Gilmore Girls enjoyed the reputation of being one of WB’s most groundbreaking shows of the 2000s, making its debut in October 2000 and taking its final bow in May 2007, running for 7 good seasons. As much as it was a success, the show enjoyed both massive praise and criticism, almost in equal measure.
Set in Stars Hollow, Gilmore Girls was a story of two women, Lorelai Gilmore, and Rory Gilmore, who were also mother and daughter. When Lorelai discovered that she was pregnant, she ran away from her rich parents and refused to marry her boyfriend, swearing to make it on her own. She became a maid in a quaint country inn, working her way up to a managerial position. Her daughter, Rory, grew up into a levelheaded young woman, who occasionally had to play ‘mum’ to her mother.
Lorelai was a single mother who had to single-handedly deal with the joys and frustrations of being a single parent, while Rory dealt with teen insecurities and adventurousness. Despite their struggles, they managed to become the best of friends. They lived in the fictional town of Stars Hollow, and their set of flawed friends and other town residents completed the show. Given these characters, the writers of the show used several storylines to explore issues surrounding romance, family, friendship, education, disappointment, ambition, education, differences in social class and generational divides. While these storylines gave the show life, some of them were outright outrageous, senseless, rude and quite regrettable.
Here are 20 Storylines The Show Wants Fans To Forget.
The April Storyline
In season 6, the writers seemed to suffer from an intellectual burnout and began exploring other options. Most storylines had reached their end. The Rory-Lorelai rift was wrapping up, Luke’s and Lorelai’s relationship had blossomed into a beautiful engagement, and Lorelai’s new career path as a hotel consultant did not take off.
So, after brainstorming, the writers opted to introduce to fans in season 6, episode 9, Luke’s long-lost daughter, April, whom he had never mentioned about to Lorelai. This is pure foolishness, remembering that Luke was portrayed to fans beforehand, as an honest man who did not appreciate secrets in the relationship. Also, why hide April’s existence when she was an intelligent young girl, Lorelai’s cup of tea? After season 7, father and daughter relationship seems to dim off, and we wonder, even more, why introduce her in the first place?
Lane And Zack’s Marriage
Lane Kim is one of Gilmore Girls’ most interesting characters, despite her mum’s stereotyping and the strict rules she had to follow growing up. Lane found a way to work around her mother’s strict nature, adjusting to their stringent religious beliefs by going to great lengths to hide what she actually believed in, as a way to still show deep respect for her family.
While Lane seemed to be the young adult in series who would leave the town and follow her dreams becoming a musician, fans were shocked to instead see her get married young, immediately after high school graduation. The marriage was not a well thought-out storyline because Lane and her boyfriend Zack were so young and the wedding was after a very strange breakup, whose issues were not even resolved.
Sookie’s Unconvincing Expertise
Sookie St. James is somewhat an irony in Gilmore Girls. The only palatable thing about her was her character, which humanized Lorelai. In the kitchen, however, she was nothing close to appetizing, yet Lorelai crowned her ‘best chef in town’. Sookie could for sure dress the part, looking like a Master Chef, but the best she could do was taste test sauce and dunk her hands in the food. If she was as good as Lorelai claimed, she would not be in Stars Hollow in the first place, and would have used her prowess to teach her friend how to cook!
Sookie was also scarily obsessed with food, did not allow anyone ‘not up to her standard’ into her kitchen and abhorred constructive criticism. Very strange behavior for a top chef!
Lorelai Dating Rory’s Teacher
Lorelai dating Rory’s teacher was probably the weirdest and most inappropriate Gilmore Girls storyline. During season 1, Lorelai messed around with Max Medina, Rory’s English teacher at Chilton. These two behaved like teenagers, probably confusing Rory more than they disgusted her- dating, getting engaged, breaking up and dating some more, well until Max gave up on the emotional rollercoaster.
This relationship was made worse due to Rory’s initial experience at Chilton. She was a new student and as is common in some cases, had a rough start. She got her first D in English, proudly graded by Max, who would be her potential step-dad. This was an unnecessary direction if the writers wanted to add spice and drama into Lorelai’s and Rory’s lives.
Keeping Michel In The Closet
Michel was the writers’ opportunity to develop a character that expressed the complexities and diversity’s of men who prefer dating men exclusively. Instead, they kept Michel in the closet, filling his dialogues with stereotypes.
They, however, confirmed his orientation in the revival, but it was almost a flop because we didn’t learn much about him. There was no introduction of his partner or any past lovers. We don’t even see him try to pick up anybody! Michel’s story seemed like an afterthought, as it played second fiddle to Rory’s and Lorelai’s problems, as usual. Other than keeping him in the closet, Michel was a lousy employee, whom we never saw perform his duties well, yet he was never fired. Strange!
