Unresolved Plotlines In Gilmore Girls

"Gilmore Girls," created by Amy Sherman-Palladino, is one of the most beloved shows of recent years. Set in the fictional small town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut, the series focuses on Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham), a witty thirty-something, and her precocious teenage daughter Rory (Alexis Bledel), whom Lorelai gave birth to when she was just a teen herself. 

Being so close in age to one another, Lorelai and Rory are, as Lorelai puts it, "best friends first, mother and daughter second." When Rory gets into a prestigious prep school, Lorelai finds herself having to reach out to her estranged parents, Emily (Kelly Bishop) and Richard (Edward Herrmann), to help with the tuition — resulting in a deal made that Lorelai and Rory must attend dinner with them every Friday night. Overall, the series follows the everyday lives of Lorelai and Rory, as they face school and work, relationships, and family drama.

The series ran for seven seasons from 2000 to 2007, beginning with Rory as a high school freshman and concluding with her as a recent college graduate. In 2016, the series returned for a revival on Netflix, titled "Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life." The revival consisted of four 88-to-102-minute episodes, set almost a decade after the original series, with Rory now in her early 30s — just as Lorelai was when the original series began.

As a show that has seven seasons and a revival under its belt, it may come as no surprise that there are a few missteps, including some unresolved plotlines. Some are more obvious — or pivotal — than others, but they're all interesting to think about nonetheless. Read on to see if you caught any of these abandoned plot points.

Before Lorelai ended up with diner owner Luke Danes (Scott Patterson), she had several other relationships, from an on-off relationship with Rory's father Christopher (David Sutcliffe) to her short-lived engagement to Rory's teacher at Chilton, Max Medina (Scott Cohen). She also had her fair share of more casual boyfriends, including Alex Lesman (Billy Burke), a man she meets in "I Solemnly Swear ..." (Season 3 Episode 11) at a one day business course. They first come into contact when Lorelai and Sookie (Melissa McCarthy) run into an old colleague. Then, he looks her up later in the episode to call her and ask her out. 

Alex may not be the most memorable of Lorelai's boyfriends, but Lorelai seems really into him — enough to get Luke to teach her to fish in the next episode, "Lorelai Out of Water" when she agrees to go fishing with Alex despite not knowing how. Alex last appears in "Swan Song," in which he, Lorelai, Sookie and Jackson (Jackson Douglas) take a weekend trip to New York. Despite them seeming to be on good terms in New York, we never see Alex again, nor hear about any concrete breakup. Sure, some new relationships just run their course and come to a non-climactic end — but, in terms of plot purposes, it's a bit odd for a love interest to be introduced just for him to suddenly stop showing up. On the bright side, the drama between Rory and her boyfriend Jess (Milo Ventimiglia) ramps up, so you hardly even notice Alex's absence.

Lane and her first love interest Dave (Adam Brody) have palpable chemistry, and Dave happily jumps through the hoops it takes to date Lane due to her ultra-strict mother. Unfortunately, Dave's run on the show was cut short when Brody left the series to star in his own teen drama, "The O.C." We may know the logistics behind Dave's departure, but within the world of the show, fans don't exactly get a clear cut explanation of what happens between the characters.

At the beginning of Season 4, it's revealed that Dave has left for college in California and that the couple are trying long distance — from here on, Dave is only mentioned and not seen. In the eighth episode of the season, "Die, Jerk," Lane and Dave get into a major fight after Lane tells him that her mother wants to send him a jug intended for the man Lane is going to marry. It turns out that Lane misunderstood her mother's intentions — the jug is not marriage related at all — but after Dave has been angered by the prospect of receiving such a serious gift.

Not only is it out of character for Dave to get mad at Lane for something that isn't her fault, but this is the last we hear of the character. Did they break up after their big fight? If so, who broke it off? Eventually, it's assumed that they broke up and Lane starts dating Zack, but fans of the couple definitely would've liked a more clear-cut explanation.

Throughout "Gilmore Girls," we see a whole slew of various maids who work for Emily and Richard — this is entirely due to Emily, who is both extremely picky about maids and far from the best boss. With this in mind, it makes sense that Emily would have some serious trouble with one of her maids. At the beginning of  "I Solemnly Swear...," (Season 3 Episode 11), Rory and Lorelai walk in on Emily, very angrily, speaking on the phone, discussing "the most absurd thing [she's] ever heard."

Emily then explains to Rory and Lorelai that one of her former maids is suing her for wrongful termination; as it turns out, Emily fired the maid for walking too loudly. The plotline makes for a funny — yet tense — moment later in the episode when Emily reads aloud Lorelai's deposition, in which she gives avoidant answers to sidestep admitting she thinks that her mother is overly critical and wrong in the way she frequently fires maids.

However, the storyline is dropped after that, and we never get to find out what comes of the suit.

