Why Lane from ‘Gilmore Girls’ is my fictional bestie
Drummer of her own band? Owner of an actual discography? Cool awesome secret layer for a room? Ah yes, it’s no surprise that Lane Kim is a cool girl extraordinaire. Sure, second to Rory Gilmore in mostly all of the plot lines during Gilmore Girl’s seven seasons run, but still a BFF after our own hearts (Seriously. Her thoughts on Yoko Ono alone make me wish I had her around my sophomore year of high school).
As great as Lane Kim is on GG, she is much more than just a cool girl and BFF. As the neurotic, bubbly, master sneak, Lane is as well loved as any other character in the kooky small town of Stars Hallow. Hell, she even dated Seth Cohen before Seth Cohen was Seth Cohen (sorry, can’t argue with that). During the show’s run, viewers watched Lane grow, change, and deal with some growing pains of her own outside of the world of the Gilmores. And by “growing pains,” I’m totally referencing that episode where she runs her finger through marching band boy, Mitch’s, hair. It’s small moments like these that make her a character we could all look up to and love.
Lane’s relationship with her well-meaning, but strict mom is so real, and we feel her
Mrs. Kim’s fervent beliefs make her a little strict when it’s come to rearing Lane. So Lane has become a master of making excuses, and jumping through hoops, even if those hoops are really complicated.
Mrs. Kim often fails to validate Lane, leading to their eventual fall out. A big part of Lane’s journey is realizing that she needs to go her own way—separate from the path her mother has set out for her—in order to be happy. This is tough for Lane, but she’s able to pull through. Viewers are see her journey every step of the way. We relate to her when she freaks out after staying out past two without an excuse, worry with her when she ends up with Rory at Yale, and feel frustrated with her when she invites Mrs. Kim to her boy-filled apartment. Eventually the mother-daughter duo make amends when Mrs. Kim helps Lane’s band go on tour. We even find out that Mrs. Kim, herself, had to go through a similar journey with her own mother when she was young. Luckily, viewers get to watch the two of them as they break the cycle.
“The Mitch incident” and many other times Lane was awesomely, if awkwardly, honest
Even though throughout most of the show, Lane is able to hide almost everything from her mother, she’s not so great at hiding her feelings. The infamous ‘Mitch Incident’ happened after Lane was just too into a guy that she felt an insatiable need to touch his shiny thick hair in the most awkward way ever. Many a time during the show’s run, we see Lane running up to Rory and Lorelai just to gush her feelings about some boy, band, or situation her mother is involved with. When life with her mother becomes too much to bear, she’s able to be awesomely honest with her feelings and shamelessly lets them out.
Lane’s steps (and missteps) to express herself is totally relatable and inspiring
While still in high school, Lane dyes her hair purple to finally rebel from her mother’s strict rules. She takes one photo, then absolutely freaks out before dying it back to black. She does this because she isn’t quite ready to stand up to her mother. Sneaking around her mother’s rules generally leads to Lane feeling a bit of guilt.
Her conflict between what she should do and what she really wants makes her relatable because, hello, we’ve all been there. Lane tends to be so good at trying to navigate through these guilt-spells that one can’t help but look up to her for inspiration in times of need. She reminds us that we need to let things go, and just date Zack because, I’m sorry, but you know you’re really into him and there is just no getting around that.
Her punk rock music obsession is the best
Sure, Gilmore Girls sometimes makes so many pop culture references, we have to scratch our heads and question why we’re only hearing of Paul Anka now, but some of the best references have to do with Lane Kim’s beloved obsession: rock music. Yes, against all the things she has been raised to understand, Lane is a fervent listener of punk rock music. In the days of Britney Spears and boy bands like N’SYNC, Lane and Rory were having in depth discussions about The Damned and Morrissey. Lane was obsessed with something that was all her own and HOW COOL IS THAT? She hides her CDs and the fact that she’s in a band and wants to rock on despite what her mother thinks and she does it all in her own way.