Emily’s Interchangeable Maids
Of the many regrettable storylines in the series, Emily’s handling of her maids was the most cringe-worthy. Emily was a wealthy white woman who enjoyed employing women of color and non-English speakers as maids. Worse still, these ladies were interchangeable, with Emily treating them very rudely and firing them in knee-jerk reactions, almost as if it was her ultimate drug with a good high.
The writers of the show used this behavior as a source of humor, but there is, and will never be anything funny about a spoiled white person mistreating women of color and dismissing them like they are not human beings! It is as if modern-day slavery was being advocated for, being sold off as humorous. Shame!
Rory dissing A Ballerina
Rory fat-shaming a ballerina was another quite annoying storyline the writers of Gilmore Girls explored. In her Yale Daily News article, Rory decided to fat-shame a ballerina, confirming that she was an awful journalist. This happened in a season 4 episode titled, ‘Die, Jerk’, where the ‘jerk’ in question was, in fact, Rory, who opted to spend time on her ballet review dissing one of the dancers instead of critiquing the performance.
Rory called the ballerina a ‘hippo’, shamelessly pointing out ‘the roll of fat around her bra strap’. This was quite awful, warranting the title ‘jerk’ to be a very light version of actually what Rory was.
Rory Gets Into Harvard While Paris Is Rejected
By now we are used to the cliché storyline of a girl or boy from a somewhat disadvantaged background, having big dreams of getting into an Ivy League school and becoming a force to reckon with in the society. While there is nothing wrong with this, we have a problem when the hardworking person in the story is rejected, while the ‘joker’ is accepted.
Paris was more hardworking than Rory and therefore deserved to get into Harvard, but the writers felt that Rory deserved it more. Secondly, we are confused when Lorelai claims that because Rory was a virgin, and Paris wasn’t, Rory was the good kid and therefore deserved to get into Harvard more.
Emily dictating who should attend parties
Emily’s attitude and perception of other people she didn’t perceive as ‘normal’, such as women of color, was just inexcusable. This, added with the statement that fat people should not attend parties was utterly inappropriate. Seems Emily was the show’s way of dissing other people.
In season 5, the episode titled, ‘The Party’s Over’ was how the writers brought this storyline into life. Emily was planning a soireé and was agonizing over how far apart the rows of chairs had been placed. She wanted them far just far enough to allow for easy navigation, but also commented that if someone needed that much room, as it had been done, they should not be at a party! Rory’s and Emily’s incidents were unnecessary.
Eating At Luke’s Daily
As much as Luke and Lorelai had great chemistry, they did not have enough money to comfortably eat at least two meals a day, due to having a single income. What’s more confusing is how they managed to eat at Luke’s daily, when Sookie, who was their ‘master chef’ could cook for free!
Then came the mother of all confusion when Rory also ate at the coffee shop, at 6:30 a.m., daily. Rory was at Chilton, a 40-minute bus drive from Stars Hollow, yet she managed to still eat at Luke’s before school? How practical was that? It also happened that the coffee shop was full to capacity, that early in the morning. In such a small town, we expect life at around 9:00 a.m., not diners full at 6:30 a.m., as though it is the ever-busy New York City!
Chilton Accepting Rory Two Months Into Sophomore Year
Gilmore Girls writers didn’t seem to understand how schools work, and this was evidenced in their entry to Chilton storyline. Rory spent her first year of high school at the local Stars Hollow High School, where she attended alongside her best friend Lane Kim. Her dream school was Chilton however, which would have increased her chances of getting accepted into Harvard.
Shortly after beginning her Sophomore year, still at Stars Hollow, Rory received an acceptance letter from Chilton, which was strangely late, and more strangely, had a week’s notice to find funding! Schools don’t work like that! The writers should have done some basic research on this.
Rory Becoming A Valedictorian
Valedictorian and Rory in one sentence? Who would have thought? Well, apart from these writers! It was obvious that Paris had better chances of being the valedictorian. She was smart and hardworking, hence would have had better grades than Rory.
Turns out that Rory had better grades, despite having really bad grades when she first started at Chilton. There was no way an extra credit would have turned her D into an A. Paris was also a leader, heading projects, which were perfectly done. During the time spent at Chilton, Rory rode on Paris’ back, and there was no way she would have gone ahead of her.
Mr. Kim Disappearing To Thin Air
Throughout most of the seasons, Lane Kim made reference to her ‘parents’, while we only saw her mum, Mrs. Kim. Eventually, seems like the writers realized the mistake, and Lane talked about only her mum. They, however, never told us where Mr. Kim went to and had a very weird attempt at it. When Lane was getting married, her mum said that she was intimate with her husband once. Well, we know that’s all it takes to get pregnant, duh! Despite that, they had a relationship deep enough to get married. So we deserve to know whether he died, or left due to the one taste of the honeypot. He just disappeared into thin air.
