leaves rather suddenly, with Adam Brody’s departing due to his role in The O.C., but after Dave left, Gilmore Girls could have brought back Henry’s story or at least introduced a similar character, much like Logan and Tristan (Chad Michael Murray) in Rory’s life. Lane and Henry’s relationship serves to show how at odds Mrs. Kim and Lane are, as Lane will not admit that she could like a boy who her mother would actually let her date. But later, he could have resurfaced in a very different situation. While dating Dave, Lane breaks free of her mother, revealing that she is in a rock band and even staying out all night. Eventually, a rift forms between Mrs. Kim and Lane, causing Lane to miss her mother deeply. At this point in the story, it would be a good time for Lane to seek a relationship that’s out of the ordinary for her.
Bringing Henry back to actually have a relationship with Lane would have given Lane a chance to grow, allowing her to open her mind to her mother’s way of life. In this way, it could develop her dynamic with her mother further and help Lane decide what she wants in life, free of her mother’s influence or her own desire to rebel for rebellion’s sake. She and Henry likely wouldn’t have ended up together, especially as they were so young when they met, and their limited time together isn’t enough to tell if they are compatible. However, having him return and have an actual relationship with her would have allowed Gilmore Girls to develop Lane’s relationship with her mother and the expectations placed on her while giving her a different storyline.