Luke Danes
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Lucas "Luke" Danes is a fictional character on the television series Gilmore Girls, played by Scott Patterson.
Luke is the owner of his eponymous diner, housed in what was formerly his father's hardware store. The sign "Williams Hardware" still hangs in front of the diner. He is a gruff, burly man with a constant five o'clock shadow that never evolves into a full grown beard. One of a few eateries in the town of Stars Hollow (others include Al's Pancake World and Weston's Bakery), it is frequented by the Gilmores, and is Lorelai Gilmore's main source of morning coffee. While he is not a full blown father figure to her, Luke dotes on Rory and she in turn likes him.
Luke was raised in Stars Hollow. He attended Stars Hollow High, and excelled in its track team.
- (On viewing a photo of Luke with the caption, "State High Hurdles Champion – 1984 – Butch Danes" in the Stars Hollow High trophy case)
- Luke: Don’t they need my permission for this? This should be illegal.
- Lorelai: No, those shorts with that tank top should be illegal.
- —Season 3, Ep. 4 "One's Got Class and the Other One Dyes"
[edit] Family
Luke's father ran Williams Hardware, and had a reputation about town as a stubborn and terse man, much like Luke. Despite this, Luke held his father in high regard, as evidenced on the show in a number of ways:
- When Luke repainted the diner, he made certain not to paint over an old hardware order that his father had scribbled on the wall behind the counter.
- His father had been working on a boat when he died, and Luke kept the boat in a neighbor's garage for 15 years.
- November 30th is known throughout town as "Luke's Dark Day", during which Luke disappears. He reveals to Lorelai that he disappears because this was the day of his father's death, and he likes to be alone on this day.
His Uncle Louie also lived in Stars Hollow but later retired to Orlando, Florida. Upon Louie's death, Luke arranged the funeral in Stars Hollow because his father wanted Louie buried next to him. Louie was considered quite unpleasant, and none of his relatives but Luke attended the funeral. (Season 2, Ep. 17 "Dead Uncles and Vegetables")
Luke's sister Liz appears on occasion in Stars Hollow, and recently (fifth season) moved there. Luke generally interacts with her by trying to fix her problems, as she is characterized as being stilted both emotionally and intellectually, sometimes even lacking the most common of sense. The predominant problem is Jess Mariano, Liz's rebel-without-a-cause son, who arrives at Luke's doorstep after being sent away by his mother. However, she recently married a man named T.J. who, despite being dense, really cares for Liz. They have just had a baby girl, Doula.
[edit] Romantic History
Luke had a long-term relationship with an "Elle Macpherson–pretty" professional photographer named Rachel (played by Lisa Ann Hadley), and was later "accidentally" married to (and later divorced from) girlfriend Nicole Leahy, a corporate lawyer played by Tricia O'Kelley. After four seasons of on-and-off flirtation, Luke and Lorelai got together, in Season 4 Episode 22 "Raincoats and Recipes." Lorelai's parents, specifically her mother Emily, vehemently disapproved of the relationship, as she felt that Luke, as a blue-collar working man, was not good enough for her blue-blooded daughter Lorelai, and tried to use Rory's father Christopher to break them up. After breaking up in Season 5 Ep. 14 "Say Something" and getting back together at the very end of Season 5 Ep. 16 "So. . . Good Talk," Lorelai proposed to him at the extreme end of Season 5, Ep. 22 "A House is Not a Home", and he accepted at the very beginning of the next episode.
Luke also had a relationship with Anna Nardini (Sherilyn Fenn) that, unbeknownst to Luke, resulted in the birth of his daughter, April (Vanessa Marano). Luke found out about April's existence after she approached him under the pretense of a school science fair, snagged a hair from his head, snapped his photo, and ran DNA tests that proved that Luke was indeed her father(Season 6 "The Prodigal Daughter Returns"). She made this information public as part of her science fair project, for which she won second place, and Lorelai finds out 2 months later (Season 6 "Just Like Gwen and Gavin"). When Luke goes to Anna to confront her over the revelation, Anna tells Luke that she did not tell him about his daughter because at the time that they were dating Luke displayed great intolerance and impatience towards children, as evidenced by his refusal to go to movies before 10:00 PM because of noisy kids in the theatre and his habit of asking to move to other tables when out at dinner because he didn't want to be near families with children. Because of that, Anna was afraid that Luke would become angry and hurtful if he knew he was about to become a father, so she chose to keep the information secret from him. After thinking about it a great deal, Luke decided to try to reach out and establish a relationship with his whiz kid daughter, with modest success; her friends and classmates liken Luke to Hagrid.
