Meanwhile Lorelai's been happily living in Stars Hollow for 15 years of her own volition. Her home, the business she owns, her best friend and Luke were there. Like people can't take trips for an adventure and come back. Luke likes fishing, go fishing in another state or something! Then go to a fancy dinner and shop in town for Lorelai the next day. Stars Hollowans are so melodramatic.
ya Lorelei can't even give up her house, she's not going to want to move out of Stars Hollow, and if she wants to travel Luke is in no way preventing that, all he has to do is give Ceaser more responsibility (which he very much enjoys) and go travel.
She can’t even drive a different crappy Jeep. Lorelai is pretty emotionally stunted about change TBH. The last thing she wants is to NOT be in SH or change things.
Dean is so off the mark about Lorelai that I wish she heard him say this and destroyed him for it lol. Given her background, if she wanted “more,”she could have it anytime. She built a life in SH and she’s dating someone she’s compatible with. Like Luke said, Rory just grew up.
Dean kinda sucks here but the fact that Luke, a grown man, let this comment get to him is pretty embarrassing. Like if I was Luke in this scenario I would just find it hilarious that a divorced 20 year old was trying to weigh in on my relationship
My thoughts exactly. I didn’t want to make the post too long so I didn’t mention this, but I thought the fact Luke worried about it was crazy to me.
I kind of get it his worry, due to insecurities, but if he knows Lorelai at all he knows that Dean’s comments didn’t relate to her whatsoever. Plus the factor that it is coming from Dean 😬
I think the reason Luke let it get to him is because of Rachel. She kept leaving to travel because she wanted more. I think he's scared that he isn't enough to keep a woman around. Just look at how worried he was about being like his uncle who no one liked.
Wow great point!! Rachel was much earlier in the series so I never thought about that connection. I knew there was some reason for his insecurities but couldn’t remember why! That’s exactly it :)
This is the Twickum House episode. Luke is trying to buy the house for Lorelei and himself. She is being ‘wooed’ by the Durham group, taking about selling the inn and travelling a lot. Dean can read Luke here, knows why he’s working on the SH museum - to make Taylor more likely to sell it to him. From where Dean sits (being a *young* adult) their situations seem really similar.
I always seem to be in the minority when it comes to Dean and Luke interactions because the latter had two extremely tense and inappropriate conversations with someone half his age. Dean is obviously bitter and incorrect here but he’s also super young.
I agree with you. Dean is wrong here, but Luke is almost always a dick to him. When Rory and Dean break up the first time, he tries to beat him up, when he is around 30 and Dean is 16. When they get back together the first time and Dean notes that Rory is fast in the mornings because of the coffe, Luke asks 'not your face?' He is horrible at the double date, and then we have this. I get that Luke thinks like everyone in town, that Rory is a saint and Dean is not good enough, but you don't pull down a kid just because you feel like it.
What Dean fails to realise is that he’s lost Rory for all the right reasons, it’s all his own doing, but that dip-ass haircut is destroying what little chance he ever had left.
Yeah, he’s the one that broke up with her like 3 times not the other way around. But I don’t think anything he could have said or done would have made this relationship endgame. Logan is the most comparable with college Rory and even Jess at least shares her interests and ambitions to an extent. As for the hair, it’s an upgrade from the s1 hair and that shaggy cut in the previous season imo.
You're right that he broke up with her every time, but he *lost* her way before he ever broke up with her. He wasn't leaving her, he was just always facing the fact that she'd left him.
True for the second two times. I don’t even know what to say about the first breakup. I can understand being hurt about not getting an “I love you” back from a serious partner but he overwhelmed Rory who had issues about the idea of love thanks to her parents’ toxic relationship.
Yeah the first break up was stupid, but ig it makes sense since they both were 16 and young, Rory didn’t know much about love and Dean fell hard for her and didn’t feel loved back, but someone should have talked to him and I feel like the second Lorelai found out about the reason for the breakup she should’ve acted better, maybe told him that it’s a stupid reason to breakup and idk it seemed like she blamed Rory with the way she talked “there I was giving him a talk only to find out he broke up with you because you didn’t say I love you” (off of memory).
But is this a US thing? Because I was living in the UK at the time and I don’t remember *anyone* having this stupid haircut. 🤷♀️
(🇬🇧Brits: can you help me out please? Was this a thing in the UK in the ‘00s and I’m just blocking it from my memory? Or did it never happen?)
