I Just Discovered Something About Emily Gilmore, Whales, And How The Whole Series Fits Together

Amy Sherman-Palladino, you goddess, you've done it again!

OK, so, like most of you, I am rewatching Gilmore Girls for probably the thousandth time.

Amy Sherman-Palladino / Via bustle.com

It's on Netflix now, so I can just press "continue watching" instead of switching out the discs from my old DVD box set. As such, my laziness (and devotion to Gilmore Girls) has really reached an all time high.

Basically, I just picture everyone as me eating take-out and watching Gilmore Girls on the couch all day. Lorelai would approve.

At this point, I was pretty sure I knew everything there is to know about Gilmore Girls, but I was wrong!

As most of you may remember, Emily had an oddly satisfying end to her story in the revival.

Amy Sherman-Pallidino / Via previously.tv

Here she is in Nantucket living her best life, and honestly I love it.

Once she comes to terms with Richard's death, she decides to move to the coast with her maid's family and becomes the independent queen we always knew she could be. (If you can't tell at this point, I am a huge Emily fan.)

But there was one thing about her storyline that never really made sense to me...

Emily starts volunteering at the whaling museum for some reason?

Amy Sherman-Palladino / Via theworkprint.com

I was like ???

I mean, she seems to be taking a lot of pleasure in shocking children with stories of "buckets and buckets of blood," but still, it seemed really out of character for her.

Sure, she volunteered with the DAR in the original series, but it mostly revolved around fundraising and organizing. I never pictured her slipping on ker Keds and giving tours to school children!

I always assumed it was just something the Palladinos did to show us how much she changed after leaving her old life, and I'd never know the true answer to the question that consumed me over Thanksgiving break 2016: Why whales?

Well, I just got to Season 4, Episode 6 in my rewatch, and it doesn't seem so random anymore!

Amy Sherman-Palladino / Via netflix.com

The episode is called "An Affair to Remember." It's the one where Emily finds out Lorelai and Sookie have started a catering company to make a little money before their Inn opens and Sookie has her baby. Lorelai insists that Emily treat her like any other caterer, so Emily makes them come over to her house to do a tasting.

There's some other stuff in there like drama with Jason and Rory finding a study tree, but the tasting is the most important part right now.

After, they finish the tasting, Sookie and Lorelai start comparing Emily to a whale

Amy Sherman-Palladino / Via netflix.com

Here's the exchange...

SOOKIE: We did it, we got the job! What a score! We landed a whale.

LORELAI: Yeah, we always had the job, Sookie. The whale was just toying with us. She was swatting us with her tail and hosing us down with her blowhole because that is the whale's M.O. - humiliate and rip apart every other fish in the sea until there's nothing left but a bloody pile of chum.

SOOKIE: Boy, you really hate whales, don't you?

I don't think it's a stretch to imagine Emily overheard all this from the kitchen, I mean, she knows everything that's happening in that house.

Amy Sherman-Palladino / Via hookedonhouses.net

See above for actual footage of the all seeing eye...

She probably hated being compared to a villainous whale by Lorelai. By taking a position at the whaling museum, Emily is not only refuting Lorelai's constant casting of her as a villain throughout the show, but she's also correcting her daughter's wild misunderstanding of whale facts!

Here's what she says...

Amy Sherman-Palladino / Via netflix.com

"He plunges his barbed harpoon into the whale's back. And then with the killing irons, they stab the great beast repeatedly in the neck, to stop it diving and make it bleed to death all the faster. They then cut the tail tendons, immobilizing the whale. Later in history, they'll invent an explosive lance that combines the stabbing of the lance with an explosive that detonates once inside the whale. But at this point, it's just lots and lots of stabbing. Well, by now, the whale is spouting buckets and buckets and buckets of blood. I'll give you all a moment."

Emily is not the bad guy after all

Amy Sherman-Palladino / Via gilmoregirls.fandom.com

She proves that over and over again. No matter how many fights she has with various members of the Gilmore clan, she always rekindles their relationship. She values her family above everything else, and in the end she gets a chance to redeem herself and be happy.

Suddenly, the seemingly random whales become an act of selflessness. She's taken in a family to care for, she's giving back to the community at large, and she's finally proven once and for all that she's not the selfish, controlling woman Lorelai makes her out to be.

You go, Emily Gilmore!

Amy Sherman-Palladino / Via buzzfeed.com

You deserve nothing but the best!

And we deserve... to watch Gilmore Girls in its entirety again!

"Where you lead, I will follow..."

Have you found any weird connections or cool crossovers in the Gilmore Girls world?

Tell us in the comments!