This Jess & Rory Revival Theory Is Wild

Our Gilmore Girls obsession is getting out of hand; yours and mine. But until Netflix finally streams the Gilmore Girls revival for us, then we're going to continue to scrutinize and over-analyze every tiny detail we can find. Frankly, I'm Team Jess all the way, and, as a result, my obsession is clinging onto even the tiniest details which might indicate that Jess and Rory are endgame. I've mostly been clinging onto dumb, fangirl hope, but I think I might have found something that proves, once and for all, that it makes total sense for Jess and Rory ending up together in the revival.

Let me begin by lovingly reminding you all of Jess' beautiful leather, biker jacket. Not only was that jacket representative of his rebellious character and his punk rock credentials, but it always felt to me like a bit of a direct dig at poor old Dean. Though Jess never rode an actual motorbike in the show, Dean did (though you never actually saw it on screen), and so that jacket always felt like a total alpha male trophy piece of I didn't have a motorbike and I still got the girl. You're probably wondering "Why are we even talking about motorbikes right now? Who cares?!," but just you wait, Sally. Because you're so gonna care.

In Season 1, back when Lorelai made the mistake of thinking that Dean was the motorbike riding bad boy of the town, there was a lot of talk about motorbikes. Through Dean, Lorelai was reminded of her high school sweetheart (and Rory's father), Christopher, and, in turn, she sees that dangerous teenage allure of rebellion, good looks, and sex through a mother's eyes. In seeing Rory's interest in Dean, she immediately sees her own interest in Christopher and instinctively makes presumptions on what this pairing could mean for Rory's future, telling her: "Does he have a motorcycle? Because if you're going to throw your life away, he'd better have a motorcycle."

But, boy, was Lorelai wrong. Dean was actually a total sweetheart (and I still suspect that he was making the whole thing up about riding a motorcycle just to impress the ladies), and, as we all found out from Season 2, onwards, Jess was the real trouble maker in town. And you know what? He didn't ride a motorcycle. He drove a car.

This is significant because Amy Sherman Palladino is a savvy showrunner and writer; everything has intent and meaning. It's no coincidence, for instance, that Dean builds a car for Rory as a gift (which you could take as representing safety, trust, and commitment), and it's even less of a coincidence that Jess eventually crashes that car.

It's notable also that, when Christopher begins to show signs of getting his life together, of enjoying a steady job and of settling down, that he represents this by pulling up to Lorelai's house in a very responsible looking car. Sadly, Christopher's car didn't indicate as much new-found maturity as Lorelai had hoped (he still failed to commit to anything), just as Dean's motorcycle didn't indicate that he was a bad boy, or Rory's gifted car didn't mean that she and Dean enjoyed a secure relationship. In Gilmore Girls, vehicles often come to represent the opposite of whatever they originally represented to a character.

So what does this all mean for the revival? Well, it feels like motorcycles play a big part in the canon of Rory and Loreali's history, which are associated with a lot of feelings that have a ton of unfinished business attached to them. But if, as we all hope, Rory is going to get back together with one of her exes in the revival, then it would seem fitting for them to own a motorcycle, just like her dad did.

All Freudian implications aside, from what we know about the ways in which motorcycles have been used in Gilmore Girls, this could represent safety to Rory, rather than danger, and acceptance rather than intimidation. I think it's safe to say that Logan would likely never get on a motorcycle, which leaves us with Dean and Jess. I'm going to throw my hands right up in the air here and say that my theory could easily apply to Dean or Jess, but I'm definitely edging closer towards Jess being the one carting Rory off on the back of his motorcycle with him before the end credits of Fall roll.

The deciding factor? Milo Ventimiglia loves his motorcycles. If Jess were to ride one in the show, then this also wouldn't be the instance of an actor's real life hobby being brought into the story of the show they star in (do we all remember Patrick Dempsey's love of racing infiltrating his character on Grey's Anatomy? Stop driving so fast, McDreamy!); the whole thing really isn't too far-fetched an idea to imagine.

So, whereas in the pilot episode Lorelai jokingly implies that a motorcycle is, in fact, the saving grace of Rory potentially throwing her life away for a boy, it could well be the case that in the final episode of the revival that a motorcycle actually represents a big part of Rory's future with a man. And I can't imagine a character that this would fit better than Jess who, let's face it, loved having methods of convenient escape at his disposal.

Clearly, there's still a massive part of me living on nothing but the fumes of my own fangirl optimism with this theory but hey, a girl can dream.

Images: Warner Bros. Television (4)