Aahh, I’m so glad you’re watching Gilmore Girls! I love that show so much, okay, just so freaking much. I want to re-watch it right now, I always want to re-watch it.
You know, I agree while watching those last few seasons of GG, about Rory and Logan. They do fit, almost like they were made for each other, and in a sense they were. They are the Lorelai and Christopher - they have the connection and the love and they can make a really, really good life together…
But one thing always pops into my head when I think about that, and it’s at the core of why Rory and Logan don’t work for me, and that’s even on top of the cheating issue that has peppered their relationship (and really, Rory’s life, good god, girl): when Rory quit Yale. What did Logan do? Nothing. He basically said, “That’s what you’re doing, then? Alright, let’s do it.” No, Logan, no, your girlfriend is going through a crisis. You see her fighting so viciously with her mother, her best friend, her rock, and ostracizing her in favor of her grandparents? No, you sit down and say, “What is wrong, let’s figure this out,” not take her out for more drinks and partying. Now, all those things are good things in their own right, but only for a while. Her entire life was becoming defined by the escapism that Logan represented and she was losing herself in the process, which gets to my main point:
Logan is good for only part of Rory. He’s not good for the entire picture.
That’s why I love Jess. He’s good for the entire thing. Jess is someone who is looking for himself, but he’s honest about it. Logan was looking for himself, too, but he wasn’t honest about it. He and Rory went through some shit because neither of them were honest about the issues they were having. Jess laid it all out, the good, the bad, the ugly and for that reason alone, Rory needs Jess.
Jess knows her, he gets her, and he accepts all of her. He isn’t afraid to push her, to challenge her, to force her to step back and look at the situation, whether he’s in the right or the wrong. The fact is that he pushes her to be a better version of her whole self and Rory needs that. Everyone needs that, but Rory especially because she’s really good at going along with whatever is presented to her. She needs her rock, someone to knock sense into her, and Jess does that. Rory knows at her core what she wants, but there’s a weird fear there, too, and she’s the type of person who will make a decision and then needs someone to come along and challenge it in order for her to see what she really wants. Jess does that.
One of my all-time favorite scenes is after the scene in the bar when Logan is being a total dick to Jess and Jess and Rory go outside and Jess is basically, “What the ever-loving fuck are you doing with your life, Rory?” And then five seconds later she’s getting her shit together, reuniting with Lorelai, going back to school, getting her life back on-track basically.
There’s so many more reasons, so, so many more (especially about what Rory does for Jess, giving him a rock, a safe place to land, a home, essentially) and I could get into a whole spiel about whether Rory even deserves Jess (yes, I’m bitter about parts of the revival and I always will be), but that tiny thing is what popped into my head.
Long story short, I love Jess Mariano and Literati forever.
