Rory Gilmore
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Portrayed by Kimberly Alexis Bledel
Lorelai (Rory) Leigh Gilmore was born to Lorelai Victoria Gilmore and Christopher Hayden in sunny Hartford, Connecticut. Since her mother's name also happens to be Lorelai, she goes by Rory to make things less confusing. Rory's childhood was extremely different from her mother's. Rory always knew that whatever she did, there would be 100% support behind her.
Growing up, Rory had a lot of people that she could lean on. The support system she had helped her realize that her dreams were within reach. She never had that overbearing mother, like Lorelai had, to lay strict rules that prevented her from achieveing her goals. Lorelai strived at making her daughter's life as easy and happy as a child's life should be. They scheduled movie nights, shopping days and always seemed to find the time to talk about the little things in life that don't always seem important.
During the time that Rory was attending Stars Hollow High, she applied and was accepted to the prestigious prep school, Chilton High. The only problem with this was that Lorelai could not afford the tuition and had resorted to returning to Emily and Richard Gilmore in need of a favour. They agreed to pay the tuition only if Lorelai and Rory attended Friday night family dinners every week. Lorelai accepted and shortly afterwards Rory met Dean as she was packing her stuff to leave Stars Hollow High. His family had just moved in from Chicago and he was looking for a part-time job. Rory helped him find one by introducing him to Miss Patty, the town know-it-all. They had a great time chatting together and Rory found him really easy to talk to. In the pilot episode, Rory thinks she could sacrifice herself to make things easier for her mother and to keep staying in public school, where Dean and her best friend Lane Kim go. Lorelai is tenacious and proud enough to make Rory's future better than hers, and Rory eventually leaves Stars Hollow High for good and entered Chilton and into a whole new chapter of her life.
While at Chilton, Rory meets Paris, the over-controlling, over-achieveing workaholic. Rory realized that Paris was threatened by her because of Rory's academic success, which caused a lot of tension between the two girls. They eventually work it out and even though the relationship isn't rock-solid, they have somewhat of a friendship. Rory also meets Tristan, the not-so-innocent heartthrob of Chilton. At the beginning, Tristan annoys Rory to the point of exhaustion. First by calling her "Mary", (i.e. The Virgin Mary) because she hadn't yet experienced that kind of relationship; and then by constantly trying to hook up with her because she was new to Chilton.
After being at Chilton for a little while, the oppurtunity to ask Dean on a "date" arises. The Chilton formal dance comes up and Rory asks Dean to accompany her. Dean gladly accepts her offer and they got to the dance but leave early because it turned out to be boring and obstacled by Tristan and Paris. On their way home, they discuss Dean being Rory's boyfriend and then they stop at Miss Patty's dance studio and end up falling asleep. So the next morning, Miss Patty and other women find them and wake them. Rory and Lorelai get into a fight over this situation because Lorelai fears Rory may have gotten pregnant, but in the end they makeup and Rory now has a boyfriend in her life with whom she doesn't make love.
Luke, the owner of the local diner, Luke's diner, is really good friends with Rory's mom and after some time of Rory and Dean dating, Luke's nephew Jess Mariano arrives in town. Problems arise and Jess is soon labeled the bad boy of Stars Hollow. Rory and Jess develop some sort of a friendship, mostly because they are both intensive readers and music fans, and Dean becomes insanely jealous. For quite awhile, there is a growing rivalry between the two guys.
Rory, Tristan and Paris along with a few other Chilton students participate in a rendition of Romeo & Juliet for the annual school play. Rory is to play Juliet and Tristan is to play Romeo and during rehearsals there seemed to be something there between Tristan and Rory. But due to Tristan royally screwing up by helping two of his friends break into one of the boys father's safe, he is sent away to military school.
Luke asks Rory to tutor Jess after he finds out Jess' grades have fallen. During their first tutoring session, Jess convinces Rory to go for a ride in her car. They spend some good time together and also talk about the future. In the end, Jess accepts to return to reality, but Rory is tempted and tells him to keep driving. The two of them crash the car. Lorelai, being very defensive of Rory and not seeing any good in Jess, freaks out on Luke, which results in him sending Jess back to New York.
After some time, Rory realizes she misses Jess, so on the day of Lorelai's graduation at Comunity college, she skips school and goes to New York for the day intending on being home for the graduation. She has a wonderful time with Jess and growing signs of love between them are evident as the sun, but the bus back to Stars Hollow is too late to make Rory be in time for Lorelai's graduation. Lorelai is upset over this but sees how much Rory likes Jess, so she lets it slide.
