‘Gilmore Girls’: Why Wasn’t Richard Gilmore in the Life and Death Brigade?
After Rory Gilmore arrived at Yale University on Gilmore Girls, viewers naturally wondered if she would run into any of the infamous Ivy League secret societies. The show had previously touched on the subject of secret clubs when Rory almost joined the Puffs, a so-called secret organization at her high school.
Yale is best recognized for its infamous student organizations, such as Skull and Bones, Scroll and Key, and Wolf’s Head, all of which have many well-known alums. It was, therefore, not a great surprise when in season 5 of Gilmore Girls, Rory attempted to get the dirt on the Life and Death Brigade’s secret activities for the Yale Daily News.
What is the Life and Death Brigade?
In Gilmore Girls, the Life and Death Brigade was a secret society at Yale University. Rory discovers the group in season 5 while doing research for a feature article for the Yale Daily News. The society is cloaked in secrecy and has a reputation for risky antics and even criminal activities.
Rory finds out about the club for the first time when she sees a girl in a ball gown say, “In Omnia Paratus!” and get into a black SUV. She then researches and discovers that Logan’s grandfather, Elias Huntzberger, was a member of the club, leading her to conclude that Logan is also a member.
Rory pesters Logan for an insider interview, but he denies knowing anything about the club. Eventually, he offers her the opportunity to learn more under some conditions.
Why wasn’t Richard Gilmore in the Life and Death Brigade?
Logan’s grandfather and father, Mitchum Huntzberger, a newspaper mogul, were well-known alumni of the Life and Death Brigade that we’re aware of. We don’t know if Richard Gilmore, a fellow Yale alum, was a member of the LBD or any other Yale clubs, but if he were a member, Rory likely would have been tapped, as she would have been a legacy like Logan.
However, Richard almost definitely knew about the Life and Death Brigade secret society, as the group went back well before his time at Yale. When Rory researches the LDB and writes about them, she doesn’t find any links to the Gilmores. While this suggests Richard wasn’t in the Life and Death Brigade, it doesn’t mean he wasn’t in a secret society, as he could have been a member of one of the men’s only secret societies.
Commenting on whether Richard was in the Life and Death Brigade, one Reddit user said, “In spite of all the crazy things that Richard did in college, I think he was still a little too straight edge for the Life and Death Brigade. I mean, come on, he was a Whiffenpoof … Not exactly the hardcore, ‘jumping off bridges’ type.”
Fans, however, think Richard knew about the Life and Death Brigade during his time at Yale. Another Reddit user said, “Richard seems to have been an important student and alumni of Yale. As such, he likely would have known about the secret societies.”
Is the Life and Death Brigade real and on Yale’s long list of secret societies?
Unfortunately, the LDBers are fictitious, although they are clearly influenced by Yale’s other notorious groups. For instance, most of the societies in the university have strange initiation rites and are notoriously secretive. Some fans have even hypothesized that the Brigade is similar to the Yale secret organization Skull and Bones, which was established in 1832.
Yale alumna and author Alexandra Robbins revealed some exciting details regarding the Skull and Bones members and events in her book Secrets of the Tomb. In her book, Robbins talks about how Skull and Bones own an island.
She explains that the club built the 40-acre retreat with the hope of providing the club’s members with a place to meet up and renew old bonds of friendship. The story about the island sounds a lot like the fancy camp from the 1930s that Rory found when she first investigated the Brigade.
While we may never know where the idea for our favorite Life and Death Brigade came from, one thing is for sure: just like the LDB, we are “In Omnia Paratus” (ready for anything).
