I have always been a die-hard Gilmore Girls fan. I see pieces of myself reflected in the character of Rory Gilmore and could always relate to her life. So, when I heard that Netflix was reviving the series I was ecstatic! But for those of you who don’t have the deep-rooted love for the Gilmore Girls that I do, this article is for you.
In case you missed the first 7 seasons of the show, here’s a refresher to get you prepared for “Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life!”
So, who is the fabulous Lorelai Gilmore? She is a coffee-addicted-movie-quoting single mother who lives in Stars Hollow, Connecticut. She has one daughter, also named Lorelai, who goes by the nickname, Rory.
Rory is the definition of a perfect child. She is studious, polite, well-read, an encyclopedia of movie/band knowledge and just as coffee-obsessed as her mother.
Rory’s best friend is Lane Kim. Lane is a closet rockstar. However, Lane’s mom, Mrs. Kim, is super religious and strict. She tries to arrange marriages for Lane to “a good Korean boy who will be a doctor,” throughout many of the seasons. Mr. Kim is alive, but we never hear or see him.
Lane, to her mother’s dismay, becomes a drummer for a rock band. She then falls in love with the lead singer, Zack Van Gerbig. They were later married and had a pair of twin boys – Steve and Kwan.
But how did Lorelai end up in Stars Hollow in the first place? Well, at 16-years-old, Lorelai became pregnant with Rory by Christopher Hayden, her high school love. Instead of marrying Christopher and living in her parents’ world of luxury, Lorelai left home and got a job as a maid.
Christopher pops in and out of Rory’s life, and despite a brief marriage to Lorelai, this couple doesn’t work out in the end.
Over the years, Lorelai moves up the ranks of the hospitality industry and eventually opens her own Inn with her best friend, Sookie St. James.
Sookie is a chef and originally met Lorelai at the Independence Inn before they opened The Dragonfly Inn. She is married to her produce supplier, Jackson Belleville, and has two children with him – Davey and Martha.
However, Sookie isn’t the only “chef” that Lorelai is close with – enter Luke. Luke Danes is the owner of Luke’s diner. When we first meet him, he seems to be a cranky flannel-wearing-baseball-cap-health-fanatic, which technically . . . he is. But, we also see that since Lorelai and Rory eat almost every meal at Luke’s, Luke has been involved in both of their lives for some time.
Over the course of the show, Luke and Lorelai become a romantic item (yes!) and we see Luke, underneath his tough exterior, look after Lorelai and Rory. He loves them so much that he and Lorelai eventually get engaged.
PLOT TWIST
But *GASP* we find out that Luke has a daughter of his own! Between raising his sister’s son, Jess, and getting to know his teenage daughter, April, Luke and Lorelai eventually grow apart.
So what about Rory?
As early as the first season, we see that Lorelai and Rory’s life mission is for Rory to get into Harvard. Lorelai enrolls Rory in a private school, Chilton Prep, so that Rory can have a better shot at achieving that dream. However, to pay for this, Lorelai has to borrow money from her semi-estranged parents, Emily and Richard. In return? Lorelai and Rory have to attend “Friday Night Dinners.” Every. Friday. Night.
As Rory grows up, she starts dating Dean Forester (yes, Sam from Supernatural). But when Luke’s nephew Jess comes to town, Rory also falls hard for his bad-boy, literature-loving vibes. Eventually, however, Rory outgrows Jess and Dean.
When it comes time to apply for college, Rory applies and is accepted to Princeton, Harvard, and Yale. Wait . . . did we mention Paris Geller yet? Paris is the mean-girl, cut-throat, academic competition from Chilton Prep. She and Rory become friends by the time they graduate, but Paris makes Rory’s first few months at Chilton hell.
So after all her preparation, which college does Rory end up attending? Harvard right? Wrong! You read that right, Rory chooses to attend YALE! What helps prompt the change of heart? It’s her grandfather’s alma mater!
To pay for Yale, Rory borrows money from her grandparents and reinstates the “Friday Night Dinners.” When she gets to Yale, she rooms with Paris, writes for The Yale Daily News and is swept away by the mysterious (and rich) Logan Huntzberger.
As Rory’s time at Yale progresses, she experiences the firsthand challenges of pursuing a career as a journalist. She ends up taking a year off from school to find herself and, in the meantime, lives with her grandparents. Lorelai is furious and the Gilmore girls have their first major fight.
In the end, Rory goes back and graduates from Yale. Logan then proposes to her, but she decides that she is not ready to settle down yet. Instead, she accepts a position on the Obama Campaign (the show ended in 2007 so you read that right!) and leaves Stars Hollow shortly after graduation.
Whew! Did you get all that?
Can you imagine where this revival is going to take us? We’ll see children grown up, Stars Hollow nostalgia, more from the Luke and Lorelai romance and the adventures of Journalist Rory Gilmore! And luckily, the wait is almost over! The four-part revival premieres on Netflix next Friday, November 25th.
So grab a cup of coffee and get ready for the best kind of post-Thanksgiving binge you could ever dream of!