‘Gilmore Girls’: Rory Gilmore Might Not Have Been the Only Stars Hollow Resident at Yale
The entire premise of Gilmore Girls was based around the notion that Lorelai Gilmore had to get back in touch with her parents because she needed their help to send her daughter, Rory Gilmore, to a prep school. Lorelai and Rory both argued that she needed to attend Chilton to have a shot at being accepted at an Ivy League school. She left Stars Hollow High School specifically because she wanted to attend Harvard. Rory didn’t go to Harvard, but she did end up at Yale, another Ivy League school. If you look closely, she might not have been the only Stars Hollow resident to make it to the esteemed institution. A student from Stars Hollow High seemingly went on to infiltrate Logan Huntzberger’s upper crust social circle at Yale, well, sort of.
Riki Lindhome played an unnamed student at Stars Hollow High
Riki Lindhome is known for several major roles. Before the height of her fame, she took on a small part in Gilmore Girls. In the season 3 episode, “One’s Got Class and the Other One Dyes,” Lindhome took on the role of a curious Stars Hollow High School student.
In the episode, Lindhome’s character, who is never named, asks Lorelai Gilmore an ntrusive question during her appearance at career day, kicking off a series of questions from the other students. The questions, centering around her decision to have Rory at 16, led to nothing but trouble for Lorelai. By the time all was said and done, Lorelai had the entirety of the PTA irritated with her. In the end, Luke Danes was right. Agreeing to appear at the school was a massive mistake.
Lindhome wouldn’t just appear once in Stars Hollow as an interested student. The actor popped back up in another academic setting during later seasons of the show.
Riki Lindhome went on to appear as Juliet, a Yale student
Lindhome’s role as an unnamed high school student wasn’t the only time she appeared in Gilmore Girls. Lindhome appeared again in season 5 as Juliet, a Yale student loosely connected to the Life and Death Brigade. Juliet also appeared in season 6 of the series. So, were Juliet and the unnamed student one and the same?
While it seems unlikely that Juliet was the same character as the unnamed girl at Stars Hollow High School, there isn’t any information that precludes her from being the same girl. After all, Lindhome’s earlier role was that of an unnamed student. It’s possible that the unidentified student got into Yale, reinvented herself, and opted to leave her humble roots behind, becoming Juliet in the process. The only thing Gilmore Girls fans learned about Juliet is that she heavily restricted her eating.
In theory, if Juliet did attend Stars Hollow High, she certainly knew who Rory was. Still, it’s possible that Juliet never wanted anyone to know her background and asked Rory to keep it secret. Rory kept bigger secrets. After all, she spent months hiding that she and Marty knew each other from Lucy.
Lindhome isn’t the only actor to take on multiple roles in ‘Gilmore Girls’
Lindhome’s appearance as two seemingly, different characters on Gilmore Girls isn’t exactly an anomaly. During the show’s seven-season run, several actors were brought back to take on additional roles. A couple of actors even had characters completely crafted for them after showrunner, Amy Sherman-Palladino, was impressed with their performances.
The role of Kirk Gleason, for example, was created for Sean Gunn after he appeared in two episodes as different characters. He first appeared as a DSL installer named Mick. Later, he appeared as a delivery driver. Later, he returned as Kirk. Marion Ross, famed for her work on Happy Days, also appeared in two roles, as did Alex Borstein. Aris Alvarado had multiple roles, too.
Ross took on the role of Trix Gilmore before returning as Cousin Marilyn after Trix was written out of the show. Borstein, who was set to appear as Sookie St. James before a contract issue made it impossible for her to take on the part, appeared in season 1 as Drella, the snarky harpist at the Independence Inn. She appeared later on inthe series as Miss Celine, Emily Gilmore’s seamstress.
Alvarado is best known for his time on Gilmore Girls as Cesar, the cook at Luke’s Diner. Before he became Cesar, Alvarado was also an unnamed student. He appeared in a scene at Chilton, leading some fans to question if Cesar was raised wealthy but ran to Stars Hollow just like Lorelai Gilmore.