On the eve of Sookie's wedding, Rory's parents briefly get back together but unfortunately this ends when her father gets a phone call about his previous girlfriend Sherry's pregnancy. Jess returns to Stars Hollow the day of the wedding and Rory surprises them both when she greets Jess with a kiss.
Rory goes off to Washington for the summer on a school internship with Paris. She tries to deal with the problem of being in love with two guys and writes some letters that she never manages to complete. When she returns Jess has moved on and is seeing somebody else. So Rory just continues dating Dean. At the annual Stars Hollow 24-hour dance marathon, Dean gets fed up about Rory's feelings towards Jess and breaks up with her. Jess then jumps at the oppurtunity to hook up with Rory. The two attend a party close to graduation, which is not meant in Jess' future. That brings him to act strangely and react to Rory in the wrong way. Dean, still hung up on Rory and in the mood for fighting, gets into a physical fight with Jess. Jess and Rory avoid each other and after some time Jess leaves Stars Hollow to look for his long-lost father.
During all this time, Rory decides against attending Harvard (her dream college) and chooses to go to Yale (her grandfather's college). Lorelai was finally able to pay back her parents for the money they spent on Rory's Chilton tuition, but is then unable to receive financial aid for Rory's Yale tuition. Rory finds out that Lorelai is about to give up her dream of owning her own inn to pay for Rory's college tuition. So Rory takes it upon herself to approach her grandparents for a favour. Friday night dinners is again the condition. Rory agrees and it's settled. Rory graduates from Chilton High and shortly afterwards, Lorelai and Rory take off to go backpacking through Europe.
Her first year at Yale began on a familiar note, when Rory is surprised to find out one of her roommates is none other than Paris Geller. Rory returns home for a short visit only to find out that Dean has gotten engaged. On a different venture into her hometown, Dean invited Rory to his wedding. But she opts not go, instead watches from afar. Her love life at Yale is pretty stale but on visits home, her and Dean slowly become friends again. Dean's wife Lindsay grows a little jealous of their friendship and forbids Dean from seeing Rory. But both Dean and Rory decide to meet secretly.
Jess returns to Stars Hollow to take his own car and to tell Rory that he's still in love with her. After attending his mother Liz's wedding in Stars Hollow, Jess goes to see Rory at her dorm room and asks her to run away with him for the summer. Rory repeatedly says no and Jess tells her to not say no unless she really means it. She says no one last time and Jess, stunned, leaves.
Rory's mom, Lorelai, and her business partner Sookie have bought and restored an inn and have decided to do a test run to work out any kinks in the service. Lorelai asks for Rory's help in the test run by sending her home to get some music for the guests enjoyment. While at home, Dean comes over to talk to Rory about his failing marriage. Eventually they end up in Rory's bedroom where one thing leads to another and they end up having sex. Meanwhile, Luke reveals his feelings to Lorelai and they kiss. Lorelai returns home and when she comes into the kitchen and sees Rory standing there, Dean comes out, straightening his shirt and Lorelai realizes something went on that shouldn't have. Dean leaves and Rory tells her mom what really happened. They discuss it but Lorelai is heartbroken because her daughter has helped a man cheat on his wife. Rory is upset at her mother's reaction and gets even more furious with her. She leaves the house hoping to get a hold of Dean, but instead Lindsay picks the phone up. Rory quickly realizes that her mother was right.
After leaving, Rory and Lorelai, for the first time, get into a real fight. Rory is lectured by her mother on how the situation with Dean is beyond wrong judgement but Rory disagrees. Rory argues with Lorelai over the fact that Dean and Lindsay's marriage wasn't working out. Eventually, Rory can't handle anymore of Lorelai's remarks and tries her hardest to avoid her, whether it be by not seeing her or by not talking to her. While at lunch with her grandmother, Lorelai agrees when Emily proposes that Rory goes with her for a trip to Europe during the summer. So in order to get away from her mother, Rory decides to go with her grandmother to Europe. Lorelai is in awe by this and Rory simply tells her it's to get away from her.
While in Europe, Rory realizes her mistakes and calls her mom to apologize, and to ask a huge favor. Rory asks if Lorelai could pass on a letter to Dean that she wrote for him explaining why she thought their situation was wrong. However, Lindsay ends up finding this letter and kicks Dean out. After returning from Europe, a large scene breaks out between Lindsay's mom , Lindsay, Lorelai and Rory and it is quickly learned that the whole town knows about Rory's affair, however Rory and Dean continue dating.
