- Hey, I am a fanatic audiophile. That comes with responsibilities that a grounding doesn’t alter
- —Lane[src]
Lane Kim is a principal character on Gilmore Girls, portrayed by Keiko Agena.
Character[]
Lane is Stars Hollow's resident music lover. Lane is seen toting what she refers to as the Mojo bible of music around, aiming to procure every last record in it. Due to her family's strict religious adherence, Lane is a master of ingenuity, successfully executing various schemes to procure the aforementioned tunes – often with the help of her childhood best friend, Rory. Lane leads a double life, hiding all evidence of her American lifestyle such as rock CDs, make-up, and forbidden clothing under her floorboards, in her closet, and under the mattress in her bedroom. Lane once impulsively dyed her hair purple to rebel against her mother, but quickly panicked over what her mother would think and dyed it black again.[1] Lane is sometimes hard on herself, feeling like she isn't brave enough to admit her true life to her parents. She is also a loyal and devoted friend, who supports and champions her best friend, Rory, at every turn.
Story[]
When Lane is first introduced, she lives a Hannah Montana style double life, eating pizza and wearing band shirts when hanging out with Lorelai and Rory, singing Christian hymns and living off tofu in bulk at the Kim house. Even as Rory departs Stars Hollow High to attend Chilton, Lane is content living her double life with a strict home life.
Due to her strict mother, Lane is sometimes unable to participate in fun activities, such as going to see the Bangles in New York with the Gilmore Girls. As she grows older her rebellious acts become more significant, mostly starting when she meets a Korean guy, Henry, at Madeline's Chilton party and attempts to date him in secret. He is someone that Lane thinks her mother may approve of which makes her have a brief crisis but she is still unable to introduce him to Mrs. Kim in fear of her rejection. Henry eventually breaks up with Lane, before they even go out, due to the excessive maneuvering necessary for them to talk to each other, leaving Lane devastated. Her mother is furious that Lane was thinking about going out with a boy and tells her that this is why she wouldn't let Lane date and that she cannot see her get her heart broken over some boy. Lane responds by telling Mrs. Kim that Henry was Korean and going to med-school at which point Mrs. Kim worries that she caused a good boy to leave Lane.
Rory and Lane's friendship also hits a bump when Dean comes between them, as Rory gets a bit of tunnel vision when she and Dean first start dating. When a music shop opens in town, Lane quickly discovers her love of drumming and devotes all of her time and energy to perfect her art, convincing Sophie, the shopkeeper, to let her practice in the dark after hours. Lane studiously selects the perfect sample of bands for a flyer and meets Dave Rygalski, a guitarist with his own band looking for a drummer.
Their first encounter is a meet cute and they soon develop feelings for one another. Initially Lane refuses to acknowledge her feelings for Dave, not wanting it to come between the band and cause them to break up. She likes him but loves being a drummer more. The band, Hep Alien, is comprised of Dave, Zack and Brian who initially struggle to find a place to practice until Lorelai offers them her garage. Eventually they start seeing each other secretly before slowly letting people into the know about their relationship. Lane expects that Dave, too, will be overwhelmed by the effort it takes to date her, but Dave goes out of his way to convince Mrs. Kim to let him be with Lane, even reading the entire Bible in one night. The band starts rehearsing in Lorelai's garage and Lane spends most of her time practicing, when not at school. She and Dave go to their Senior Prom together, but their romance is short lived as Dave leaves for college in California. While they attempt long-distance, their relationship fades.
After Dave leaves, Lane attended a Seventh-day Adventist college, at her mother's request, until Lane and her band (Dave now replaced in the band by Gil) had a gig at a club in New York at two in the morning. Unable to come up with an alibi acceptable to Mrs. Kim, Lane instead sneaks out of the house. The gig is cancelled leading Lane to freak out about sneaking out for no reason and she calls Lorelai to let her know what's going on and asks her to inform Mrs. Kim that she is safe. She then calls Luke and lets him know that she won't be able to make her shifts at the dinner as she anticipates being grounded. Lorelai calls a panicked Mrs. Kim who is sending out search parties of relatives and praying for Lane's safety. She notes that Lane called Lorelai and Luke before she called her. When Lane returns home she enters her room to find that her mother has found all her secret stashes in the cupboards, under the bed and the walls. She exposes her secret stash in the floor boards and tells Mrs. Kim that she wants to make her happy but she cannot continue living like this and the mother-daughter duo should come to a compromise. Mrs. Kim responds by asking Lane to move out.