Because of this, Luke unintentionally alienated Lorelai, as he felt that his relationship with April and his relationship with Lorelai should be separate things, at least for a while. When Lorelai eventually found out, they ended up postponing their wedding again, after having already postponed it once so that Lorelai could settle her feud with Rory. When Luke asked Lorelai to help him with April's birthday party, her mother, Anna, became angry with him for having his fiance help him without running it past her first. Ironically, April commented that Lorelai and Anna were very much alike and would probably like each other. Lorelai then tried to sort things out with Anna, but without much success. As time passed, Lorelai grew impatient with Luke's attention being drawn to April and resentful of the fact that she was being forced to wait again for the man she had fallen in love with, and started to avoid him. After giving Luke an ultimatum - elope with her now or never - to which he said "I can't jump like this", Lorelai stormed away from him, apparently ending their relationship. She then went back to Christopher for comfort, with whom she then sleeps. Lorelai appears to be heartbroken the next morning when Chris's young daughter notices her and says "I don't like to sleep with my nightgown on when I'm sick either."
Two days later, Luke showed up at Lorelai's house - after Kirk crashed Taylor's vintage Thunderbird through his diner - with his truck all packed up and made a speech to Lorelai about how much she means to him and saying he was ready to elope, only to have her tell him that she'd gone and slept with Christopher. Without saying anything, Luke got into his car, slammed the door and drove away. Following this, Luke went to Chris's apartment, knocked on the door and hit Chris across the face as soon as the door opened.
After contending with Kirk's outdoor "diner", and taking some of his anger out on Lorelai herself when he crossed paths with her in the street, Luke went to work on repairing his diner with TJ, and ended up telling TJ that he and Lorelai had broken up. TJ then brought Luke home for dinner so that he and Liz could cheer him up and discuss what had gone wrong with his relationship. Liz and TJ both told Luke that he and Lorelai were never in synch, which is why it didn't work and launched to a length explanation of metaphors, such as planes and wormholes; Luke put it more simply that he and Lorelai simply weren't right for each other, and later he told Lorelai this right to her face in a grocery store, though whether or not Luke himself really believes that is questionable. The breakup from Lorelai does not appear to have negatively impacted Luke's relationship with April. Things take a bad turn, however, when Anna announces that she is moving back to New Mexico to be with her ailing mother and that she intends to take April with her. Anna proves to be stubborn and unwilling to make any compromises for Luke being able to see April; this angers Luke and he tells Anna to her face that he will fight her for custody. After a meeting with his lawyer, Luke gets into a fist fight with Christopher Hayden in the streets of Stars Hollow at night, from which neither one appears to really win.
Though the result of Luke's romantic history has begun to be a hardship in his relationship with Lorelai, the question still stands (to hardcore Gilmore Girls fans), is April really his daughter? The timing is an issue if you look deeply into it. When Lorelai finds out about Luke's former relationship with Rachel, she learns that it was five or six years earlier...which is in the first season that she finds out. This is six years before April enters the picture as a twelve year old girl. Rachel, obviously, is not her mother...yet Luke and Anna were apparently pretty "hot and heavy" also. So, when did he have time to have a kid with her, if it was during the same time that he and Rachel were together? This will continue to be an issue until the writer's resolve this timeline issue.
[edit] Trivia
- Luke lived in the office above from the diner for years. He bought the neighboring building (season 2 "Lost and Found") after Jess moved in and expanded the apartment upstairs, while renting the downstairs to Taylor Doose for his "Olde Fashioned Soda Shoppe". He and Nicole technically shared a townhouse in Litchfield, Connecticut for a while (season 4 "The Clamor and the Clangor"), but he never actually moved in. After some discussion about buying the Twickham house, he and Lorelai decided that they will live in Lorelai's house after they are married and Luke organized renovations in preparation.
- The backwards blue baseball cap that Luke always wears was a gift from Lorelai in Season 1, Ep. 10 "Forgiveness and Stuff". He is also known for his trademark flannel shirts. However, in Season 7 he gets a new black hat, that he also wears backwards.
- Luke is a Scorpio, according to the horoscope story he tells Lorelai (Season 5, Ep. 3).
- The character Luke was originally a girl
| Gilmore Girls | ||
|---|---|---|
| Main characters | ||
|
Lorelai Gilmore | Rory Gilmore | Luke Danes | Sookie St. James | Lane Kim | Michel Gerard |
||
| Recurring characters | ||
|
Jackson Belleville | Taylor Doose | Christopher Hayden | Max Medina | Trix Gilmore | Mrs. Kim |
||
| More | ||
