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8 'Gilmore Girl' Mysteries

How much does that dress cost? And where is the washing machine?

By Lynne RushPublished 6 years ago 6 min read
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Gilmore Girls is the TV equivalent of mashed potatoes; it’s comfort food for the brain. No matter how crappy things are in the real world, there’s always the Bracebridge Dinner, Luke and Lorelai waltzing, or a host of Friday night dinners to help you laugh and unwind. But with any real obsession-worthy show, a few (hundred) rewatches in, there are some things that just stand out as not right. Get ready to pick with the nittiest of them, because we’re going down the rabbit hole of continuity errors, missing appliances, and all of the other little mysteries.

Where is the washer and dryer in Lorelai’s house?

Ahh, college: a time for learning, expanding horizons, and making trips home to do your laundry on the cheap. We know that Lorelai and Rory have a washer and dryer at home. They talk about doing laundry repeatedly. But where, exactly, is the washer/dryer? During Rory’s college years, she vanishes out the door in the kitchen to do laundry, but according to a handful of exterior shots (Jess’s first visit to L&R’s house, or the season one sweater fight) we know that there aren’t any appliances there—just a porch.

What happened to Trix’s money?

It’s no mystery that Trix’s wealth makes Richard and Emily look like they’re middle class. She owns mansions on multiple continents; she donated a maternal wing to the local hospital; and she has traveled the world multiple times over. It’s also established that Richard stands to inherit everything upon her death.

Why, then, a handful of episodes after her death, is Richard terrified of losing his pension, and therefore his financial security, to Lloyd’s lawsuit? Shouldn’t he be constructing his Scrooge McDuck water tower full of money right about then? Most people would probably need guidance on what to do with an inheritance of size, and how it would impact their lives and finances. It seems unlikely that Richard, who comes from old money, wouldn’t know what to do with his inheritance. Was it tied up in probate? Was it in assets that couldn’t be liquidated in enough time to save their house? It is as if the money just vanished. Where did all of Trix’s money go?

Is Rory’s bathroom a bathroom or a closet?

The first time Rory and Dean break up, Rory puts everything that reminds her of him into a box and instructs Lorelai to get rid of it. Lorelai stuffs it into a closet just across from Rory’s room. Earlier that season, when Max Mediana spends the night, Rory panics because he went in her bathroom, and she has bras and things in there. She gestures to the hall closet. So… which is it? A bathroom or a closet?

How many times did Rory and Dean break up?

The box in the closet is just one of the mysteries of the Dean breakups. In the Thanksgiving episode (one of the best episodes), Rory doesn’t want to kiss Jess publicly because she and Dean just broke up. Jess tells her it’s okay—couples have broken up before. Rory’s response? “It is for us!”

Uh, what? It is not the first time Rory and Dean have broken up. The first time they broke up was a fairly major story arc covering five episodes in the back end of season one. Their reunion was a major part of the season one finale. Of all the indignities Rory visited upon Dean during her weirdly angry courtship with Jess, forgetting they broke up because she had a hard time admitting she loved him? That’s gotta hurt.

And before anyone says maybe she just meant kissing within 24 hours of her breakup with Dean, that’s out too. She smooched Tristan the night after the first breakup.

Why doesn’t Lorelai know anything about Luke’s past?

They’ve been friends for years, and he keeps her fed and caffeinated. But Luke is either a man of many secrets or Lorelai is just oblivious, because she keeps having obvious parts of Luke’s past explained to her by random townsfolk. In season one, Lorelai has never heard of Rachel, who many considered to be the love of Luke’s life. It’s up to Sookie to explain who Rachel is, though other townsfolk not only know about her but actively gossip about her. Likewise, when Luke goes missing for a day in season five, Lorelai has no idea what’s happening until half the town explains Luke’s dark day. She’s known him for years, is dating him at this point, and is oblivious to things about him that are regarded as common knowledge in a small, gossip-prone town?

Do Lorelai’s baby pictures exist?

In season one’s “Emily in Wonderland,” Emily explains to Rory that Lorelai burned all of her baby pictures at the age of 7 because she was tired of being told that, as a baby, she had an unusually large head. However, 10 episodes earlier, Rory looks through a photo album from Lorelai’s old room in Richard and Emily’s house, which features a baby Lorelai (with a normal-sized head).

How do they afford to live like that?

Naturally, when it comes to TV land, the actors are going to sport designer clothes that no one can afford. We’re all pretty used to that by now. Sure, it might annoy that, in the revival, a super broke, unemployed, and homeless Rory sports a wide collection of Anthropologie clothes topped with Burberry coats. The only time Gilmore fashion was real was in season four, when Lorelai wore that pink Guess peacoat everywhere she went for the entirety of the cold weather months.

That’s how buying coats works. You invest, and then you wear it until it falls apart. But designer clothing aside (Lorelai gets married in Kate Spade? Living the dream, people), the money situation on that show was so messed up, there’s no level of suspension of belief that can help us accept how they spend their cash. All of the restaurants in Stars Hollow (especially Luke’s) must be dirt cheap for the girls to afford eating out every day, multiple times a day. When Lorelai is having money trouble and starts eating sandwiches at home, Rory teases her for having tomatoes.

Let me tell you something about money trouble; if you’re eating sandwiches just to keep from starving, you’re not putting lettuce and tomato on that. You pick out the cheapest lunch meat that doesn’t make you super uncomfortable thinking about what’s actually in it. Their movie nights easily include over $100 in junk food. Meanwhile, Lorelai had to put a lumpy sofa on layaway? And that house could not have been cheap.

While it makes sense that Rory might bankrupt herself (and the trust Trix left her) on plane fare to England and clothes above her pay scale, it’s no secret that with the radical changes in the job market (especially given that Rory’s chosen profession is print journalism), millenials in general seem to struggle with financial literacy. For a show that heavily features money as a huge, constant plot point, it just doesn’t add up. Financially. In the “balancing a checkbook” sense.

Also how did Lane afford all those extra clothes, makeup, and insane amount of CDs in her collection? Did her mother never wonder where the money she paid her for working in the antique shop went? Clearly Lane wasn’t making a lot, since she took up a waitressing job at Luke’s. And while we’re talking about Lane…

Did Mrs. Kim never open Lane’s closet?

Lane’s secret life as a music junkie included hiding everything imaginable in secret compartments under the floor, false bottoms in her trunk, and every other hidden place conceivable. She’s also turned her closet into a secret hideaway, complete with a bean bag, pictures of rock stars and a friggin disco ball. How on Earth did Mrs. Kim never stumble into that? Did she never look in her daughter’s closet? Did she never look into her room while Lane was in the closet, with the disco ball going? Those doors are not solid enough to keep all the disco ball light in. It, like a lot of things in this show, seems a little improbable.

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About the Creator

Lynne Rush

Pop culture addict who loves books, video games, and TV.

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