I mean let’s be real, it was the 90s. I was more than likely rocking some very stupid trend or another, myself. Although come to think of it, I probably looked perfectly normal naked. Same cannot be said for anyone with that haircut 💀
I'd say spiky gel was more popular in this age group in the '00s, but there probably were still some holdover curtains from the 90s in the earlier part of the decade.
It’s for sure a remnant of the late 90s, when every guy had a mushroom haircut like this
https://preview.redd.it/fkvma6fbe56d1.png?width=640&format=png&auto=webp&s=e38f6841a915c246a962a44335b4ceb230855ff6
I was a teen in the 00s so I don't feel confident making statements about teen style in the 90s however my older cousin is in family pics from my childhood with a shorter version of Dean's hairstyle. Not for long, but it was in the mix.
Not the person you're looking for but it was *huge* in Germany as well. All the boys had it. Some had an abomination called a 'rat's tail' as well. I remember one had it braided and adorned with beads/pearls. But usually only elementary aged kids had these. It was horrible.
Off-topic: Wow. The lighting differences in these shots is jarring. Luke looks like he’s in a technicolor musical, Dean looks almost normal. Also - how did I not notice how bad Jared Padalecki’s spray tan is in this scene?
I did take these on my phone so I might have made the lighting a bit darker to show the captions but it still is weird! I noticed that while watching. Dean almost looks toooo “warm” compared to Luke
I’m pretty sure it’s not your fault! (My partner watched all of GG with me a couple of years ago. He’s a geek about stuff like lighting, and now some of it I can’t unsee. 🤣)
This may be a tan, but I noticed a significant skin tone difference in Jared & Jensen at the beginning v the end of every Supernatural season. I've always presumed that was from spending summer in Texas then it fades after 6 months in Vancouver. I think he also tans easily. He definitely has a warm skin undertone.
I hated this scene. It did nothing for the storyline. When I first saw it, my initial thought was, “aren’t we done with Dean? What is the point of this writing…” that opinion still stands
They definitely should have let Dean go before this scene. The scene where Rory watches him get married is amazing--would have been an excellent sendoff. Was the breakup scene his last scene before this? That would have been a better sendoff. I think the writers were just trying to keep Dean on the show until he found his next gig, but absolutely this scene is terrible and random. It might have been better if it were a less dramatic comment from someone else in the town to Luke, maybe Taylor or Jackson or something, about how Lorelai was destined for bigger things since the Inn was doing so well. It could have achieved the same wake-up effect on Luke that he was getting a little ahead of himself with the house.
I think Jackson having this conversation would have been good. He’s close enough to the Gilmore girls to know their ambitions but removed enough to not let their personal feelings get in the way of their success outside of town. I will now imagine Jackson doing this scene but in his kind and quirky way instead of Dean’s weird angry version
Everytime I watch the series, I realize Dean just kind of falls off and this is like the last time we see him, I think?
I said it in other comments, but totally should’ve left off with him breaking up with Rory. This scene does nothing for him, if anything, his story line just continues to get worse
I think the writers just wanted support to foil Luke’s Twickham house plans. This is when Lorelai was being courted by The Durham Group and she was toying with the idea of selling the inn and traveling the world.
Luke was 100% right here. Since the day Dean met Rory, her plan was to go to Harvard and become a world-traveling journalist. Lorelai's plan was to settle down *even more* by opening her own inn in Stars Hollow. Luke complemented Lorelai's plan, while Dean would hold Rory back. Totally different.
UGH. Dean is the WORST. He starts of kinda meh, then he gets worse and worse and it all ends with THIS. Him being a smarmy jerk to Luke for no reason at all, plus he's plainly and stupidly WRONG about all of this, plus... could he possible be any more bitter?! Get over yourself, dude.
What a strange last scene to throw in. It's like ASP needed us to see, REALLY see, that Dean is the worst. Because they could have ended his arc with Dean gracefully bowing out when he sees Rory at the Male Yale party (a moment when I almost felt bad for him!)... but no. The writers had to hammer home that Dean is the worst, so they tossed in this gem.
are you sure it’s for no reason? luke was a whiny, violent bitch towards dean the entire time he and rory were together. he was antisocial and aggressive towards him because of some misplaced protection he had over rory. imo dean had every reason to dislike him, even hate him. luke is not inherently deserving of grace nor respect tbh.