Jason Stiles (Chris Eigeman) comes into the mix in Season 4, as a new business partner to Richard and love interest to Lorelai. Despite them keeping their relationship a secret from Lorelai's parents, Jason ends up becoming one of Lorelai's major love interests — and is also the last man she dates before finally getting together with Luke.

The whole situation becomes more complicated in "Tick, Tick, Tick Boom" (Season 3, Episode 19) when Jason's father Floyd (Lawrence Pressman) — and Richard's former boss — announces that he's suing Richard's and Jason's company, claiming that they broke a contract when Jason brought his clients with him to Richard's business. To save himself, Richard betrays Jason and makes a deal with Floyd to go back into business together, edging out Jason.

When Jason finds out, he tells Lorelai that he is suing Richard. Lorelai asks him not to and he refuses, so she ends the relationship. When Jason shows up again a few episodes later, it's only to try to get Lorelai back. Lorelai does briefly mention the lawsuit against Richard, but they quickly move on. Soon, Lorelai chooses Luke over Jason and Jason is out of the picture. His lawsuit never gets brought up again, leaving viewers to wonder if he ever went through with it or, if he did, what came of it.

The relationship between Lane and Mrs. Kim (Emily Kuroda) is a major element of "Gilmore Girls." As somewhat of a foil to Rory and Lorelai's relationship, Lane and Mrs. Kim frequently butt heads due to their vastly different opinions and personalities. Yet, despite how compelling the relationship between the two of them is, the viewer can't help but notice that Lane's father is never seen. In an episode in the first season, Lane mentions her "parents," indicating that Mr. Kim is still in the picture, but then he never makes an appearance.

In the revival, "A Year in the Life," we finally get to see Mr. Kim — at the town's International Spring Food Festival, Lane points out to Rory that her dad is there and the two wave to Mr. Kim. When Mr. Kim waves back, we finally get a look at the elusive father. But, it's never explained why we didn't see him in the original series.

Most of the storylines around Jackson (Jackson Douglas) directly involve his wife, Sookie, who is the more prominent character. But in "Tippecanoe and Taylor, Too" (Season 5, Episode 4), Jackson gets his own storyline when he runs for town selectman because he is so frustrated with the way Taylor (Michael Winters) runs things. Throughout the episode, we see him campaigning with the help of Sookie, Lorelai and Luke. He ends up winning, but at the rally, he expresses his regrets over running — just for the crowd to express contentment over finally having an "honest man" running the town. He's quickly overwhelmed by the job and the attention it requires of him.

A few episodes later, Taylor is town selectman again, without any explanation given. Considering Jackson's regret, we can assume that he resigned and the position went back to Taylor. Still, it's a bit odd that his running was a major plot line of an episode, only for the subject to revert back to how it was without even a passing line or two to explain.

Jess is introduced in Season 2 when he comes to live with his uncle Luke and quickly becomes a budding love interest to Rory. The two are in a relationship for most of Season 3 before Jess leaves Stars Hollow, following a fallout with both Rory and Luke. In "Here Comes the Son" (Season 3, Episode 21), we see Jess show up in California to try to reconnect with his estranged father Jimmy (Rob Estes). Jess finds it hard to connect with Jimmy at first, and to make him agree to let Jess stay with him, but Jimmy finally capitulates.

This episode was meant as a backdoor pilot for a spinoff about Jess's relationship with Jimmy, called "Windward Circle," but the series wasn't picked up. Jess eventually returns to Stars Hollow in Season 4 of "Gilmore Girls" for a few guest appearances, but there's no mention of his time in California. It's unclear if he and his father were able to develop a relationship or if that didn't work out. We don't even find out where Jess was living before he shows up back in Stars Hollow.

Considering that "Gilmore Girls" fans never got their Jess spinoff, it seems like the writers should have at least updated them on how Jess's California experience was. Alas, at least Jess's return to Stars Hollow is drama-filled enough — between him fighting then reconciling with Luke and bluntly declaring his love for Rory — to keep fans distracted from the unresolved California plot.

During Rory's time at her high school, Chilton, she finds out about a secret influential society called the Puffs, which her classmate Paris's family has been a part of for generations. After Rory is encouraged to socialize more by the school counselor, she sits down with a group of girls at lunch without knowing that they are, in fact, the Puffs. Paris then demands to know how she got a seat at their table without an invitation. Rory convinces them to allow Paris to join, complete with a middle-of-the-night ceremony in the Dean's office welcoming Rory and Paris into the Puffs — until they're all caught by the Dean.

At the end of the episode, Rory goes back to eating lunch by herself, which makes sense because she didn't even want to join the Puffs in the first place. But Paris was so ecstatic about joining that it's a little weird that she never brings them up again. Did she stay in the society or leave it behind like Rory? If she stayed, did anything come of it?

