Gilmore Girls: 10 Most Confusing Things About Lorelai

Lorelai Gilmore is one of the most well-written characters on TV. When Gilmore Girls introduced fans to Lauren Graham’s character, who became pregnant at sixteen and is now the coolest single mom around, everyone loved her immediately. She’s fun, generous, and hilarious, but she’s not perfect, which is a good thing. She can be prone to bad moods and sometimes it seems like she doesn’t even want to mend her relationship with her parents.

Lorelai gives good and bad advice and despite how popular she is, there are a lot of things about her life in Stars Hollow that just don’t add up. Fans love Lorelai so much but can’t help but admit that she doesn’t always make sense.

10 She Expects Rory To Be Exactly Like Her

The mother/daughter connection between Lorelai and Rory is the whole reason for watching this show. And yet Lorelai makes a big mistake when she constantly expects her daughter to be exactly like her.

This is confusing because while they get along great and love similar things, Rory is a whole other human being. Of course, she has different goals and dreams. Lorelai hates when Rory becomes close to her grandfather Richard because that means she’s becoming part of that wealthy lifestyle that Lorelai shunned. This is clear when Richard teaches his sweet granddaughter golf in season one. Lorelai should take a step back and realize that it’s okay for Rory to be a bit different.

9 She Doesn’t Have A Financial Game Plan For Rory’s Future

The happy scenes between Lorelai and her mother Emily are very meaningful and powerful. If Lorelai and Rory are best pals, then Emily and Lorelai are like sworn enemies.

Lorelai gets super lucky when her parents offer to pay for Rory to go to Chilton. And she gets even luckier when they do the same thing for Yale. But why didn’t Lorelai plan ahead? Sure, she’s a single mother who doesn’t have a ton of cash in the bank. But she doesn’t have a game plan for how to pay for her daughter’s future, and it’s unrealistic to think that Rory can get by with just financial aid. Rory doesn’t even have a part-time job in high school.

8 She Doesn’t Know A Lot About Stars Hollow Or Its Residents

There are a lot of fun facts to know about Stars Hollow and this TV town seems like a fantastic place to live.

Lorelai doesn’t seem to know much about this town, though, which is confusing since she’s been living there for a while. One example is when Lorelai wears a sweatshirt with rhinestones on it and Luke flips out because it used to belong to his ex-girlfriend, Rachel. Everyone knows about Rachel but Lorelai, who is shocked to learn that Luke had such a serious romance. Wouldn’t Lorelai know this? Surely someone would have told her or she would have asked someone nosy like Ms. Patty or Babette.

7 She’s Harsh Toward Her Friends Sookie And Michel

From teasing Sookie to whining about going on a double date, Lorelai can be harsh when dealing with Sookie.

If they’re really close and have known each other for so long, it’s confusing that Lorelai would feel okay treating her like this. Even though she apologizes, that doesn’t really help. She also isn’t very nice to Michel, who she considers a friend and close co-worker. It seems like Sookie would, at the very least, tell Lorelai that she wasn’t being a good enough friend and they could have a heart-to-heart.

6 She Bugs Rory When She’s Studying

There are many moments on Gilmore Girls when Lorelai bugs Rory when she’s trying really hard to study.

Instead of letting her daughter focus, Lorelai will complain that she wants junk food or that she wants to hang out and have fun. This is another confusing thing about this character, as while she’s got a reputation as someone who wants to have a good time, she knows that her daughter takes school seriously.

5 She’s Flakey Yet Somehow Can Run Her Own Inn

Lorelai has always been a somewhat flakey person, and she might be kind toward her fellow Stars Hollow townspeople and her friends, but she does care a lot about her own wants and needs.

If Lorelai is so flakey, how can she run her own inn? She’s the one in charge of the business side of things, as Sookie might be her partner but she’s focused on the kitchen. Sure, she goes to business school, but it’s not a very long program. It seems like it would be harder for Lorelai to do this.

4 She Doesn’t Know Enough About Luke

Luke may be a fairly private guy, but it seems like someone would have blabbed to Lorelai that Luke Danes has a “dark day” once a year. This is another thing about Lorelai that confuses viewers as she and Luke become a serious couple and yet she doesn’t know enough about him.

Lorelai should spend more time asking Luke questions about himself. It’s like she assumes that because they saw each other all the time in his diner before they started dating, she knows everything there is to know about him.

3 She Marries Rory’s Dad Without Telling Rory

If someone’s parents split up (or got together young so never got married), they usually want nothing more than for their mom and dad to get back together.

Rory may have complicated feelings about her parents being married, but Lorelai should have told Rory what was going on with her and Christopher. Lorelai decides to marry him in a split second and it’s not fair to not tell her daughter the truth. This is confusing because Lorelai always wanted Rory to keep her informed about her love life, so it was pretty hypocritical, especially since this was about Rory’s dad.

2 She’s Impulsive, Even After Becoming A Parent

It’s impossible to ignore the fact that Lorelai has a very impulsive personality. This is what makes her funny, as she’s the subject of many hilarious memes, and whether she’s yelling about coffee or junk food or random pop culture facts, she’s a joy to watch.

But becoming a parent means becoming more mature, and that doesn’t really happen for Lorelai. She might own her business and take good care of Rory, but she still lives by her impulses, like when she cancels her wedding to Max in a split second. While it’s good that she listened to her gut, she could have gone about it in a classier and nicer way.

1 She’s Cool Yet Still Humiliates Rory

There’s no question that Lorelai is incredibly chill as far as mothers on TV go, and yet even though she remembers what it was like to be a teenager, she still humiliates Rory sometimes.

From telling Dean he should come over to teasing Rory for saying “thank you” when he kissed her, there are a ton of examples from the first season alone. Lorelai is still awesome, but this really doesn’t make much sense.

About The Author

Aya Tsintziras
(1742 Articles Published)

Aya Tsintziras is a freelance writer who writes about pop culture and TV. She has a Political Science degree from the University of Toronto and a Masters of Journalism from Ryerson University. She loves coffee, reading, working out, and watching TV. She lives in Toronto with her husband.

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