7 Gilmore Girls Episodes That Are So “‘Tis The Damn Season”-Coded

If you’re home for the holidays, there’s bound to be a moment or two when you feel more melancholic than merry. That’s OK! Visiting your hometown can stir up complicated feelings about the convergence of your past, present, and future. Or, as Taylor Swift once put it: “I’m staying at my parents’ house, and the road not taken looks real good now.”

Indeed, the Evermore track “‘tis the damn season” perfectly encapsulates this type of moody holiday vibe. But if you still want more, consider turning on Gilmore Girls.

The series is synonymous with fall, but — like Swift’s bittersweet bop — often pairs seasonal nostalgia with scenes that meditate on the many different paths one can take from the place (and people) they know best.

In honor of the holidays, here are seven Gilmore Girls episodes that are perfect for “‘tis the damn season” season.

Season 1, Episode 8: “Love & War & Snow”

Though this early episode happens before any big breakups, it beautifully blends the show’s penchant for cozy environs — Rory snowed in at the Gilmore mansion! — with an undercurrent of regret. Her grandparents look at old photos and think about the life their daughter, Lorelai, might have had.

Season 4, Episode 13: “Nag Hammadi Is Where They Found The Gnostic Gospels”

After not speaking since their Season 3 breakup, Rory tries to escape from Jess when he confronts her in the middle of Stars Hollow. But as Swift sings, “The holidays linger like bad perfume. You can run, but only so far.” Ultimately, Jess catches up and delivers a love confession, but it comes a little too late.

Season 4, Episode 21: “Last Week Fights, This Week Tights”

At the end of Gilmore Girls Season 4, Jess begs Rory to run away with him. Knowing it's a fantasy, she tells him they can’t, and she’s already begun to rekindle her feelings for Dean. As Swift once put it: “I won’t ask you to wait if you don’t ask me to stay.”

Season 5, Episode 4: “Tippecanoe & Taylor, Too”

From their failed hangout at Dean’s childhood home to their attempted tryst in Rory’s parked car, this Season 5 episode is all about the futility of trying to pick up where you left off with a high-school sweetheart.

Season 6, Episode 8: “Let Me Hear Your Balalaikas Ringing Out”

When Jess visits Rory during her DAR era and break from Yale, he appeals to a part of her she’s hidden from Logan — and herself. “This isn’t you, Rory. You know it isn’t,” he pleads. “What’s going on?” As Swift once said, he’s “the only soul who can tell which smiles I’m faking.”

Season 6, Episode 18: “The Real Paul Anka”

By the end of “‘tis the damn season,” Swift resolves to break her own heart and head back to Los Angeles regardless of the strong connection with her past beau. Similarly, in “The Real Paul Anka,” Rory declares she is in love with Logan right after kissing Jess.

“If it makes you feel better, you can always tell him that we did something,” Jess says as Rory runs off. He knows he’s not part of this new life she has chosen — all too aware that he was just hers “for the weekend.”

A Year In The Life: “Fall”

From Rory running into Dean at Doose’s — where she says he showed her “what safe feels like” — to Jess longingly staring at Rory from outside her house, a blanket of fall foliage behind him, this revival episode is all about confronting the road not taken.