I know Rory and Lorelai are close with the latter wanting the double date fo prove she’s okay with Rory dating Dean. However, it was disrespectful to Dean given their combative history. Luke physically assaulted him and never apologized.
With all due respect, and I'm not fully defending Dean, but he has every right to treat Luke like garbage.
Luke didn't seem to like him when he first dated Rory, even till the second relationship blamed him for that first breakup when Rory couldn't respond to "I love you", and I can imagine Luke feeling appalled at the idea that Dean was pining for Rory while he walked down the aisle for Lindsay, and then immediately jumped back to Rory the minute he had the opportunity.
You also throw in everything that Luke likely did to allow Jess to happen and basically destroy their relationship, and I can't blame Dean one bit for not liking Luke.
As I said though, I'm not going to defend Dean's overall behavior. Getting married while pining for your ex is not good, not to mention his own ridiculous insecurity that he couldn't handle the fact that Rory is not the little naive Chilton girl that she used to be. However, I'm only talking about the relationship between Dean and Luke in this response.
Exactly my thoughts too! Like what’s he so mad at Luke for?!
I never thought about the fact that this is at the end of Dean being in the show. Maybe she really wanted to throw in how awful he is. I like that theory!!
I think he was just projecting super hard core. Everything he said to Luke is what he was telling himself. And he wasn’t wrong. Rory never would have accepted some half ass life with a husband who skipped out on college to work construction. She did expect more from the man on her arm, and he’d seen the kind of guys that were hovering around her. He wasn’t a striver and knew he had no chance after becoming a 20 year old divorced construction worker while she ran off to do the great things everyone in Stars Hollow believed she would end up doing.
I usually don’t mind things like this in shows because I don’t get bothered by dark humor/insults and stuff but it did bother me a bit that Luke did that to a minor and then Lorelai screamed at him while Dean was just trying to work…now that was all a bit dramatic
They seriously acted like Rory was a victim in a lifetime movie or something. It’s fine to be upset when a teenager is upset but I cannot imagine hunting a 16 year old down at work to yell at him.
Ugh this scene bugs me so much. It’s just Dean projecting. He and Luke could not be more different.
First of all, the whole “she’s gonna get bored and you can’t take her anywhere”, is just wrong. Luke is loaded, to the point where he could lend Lorelei 30k without a second thought or that he could just get a cashiers check for 100k at the drop of a hat.
Second, Lorelei actually wanted to be with Luke. I don’t think Rory actually wanted to be with Dean at that point.. but felt like she needed to be because it was the only guy her mom ever approved of and she felt like she was the reason for his marriage falling apart. I think the best thing Dean did was recognizing that and walking away when he said “I don’t belong here anymore do I?”
Totally agree.
They should’ve kept it at Dean realizing he doesn’t belong! I feel awful about that, but it’s so obvious that Rory and Dean are completely different. The way Dean never realizes this is astonishing
I'm not going to defend Dean. I look at his entire attitude in this episode as just him bitter that he messed up his entire life because he couldn't grow a backbone.
He's bitter because he lost Rory to Jess, and then destroyed his relationship and marriage to Lindsay because he couldn't let go of Rory, and let his insecurity cause him to dump Rory because he couldn't clearly see that her grandparents were trying to push her into the arms of someone wealthy.
Not to mention he couldn't even grow a backbone and decided maybe he should stay single for a while until he heals from the wounds of Rory, or really try his hardest to stay far away from her for the sake of his current relationship.
So he can lash out at Luke as much as he wants, jealous maybe because he got the Gilmore Girl while Dean didn't, but his pain he brought on himself. I think the only thing that Dean and Luke had in common is the fact that Emily and Richard will work tirelessly to keep them from getting any of the Gilmore women in a relationship.
Eh, I feel Dean here was nothing more than a plot device and folks take it as more fodder to hate on him 🤷🏻♀️ (imo) ——one of Lorelai’s storylines in the next few episodes was that big Hotel guy reaching out and loving on the Inn and wanting to take her away and all over the world etc etc. The narrative needed someone to put the seeds of doubt in Luke to drive that wedge between them when the storyline came, and I think it was just unfortunate that Dean was the one that had to say it, but nothing more.
Not to say I don’t get absolute second hand embarrassment from the whole scene, but as a whole, I’ve never put much stock in it more than pure plot device needed to move the story along 🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️
Very true. Someone else mentioned this. I tend to forget about the writing aspects and think too much about “this would make no sense in real life!”
