‘Gilmore Girls’ Star Scott Patterson Admits He Doesn’t ‘Remember a Lot’ of Jess Mariano’s Storylines
Put on a flannel shirt and a backward baseball cap because Luke Danes is back. Scott Patterson, the actor best known for playing Lorelai Gilmore’s main love interest on Gilmore Girls, is watching every episode of the series for his I’m All In podcast.
Unlike some fans who might remember every detail about every single episode, Patterson just confessed he can’t recall many of the storylines involving his on-screen nephew, Jess Mariano (Milo Ventimiglia).
Jess Mariano came to live with Luke Danes in ‘Gilmore Girls’ Season 2
Ventimiglia played Luke’s nephew long before he became Jack Pearson on NBC’s This Is Us. He joined the Gilmore Girls cast in 2001 making his first appearance in early season 2 as the diner owner’s bad boy nephew.
Jess showed up in Stars Hollow clad in a black leather jacket. He immediately took an interest in Lorelai’s (Lauren Graham) daughter, Rory Gilmore, as played by Alexis Bledel. Jess and Rory hit it off — they both liked to read and had the same interest in music — but at the time Rory had a boyfriend, Dean Forester (Jared Padalecki).
So began a love triangle between the three teenage characters that ended with Rory and Dean breaking up at the town’s dance marathon. Not long after Rory and Jess became a couple.
Meanwhile, Luke and Lorelai were almost constantly arguing about Jess and Rory, which is exactly what the writers of Gilmore Girls planned. The show only introduced Jess to keep Lorelai and Luke apart. Today many fans of the series are Team Jess and think he’s Rory’s true love.
Scott Patterson’s ‘excited’ to see the ‘Jess stuff’ on ‘Gilmore Girls’ because he doesn’t remember much of it
While promoting his I’m All In podcast in May 2021, Patterson shared with Entertainment Weekly why he’s looking forward to covering episodes about his on-screen nephew.
“I’m excited to get to the Jess stuff because I don’t remember a lot of it,” he said. “And I just really enjoyed working with Milo [Ventimiglia]. We always had such fun on the set and I just loved being that parental figure.”
Ventimiglia appeared in 37 episodes of Gilmore Girls, according to IMDb, and during that time the relationship between Luke and Jess shifted. From ditching school and pulling pranks, Gilmore Girls last saw Jess living and working in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
2 of Scott Patterson’s ‘favorite’ scenes from ‘Gilmore Girls’ involve Luke Danes and Jess Mariano
Scenes Patterson can’t wait to get to on I’m All In? Two of Luke’s most memorable moments with Jess.
“Two of my favorite scenes in the whole library of Gilmore are pushing him [Ventimiglia as Jess] in the lake and then knocking the hole in the wall with a sledgehammer,” Patterson said.
Luke memorably pushed Jess in the lake shortly after he arrived in Stars Hollow during Gilmore Girls Season 2. When Luke couldn’t take living in his small apartment above the diner with Jess, he decided to get a bigger place. The process ended with him buying the building next door and taking a sledgehammer to the wall to make a bedroom for Jess.
New episodes of I’m All In air every Sunday on iHeartRadio platforms.