Two weeks go by and Rory returns for her second year at Yale. She is roomed with Paris again and soon learns that Paris' older boyfriend Asher Flemming has died over the summer. The two hold a wake in their dorm room. Rory is putting up flyers for the wake when she bumps into Logan Huntzberger, whom she had met before with Marty, the naked guy. They meet on many other occasions but every time, they seem to argue.
While writing for the Yale newspaper, Rory needs to come up with a good story to impress Doyle, the editor. She decides to write a piece on the Yale secret society, the Life and Death Brigade, after coming into contact with one of its members. Rory soon learns that Logan's grandfather had been in the L&DB, which meant that his father was in it, which should have meant that Logan was in it as well. Logan denies even knowing anything about this secret society at first, but eventually lets Rory - whom he calls Ace - in on one of the events. The whereabouts of the event are very secretive and Rory must be blindfolded the entire ride there. Near the end of her stay, Rory finds herself partaking in and elaborate event. She and Logan must jump from a platform and the only thing stopping them are some bungee cables. Rory isn't thrilled by this idea, but Logan touches her by telling her she needs to become more impulsive and pursuades her into doing it.
After this weekend event, Rory and Logan seem to be more attached to one another. Logan starts pulling pranks on Rory and Rory starts getting back at Logan.
Eventually Emily and Richard find out about Rory and Dean and they plan a party in which wealthy and suitable men for Rory are invited. One of the guests just happens to be Logan and him and Rory will get along together all night. They go to the pool house with other guests and get into some alcohol. Rory all of a sudden remembers she is supposed to meet with Dean outside at 8:30 and is late. She runs outside to see Dean standing there not being very happy about the people she is frequenting. Dean tells Rory that their relationship is not meant to be anymore and leaves her alone. All this to the advantage of Logan, who right now seems the most suitable person to comfort her.
Rory and Logan eventually become a "thing" and start falling head over heels for each other. The elder Gilmores renew their wedding vows and it turns out that Logan and his father have been invited. Logan has brought another girl with him and this makes Rory upset because she had thought that they had something going on. However, Logan has no such plans to become a couple and Rory tries to play along with him, and agrees to a "no strings attached" kind of relationship. While at the wedding, the two sneak off into another room with a bottle of champagne and they seem to be moving their relationship along quite fast. Lorelai suddenly barges into the room while Rory and Logan are passionatly kissing. Lorelai seems furious with her daughter, as this is the wedding of her grandparent's and can't get over what Rory is doing. It seems Rory has let her mother down for a second time.
From gilmorefan.com, corrected.
Later, in Rory's story arc with Logan Huntzberger, we learn that his family is very important and his father, Mitchum Huntzberger, is the head of many newspapers. While Logan's mother and grandparents seem to be against their relationship because Rory is going to be a career woman, Mitchum wants to recover this and offers Rory an internship in one of his newspapers. Rory initially refuses, but Logan tells her that it's the chance of her life, so she changes her mind and starts working succesfully as intern for the paper. When the man shows up at the paper to get his amount of satisfaction from his employees, including Rory, he roughly tells the young woman that she ain't got the talent to make it in this newspaper business, "she could at the most be a good assistant". This triggers Rory's most difficult moment in her life and her anger leads her to make a foolish gesture with Logan, by hopping inside a yacht they steal to go out to sea. This results in them being put in jail. Logan, who is accustomed to such episodes, gets out without any problem, while for Rory and Lorelai it becomes a huge issue, which leads them to collaborate in hating the Huntzberger family , although Rory, being in love with Logan, doesn't feel she is the most suitable to judge the world like her mother.
This makes her think that maybe Mitchum was right saying that she didn't have it, so Rory decides to drop out of Yale and give up every dream she and her mother worked on so hard. In this situation, Rory's grandparents and Lorelai try to collaborate together to put Rory back on track and face her own trial. But Rory is too weak though and after fighting with Lorelai, she asks her grandfather Richard to help her, which results in a separation between Lorelai and Rory and in Rory moving to the Gilmore mansion. The girl starts paying her debt to society by doing social work and later Emily enlists her for a secretary job at the DAR. Rory changes completely her lifestyle and seems to be far from the idea to return to her studies. Rory's mother, Lorelai, misses her daughter and watches her become the daughter that Emily and Richard always wanted.