After a few weeks of playing house-keeper for Rory and her Yale dorm mates in exchange for accommodations, Lane decided to move into a rental house with her band mates, Zack and Brian. While living with the two of them, she continued to work as a waitress at Luke's. They move into an old, furniture-less apartment with a single bedroom, causing Zach and Brian to live in bunk beds in the living room. She didn't return to the Seventh-day Adventist college and instead focuses on her job and the band. She moves her stuff out of her old house with the help of her cousin who is very excited to her about a Kim rebelling. When she starts excitedly asking Lane about what rebelling is like Lane snaps at her clearly upset by her mother's formal and cold treatment of her.
A little while later an exchange student from Seoul, Kyon, moves into Lane's house as Mrs. Kim hosts her for three months. Lane does not know this and upon seeing her mother and Kyon getting along and Kyon wearing her old clothes she gets mad and starts a fight with Kyon. Later that night Lane goes into her old house and sees her old bedroom where Kyon sleeps, she then goes into her mothers room and kisses her forehead before walking out of the house feeling sad.
Upon some encouraging from Lorelai- Mrs. Kim, clearly missing Lane very much, decided to try and repair their relationship. She sends Lane's Aunt Jen to her apartment to request a social call where she would visit Lane's apartment. She provides Lane with three times she is free the present week, if those do not work she would offer three other times that work for her. If those to are not good she will understand and rescind the offer. Lane agrees to meet with her mother and in an effort to rectify her mistakes decides not to hide any aspects of her new life. She does however make Zach and Brian clean the house and put on ties in anticipation of the visit. Mrs. Kim brings Lane's favourite multi-grain soy pudding, extra chunky as she likes it as a peace offering. She is visibly caught off guard when Lane introduces her to her two male flatmates (who have clearly rehearsed conversation and manners to make Mrs. Kim feel more at home. It's adorable) and is even more horrified as she sees the state of the apartment her daughter's living in. She panics and flees without a word. Mrs. Kim goes to Lorelai for advise, who helps Mrs. Kim navigate her feelings about Lane's lifestyle and Mrs. Kim decides the best way for her to process this is to pretend that Zach and Brian are girls. She goes back to Lane's apartment and says that she will help them clean the apartment and that she is okay with Lane living with two girls which Z and B seem to accept and then they bring Mrs. Kim some tea.
Lane helps Rory through her moral crisis over losing her virginity to her now married ex-boyfriend and then realizes that she's developing feelings for Zach. She grows increasingly jealous of the girls Zach brings home but does not want to tell him how she feels in fear of messing up her living situation or the band. The band then plays at Jackson's Mayoral rally. Zach brings home a couple of girls after a good set and Lane snaps and tells him how she feels before walking away. She then gets increasingly frustrated as Zach pretends that nothing happened. Zach sees her getting frustrated and assures her that he just needs time to process what she told him.
Relationships[]
- Rory Gilmore
- Main article: Rory and Lane
Rory and Lane meet on Rory's first day of kindergarten and have been best friends ever since. While they miss each other greatly after Rory leaves Stars Hollow High for Chilton, they remain close and spend a lot of time together outside of school. When Rory moves to Yale and spends much less time in Stars Hollow, Lane also has her first real confrontation with the difference between her passions in life and her mother's lifestyle. Rory supports Lane through this period and Lane decides to go for what she wants in life, giving her band her all. Rory turns to Lane when she realises she messed up her life and stays with Lane until Rory reunites with Lorelai. Rory is Lane's maid-of-honour at her wedding in 2006.
Young Chui is a Korean boy, with whom Mrs. Kim sets up Lane. However, Lane and Young Chui mutually agree to use each other as cover-ups for their real romances. Lane and Young Chui become friends, but Young Chui falls in love with her and tries to pursue Lane despite her being with Dave. Lane never returns Young Chui's romantic feelings for her.
Romances[]
Lane and Henry meet at a Chilton party, which Lane attends with Rory after Dean has broken up with Rory. Although initially put off by the thought of a boy her parents might approve of, Lane is charmed by Henry and gives him her number. They start talking on the phone (via Rory) and plan to go on a date, but never make it that far as Lane had trouble being honest with her parents about wanting to date Henry. Lane is temporarily freaked thinking she'll never see Henry again because her parents send her to Pusan for the summer without a return ticket. She does however return, but continues to put off telling her parents. They really like each other, but Henry gets tired of waiting for Lane to come clean to her parents. He ends their relationship over the phone, telling Lane he has asked another girl to prom. Lane is heartbroken and gets grounded after her cousin, David, a decoy for Lane and Henry's planned picnic date, tells on Lane. Mrs. Kim is disappointed when she realises that Henry was Korean.