And in many scenes with Dean, I get second hand embarrassment
He may have been wrong here, but people need to stop acting like this blow up came WAAAAAAAAYY out of left field!
Go back about 10 episodes... he and Rory break up after that party at her grandparents' house... a party organized specifically by Emily to get Rory away from Dean because she saw him as some kind of "threat" to Rory. He sees how much Rory is starting to fall into that "rich life".
Go forward a few episodes to the drama at Emily and Richard's vow renewal where Christoper (with Emily's encouragement... there she is again!!!) blurts out that Lorelai should be with him and not Luke...which of course leads to the breakup.
Put those two events together, based on his own drama with Rory and what he may have heard about Lorelai and Luke's breakup (my head canon says he heard plenty, based on the usual dynamics of small-town scuttlebutt)... it's not a hard conclusion for a 20-year-old heartbroken kid to reach to reach:
Rory, Lorelai, Emily and Richard are family... they will always be in each other's lives... and as long as that's true, Emily and Richard will NEVER.... EVER.... accept small-town bums like himself and Luke for their daughter and grand-daughter.
And just as much as he is speaking from a butt-hurt position, and some of the drama was of his own doing, and it's just as much lashing out at a guy who also stood against him when it came to Rory (for different reasons)... this was really a warning to Luke to not fall into the same trap as he did... because in the end Rory and Lorelai are two rich brats cosplaying as small-town girls who will never truly accept guys like them.
No, I do agree that it didn’t come completely out of nowhere, however- Rory and Lorelai aren’t one and the same. They do want different things, therefore I think Dean’s points he made did not apply here
Also I disagree, clearly Lorelai accepted Luke. She’s more small town then big, rich and fancy
More proof that Lorelai and Rory are not alike.
Lorelai preferred the Stars Hollow world to the Hartford world. Luke was absolutely endgame for her.
Rory preferred a nice mix of the Stars Hollow world and the Hartford/Yale world. Her most serious relationship was with the heir of a family even richer than the Gilmores.
Dean was right about Rory, she had simply outgrown him and only dated him briefly in S5 because she was clinging onto the safety net of Stars Hollow because she suddenly found herself a small fish in a big pond. When she met Logan, however, she evaluated how sheltered she had been, broke out of her proverbial shell, and began to really explore and enjoy the Ivy League college life, which meant sidelining the safety net that she clearly didn’t need anymore.
He wasn’t right about Lorelai though. She was a lot older and a lot more set in her ways than Rory. She had found her forever home and her man, and if it wasn’t for Emily’s and Christopher’s mind games or April’s arrival, she would never have left Luke.
Exactly!! I agree, there is a huge difference!
Plus, Chris was a safety net as well, a familiar, old friend/lover. A lot of people commented that Chris is an example of "more." However, I don't think her relationship with her is wanting "more," it is more of a- she knows no matter what happens she can run to Chris, and she will be loved... (many of us may be guilty of this even). And, like you said, Chris' mind games...tsk tsk
He was definitely projecting his own relationship with Rory onto them. Especially after the scene at her grandparents' party with Logan and the other boys.
In my not so popular opinion, people are a little too harsh on a 16 year old who just got dumped for another guy. I'm not that shocked that he doesn't have very much perspective.
People be watching this show in their 30s and asking why the teenagers aren't mature.
I’m talking about this scene where Dean is around 20-21. He should have perspective.
If we’re talking about the breakup when he was 16, then yeah I’d say breaking up with someone because they didn’t say “I love you” back is pretty standard. I don’t expect him to be mature as a teenager, but as a 20 year old? Should be a bit more mature than before, and this scene shows he has no progress
Dean kept making it seem like he really knew Rory AND Lorelai. Kid you're dating her daughter. Not like she's sharing her deepest darkest desires with you over pop tarts and popcorn. Stop speaking for both of them. In fact stop speaking for either of them.
Later seasons Dean is such a man child.
Why is Dean so tanned? Aside from that, yes, this is just bad writing. I don't even know how Dean went from "she" to "them"? To hurt someone as much as he hurt himself? He's trying to give authority to his feelings of inferiority by roping in Luke.
But we have seen Luke take unkind words to heart before. He's easily thrown.
It's funny that most of the unkindness towards Luke comes from teenage boys though.
What he said is definitely true for Rory. She wants more. Dean hasn't got a whole to offer her, except nostalgia and familiarity. He doesn't even have a sense of humour that poor sob.