Also Logan starts feeling that the new Rory is not the girl he fell in love with. Right now, organizing events for her grandmother, Rory has become a little bit like the cheap girls he dated before her. When Rory starts taking her job at the DAR very seriously, Emily becomes jealous and seeing that she's gotten too close with Logan, she asks Richard to investigate on their intimate relationship. The two of them understand that they may have a sexually-connotated relationship, so Emily 'evicts' Rory from the pool house and forces her to live with them in the house, so that Logan can't go to make love with her. On an awkward dinner with a reverend, Rory kindly pictures him the fact that she isn't a virgin anymore.
Meanwhile, Logan drowns his dissatisfactions with his family and also Rory into alcohol and one night he gets seriously drunk. Rory returns at the Gilmore house, where Jess, her former love partner, shows up suprising her with definitely changed ways. Now Jess lives in Philadelphia, he wrote and published a book and opened an independent publishing house with some friends: all thanks to Rory, he says giving her a copy of the book.
Rory keeps a straight face in front of her grandparents and when her father Christopher comes back revealing that now he is embarassingly rich, she calls off her debts with them regarding the university tuition, which are now Christopher's business. The grandparents are insulted and Lorelai decides to make Rory and them have a dinner all together to discuss things... and they discuss indeed!
Lorelai finds out that Luke has a daughter and Rory is very supportive of her, trying to make her understand that she must be reasonable and patient. Rory's relationship with Logan gets resumed and seems to touch brilliant tops when they go to the Martha's Vineyard house owned by the Huntzbergers, where Lorelai and Luke accept an invitation to. Right there, Lorelai begins feeling a little jealous of the apparently perfect relationship with Logan, which pushes her to have a confrontation with Luke, who isn't exactly fine about Logan being with Rory, but most of all, is struggling to fix things with April and be, at the same time, at Lorelai's side. The not-so-quiet but romantic weekend gets disturbed by Mitchum's appearance at the house and a fight between him and Logan, who is taken back to reality and his obligations towards the Huntzberger family. Rory, who planned with Logan to spend a holiday in Asia, sees her dream fade away.
When she attends the marriage of Logan's sister, Rory meets the bridesmaids, who all seem to have been in bed with Logan while Rory and him were apart. This makes her have a very terrible opinion of him and they break up again. Logan's persistent and speaks to Rory telling her that for him it wasn't intended as cheating because he thought they were over, while Rory was still mentally bound. She eventually accepts this explanation and gets back with him, though she doesn't seem to really forgive him for what he did. Thus, Logan intensifies his meetings with friends in the Life and Death brigade and their dangerous stunts. He leaves holding a grudge at her.
Rory in the meantime receives an invitation by Jess in Philadelphia, where he is launching Truncheon Books. There, the two of them share their last minutes of their platonic and troubled love relationship, which never really was put to an end: Jess, as a matter of fact, finds the courage to propose to Rory a love reunion, but Rory rejects him because although she has some important issues with him, she's stuck with Logan and she can't cheat on him; Jess salutes her for the last time and tells her, as a possible solution, that if it would be helpful, she could tell Logan they did something together. Rory waves him a tender and thankful goodbye and they never see again in the produced series.
At this point, Rory gets back in the relationship with Logan full-throttle since he had a terrible accident with the Life and Death brigade. His life was at stake and Rory stays in the hospital always at his side and when he gets back home, she continues being the perfect nurse, also with the help of Paris and her boyfriend Doyle. At the end of the semester, Logan graduates from Yale and is off to go to London, respecting his father's will. Rory is against this decision, but when she meets Mitchum again, the man explains that sending him to a job in London is a way to make him become an adult man with responsibilities. That leads to a more knowledgable Rory launching a big goodbye party for Logan. The day after they go separate ways and promise to phone each other and meet during festivities. Meanwhile, Lorelai breaks up with Luke because she can't wait anymore and she goes to Christopher.
Rory finds out about this huge event directly from Lorelai, who is not up to explaining. Neither Rory is up to speak her feelings about the distance from Logan. The two of them are very close to each other in this moment and Lorelai decides throwing away all the Luke elements that are still in her house. Rory talks with Logan on the phone, who tells her they will meet in Christmas instead of before.
