‘Gilmore Girls’: Lorelai Gilmore Was Right During Both of Her Major Fights With Rory

Not all Gilmore Girls fans agree with Lorelai Gilmore’s parenting style. The “friends first” style of raising Rory Gilmore led to some of her more unpleasant characteristics, argue viewers. Still, the unorthodox approach to parenting meant that the duo rarely had major disagreements. During the show’s seven-season run, they really only ever had two major fights. When you think about it, Lorelai was right during both of those blowouts. 

Lorelai and Rory battled after Rory slept with her married ex-boyfriend

Lorelai and Rory quarreled here and there during the early seasons of Gilmore Girls, but their first major disagreement didn’t come until the show wrapped up its fourth season. In the season 4 finale, Rory sleeps with her married ex-boyfriend, Dean Forrester. Lorelai walks in on them in the house and questions Rory about why he was there. When she finally reveals that they slept together, Lorelai calmly questions why she would sleep with someone else’s husband. 

The ensuing fight and Rory’s decision to abscond to Europe with Emily Gilmore didn’t sit right with Lorelai. Eventually, the duo makes up, but the awkwardness of Rory’s first sexual experience lingered. In the end, Lorelai was right. She forced Rory to think about the consequences of her actions. Fans, however, weren’t crazy about Lorelai’s decision to later defend those same mistakes to Lindsay Lister’s mother. 

Lorelai put her foot down when Rory wanted to quit Yale 

In the pilot of Gilmore Girls, Lorelai explained that she rarely pulled the “mom” card. She proved herself truthful throughout the series. When pushed, though, Lorelai would use her influence to push Rory in the right direction. The one time she put her foot down was when Rory insisted she wanted to drop out of Yale simply because Mitchum Huntzberger questioned her ability to become a journalist. Lorelai refused, Rory did it anyway, and the mother-daughter duo didn’t speak for six months. 

While Lorelai was pretty bad at pushing Rory, her decision to freeze her out and not share important information with her while she wallowed at Richard and Emily Gilmore’s house was on point, argue fans. Not only did she know it was the only way to get Rory back on track, but it sent an important message. The freeze-out only ended when Rory decided to go back to Yale, which, most fans agree, was the right decision, even if it didn’t lead to a particularly successful career for Rory.

The mother-daughter duo also battled in ‘Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life’

While Lorelai and Rory had their two major fights during the original run of Gilmore Girls, their battles weren’t over when fans reconnected with them in the Netflix revival Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life. In the revival, Rory and Lorelai had a far more civilized disagreement when Rory excitedly explained that she planned to pen a book about Lorelai’s struggles as a teen mother.  

Reddit fans largely agree that Lorelai had a right to express her disdain for the idea. They also mostly agree that Rory responded to her reaction poorly. Not only was Rory’s proposal poorly timed, but it failed to consider the negative feelings Lorelai might have about her early struggles. In the end, Rory wrote the book anyway. Lorelai mostly accepted it, but the disagreement had merit. Most fans agree that Lorelai was, once again, right.