Gilmore Girlsis a perfect show to rewatch, time and time again. It has the coziest TV town, the best fictional mother-daughter duo at its center, and some truly hilarious and fast-paced dialogue. WhileGilmore Girlsis excellent the first time around, it is even better after the first watch. It’s a true comfort show, and it’s always a delight to return to the characters and to Stars Hollow with each viewing.
WhileGilmore Girlsas a whole is incredible, it does have some episodes that don’t land as well as others. Season 7 is pretty much objectively agreed upon by fans of the show to beGilmore Girls' worst season, because it is very different in tone from the rest of the series, primarily due to the absence ofGilmore GirlscreatorAmy Sherman-Palladino. That being said, there are a number of episodes throughout the show’s run – even in its best seasons – that don’t make for a great rewatch the second time around. These are 10Gilmore Girlsepisodes that are an easy skip.
Gilmore Girls
10"To Live and Let Diorama"
Season 5, Episode 18
“To Live and Let Diorama” has some funny scenes, as it shows Kirk (Sean Gunn) and Paris (Liza Weil) staying at Lorelai’s house for a very strange weekend. As a whole, though, this episode is just very difficult to watch. It shows Luke (Scott Patterson) lying to Lorelai (Lauren Graham) about why he’s volunteering at the Twickham house so that he can buy a house behind her back, which ends with a bizarre scene where an angry Dean (Jared Padalecki) warns Luke that Lorelai is going to leave him one day.
Lorelai and Rory’s (Alexis Bledel) storylines this episode are no better. Lorelai says some harsh things about Emily (Kelly Bishop) during an interview about The Dragonfly Inn, ruining an otherwise exciting career opportunity. Meanwhile, Rory spends the episode moping about Logan (Matt Czuchry), while Paris stresses about Doyle (Danny Strong), and Lane (Keiko Agena) gets weirdly jealous of Zack’s (Todd Lowe) friendship with Sophie (Carole King).
9"Face-Off"
Season 3, Episode 15
Rory and Jess' (Milo Ventimiglia) relationship is one ofGilmore Girls' best romances, but this couple has many unwatchable moments as well, in which Jess wasn’t always the best boyfriend to her. A number of storylines in Season 3 are difficult to watch for this reason, and one episode that highlights this is “Face-Off.” In it, Jess keeps bailing on Rory on nights when he says he will call and make plans, and she frequently ends up on her own waiting for him.
It is very hard to watch Rory make a number of compromises and miss out on making other plans,just for Jess to treat her like an afterthought. Additionally, Jess only salvages the relationship at the end of the episode with a grand gesture out of jealousy that she went to Dean’s hockey game. For fans of their relationship, this episode is especially unwatchable, because Rory passively accepts Jess' insensitivity while starting to regretfully look back on her relationship with Dean.
8"Knit, People, Knit!"
Season 7, Episode 9
The most unwatchable episodes of Season 7 are the ones that spotlight Lorelai and Christopher’s doomed attempt at another relationship, as well as their eventual marriage. One such example of this is “Knit, People, Knit.” Stars Hollows' townwide events have made for some of thebest episodes ofGilmore Girls, such as “A-Tisket, A-Tasket” and “They Shoot Gilmores, Don’t They?” The knitting event in “Knit, People, Knit!” just doesn’t have the same effect, though.
This episode is especially uncomfortable, because it confirms the already obvious fact that Christopher just doesn’t fit in with the rest of Stars Hollow. Christopher throws his money around to try to fit in, but he ends up ruining the event, and it is deeply uncomfortable and mortifying to watch. What should be a funny and silly event ultimately just acts as a backdrop for a frustrating Lorelai and Christopher storyline.
7"Super Cool Party People"
Season 6, Episode 20
While Season 7 was a notable shift forGilmore Girls, the show really starts to suffer halfway through Season 6, after the massive and out-of-left-field twist thatLuke actually has a secret daughter, April Nardini (Vanessa Marano). Even worse is Luke’s decision to keep this a secret from Lorelai, and how Lorelai makes so many compromises after she finds out, that she starts to turn into a shell of herself.
In “Super Cool Party People,” Luke throws a party for April and her friends at the diner, and it is very difficult to watch. He continues to attempt to keep Lorelai and April separate from each other instead of trying to make it work as a family, and it’s so sad to see the usually-confident Lorelai be so insecure about this. Nevertheless, Luke still lets her save the day, and she does a great job, but there is this sadness and sense of doom for their relationship lingering over the whole thing.
6"The Long Morrow"
Season 7, Episode 1
Lorelai and Luke’s relationship should have been a permanent fixture inGilmore Girlsafter reuniting in the wake of their brief Season 5 breakup, and definitely after getting engaged. It is always devastating to see them fall apart for a number of episodes after Luke finds out about April, as Lorelai struggles with having to move back their wedding date. After somany seasons of building upto this relationship,Gilmore Girlsdestroys it with a random hookup between Lorelai and Christopher (David Sutcliffe) in the Season 6 finale.