Rory gradually gets detached from Logan and finds some new and old friends... Lucy and Olivia are two arty girls she makes friends with at an art exhibition she has to review. Rory later learns that Lucy's boyfriend is Marty, the guy who fell in love with her during freshman year and that she rejected because of Logan. Marty pretends he doesn't know Rory thinking that this way it would be easier during their introduction. Rory agrees to play this weird game and goes along with his strange attitude to make things easier for Lucy, but when Logan comes back to America for a job with an internet company, he learns that Rory is cheating on her friend to keep things quiet about her meeting Marty before. Having become sort of jealous, things get out of hand when Logan sadistically agrees to go to a dinner out with Marty and Lucy, where he can't wait to spill the beans about Marty and Rory knowing each othr way before they were introduced by Lucy. This scene causes Rory to lose her friend and lose also respect for Logan, who had turned out to be extremely arrogant and obnoxious.
Meanwhile, Lorelai has been reuniting with Christopher and got married with him in Paris, causing some problems with Rory at their return. At the shocking news, Rory is initially taken aback by Lorelai's implusive actions, but soon make peace and start living all together under the same roof. Rory attends a party that Logan launches when he and his british colleagues acquire an internet company. The party is a place filled with snobs and rich people. There Rory is introduced by Logan to Hugo Gray, a guy who works for an online newspaper, who proposes Rory to write something for him, starting for example from this party they're at. Rory writes a critical piece that she entitles "Let Them Drink Cosmos", which gets Logan extremely enraged at her contempt. The two have a huge fight where Rory's independence is discussed, thus after making peace with him, she decides to go live by herself anyway, moving at Paris and Doyle's apartment.
When Richard has a heart attack, Logan comes to help Rory and the couple seems to have become more grounded and united. Lorelai, for the second time, seeing this attitude, becomes jealous of Rory's relationship with Logan because she evidently isn't experiencing a good time with her own husband Christopher after he disappeared having argued over Luke and the character reference she wrote for his trial. Richard, who had lectures on Economy at Yale, during his convalescence gets substituted by a guy that sort of gets Rory drooling, which makes her suspect her own feelings and faithfulness towards Logan, who by the way doesn't seem very jealous.
Lorelai and Chris face the truth and they mutually decide to divorce. Rory is supportive to her mother, but she confesses that their relationship didn't look so genuine after all. In the meantime, for Logan's birthday, Rory has a dinner with him and Mitchum Huntzberger, who is now eerily friendly towards her and proposes her to take on an active role in the decisions on Logan's future. Rory has an honest talk with Logan about this and she obviously chooses to stay on his side. Logan though has some serious job problems and this is strictly related to his father, who basically is his boss. The guy starts being lazy and doesn't show up at meetings. Rory, seeing him like this, scolds him and finds herself agreeing with Mitchum for the first time in her life. This becomes the reason of the ultimate fight between Rory and Logan.
Rory goes on a trip with her mother and grandmother to Maryland, where Mia is marrying. There, after a few cold moments, the girls get along quite fine and watch a movie together in Lorelai and Rory's hotel room.
Logan gets away from his dad's business and suddenly finds himself independent and also kind of unemployed. He starts living with Rory at Paris and Doyle's apartment. At this point, Rory invites him in Stars Hollow, where he faces Lorelai's prejudices over him and his priviledged family. Right there, he has an honest conversation with Lorelai, telling her that he's gotten more responsible and that he sorts of admires her for her own independence. At the same time, when Rory faces many career opportunities after graduation and is conflicted about them, Logan seems to be vague about their future. Soon enough, things change totally when he is accepted for a job in San Francisco. He talks about it with Rory of course, but goes to Lorelai first when he seriously thinks of marrying her daughter and moving with her at the other side of the country.
The end of senior year is really close and as Paris receives a lot of opportunities, Rory sees many doors being slammed in her face, like the one of the New York Times internship she craved. This fact makes her finals not so brilliant and destroy many hopes of hers, yet she manages quite fine to get graduated, also with the help of her mother's optimism. Rory's grandparents throw her a big party where a piano song performed by Emily and Richard and a public wedding proposal from Logan happen.
Rory is overwhelmed by the surprise. Logan tells her that they need to do something impulsive together to prove their love, but she can't take a decision and tries to think about it. Talking with Lorelai, Rory learns that this time it's gonna be harder because now she is a grownup and can make such decisions by herself. After her graduation, Rory gives him back the ring telling him that right now she sees all the doors in the world open to her and proposes him to try keep going with their relationship long-distance... Logan disagrees on this and leaves her for good.
Rory manages to move on with the help of her mom, friends and a random encounter with her hero reportert Christiane Amanpour. She spends some very special moments in Stars Hollow during the final episode and she will leave her hometown to embark on an exciting, lucky online reporting job during Obama's campaign that happened to her unexpectedly. Lorelai lets her go with a little sadness, but she rediscovers true love with her long-time friend Luke.