At the end of Season 5, Rory unexpectedly quits Yale after being told by the newspaper mogul father of her boyfriend Logan (Matt Czuchry) that she has no future in journalism. After a long break from school (and an extended fight with Lorelai), Rory decides to get back to her life. In "The Prodigal Daughter Returns" (Season 6 Episode 9), we see Rory reach out to an editor at the Stamford Eagle-Gazette, the same newspaper she interned at under Logan's father. She wants a job as an entry-level staff writer, but he tells her that he has no job openings. She keeps pushing, however, and eventually lands the job. 

When Rory leaves after their meeting, she calls Lorelai and exclaims that it "pays less than [she'll] spend on gas to get there," but is a writing job nonetheless. She's extremely excited to tell Lorelai about the job — and to announce that she'll be returning to Yale.

This makes it quite strange that the job is never brought up again, by Rory or Lorelai or anyone. Rory returns to Yale and continues writing for the Yale paper, making her schedule quite busy. Considering it was a little odd for Rory to pursue a (presumably full time) job when she intended to go back to school — her schedule would be beyond packed — perhaps the writers decided it was easiest logistics-wise to drop the Gazette storyline. Still, every time you watch the episode, it's hard not to think about the fact that such a major achievement of Rory's was simply dropped as a plot point.

After Rory and Jess's tumultuous breakup, they reconnect a few times over the series. The last time we see Jess in the original "Gilmore Girls" is in Season 6. By that point, they're now on good terms and they even share a kiss. However, Rory is still dating Logan and the kiss with Jess, at least on Rory's part, is partially a way for her to get back at Logan for seeing other people when they were on a break.

Jess returns in the revival and visits Rory at the office of the rundown Stars Hollow newspaper that Rory has begun running. The two appear to be very friendly with one another and Jess is even the one to suggest to Rory that she should write a book about her and her mom. Later, Luke asks Jess if he is "over" Rory, to which Jess replies that he is "long over" her. But then, we see Jess looking very longingly at Rory through the window — this is the last we see of Jess. With this look, it becomes clear that Jess definitely still has some lingering feelings for Rory.

The question is: does Rory feel the same way? It has been over a decade since the pair broke up, but they clearly still have a good connection — and can still engage in witty banter and joke together. Also, the fact that Rory had just been having an affair with Logan proves she is open to rekindling old flames. And considering Jess is not in a committed relationship — unlike Logan — he would definitely be the more fitting choice. Unfortunately, we never get to see what happens next between them, including if Jess ever acts on his lingering feelings.

In the very last moment of "A Year in the Life," Rory tells Lorelai that she's pregnant, much to the surprise of Lorelai — and the audience. The episode ends just after the confession, leaving the entire series on quite the cliffhanger. We don't get to see Lorelai ask the most logical question that would naturally follow that revelation — namely, who is the father?

Earlier in the revival, we find out that Rory has been sleeping with her ex-boyfriend Logan, despite him being engaged to someone else. The affair continues for a while, before they finally break it off and say goodbye. Logan is the natural assumption as to who the father could be, seeing as he's her most significant love interest in the revival. Some have also speculated that Jess could be the father and we just didn't see the scene of them sleeping together. Additionally, the fact that Rory's good friend Paris has a fertility clinic indicates that perhaps Rory used those services to get pregnant on her own (relatedly, in the "Summer," episode, Rory even made a joke about being so broke that she should consider becoming a surrogate for the service to make money). Finally, there's Paul, the boyfriend Rory is with at the beginning of the revival — he is an unlikely candidate, however, considering the whole running joke about Paul is that Rory keeps forgetting to break up with him.

Considering that "A Year in the Life" was intended as a miniseries, it's unlikely we'll ever get a further continuation of the story, and the question of who the father is will remain unanswered. Until then, fans will just have to keep on speculating.

The subject of Rory having kids never really comes up, in either the original series or the revival, so it's almost impossible to say what her thoughts on the subject are. On one hand, she saw her mother navigate life as a single parent and have a really good life. She even goes to talk to Christopher to find out how he felt about Lorelai mostly raising their daughter on her own — this is a pretty big clue that she is thinking about what it will be like if she does it on her own, which means she is seriously considering keeping the baby.

Also, notably, Rory is actually twice the age Lorelai was when she had Rory, in her early 30s instead of a young teen. This makes the prospect of being a single parent a lot more feasible, in terms of mental preparedness and financial stability (although, as we see in the revival, Rory could be doing better on the job front and hopefully finds professional success with the book she begins working on).

All in all, this is definitely a hard one to speculate, but the fact that Amy Sherman-Palladino decided to end the entire series with this confession of Rory's to Lorelai says a lot about the weight of it. Meaning, it may be safe to assume that because the series ended on this note, Rory is intending to keep and raise the child, bringing the show — and the Rory and Lorelai relationship — full circle.