The Season 7 premiere ofGilmore Girlsmarks a major shift in the show as it moves into its weakest season, but it also containsone of the series' most brutal and unwatchable scenes.When Luke gives an impassioned speech where he fights to save their relationship, Lorelai tells him that she slept with Christopher. WhileGilmore Girlshas a number of sad scenes that feel necessary to the show, this one is not one of them, and it just feels cruel.
Season 6, Episode 10
Lorelai and Rory’s Season 6 fight is very painful, but it was many seasons in the making. The reunion is very sweet, butGilmore Girlsnoticeably starts to slip up in quality afterward. This is especially apparent in the following episode, “He’s Slippin' ‘Em Bread… Dig?” In it, Lorelai is happy about the reunion and ready to set a date for the wedding, but Luke is very secretive about April, and it’s painful to watch him hide this from her.
Lane’s subplot in this episode is especially frustrating, as Hep Alien’s move toward success gets destroyed by unnecessary jealousy in Zack and Lane’s relationship. Lane is upset about Zack singing songs named after other girls, and then Zack gets jealous after Brian (John Cabrera) writes a song about her, which leads him to destroy their performance. Lane and Zack’s relationship is hardly one ofGilmore Girls’ best, but he is especially frustrating in this episode.
4"Die, Jerk"
Season 4, Episode 8
Rory’s character arc in the later seasons ofGilmore Girlsis infamous among fans of the show, as she makes a number of questionable choices. One of her worst moments occurs during the Season 4 episode, “Die, Jerk,” where Rory is trying to get published for the first time in the Yale Daily News. When Doyle keeps rejecting her pieces, Rory writes a really negative review of a ballet that she watches at Yale.
This episode has some great background moments, like the storyline with Lane’s marriage jar, Paris' paranoia about the note on their door, and Lorelai’s jealousy of Luke and Nicole (Tricia O’Kelley). Ultimately, though, it is an episode that is better skipped. Rory makessuch cruel and fatphobic commentsabout one of the dancers,only for the episode to justify the review at the end,simply because she is a journalist.
3"French Twist"
Season 7, Episode 7
While Season 7 as a whole is weak, there are not many episodes in it that stand out as truly unwatchable. The one that does, more than the others, is “French Twist.” This is, of course, the episode where Lorelai and Christopher spontaneously get married. This storyline is not only an awful and unnecessary wrench in Lorelai’s relationship with Luke, but it also feels reductive to have Lorelai marry Christopher after all this time, when she had always stood by her choice not to do so.
Additionally, Lorelai would neverget married without Rory there, especially to Rory’s father, of all people. As if this does not make the episode difficult enough to watch, Rory’s subplot reveals that her new friend, Lucy (Krysten Ritter), is now dating Marty (Wayne Wilcox). For some reason, Marty pretends not to know Rory, and the whole storyline is just very bizarre and unnecessarily complicated.
2"That Damn Donna Reed"
Season 1, Episode 14
The first season ofGilmore Girlsis a near-perfect installment that introduces the world of the show and the town of Stars Hollow perfectly. That being said, there is one notable blip in the season, and that is “That Damn Donna Reed.” Lorelai and Rory are two empowered women, so it’s very uncomfortableto watch Dean arguein favor of outdated gender roles after the two of them make fun ofThe Donna Reed Show.
After this leads to a fight between Rory and Dean, she tries to fix it in the most uncomfortable way. Rory dresses likeDonna Reed, cooks Dean an elaborate meal, and waits on him for the whole night. Even after he apologizes, Rory stands by the fact that she is happy that she did this, and she even insists on washing the dishes because she is the woman. The entire ordeal isdeeply unsettling to watch,and makes it one of the series' most skippable episodes, even with the excellent Lorelai and Luke subplot.
1"A Vineyard Valentine"
Season 6, Episode 15
There is noGilmore Girlsepisode that is more of an immediate skip than “A Vineyard Valentine.” Luke’s behavior towards Lorelai in the second half of Season 6 is frustrating enough, but the worst of this occurs during their couple’s Valentine’s Day trip with Rory and Logan. Luke and Logan together in Martha’s Vineyard is an odd enough premise, but it’s very uncomfortable to watch the contrast between these two in this episode.
Logan is madeto look like the perfect boyfriendfor the whole trip, as he dotes on and splurges on Rory for the holiday. Meanwhile, this is Luke at his worst, in a way that is pushed so far, thatit feels very out of character. He is rude, snarky, and ungrateful for the whole trip, and it is clear how hard this is for Lorelai. There’s also the whole mess where Luke claims Logan’s extra present as his own after not getting one for Lorelai. Beyond the poor treatment ofGilmore Girls' best couple in this installment, the whole episode ultimately just feels off.