- Dave Rygalski
- Main article: Lane and Dave
Dave and Lane meet after Lane posts a 'Drummer seeks Band' notice, eventually forming Hep Alien with Dave, Zack and Brian. Again, the relationship had to be a secret from Mrs. Kim, as Dave was not a desirable match, being neither Korean nor possessing a desire to become a doctor. Mrs. Kim had repeatedly tried to set Lane up with potential young Korean doctors in the hope of one sticking, so to speak. Unlike Henry, Dave was willing to keep their relationship a secret while setting up the illusion that he and Lane met when she discovered his guitar-player flyer at church. Mrs. Kim used his services several times, and she even let him sit in their pew at church (which is a big deal for Mrs. Kim). Lane wants Dave to be the boy to take her to the prom, and she believes in Dave gets in this way, Mrs. Kim will already like him enough to bend her rules. However, Lane grows impatient, and she gets drunk at a party in 3.19. She calls her mother, tells her she's in a band, loves Dave, and want to go to prom with him. Mrs. Kim gives Lane a cold shoulder until Dave unexpectedly shows up at their house, and says he wants to take Lane to the prom. Mrs. Kim eventually agrees, but Lane will be grounded before and after the prom. Dave takes Lane to the prom, and they have a great time with Lane taking over 300 photos of the evening. However, Dave later moves to California to go to college. It is assumed they speak over the phone, but their relationships fades away.
- Zack Van Gerbig
- Main article: Lane and Zack
A while after Dave and Lane break off their long-distance relationship, Lane realises that Zack's groupie enthusiasm annoys her beyond a general feminist irk. She has a freak-out at Zack and two of his flings, one of whom apologises and Lane has to start dealing with the notion that she has developed real feelings for Zack.
Trivia[]
- Lane serves as a parallel of Lorelai. They have controlling mothers and distant fathers; also, their parents' visions for their lives don't turn out as expected. They have children young (Lorelai at 16, Lane at 22) and are a treasured part of Stars Hollow. Despite their upbringing, their lives turn out for the better, and their relationship with their parents do as well because they're finally allowed to be themselves. However, a stark difference is Mrs. Kim's softness and love for Lane, while Richard and Emily are emotionally abusive to Lorelai.
- Lane's house is located on Elm (Street) in Stars Hollow.
- Lane sometimes chills in a psychedelic closet, with disco lights and colorful blankets.[2]
- She has a huge CD collection, which is hidden under her bedroom's floorboards. Lane is also knowledgeable and opinionated about music, with rock and roll being a particular favorite.
- Lane's music collection[3], hidden underneath floorboards, is classified in genres:
- classic rock/progressive rock/pretty boy rock, punk/new wave/german metal bands/broadway soundtracks, jazz/jazz vocals/classical/country/rockabilly/Frank Sinatra (The Capitol Years), and then last section, miscellaneous.
- Lane's first real boyfriend is bandmate Dave Rygalski and they bond over having mutual music tastes. Lane is wearing a Dead Kennedys shirt when she meets Dave.[4]
- When she went to Adventist College, there were two parks (one for each gender). They also allowed makeup as long as it matched one's skin tone exactly. She considered her life to be over. She got in trouble once for wearing a bracelet to school.
- Lane's relationship with Lorelai is a positive one; she went to Lorelai when she had boy issues and when she had issues with her own mother.
- Lane asks Rory to be her children's godmother after stating that they needed "a Lorelai" in their life like she had one (in Rory's mother).
- Her mom was constantly on a health kick, and would make extremely healthy and unappetizing meals; Rory would supply her with junk food because of this.
- Cleverly utilises complex ruses to subvert her Mother's overly strict rules, enabling her to see her friends, boyfriends, watch TV, own and listen to music, play in the band, dress like a normal teenager, wear makeup and eat junk food.
- Her parents tried to set her up with multiple boys throughout the show. The potential suitors include a future proctologist, pediatrician, minister, and chiropractor.
- Her Korean name is Hyun-Kyung.[5]
- She had a high aptitude for sales according to a high school career placement test.[6]
- Lane often refers to her "parents", but her father, Mr. Kim, is not seen. He appears in a quick cutaway gag in A Year In The Life.
- Her family has Sing-Your-Favorite-Hymn nights.[7]
- She is at least proficient in Korean; when she goes off on a forbidden date, her mother scolds her in Korean and she responds correctly. Moreso, when her parents send her off to Korea, she leaves Rory with a list of crucial Korean phrases written in Korean and with English transliterations.
- She has more in common with her mother than she knows; they were both in bands (her mother was in a tambourine band and even went on tour), and they both kept things from their mothers. However, while Lane kept her love for music and American secular culture under wraps, her mother kept their Adventist leanings hidden from her strict Buddhist mother.[8]
- She has family in Busan, South Korea, whom she stays with for the summer between her sophomore and junior year of high school in 2001.[9]
Photos[]
Media[]
- Free Lane Kim (VANDERWERFF NEWSLETTER • JANUARY 2021)
- The Importance of Lane (BUZZFEED • OCTOBER 2015)
Notes and references[]
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