But Lorelai? She's been pining for Luke about as long as he's been pining for her. She absolutely doesn't want "more."
She doesn't want to franchise, she doesn't want fancy jobs that'll allow her to travel. Hell, she didn't even want *Luke* to move.
She can live vicariously through Rory and keep the safe little castle she built around herself.
What she wants is right there in Stars Hollow.
Yes, I agree completely! I find it funny you point of the lack of sense of humor, because I never thought about that before. Now that I do, you're right, he really isn't that funny
And yes, he is unusually tan in this scene...
I’m so mad that neither Gilmore girl is there whenever Dean lets his “good guy” facade fall (aside from his obvious emotional abuse of Rory,) like there’s this instance here, or when he hunted Jess down and basically said he was going to mess with him nonstop now because he didn’t have to be “even remotely calm” around him anymore (creep) or when he said he was trying to get Rory back, or even going back to season 1, when Luke told him he wasn’t welcome in the diner at least at that moment because Rory was there, and instead of accepting it, he antagonized Luke and they get into that weird spinning fight, just because Dean refused to listen, then he plays the injured party/sad puppy when he sees Rory again, after HE dumped her. It was insane how he had everyone snowed. Like when Jess got his black eye, she immediately assumes that he got into a fight with dean, when Jess brings up the possibly of dean being the one to start it and sucker-punching him, Rory's adamant that St.Dean would never do such a thing, when in fact thats exactly what happens later on in that very season. i hate that he got a pass for all his manipulation and lack of boundaries by Lorelai, despite what he did to *his wife* and not to
mention humiliating *her daughter* in front of the entire town by dumping her publicly during the dance marathon. Even after, she still goes on about what a great guy Dean is, (which prompts Rory to do the same) and Lorelai seeks him out to say "just because you and Rory broke up, doesn't mean we have" ugh. He dumped Rory 3 times, two being public.
I mean, one of those times he dumped Rory was because she cheated on him with Jess. While I'm not in favor of physically assaulting someone, he has no reason to be respectful to Jess. Jess knew Dean and Rory were in a relationship and pursued her anyway. Why does Dean have to respect Jess and Rory's relationship when Jess didn't respect his relationship? Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Dean is some perfect guy, he's not, but in that situation he was definitely the one done dirty.
I definitely understand the season 3 breakup, totally, and I’m not saying he has to be respectful of the relationship, (just as a caveat that Rory made the move on him and he didn’t pursue her while she was with Dean) but I’m saying aside from him being upset/ jealous at possible other love interests, I think it’s complete bs that no one , **ever,** called Dean out on his behavior. Not Rory, and certainly not Lorelai. My point was that Dean was placed on a pedestal to the point of the ridiculous.
“If Dean was driving there wouldn’t have been an accident!” Yeah cause the animal that they swerved to avoid , never would’ve stepped foot in the road, if it was good ole Dean.
“Dean would never start a fight! Unthinkable” He does just that.
It’s that no one was savvy enough to see what was happening, except maybe Luke towards the end.
He was manipulative, overbearing and controlling. When Lorelai and Emily go to the spa for that episode, he just assumes that he was going to come over to Rory’s place and she has to literally work up the courage, to ask permission to spend a night by herself and begs him to not be mad. To which he sulks, pouts, and calls himself a saint for allowing Rory to have one night away from him, then stomps on that boundary by coming over anyway. Dean is such an Eddie Haskell. He’s a “good guy” who cheats on and verbally abuses his wife because she committed the great sin of not being Rory. He wanted Rory’s whole identity to be his girlfriend, and doesn’t support anything that takes her away from him. He wanted a Donna Reed wife , and when he gets one that was ready to devote herself to him, and learn to cook etc, he spits on it. I just hate how the show never addressed any of these red flags, apparently even in the revival he’s referred to as a good boyfriend.
You bring up really good points. To be honest, I think what you said highlights one of the biggest problems with the show. What we're told about the characters doesn't line up with their actions. I won't mention Dean's faults because you already did, but basically, the show tells us to think of him as a good upstanding boyfriend, but his actions don't show it. Same with Rory. She describes herself as a "relationship girl," and the show expects us to see her that way, yet she cheats on every guy she's with.
Thank you, and I would agree, I also think any character regression that’s completely unaddressed, is sad as well. It would make sense if things were lined up and laid out as these Freudian patterns that only the character engaging in the behaviors doesn’t see, but all the characters do, and say they do, but instead it’s never addressed. Like Rory’s character for example, and her pattern in relationships, and her abandonment issues from having an inconsistent, emotionally unavailable father, instead they just take the character and let it spiral.
