Scott Patterson pitches Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life season 2 storylines (and they're... interesting)
By Reed Gaudens
When we last left the Gilmore Girls crew in A Year in the Life back in 2016, Luke and Lorelai had just finally gotten married and Rory revealed her surprise pregnancy to Lorelai. Since the revival miniseries ended, fans of the beloved series have had to fill in the gaps on where they think the characters would be now, but it turns out Scott Patterson has some ideas of his own.
Elite Daily caught up with the erstwhile Luke Danes (who's now starring in The CW's romantic drama series Sullivan's Crossing) on the red carpet of the 2024 Critics' Choice Awards. Patterson was asked where he thought Luke and Lorelai would be in 2024, and his answers also included Jess and Rory. While some fans might love his storyline pitches for a potential A Year in the Life season 2, they're not quite what we were expecting.
Here's what the actor said to Elite Daily about where our Gilmore favorite would be today:
"[Luke and Lorelai] have got a couple of kids now. That's the big surprise, even in their old age. And they don't regret it. And Jess has come back into the fold, he's their nanny. He runs a gym. He opened up the Stars Hollow Gym. Rory's back, and she's running the Stars Hollow Gazette. She's doing a lot of articles on the gym and on old people having kids."
- Scott Patterson
A gym? The nanny? Stars Hollow Gazette articles on the gym run by the nanny? Let's just say Scott Patterson's ideas for where these four would be in 2024 don't exactly align with what had been on our minds. Still, some fans are loving these ideas, mostly for the prospect of Luke and Lorelai starting their own family together, and Jess and Rory being in such close proximity that endgame appears to not only be on the table but on the tip of the tongue.
But Jess returning to Stars Hollow to open a gym, of all things, doesn't make sense. He's a publisher and published author who's made a life of his own in Philadelphia. Jess would need a much better reason to move back to Connecticut and start over professionally other than becoming a nanny for his uncle and aunt and opening a gym. Why would he open a gym and not expand his own publishing business? Maybe it's a gym-library hybrid. Now that's more Stars Hollow.
Patterson also seems to have forgotten to include the fact that at the end of A Year in the Life, Rory became pregnant. How could you forget that jaw-dropper?! It's totally likely that she would find her way back home to raise her child while also being a successful author. (Yes, we're assuming her memoir became a best-seller and was adapted into a limited series starring Anne Hathaway as Lorelai. In this fantasy, Anne wins an Emmy, too.) She could arguably run the town's newspaper while also working on new books and being a mother. That feels the most accurate pitch of them all.
And then there's Luke and Lorelai having kids — plural. Here's where Patterson forgets again that Rory would have a young child as well. Not that becoming a grandmother would stop Lorelai from wanting to become a mother again, but children no longer seemed like a priority by the end of A Year in the Life. Even when they attempted to pursue surrogacy early on in the revival, it felt more like they were considering it because it's something that should have happened.
Personally, Luke and Lorelai having children of their own doesn't need to happen to make their love story complete or valid or any more special. They each have a child that they adore: Rory and April, though Jess could also count for Luke. Patterson referenced their ages, but age aside, being doting grandparents that spoil their grandbabies seems more like their path forward. But who knows, maybe they would have adopted and started a family that way.
What do you think of Patterson's ideas for Gilmore Girls in 2024? Does he hit the nail on the head for you, or does it read like wish-fulfilling fanfic? Would you become a member of Jess' gym? These are the questions we're left to ponder after Patterson's pitches. Not gonna lie, these ideas would make for some oddly entertaining storylines, but again, it's not quite what we had in mind. Although, Anne Hathaway winning an Emmy for playing Lorelai in a limited series probably isn't in the cards either.
All seven seasons and the revival miniseries of Gilmore Girls are available to watch on Netflix.