"Fall is fast approaching, and in my house, it’s Gilmore Girls season. For me, it’s a time of cozy vibes, chunky sweaters, and lots and lots of coffee. Once the leaves begin to change, there’s never a day that this show isn’t playing in the background. With seven seasons and a revival, there are plenty of storylines, meaning I notice something new with every rewatch. But there are also several details that stand out every year—and not just because the show holds a special place in my heart.
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Sure, some aspects of this show simply haven’t aged well, as is true for a lot of early 2000s shows. While those critiques are valid, I have to be honest: Some parts of Gilmore Girls make zero sense. Whether it’s a plot hole or an action that feels wildly out of character, some details just don’t add up. Here are the Gilmore Girls plot holes that I ignore anyway, because I just love this show that much.
1. Lorelai and Rory’s lifestyle doesn’t match their budget
For someone who’s always stressed about money, Lorelai Gilmore seems to have a lot of it. The entire show’s premise revolves around it: Lorelai has to go to her parents so she can afford to send Rory to Chilton. But when they aren’t faced with something as costly as tuition, the Gilmore girls seem to live without a care in the world. They eat almost every meal at Luke’s Diner, and they never wear the same outfit twice. It’s contradictory, but for some fans it’s part of the draw. Who wouldn’t want a huge closet and an “unlimited” budget for takeout?
2. Nobody in Stars Hollow dresses for East Coast weather
As a Midwestern girl who’s grown up in freezing winters, I know that Lorelai’s black zip-up and thin blue scarf aren’t doing her any favors in the Connecticut snow. And yes, I know that making the cast bundle up in real coats and hats would make everyone miserable while filming in California, but I can’t help thinking about how cold these characters would be in a real East Coast winter. Still, it’s an easy thing to overlook when the costume department gave us so many iconic looks.
3. Paris not getting into Harvard makes no sense
Never mind that Rory spent three seasons wanting to go to Harvard only to pivot to Yale–that could be its own point on this list. But what’s even more unbelievable was Rory getting into Harvard when Paris didn’t. Love her or hate her, Paris deserved Harvard just as much as Rory, and I’d argue she had more in her favor. She had multiple family members go there, more extracurriculars on her resume and better grades, since Rory was nearly failing during her first few months at Chilton. With everything she had working for her, it doesn’t feel realistic for her acceptance to hinge on her bad interview. But if I had to pick between seeing Rory by herself at Harvard and her and Paris together at Yale, I’d choose the second every time.
4. Everything about the dance marathon
The costumes. The choreography. The Rory/Jess/Dean drama. All of these things add up to what is arguably the most iconic episode of Gilmore Girls: the dance marathon. I wish we’d gotten to see this event more than once throughout the series because of how fun it is. But some details don’t make sense if you think about them long enough. Why is Dean “right on time” for Andrew’s annual meltdown six hours into dancing when Rory says it typically happens within the first 15 minutes? Do people who aren’t dancing actually need to stay up for 24 hours? Why does Rory not know about the runaround if the dance marathon is one of her favorite town events? These Gilmore Girls plot holes are so tiny that only superfans will pick up on them. For that reason, they kind of make me love this episode even more.
5. Kirk’s many jobs
Mailman. Filmmaker. Daily T-shirt seller. Kirk is the Barbie of Stars Hollow. At one point he claims to have worked over 15,000 jobs. But logistically speaking, how in the world did he pull that off? Wouldn’t he only have worked each job for a couple of hours for the math to add up? Obviously this could never happen in real life, but this running gag is one of the show’s funniest, and Kirk’s work ethic is just one of many quirky qualities that make him the Gilmore Girls character we know and love.
6. What happens to Lorelai’s exes?
Of all the Gilmore Girls plot holes, this haunts me the most. Lorelai’s dating life is one of the most entertaining parts of the show, but when some of her most serious relationships come to an end, we never get to see the aftermath. When Lorelai breaks off her engagement to Max by way of a midnight road trip, we don’t see her react to it—not even when Rory begs her for answers. She breaks up with Jason after he sues her father, but once she gets with Luke, that plotline mysteriously clears up. Where do these men disappear to? As much as this Gilmore Girls plot hole keeps me up at night, I know we don’t always get closure in real life, so it’s at least realistic. Plus, Lorelai was clearly meant to be with Luke, who makes all the other men pale in comparison.
7. Rory faces no real consequences for her serial cheating
Oh, Rory. She may not be high on the list of Gilmore Girls characters I most dislike, but she’s got plenty of problems—namely, her tendency to cheat on her partners. Everyone always talks about her breaking up Dean’s marriage, but this pattern of hers started long before season four, and continued long after. She kissed both Jess and Tristan when she was with Dean the first time, and she had an affair with Logan while she was in a relationship and he was engaged to someone else. In spite of this, she tends to face fairly few repercussions—if most of us were friends with someone like that, we would seriously consider cutting her off. Still, this is the kind of drama I eat up on my screen.
8. Lorelai never would have married Christopher
It’s hard to ignore the chemistry that Lorelai has with Christopher, and I don’t really blame them for wanting to give their relationship a real shot once they’d both grown up. But judging by how quickly they got married (and then divorced), it wasn’t just their teenage selves that were incompatible. Given how many times they hooked up throughout the series, it’s clear that Lorelai and Christopher meant a great deal to each other, but the fact that they married is one of the Gilmore Girls plot holes that lives rent-free in my head. Lorelai is so proud of her daughter—she never really would have married the man who was such an absent father to Rory. Even though getting back together with an ex is hardly a good idea, the “will they/won’t they” of fictional relationships only makes us root for them more.
9. How did Rory graduate on time?
One of Rory’s lowest moments on the show is when she drops out of school and stops talking to Lorelai. Is a downward spiral after getting one piece of negative feedback relatable? Maybe more than I’d like to admit. It’s totally understandable that she’d need some time to rethink a choice as big as her career path (minus the yacht stealing, of course). But the real question is, once she got her confidence back and returned to school, how was she able to graduate on time after taking an entire year off? She’d have to play an insane amount of catch-up in a very short amount of time, but we rarely saw her do it. I guess if anybody could pull it off, it’s Rory Gilmore.
10. The biggest Gilmore Girls plot hole of all: Lane deserved better
I will forever mourn that we only got one season of Dave Rygalski. That’s all, the end.
Kidding, but if anyone in Gilmore Girls deserved a happy ending, it was Lane Kim. Her character arc in the first half of the show was about embracing her passion for music even though it was frowned upon in her house. Just when she could’ve had it all—the band, the boyfriend, a bigger life—it was taken away. Having her stay in Stars Hollow for the rest of her life instead of becoming a famous musician ruined all of her development, and I’m convinced she only fell for Zach because he was there. The writers did her dirty. Lane is one of the show’s most interesting side characters, and I love Gilmore Girls, but I’ll never forgive them for this one.
Hannah Carapellotti, Contributing Writer
Hannah is an Ann Arbor-based writer with a bachelor’s in English and writing from the University of Michigan. She’s obsessed with all things pop culture—outside of The Everygirl, you can find her posting about her favorite books on her TikTok account or crafting the perfect Letterboxd review. She currently works at an independent bookstore and interns for a literary agency.