Dean, Jess, Logan. Oh My!

Gilmore Girls. The fast-talking mother-daughter duo that turned up the notch on television writing is back on Thanksgiving night for 6 more hours of the dynamic duo and Stars Hollow.  Lorelai, Rory, Lane, Luke, Michel, and Emily are all back to make us fall in love with Stars Hollow all over again. For some, this is a return to the magic they fell in love with almost 10 years ago. For others, they will learn about the Gilmore family for the first time and wish they had known them for 13 years like the rest of us.

There are many questions being asked about the limited series return: are Luke and Lorelai married? How is the inn doing? What is Emily doing now that Richard has passed? More questions are being added every day but the one question that many people have been speculating and theorizing and placing bets on is who does Rory end up with?

It recently came out that Marty - Rory’s freshman friend a Yale - will not be returning in the series so that leaves Dean, Jess and Logan. Oh my! Each boy/man represents a certain point in Rory’s life - Dean was the innocence of first love; Jess was the rebellious stage; and Logan was the learning to grow up, real world stage.  Each of them was a part of Rory’s life because they had to be to help her grow into the independent woman we will see in a week.  We do know that she is not in a relationship but many people speculate that with all 3 of her former suitors coming back for the revival that she will end up with one of them.

But does she have to?  In this writer’s opinion she should have “ended up” with Marty. He knew her better than any of the other 3 men.  He never pushed her, never made her into someone she wasn’t nor did he make her into something that he needed her to be for him.  But, she doesn’t have to end up with any of them.  She has been a woman on a mission, traveling the world and doing what she loves - writing. She has been happy - without a man.  Why does she need to have one by the end of the series?

Dissecting the trailer, people have taken every inch of it to make their case for Dean, Jess and Logan.  What I found interesting on the trailer was the only one she spoke to and had a speaking line in the trailer was Jess.  Jess had the longest to go in my book to win Rory back if that is what either of them wanted. He had the most growing up to do and he has done that. He followed his dream and while pursuing that dream, has helped Rory realize what she wanted and who she is. Dean and Logan are seen briefly in the trailer, with no speaking lines. That could be a good thing or a bad thing.  Personally, with Jess having a line in the trailer I think she turns to him for advice, not for reconciliation. I think that time has passed. She had her chance when she went to his bookstore opening. She should have left Logan and been with Jess then but not now. Now it is too late. I think they are still great friends and turn to each other when they need advice or a pep talk. That is it; nothing more.

So that leaves Dean and Logan. I have already put my 2 cents into how I feel about Logan. I think he was a spoiled brat, growing up with too much money and not realized the amazing thing he had with Rory until it was too late.  He asked her to marry him when she was just finding out who she was and he was mad at her for it.  That didn’t mean she didn’t love him; quite the opposite. She loved him so much that she wasn’t going to put that relationship in jeopardy by getting married too soon. Logan didn’t see it that way.  He was acting like a brat, that he didn’t get what he wanted so he blamed her. He didn’t say as much but the look he gave her when she gave him back the ring was all he needed to say.  

So that leaves Dean.  Oh Dean.  Let me count the ways he and Rory screwed up that relationship.  It was the picture perfect first relationship; the kind you dream about as a 15-year-old.  Then Rory started to like someone else, Dean got jealous and that relationship ended about the time that Rory started her rebellious phase (aka Jess).  Then they got back together only to break up Dean’s marriage to Lindsey.  If Rory and Dean’s relationship had ended when Dean broke up with her because of Jess and they never had a second go around, ruining Dean’s marriage and Dean thinking they are from 2 different worlds, I think they might have found a way back to each other.  But with the outcome that happened, I don’t think that Dean can live with the fact that she has money, went to Yale, became this amazing writer and traveled the world while he has stayed in Stars Hollow (I am guessing).  

So who should Rory end up with? Herself.  Because in the end, that is all you can count on. If you are lucky to find someone that accepts you for you, loves you for you, takes all of your flaws and loves them, then that is fabulous. So maybe Rory hasn’t found her love yet. Each boy - Dean, Jess, Logan - represented a part of her life and helped shaped the woman she is today.  Maybe that is all they are. As Carrie Bradshaw said “the most exciting, challenging, and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself. And if you can find someone to love the you you love, well, that’s just fabulous.”