All 7 Gilmore Girls season finales ranked from worst to best

Gilmore Girls season 5

The Gilmore Girls season 5 finale might have taken some of the biggest swings of the whole series. Rory’s good girl image dismantles after a rash decision, Lorelai pops the question to Luke, and the mother and daughter part ways in the aftermath of the boat heist heard round the world. It’s by far the messiest of the show’s finales, purely based on character decisions.

But don’t we watch television shows for the mess? When you watched “A House Is Not a Home” for the first time, you probably did not see Rory and Logan taking someone else’s yacht for a joy ride OR Lorelai asking Luke to marry her coming. These were jaw droppers of the highest order, especially given that they have wide-ranging consequences.

As a season finale, the fifth season’s bomb-drops were expertly placed but also nerve-racking due to what they meant for the characters. Rory choosing Emily and Richard over Lorelai? Shock! Lorelai feeling alone and proposing to her boyfriend? Double shock! You will never know true surprise like the fans who watched the episode live in May 2005 and heard “Luke, will you marry me?” before the screen faded to black. That was a long, stressful summer!

Gilmore Girls season 4

The fourth season of Gilmore Girls, which makes a flawless transition from high school to college for Rory, ended with shock and awwwww (rather than awe). However, the shocks are stronger and far less stress-inducing than the fifth season finale. Rory again makes a questionable decision, but we also get Luke and Lorelai’s first kiss as they make their romantic relationship —finally! — official. It’s all happening.

“Raincoats and Recipes” closes an impeccable season, and my personal favorite, on a somber note as Rory loses her virginity to Dean, and Lorelai finds fault in the occasion because he’s still married to Lindsay. It’s a complicated situation. Rory wants Lorelai to feel happy for her, but her mother can’t separate the reconciliation with Dean from technically being an affair.

Their argument doesn’t result in them not speaking to each other for half a season, since they both know it’s a gray area. You can tell Rory feels guilty, but she didn’t want to feel that, and Lorelai can see that, too. Thankfully, this very loaded and shocking season finale moment doesn’t take anything away from Luke and Lorelai’s own moment. Coupled with Kirk’s night terrors, it’s a season finale that has it all.

Click on for the best Gilmore Girls season finales!