All 7 Gilmore Girls season finales ranked from worst to best

Gilmore Girls season 1

The first season of Gilmore Girls is about as perfect as first seasons get. We’re immediately immersed in the wacky but cozy world of Stars Hollow, and the episodes cover so much ground. Rory starts attending Chilton, Lorelai grapples with the complicated relationship she shares with her parents, and so many romantic entanglements take shape.

By the end of the season, Rory finally tells Dean she loves him and Max proposes to Lorelai with a thousand yellow daisies. “Love, Daisies and Troubadours” is a classic episode that set the tone for the series moving forward, but it’s far from the best season finale. The episode plays it safe by forming an ending that could have served as a fitting series finale. If this was the last time we’d ever see them, we’d be left wanting more but also satisfied with their happy endings.

In the final sequence of the first season, Lorelai and Rory cheerful run toward each other in town square, happy as can be about their respective personal lives. The first season concludes by highlighting the most important relationship of the series, that of mother and daughter Lorelai and Rory, and pan out with an aerial shot of Stars Hollow lit up to the tune of “My Little Corner of the World” by Yo La Tengo. Chef’s kiss! But the show has better finales.

Gilmore Girls season 7

Season 7 was the final season of the series, and it’s divisive. Most diehard fans typically rank season 7 as last or second to last, mainly due to Sherman-Palladino having no hand in crafting the storylines. And the storyline fans have had the most issue with? Lorelai and Christopher getting married. A lot of people have chosen to forget that happened (and Lauren Graham actually did).

For as polarizing as the Gilmore Girls series finale was, since the cast and crew were reportedly unsure if it was actually the series finale while filming, it’s an incredible series conclusion. It’s emotional, bittersweet, celebratory, self-referential, and everything you could want from a series finale. I’ve bawled my eyes out every single time I’ve watched it! Could “Bon Voyage” have been better? Sure. But is it still an okay, if not excellent, finale? Absolutely.

Click on for the Gilmore Girls season finale that made our jaws drop!