In the revival, however, it is explained that the writers had no use for Mr. Kim during the first 7 seasons. Still, they should have made it clear that he was traveling, working in another town, or any other explanation, instead of completely ignoring him.
How Taylor Had All The Authority In Stars Hollow
Nobody in Stars Hollow seemed to like Taylor Doose, and everyone was annoyed by him, yet for some weird reason, the writers gave him all the authority in the town. Taylor was a selfish, pushy, vindictive individual, who also had an unusual obsession with the town. Maybe it was this obsession that caused the writers to give him full authority.
What’s more puzzling, however, is how someone who abused his office and power and demanded whatever he wanted for was kept in charge. Why did the mayor allow him to blackmail and manipulate the town residents uncontested? He was so drunk with power, that he had the audacity to get depressed when Jackson beat him in the town selectman election.
The Population Of Stars Hollow
Stars Hollow did not have a clear approximate population. Several town meetings had an average of the same 20 to 30 residents, which would have indicated that this was a very small town. However, the number and diversity of businesses told a different story altogether. There was Miss Patty’s School of Ballet, Weston’s Bakery, Kim’s Antiques, The Dragonfly Inn, Stars Hollow Beauty Shop and the Chat Club, a store for cat items, just to name a few of them. Also, there seemed to be an endless supply of children, who would dance in ridiculous costumes, whenever needed.
Would such a small population support all these businesses? Such niche-businesses would be a result of a larger population, a few thousand.
Rory Missing Lorelai’s Graduation
Rory and Lorelai were portrayed as the perfect mother-daughter besties, despite having a few fights here and there. There was no way in hell that Rory would have missed her mum’s graduation, yet she did!
We understand that Rory had to go to New York to see Jess and get her fix. What happened after was confusing. How could a girl, presented to us by the writers as the smartest in Stars Hollow and Chilton, who was destined to be accepted to Yale, Princeton and Harvard, make a stupid decision to get on a LOCAL bus, instead of hopping on a faster means of transport? Worse still, this intellectual, forgot her mum’s present on the bus? C’mon now. This was pure irony and a not-so-well-thought storyline. Could a man really cause all these problems to a smart girl?
Logan And Rory, the later years
Logan and Rory’s relationship is one of the most discussed weird and wrong storylines ever done by Gilmore Girls. There was no point for Rory to engage in such behavior in the show, especially after she was shamed for doing the same with Dean. Rory and Logan were both being unfaithful to their partners, Rory on her boyfriend, while Dean was cheating on his fiancée!
We understand that A Year In The Life was all about the story of Rory going off the rails, but doing it so freely was not a necessary twist. It did not make sense, no matter how gone she was. Well, when she decided to start something with Dean, the poor excuse was that she was young. Could the writers have said the same thing about a 32-year old in a relationship?
Money And Budgets Didn’t Make Sense On The Show
Rory and Lorelai seemed to live the life of a rich diva in a small town. It seemed that they had infinite money to buy random stuff every time, be it shoes, lots of takeout, crazy theme nights and clothes.
It is understandable that life is cheaper in a small town, especially food and housing. It is inconceivable, however, how a struggling Lorelai was keeping up with taxes, mortgage, utilities, among other expenses required to run a home, while still taking care of her child, feeding her on countless takeouts. The writers tried when they came up with the story of Lorelai sucking it up and asking her parents for money at some point, but that does not fully explain the extravagance, based on an innkeeper’s salary.
Lorelai And Christopher Eloping
Lorelai and Christopher eloping was plain stupid and pointless. First off, Lorelai decided to elope and not tell Rory, her supposed daughter, and best friend, with whom she shared everything. Secondly, Christopher was her actual father, so why would it be so hard to say, ‘Hey, Rory, dad and I are gonna go away for a while. Don’t bother about us and keep this to yourself.’
Lastly, these were adults! Why was Lorelai behaving as though she was still under her parents’ roof? We fully understand why Rory was pissed. There was no reason for this needless drama.
Sookie Working Out She’s Pregnant Based On Her Moods
Pregnancy has a very cliché depiction in movies and series. Girl goes about her business then suddenly gets nauseated and rushes to the toilet to vomit, and the viewers know that the character could be pregnant. This is followed by questions and anxiety that leads the girl or lady to rush to the chemist, buys a pregnancy test-kit, gets home and pees on the stick, anxiously waiting for the result.
This seemed too cliché for Gilmore Girls writers, and Sookie had to find out she was pregnant based on her moods?? Really, it could have been PMS! What’s more annoying is that this plot happened thrice!
---
Are there any other storylines that you want to forget from Gilmore Girls? Let us know in the comments!