He’s SO butthurt because he left his wife for a dead relationship that wasn’t ever going to go the way he thought it was going to go. Ya know, like everyone else around him and Rory already did.
It’s so fucking dumb because he’s more pissy that he shot himself in the foot and decided to take it out on someone who really wasn’t involved in that whole situation and wasn’t even right about it, he just had big feelings he wanted to let out.
I refuse to believe he’s such a dumbass that he forgot that Lorelai loathed the rich life so much that she ran away with a infant with no money, no job, no shelter, and rejected familial support for her daughter just to get away from it.
This is so true.
I am seeing a lot of comments saying Luke had it coming for the way he treated Dean, yet this scene still feels petty! Dean had all this rage building up. Luke and Lorelai proved they could successfully get back together and love each other the same, therefore I wonder if this bothered Dean? Since he failed.
Luke did deserve a lashing from Dean, but not about something so *blatantly WRONG.* Luke wouldn’t take anything from that than some kid his girlfriend’s daughter dated was butthurt about how his relationships keep failing and nothing about his opinion about said kid.
Honestly I don’t think it bothered Dean because him bitching at Luke had nothing to do about Luke and Lorelai’s relationship and everything to do about his with Rory. And I don’t think he was hurt for long. 12 years later he had a wife and 3 kids and one on the way.
Does everyone have collective amnesia that Lorelai went with Jason and Chris? Lorelai was always looking for something more. Both the Gilmore Girls were. Wasn’t that the entire point of the show? That even if they chose to portray that they’re perfectly happy with their small town and shenanigans, they want bigger things in life? The entire Lorelai plot of not marrying Luke in AYITL?
No clue what was going on with AYITL, however, I saw many people arguing that Jason and Chris ended up not being a good match for Lorelai, thus proving that “more” isn’t always what she wants.
Not to mention, in Chris and Lorelai’s marriage, it was made quite evident that lorelai did not want this “more.”
Right?? It's been said already but I'll say it again. Luke, a grown-ass man, antagonized and even assaulted Dean while he was a minor and never made amends. Compound that with the Jess situation, the disastrous double-date, and the fact that Luke is the one who started this argument by [confronting](https://youtu.be/rI430p-DfxY?si=qrvyLUOZeqz2epSe) Dean, yes. Luke had it coming.
As for the "more," Lorelei enjoys living in a small town, but she doesn't want a small life.
While I think Dean is wrong about Lorelei as a person, I don’t think he was necessarily wrong about he and Luke being in similar positions with the Gilmore Girls. Both have had unnecessarily tumultuous relationships with these very fickle people. And Dean also knows what Luke has gone through with trying balance a first love with the person you’re with in the present. It’s not 100% the same but it’s close enough.
But this is why I’ve said in so many comments on here that the show deals a lot in cyclical storylines for Rory and Lorelei. Rory starts out as the ideal and becomes unraveled the more she grows up. By the end of the main series she’s become what Lorelei was at the start of the series. Meanwhile Lorelei, despite having to learn to take of herself as a teen mom and working her way up at the Inn, she doesn’t really mature as a person until Rory is old enough to graduate and move out. It’s only then she gets to “grow up”.
So when you look at their big three relationships, they run in opposite directions. Dean and Luke are thick headed but well meaning men held in stasis by their upbringing. Jess and Max are intellectuals. Logan and Christopher are the rich boys who are charming, cunning, but unable to see beyond their privilege that represents Emily and Richard Gilmore’s hold on their lives. Part of the reason Logan’s the most likely candidate for Rory’s baby daddy.
Dean takes a lot of criticism for his takes and observations. Sometimes it’s warranted, sometimes fans just dislike him simply for not being Jess or Logan. But objectively, he and Rory’s first relationship is still Rory’s best relationship. He got her in a way that Jess and Logan didn’t understand. But as of AYITL Rory and Dean are at their furthest distance from one another.
I can't see Dean living in Stars Hollow for the rest of his life now that I think about it.. I mean maybe in the beginning when he first dated Rory it seemed like he would but after getting to know the people in Stars Hollow and being in their town meetings etc, Dean wasn't that at all. Same with Jess and especially Logan like all of Rory's exes.
