10 Gilmore Girls Storylines The Show Could Have Done Without

Although Gilmore Girls has a devout fan base, even the show’s most ardent defenders can name a few storylines that truly went nowhere. The cast of Gilmore Girls had plenty of chances to show off their acting chops in the series. However, for every instance of the cult show making the most of a guest star, there were as many cases of Gilmore Girls wasting intriguing characters and setups. Lorelai’s Gilmore Girls love interest Jason “Digger” Stiles prompted viewers to wonder if she should end up with a flighty motor mouth like herself, rather than the stoic Luke.

However, Jason’s ignominious exit left this question unanswered as Gilmore Girls continued on without revealing the relationship’s impact on Lorelai’s worldview. Similarly, Dean and Sookie hardly appeared in 2016’s Netflix revival A Year in the Life and, while this was partially due to the busy schedules of their actors, it also proved that the show hardly considered what they had been up to since the original series ended. Unfortunately, Gilmore Girls often abandoned beloved characters and compelling storylines to focus on pointless plots that ended up going nowhere, as evidenced by ten plots the show could have done without.

10 Lorelei’s Relationship With Alex

Billy Burke’s Short-Lived Love Interest Seemingly Vanished Between Episodes

Billy Burke’s Alex was a short-lived love interest of Lorelai’s who first appeared in season 3, episode 11, “I Solemnly Swear,” and his last appearance came only a few episodes later in episode 14, “Swan Song.” It is tough to see why Alex and Lorelai broke up, as the pair had a lot in common. Both single parents who ran small businesses, Lorelai and Alex bonded over their similarities before Alex took Lorelai fishing. Realizing how inexperienced she was, he took her to a spa afterward. This romantic gesture proved pointless when he was dropped with no explanation an episode later.

9 Logan’s Near-Fatal Accident

Logan’s Life-Altering Injuries Barely Lasted A Week

While the Gilmore Girls revival is often blamed for ruining Logan’s character, the earliest issues with his storyline can be traced far further back. In season 6, episode 20, “Super Cool Party People,” Logan sustains life-altering injuries when a Life and Death Brigade stunt goes badly wrong. This twist could have been a major surprise that changed his worldview, but Logan’s injuries clear up almost instantly and the experience doesn’t alter his character in the slightest. As such, the entire ordeal ends up feeling entirely superfluous and like a cheap injection of drama into a season that lacked substance.

8 Rory And Dean Dating In College

Rory And Dean’s Reunion Never Really Added Up

While Rory and Dean’s Gilmore Girls relationship has its fans, it is hard to argue that the pair needed to get back together in adulthood. Their initial teenage love is cute if cloying, and Jess’s arrival resulting in their eventual breakup provides some of the strongest drama in Gilmore Girls seasons 2 and 3. However, Rory sleeping with a married Dean and then dating him while she attends college was a pointless plot that, while in character, never felt entirely justified. Moreover, the storyline transformed Dean from a harmless lunkhead into an outright abusive partner to his wife, Lindsay.

In season 5, episode 1, “Say Goodbye to Daisy Miller,” Dean lies to his wife about his relationship with Rory and berates Lindsay for answering his phone, resulting in a toxic dynamic that contemporary viewers recognize as abuse. This makes it tough for anyone to root for Rory and Dean’s attempts to make their relationship work, since Dean is a walking red flag in adulthood. Despite how little potential the storyline has, Rory and Dean’s college-era relationship drags out for too long years after one of the funniest Gilmore Girls episodes gave them the perfect breakup to end their story.

7 Francie's Entire Subplot

This Chapter Of Chilton Drama Felt Forced And Unnecessary

Although Paris was initially introduced as a bully, she gradually became Rory’s friend and eventual confidante across seasons 2 and 3. This meant that Gilmore Girls needed a new villain for the school storyline, and the forgettable Francie Jarvis filled this role. Although actor Emily Bergl suffused her character with the necessary level of snideness and even earned a cameo in A Year in the Life, Francie’s subplot couldn’t help but feel completely unnecessary. The question of whether Chilton bought a telescope or hosted an expensive dance for its graduating students was too dull even for the lowest-stakes season.

6 Luke Hiding April Nardini From Lorelai

Luke’s Season 6 Screw-up Didn’t Fit With His Character

While April Nardini’s Gilmore Girls story is infamously hated, the biggest problem with the plot was not the character herself. April is no more precocious than Rory was at her age and, upon a re-watch, she is far from the most irritating quirky child character seen on ‘00s TV. Instead, the real problem is that Luke hides April from Lorelai for so long. Admittedly, April’s mother Anna becomes a problem for the couple when she insists on taking Luke to court over visitation rights. However, before this, Luke’s reticence around Lorelai meeting April feels forced and out-of-character.

