I love Gilmore Girls — I love it. I watched every episode of the show when it was on the WB and the CW (remember that merge with UPN?), and I continue to watch every rerun I can find. It’s my comfort food. It’s been a decade since Gilmore Girls ended, meaning I was a teen at the end of its run. Now that I’m a full-fledged adult (at least I like to think so), I see a lot of different things and feel different feels than I did the first time around watching the episodes. In fact, I’ve completely changed my mind about Gilmore Girls' Mrs. Kim.
Mrs. Kim is introduced as the mean mom of Stars Hollow. She doesn’t let her teenage daughter, Lane, do much of anything — they are Seventh Day Adventists, a Protestant church that preaches the return of Christ to Earth and observes the Sabbath on Saturday, not Sunday, like other Christian religions do. A lot of Mrs. Kim’s rules have to do with her religion — Lane can’t wear makeup, dress a certain way, listen to certain music, etc., and of course, since Lane is a teenager, all of this is totally lame. To an extent, it is, but it’s the way that Mrs. Kim herself was raised, and she actually does show true evolution by the end of Season 7.
Mrs. Kim always did what she thought was best for her daughter — she was never her friend. She was her mother, and I think there’s something to be said for that. It’s great to be friends with your kids, but at the end of the day, it’s also your job to raise them into fine, upstanding people. Mrs. Kim may have taken things too far at times (remember when she convinced Lane’s teachers to let her homeschool Lane for two weeks as punishment for Henry Cho? Yeeps.), but I think her heart was always in the right place. Although she had this “Tiger Mom” trope on lock in the first few seasons of the show, Mrs. Kim and Lane really grew together by the end — Mrs. Kim realized that Lane was a good person and a trustworthy adult with her own feelings about things, and Lane realized that everything her mother did for her was out of love. Here are some of my favorite Mrs. Kim moments that prove we should all be a little easier on her.
When She Organized The Tour For Hep Alien
Growing up, Lane had to hide her rock albums under a floorboard in her room, so when Hep Alien, her band, was on the outs and Mrs. Kim offered to help stay their course, you could have knocked me over with a feather. She planned an all-church (those are her connections at work) tour for Hep Alien, tuned up the van, and got Lane back on the road. Why? Because she knew that Hep Alien was Lane’s passion, and even though Mrs. Kim is not one for rock music, she knew it meant a lot to her daughter.
When She Was In An All-Girls Tambourine Band
While Mrs. Kim was planning the aforementioned tour for Hep Alien, she mentioned that she was in an all-girls tambourine band, and that all of the girls and their tambourines would fit nicely in Gil’s delivery truck. When you think you know a person…
When She Was Overjoyed About Her Grandbabies
Lane and Zack got married in Season 7, and she got pregnant on her honeymoon. Both Lane and Zack thought that Mrs. Kim would think they had had sex before their wedding, so they were terrified to announce the pregnancy. When they did, Mrs. Kim was thrilled, because “a baby is a blessing.” Mrs. Kim even took it well when Lane and Zack told her that she couldn’t move in with them and vice versa when the babies came. That’s progress.
When She Tried To Help Zack Write A Hit
Mrs. Kim is nothing if not motivational. Even though he had already proposed to Lane, Zack decided to ask Mrs. Kim for permission for her daughter’s hand. He showed all the receipts for his day job, but Mrs. Kim wanted to know if he could write a hit song, because music is Zack’s real passion. That’s the thing about Mrs. Kim — she always kept everyone on his or her toes.
Mrs. Kim is easy to dismiss as overly strict or mean, but really, she was just doing her best, as all moms do, and she deserves more credit for her place on Gilmore Girls.
Images: The CW; Giphy (5)
