Summary

• Rory's review in Gilmore Girls season 4 proved Mitchum right about her lacking journalistic merit.
• Rory's tactless comparison in her review brought backlash, showing her flaws.
• The Gilmore Girls revival hinted that Rory's career struggles early on led to an underwhelming journalistic career.

While Gilmore Girls’ cast of characters often waxed lyrical about Rory’s many merits, the character herself didn’t always live up to her reputation. According to her mother, her grandparents, and the denizens of Stars Hollow, Rory was kind, caring, considerate, a genius, a polymath, and a talented writer. However, in her romantic relationships, personal friendships, and professional choices, Rory was often relatably rash, impulsive, petty, insecure, and arrogant. These flaws never ruined her character.

However, they did make the claims made by other characters seem a little ludicrous. 2016’s Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life and Jess is a hardworking, successful creative while Rory flounders both professionally and personally. Many viewers and critics hated Rory’s revival trajectory, but one storyline proved this was a fitting fate for the imperfect heroine.

Rory's Review Storyline In Gilmore Girls Season 4 Proved Mitchum Was Right About Her

Rory’s Review Was Tasteless, Tactless, and Lacked Journalistic Merit

In season 5, episode 21, “Blame Booze and Melville,” Logan’s father, Mitchum, sits Rory down and flatly informs her that she doesn’t have what it takes to become a professional journalist. Mitchum’s dismissal of Rory’s writing prowess is presented as a brutal betrayal from a potential mentor and further proof that Logan’s father is a cold, thoughtless man. Moreover, it is implied by Rory’s years of success throughout Chilton and Yale that Mitchum must be wrong about this. However, Mitchum is secretly right to say that Rory is a hack, and season 4, episode 8, “Die Jerk,” proves this.

Rory compares the prima ballerina to a rhino, a tactless gag that has body-shaming implications.

In “Die Jerk,” Rory receives backlash for a bad review she gave a ballerina. Notably, it is the content of Rory’s review, rather than its negative slant, that earns opprobrium. After attending a performance, Rory compares the prima ballerina to a rhino, a tactless gag that has body-shaming implications. While there is an argument to be made that rhinos are famously graceless, there are a great many other examples Rory could have used in the comparison that wouldn’t have brought up regrettable implications about the dancer’s weight. Rory’s review is subpar, thoughtless, and misjudged, proving Mitchum’s criticisms right.

Gilmore Girls Season 4 Teased Rory's Career Struggles In A Year In The Life, 13 Years Earlier

Gilmore Girls Hinted That Rory Overestimated Her Writing Prowess Early On

One Gilmore Girls fan theory suggests Rory wrote the original show and this explains why A Year in the Life drives home the character’s shortcomings via her career struggles and infidelity. While this is an interesting theory, one crack in the claim can be found in Rory’s review and Mitchum’s later assessment of her. Rory refused to accept criticism of her review and didn’t see any validity in Mitchum’s comments, underlining her disinterest in professional self-improvement and growth. Thus, it is not a shock that the heroine of the Gilmore Girls revival ends up with an underwhelming journalistic career.