“Gilmore Girls” is one of my favorite shows of all time. I remember watching it in middle school for the first time and being absolutely awed by what I thought adult life was going to be: I was going to meet a bunch of rich people, have a half dozen boyfriends, and attend an Ivy League school.
While none of that has happened, I still consider “Gilmore Girls” to be my ultimate comfort show. Not only is it the fall aesthetic that brings me to watch it every year, but it’s also the characters. This leads me to talk about one of the main characters, Rory Gilmore. Note—there will be a lot of spoilers.
I absolutely admired Rory Gilmore when I was younger, especially before she had gone to college. She was hardworking and never took no for an answer. I thought that she got everything she wanted because she had genuinely worked for it and that she deserved everything that was coming her way. Part of the reason I wanted to go to an Ivy League school for so long was because of Rory. If she could do it, so could I.
But as I’ve watched the series more growing up and started to grow into an adult myself, my own perspective of the series has begun to shift. I no longer see those admirable qualities in her, but rather entitlement and selfishness. She doesn’t take no for an answer because no one had ever told her no before, and the moment that someone does she drops out of Yale completely. She grew up as an only child in a small town where she was beloved by everyone, held up as the angel who could do nothing wrong. Nothing was ever her fault, even when it clearly should’ve been (the Jess car crash, the cheating, the cheating AGAIN…).
As I’m yelling at Rory to stop being stupid on my computer screen, I can’t help but smile a little. I hate Rory, but I love her all the same because of the full-circle representation that she is able to provide “Gilmore Girls” and bring it to an annoying but genius ending of the series.
In “A Year in the Life,” a revival of the original “Gilmore Girls” series, Rory and Lorelai are ten years older. Despite Rory’s life looking pretty good at the end of season 7, she is completely lost in her 30s. She’s having trouble finding a job, and the only ideas she has for her memoir are about her mother, not herself. She’s resorted to sleeping with taken men (again!) and never blames herself for being the homewrecker. As she sees everyone else moving along and living their lives, Rory can’t even seem to get hers started… that is until the last words of her character are “I’m pregnant.”
For many fans, this ending was terrible. It was a huge cliffhanger since the father of Rory’s baby wasn’t confirmed, and it was just another repeat cycle of her mother, Lorelai.
Exactly.
Rory has become her mother, but not in the ways she originally intended. Throughout the series, Rory has always said that she wants to be like her mother. She wants to be hardworking and make a name for herself and to be successful despite the pressure and challenges that come her way. The only trouble for Rory is that she never had any challenges to begin with. Her mother provided for her hand and foot, every problem was solved by her grandparent’s money, and people in her life bowed down to her as if she were royalty. This was unlike Lorelai, who purposefully changed her narrative to get away from the non-challenged life to something that would be more meaningful for her. Rory always went with the flow, and she always did what was expected of her—not what she wanted to do. Therefore, there was only one way to truly be like her mother: to become a single mother.
I’m not saying that this is all Rory’s fault; people grow up to be how they are based on other people in their environment. She was nurtured and cared for her entire life, and there’s a difference between wanting to provide for someone and having someone rely on you for everything. Everyone tried the best that they knew how to change Rory’s life around, but ultimately I think what failed her was Rory thinking that every decision she made was justified without thinking about others.
She’s the perfect example of having everything but also having nothing, and it’s great. While she’s no longer the role model I look up to, she’s incredibly human. It’s refreshing to see on a TV show, especially an older sitcom like “Gilmore Girls.” I will forever defend Rory’s storyline—no matter how often I complain about her, I wouldn’t have it any other way.