BecauseGilmore Girls: A Year In The Lifeis disliked by most fans, some theories about the show make it much more enjoyable during rewatches. The beloved family drama Gilmore Girls ran on TV from 2000 to 2007, winning over the hearts of viewers. Nine years after the show ended, Netflix released a revival, featuring four 90-minute long episodes.
Unfortunately, the revival failed because theGilmore Girlscharactersalso either failed to progress or regressed from the end of the original show. The show also used antiquated humor and pop culture references. While the failures of AYITL are frustrating, fans have taken to developing their own theories about the revival that can make the show more entertaining and tolerable, despite the narrative issues.
10Rory Wrote The Entire Gilmore Girls Series
Rory Writing The Original Show Explains Character Discrepancies
One of the biggest complaints about A Year in the Life is that few of the characters act like themselves, especially Rory. The young lady in the original series is soft-spoken, bookish, very studious, and driven. She wants nothing more than to be a foreign correspondent journalist, and she won’t let anything get in her way. However, Rory in the revival is vapid, unfocused, entitled, and selfish. While some of these traits existed in Rory in the original series, they weren’t nearly to the same intensity. However, one theory could explain the major differences between the two versions of Rory.
The originalGilmore Girls is actually Rory’s memoir, except she paints herself and her mom in a much better light, highlighting their strengths while downplaying their flaws. This is probably the most popular AYITL theory because it preserves the original show, allowing it to exist separately from the revival.
9Lorelai Was Meant To Say The Final 4 Words, Not Rory
Gilmore Girls Foreshadows Lorelai Gilmore’s Pregnancy
Amy Sherman-Palladino has remained steadfast about the fact that she had the final four words of Gilmore Girls planned from the very beginning. She uses them in the revival, completing her envisioned ending. They go like this:
Lorelai: “Yeah?”
Rory: “I’m pregnant.”
These final four words don’t live up to the anticipation, and it’s frustrating to think that Amy Sherman-Palladino would have made a 23-year-old Rory pregnant, as that would have stifled her character growth from the previous seasons. However, Valerie Campbell, a former Key Set Costumer on Gilmore Girls, made a TikTok video theorizing that Rory wasn’t the one meant to reveal a pregnancy.
Instead, Campbell suggests that Amy Sherman Palladino meant for Lorelai to say those words to Emily. Multiple clues point to this theory being true.Lorelai getting pregnant is foreshadowed by the fact that she has the pregnancy scare where she craved an apple at the end of Gilmore Girls season 5. Luke also mentioned wanting kids, and Lorelai said kids would be nice. If the events of AYITL were meant to happen in the original series, Lorelai and Luke would have been together and discussed having a kid. This provides the perfect opportunity for Lorelai to say the four final words.
8The Life & Death Brigade Sequence Was a Dream
Too Many Odd Things Happen For The Scene To Be Real
One of the most divisive scenes in Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life is The Life and Death Brigade returning. Most viewers either love it because of the nostalgia or hate it because it’s so bizarre. The scene is basically a ripoff ofAcross the Universe, even using the same song. It feels entirely out of place for Gilmore Girls, and many people have suggested on social media that the reason is that the entire sequence was a dream.
The dream theory would explain the fog, the talking crow, the woman in the street, the changed words on the sign, the strange lighting, and the choreographed dance sequence.It also explains why nobody else is walking around Stars Hallow in the AYITL scene. In the original series, even when Sookie and Jackson were trying to get rid of the marijuana in the middle of the night, they ran into people and passed others on the street.
7Rory Is Luke And Lorelai’s Surrogate (Debunked)
Rory’s Job Struggle Could Have Led Her To Surrogacy
Because Rory announces her pregnancy at the very end ofGilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, the show doesn’t confirm the identity of the father. This led viewers to speculate on the matter. One of the most fascinating theories, suggested by u/ArtHistoryCoffeeGirl onReddit, points to Rory carrying Luke and Lorelai’s baby. At one point in the revival, Rory makes a flippant comment to Jess about the fact that she could become one of Paris’ surrogates because she isn’t succeeding in her career.
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Luke and Lorelai also visit Paris’ surrogacy clinic to discuss the fact that they want to have a baby. It would be interesting for Rory to help Luke and Lorelai have another child, but her carrying her own sibling might complicate the situation. While the theory is interesting, it has been debunked because, in addition to creating the Lorelai four words theory, thecostume designer revealed Logan is Rory’s baby’s father inAYITL.
6Gilmore Girls AYITL Happens While Lorelai Is In A Coma
The Coma Theory Explains The Character Changes
One of the cardinal sins of both writing and fan theories is the idea that the entire story was a dream. A close second is the story taking place while the character is in a coma, imagining everything. However, in the case ofGilmore Girls: A Year in the Life,Reddituser u/TreeHugBookLove suggests a theory in this realm that is preferable to the actual revival.They suggest that the revival happens while Lorelai is in a coma, which would explain why the story and characters are so different from real life.
