The originalGilmore Girlsseries ran for 7 seasons from 2000-2007, airing on The WB beforemoving to The CWwith the WB and UPN merger for its final year. The compelling storyabout a single mom, Lorelai (Lauren Graham), who got pregnant young and raised her daughter, Rory (Alexis Bledel), alone is something else. The Gilmore girls talk fast, drink more coffee than is humanly possible, and get through life just like everyone else: one day at a time. Conflicts caused original creator Amy Sherman-Palladino to take a step back from the show, and the ending she envisioned was not realized.
Sherman-Palladino left the show in 2006 along with her husband and writer Daniel Sherman-Palladino. The reason for their departure was that they could not come to an agreement with The CW to continue their contracts. As a result, the Palladinos' involvement withGilmore Girlscame to an end. Sherman-Palladino toldTV Guide Magazinein a 2006 interview that she had had the series’ last scene planned out for a while, down to the final four words of the entire show. In 2016, almost nine years after the show aired its final episode, Sherman-Palladino’s vision for the end of the show would come to life asGilmore Girls: A Year in the Lifeaired as a Netflix limited series.
Updated March 13th, 2023: If you’re a fan of the beloved mother/daughter duo inThe Gilmore Girls, you’ll be happy to know that this article has been updated with additional content and higher quality to keep it fresh and up to our standards.
The show continued the story of Lorelai, Rory, and the quirky inhabitants of Stars Hollow. The four 90-minute episodes — each focused on a season (Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall) of a year in the lives of the characters — brought back fans who had been waiting years for more of their belovedGilmore Girls. InGilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, at the end of the Fall episode, Rory tells Lorelai she’s pregnant, revealing the final four words Sherman-Palladino had in mind all along; “Mom?” “Yeah?” “I’m pregnant.” While not 16 years old like her own mother was, Rory is romantically unattached and without a steady job, although she is trying to get her life back on track. The question then becomes: who is the father of Rory’s child?
Paul — The Forgettable Boyfriend
Paul (Jack Carpenter) is Rory’s boyfriend inGilmore Girls:A Year in the Life. Throughout the episodes, Rory is supposedly dating Paul, but she always forgets about him and is constantly reminding herself to break up with him. Paul has met Emily Gilmore (Kelly Bishop), Lorelai Gilmore, and Luke Danes (Scott Patterson), but none of those characters remember their encounters with him, and he often became a punchline due to him being seemingly unremarkable to the Gilmore gang. The fact that Rory and other people forgot about Paul multiple times leads us to believe that Rory didn’t have a regular intimate relationship with him. Therefore, Paul is most likely not the father of Rory’s baby.
Dean — Her First Love
Rory’s first love, Dean (Jared Padalecki), lives in another city, Scranton, with a wife named Jenny who is pregnant with their fourth child, which we learn inGilmore Girls:A Year in the Life. Dean seems well settled in his relationship and wonders about how Rory is doing when they briefly bump into one another in Doose’s Market, after the middle of the Fall episode in November. It is highly unlikely they’ve been together romantically in recent times as they seem to have moved on, and he is a happily married family man. For this reason, Dean is most likely not the father of Rory’s baby.
Related:Mothers and Daughters: Gilmore Girls and Women in Television
Jess — Not the Father of Rory’s Baby
Although Rory and Jess (Milo Ventimiglia) seem close in these episodes ofGilmore Girls: A Year in the Lifeand have nurtured an endearing rapport, throughout the original series and the new miniseries, the two have never been sexually involved. Because of everything Rory and Jess went through, if the baby was Jess', it makes sense that we would have seen something alluding to him and Rory sleeping together. Since this did not happen, we can conclude that Jess is most likely not the father of Rory’s baby.
The Wookie — The One-Night Stand
Rory and the man in the Wookie costume hook up towards the end of the Spring episode in May inGilmore Girls: A Year in the Life. For the Wookie to be the father, Rory would have been around six months pregnant and showing to some extent, when she tells her mom in the Fall episode in November. During the final four words, Rory looks the same as usual, indicating that she was still pretty early into the pregnancy. Because the timing is off, The Wookie is most likely not the father of Rory’s baby.
Logan — The Almost-Fiancé
After Rory made the decision to let Logan (Matt Czuchry) go, ending their affair, he comes to see her with the rest of their friends from the Life and Death Brigade. Logan and Rory sleep together at the beginning ofGilmore Girls: A Year in the Life’s Fall episode in September at a Bed & Breakfast the boys have commandeered for the night. Rory would only be around two months along if Logan were to be the father, and probably not showing yet when she tells her mom at the end of the Fall episode in November.
Also, in the middle of the Fall episode in October, Rory goes to her father, Christopher (David Sutcliffe), and asks him if he thinks Lorelai raising Rory alone was the right move, and he says it was meant to be. This leads us to believe she already knew she was pregnant and trying to decide what she should do. Rory also doesn’t drink the coffee Christopher hands her, and we know how much the Gilmore girls love their coffee. To that end, Logan is most likely the father of Rory’s baby.
Related:Why Lorelai Gilmore is One of the Best TV Moms
Rory getting pregnant and being unmarried while still trying to figure out her life was a full-circle moment. Rory isn’t the type of person to ask Logan to give up his life (and fiancée) for her and the child, so it makes sense for Rory to raise the baby alone, the same as Lorelai did. Theparallels between Rory and Lorelaiare uncanny, though. It is obvious that Logan is for Rory what Christopher was for Lorelai, and Jess is for Rory what Luke has become for Lorelai.
At the time of this writing, there are no official plans for moreGilmore Girls, butSherman-Palladino has hintedat returning to Stars Hollow once more if the timing is right and all the cast wants to do it. In the meantime, you can binge-watch it all on Netflix and see if you can decide who you think stole Rory’s heart.
Who Does Lorelai Gilmore End Up With?
The relationship between Lorelai and Luke becomes one of the sweetest storylines in theGilmore Girlsuniverse. While the television show ended with them together, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life finds Lorelai drifting a bit from Luke over the years, despite loving him. After she spends some time on her own, she ultimately comes to the realization that she wants to wed Luke. When she prepares to tell him this, Luke thinks she’s breaking up with him, but instead of becoming angry, he confesses how important she is to him and that he’d never leave her. The two tie the know and presumably live happily ever after.