Luke is portrayed as a straight-talking everyman, often to his detriment. Luke doesn’t have a conspiratorial bone in his body and struggles with keeping harmless secrets like birthday presents, so it feels utterly unbelievable that he would hide April from Lorelai for so long. What makes this plot so problematic is that its fallout eventually goes on to shape the entirety of seasons 6 and 7, indirectly resulting in another one of the most hated Gilmore Girls storylines ever. If it weren’t for Luke deciding not to tell Lorelai about April, viewers wouldn’t have needed to endure Lorelei and Christopher’s reunion.

5 Jackson's Town Selectman Campaign

Jackson’s Subplot Was Entirely Superfluous

Although Gilmore Girls’ best Christmas episode proved that the townspeople of Stars Hollow are just as central to the show’s success as Lorelai and Rory themselves, there is still a limit to their role in the show. Gilmore Girls wouldn’t be watchable if entire episodes were devoted to Taylor Doose’s town hall meetings, and this explains why Jackson’s Town Selectman campaign storyline feels aimless. Ultimately, no matter how much a given viewer of Gilmore Girls may have a soft spot for Sookie’s love interest, the question of whether Jackson becomes Stars Hollow’s Town Selectman can be answered with “Who cares.”

4 Lorelai’s Season 6/7 Relationship With Christopher

Even Lorelai’s Actor Disliked This Infamous Twist

While Jackson’s plot might have been annoying, it didn’t almost derail the entire series. The same can’t be said for Christopher and Lorelai getting back together in season 6. Christopher and Lorelai’s reunion and subsequent short-lived marriage was justified by one hilarious Gilmore Girls fight between Luke and Christopher, but the plot was otherwise completely unnecessary. This twist might have been intriguing much earlier in the show’s run, but no one believed that the final season of Gilmore Girls would end with Lorelai choosing Christopher over Luke. As such, it was hard not to feel like the storyline was filler.

3 Lorelai’s A Year in the Life Pacific Crest Trail Hike

The Revival’s Weird Lorelai Subplot Literally Went Nowhere

The strangest subplot of 2016’s revival A Year in the Life saw Lorelai, inspired by the movie Wild, trying to hike the infamously long and arduous Pacific Crest Trail. The series immediately went with the obvious gag that, as someone with no prior interest in the outdoors, Lorelai never actually did any hiking on the Pacific Crest Trail. However, this only made the subplot feel more aimless. Although Emily and Lorelai’s best moment from the revival did admittedly happen while she was on the trail, there was no reason that the subplot was necessary to set up this emotional scene.

2 Marty And Rory’s Awkward Friendship And Its Fallout

Marty And Rory’s Relationship Was Bizarre And Pointless

Marty’s squirrely oddball energy was initially appealing, and he shared an offbeat chemistry with Rory when the duo first met. However, like Alex, he soon vanished from Gilmore Girls and his early role felt pointless in retrospect. However, Gilmore Girls made Marty’s role much worse when he resurfaced as Lucy’s boyfriend and pretended not to know Rory when they were introduced. The show never justified Rory’s decision to go along with this charade, resulting in a strange, uncomfortable storyline whose central conflict felt unearned. After all, Rory could simply mention their harmless shared history at any time if she wanted.

1 Lane’s Unwanted Pregnancy

Lane’s Pregnancy Might Be The Cruelest Gilmore Girls Twist Ever

Most of the Gilmore Girls plots listed here are pointless but ultimately do little to detract from the show as a whole. Characters like Marty and Jackson meant that the third Gilmore Girl Emily got less screen time and character development, but their roles on the show didn’t derail the series entirely. Luke hiding April and Lorelei’s subsequent reunion with Christopher did leave seasons 6 and 7 feeling off, as noted by Lauren Graham in excerpts from her autobiography “I’m Talking As Fast As I Can” published by Entertainment Weekly. However, the story of Lane’s pregnancy was much worse.

Throughout the early seasons of Gilmore Girls, Lane spent years rebelling against her conservative, traditional upbringing. When she married Zach, it was tough not to feel like the decision was a little rushed. However, Lane becoming pregnant after painfully losing her virginity to Zach was the show’s worst misstep. Lane’s unwanted pregnancy is a genuinely tragic Gilmore Girls storyline, and the show treating it as a darkly comic joke only makes the twist bleaker. If there was one Gilmore Girls storyline that deserves to be retconned out of existence in future revivals, it would be this disastrous plot.

Source: Entertainment Weekly