The theory is bolstered by the fact that Lorelai constantly talks about her car having issues inGilmore Girls. Plus, the Life and Death Brigade sequence seems too fantastical to be real. Emily Gilmore also would never willingly go to therapy, based on the original story. The only part of this theory that should be rejected is Lorelai dying because that’s too sad to happen inGilmore Girls.
5Violet From AYITL Is Michelle Simms From Bunheads
Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life Could Have A Major Connection To Bunheads
Amy Sherman-Palladino has a history of featuring the same actors across different shows. When she received news of the Gilmore Girls revival, she promised Bunheads star Sutton Foster that she’d write a role for her (viaPlaybill). The end result is Violet, a sarcastic and fast-talking woman who previously acted on Broadway in the show Kinky Boots. Besides her name, Violet shares a shocking number of similarities to her Bunheads character, Michelle Simms. As such, one AYITL theory suggests that they are actually the same person.
In the Bunheads finale episode, Michelle makes a connection with a Broadway pianist who gives her his phone number and promises to get her a gig if she ever comes out to New York City.Considering Michelle wants to perform onstage again, it’s not outlandish to think she leaves for NYC and gets a role in Kinky Boots on Broadway. Performers frequently go by stage names, so maybe she changed her name to Violet. Then, she somehow ended up in Stars Hollow, auditioning for the town musical.
4Rory Is Pregnant With The Wookie’s Baby (Debunked)
The main options for the father of Rory’s baby are Paul, Logan, surrogacy, or the Wookie. Even though the obvious and correct answer is Logan, there’s something hilarious about the theory that Rory gets pregnant with the Wookie’s baby. This would obviously be the ideal situation, since she would be able to parent the child on her own without worrying about a father getting involved in the situation.
Moreover, it’s not completely out of the question, despite the fact that she would be about six months along at the time of the announcement. Even though she didn’t have a visible pregnancy belly,no two pregnancy experiences are identical, and some people having their first child don’t show until much later. Ultimately, the theory is entertaining to think about even if the probability feels extremely low.
3Trix Wrote Emily The Letter From Lorelai
The Gilmore Matriarch Could Have Directed Hate Toward Emily
During a therapy session, Emily accuses Lorelai of leaving her a “heinous letter” on her pillow on her birthday with horrific accusations, abuse, and profanity. However, Lorelai acts truly confused and denies ever having written the letter. In other circumstances, it’s reasonable to doubt Lorelai’s statements to her mom. However, in AYITL, she’s going to therapy with her mom and making a genuine attempt to own up to her mistakes. However, it raises the question of who wrote it.
The most obvious answer is right under the viewers’ noses – Lorelai “Trix” Gilmore.When Emily makes her accusation, she never says how long ago the letter was written.Aharsh reality about Emily Gilmoreis the fact that she can hold a grudge like no other, meaning the letter could have been written before Trix died. The grandmother would write the same name on the paper, since Lorelai is named after her. Additionally, Trix has a history of writing cruel letters, as proven by the letter to Richard before his wedding.
2Sookie Is The Leader Of A Vegetable Cult
Sookie’s Story Could Be Connected To Liz & TJ’s Story
This theory combines two character storylines in Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life. Sookie, as a character, barely appears in the revival because she is working with chef and food educator Dan Barber at his Blue Hill Farm to create new breeds of vegetables. Later, it’s revealed that Liz and TJ joined a vegetable cult, which feels like a bizarre coincidence. Fans quickly developed the idea that Sookie was in the same cult as Liz and TJ.
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However, and even funnier version of the theory, posited by a viewer named Kathryn, who wrote to theNew York Times, suggests that she’s the leader. Sookie intentionally running a cult seems completely out of character for her, butshe seems like she could get roped into it under the influence of the true leader while not realizing the fact that she’s the face of the cult.Either way, a cult would explain the fact that she’s barely around in AYITL.
1Bootsy Destroyed Luke’s Floaty Hut
Bootsy And Luke Have A Feud From Childhood
One big mystery that lingers in the minds ofGilmore Girlsfans everywhere afterA Year in the Lifeis who vandalized Luke’s floaty hut. The question comes up multiple times in “Summer,” but they never provide an answer. One theory suggests that Bootsy is the person who destroyed the floaty hut. Bootsy only appears in season 2 of the original show, but he reprises his role in “Spring” and “Summer,” meaning he was present in Stars Hollow at the time of the incident.
Luke and Bootsy also have animosity stretching all the way back to their childhoodbecause Bootsy destroyed Luke’s clay handprint. Considering their rivalry lasted around 30 years between the incident and their bringing it up in the original series, there’s no reason to believe they would hold any less of a grudge towards one another in the revival. This would also explain why Bootsy picks on him about the floaty hut at the town meeting inAYITL.