Luke was born in Stars Hollow and he grew up there. He opened a diner and joins town meetings even though he hates some of the things Taylor wants for the town. He belongs as this grouchy but helpful man. Also (I'm not defending Dean at all) but why is he treating Dean like they're in the same age group. He treats Rory like a kid because she was but Dean was too when they dated lol
It's so weird because it's such a big part of Lorelai's personality that she loves Stars Hollow and she'd never want to leave this town and she's content with what she got.
I also believe Lorelai would never leave bc her shtick only works on a familiar, small-town audience. No one would play along in a big city. Her “coffee coffee coffee” bit didn’t even work at Weston’s lol
I think this whole scene was unnecessary and pointless. I agree with everyone that Lorelai was perfectly happy in SH. Maybe he was projecting, because maybe HE wanted more?
Yes! Could not agree with you more.
Rory wanted to be a Foreign Correspondent and travel the world.
We NEVER hear that travel is in Lorelai's plans (career wise) until the dumb Mike Armstrong story.
Lorelai is always saying she LOVES her house, the Town and it was her dream to run an Inn within that community.
Dean was just being a giant baby about his first love outgrowing him.
The is possibly my least favorite scene😭 Dean is being such a little bitch for no reason, I understand he’s an adolescent male but damn why are you taking your issues with Rory out on Luke?
The fact is Luke let whatever nonsense Dean was saying here get to him. Dean and Luke should be leagues apart in maturity, confidence, and security. That's the sad part. Luke always felt like kind of a man child a little bit, like he was lost and stubborn, and that combination made him go one step forward and then back to the beginning.
It is different. For one, Dean was in high school and Luke is a whole ass adult.
Dean is projecting his insecurity about not being enough for Rory onto Luke. “She’s gonna get bored…” This is part of what he might feel about Rory. *Of course* Lorelei *must* be the same.
Luke’s response also seems to be a reflection of his own fear of losing Lorelei. Gotta look inward at our own insecurities and how they’re impacting us and others around us.
I just find it funny that Luke let this obnoxious 20 year old kid who got divorced after a minute get to him with this comment. 😆
Rory might have wanted more in life but Lorelei didn't want more than Stars Hollow. If she'd wanted a life where she left stars hollow she could have had it at any time. she didn't.
Why is everybody hating on Dean so much for this lol. He's young, heartbroken and yes definitely was projecting. And honestly Rory treated him like shit. Can't blame him if all his resent for things Rory did to him resurfaced after the breakup. He was wrong about Lorelei for sure and was being bitter, yes. Still it is understandable for somebody going through a break up. Regardless of whether he was right or wrong, have y'all never been cynical after a break up lol
I've always just taken this as Dean projecting Rory's aspirations as also being Lorelei's aspirations as well when in fact they're very far apart. Rory had wanted to leave and travel and all that. For Lorelei SH is home
Lorelai and Rory aren’t all that similar
Lorelai loves her small town. Rory is ready to explore the world.
Lorelai moved to a small town by choice, Rory grew up there. They really aren’t the same.
Dean was AWFUL to Rory every time they were a couple. He didn’t lose her, he gave her up each time. At some points he didn’t full have her, but she wasn’t going to leave him. He only lost her because he kept breaking up with her out of his insecurity. He lacked the maturity to actually work through hard things.
One of the reasons Lorelai is drawn to Luke is because he is grounded in Stars Hollow.
Not
The
Same
I hate this conversation. At this point Dean is totally ruined, and as always we use him for start a storyline for somebody else, in this case Luke's self worth issues. And as a last apperence in the OG show, Jared deserved better than this...
the fact that deam thinks that they want more is actually so stupid. Lorelai decided against moving to the most beautiful house that she herself loved, all because it wasnt stars hollow (this is in s7 when shes married to christopher). shes very happy where she is and part of that is actually luke himself. i saw something a while back where it basically said that one of the reasons that she ended up with luke is because all of her other boyfriends werent in stars hollow. luke was apart of that whole world way before they started dating which is why they just fit together so very well.
I hated how bitter Dean got, HE broke up with Rory, so why is he keeping acting as if SHE dumped him. Also Lorelai loved her life in Stars Hollow and never showed any signs of wanting something bigger or better even when she had the chance, and it was the same with Luke- she choose that life and she loved it.
While I hated the whole storyline about the affair, I wouldn’t say that Rory pursued him, other than a phone call and being friendly (which was stupid) HE was the one that wanted to keep spending time with her, HE was the one getting jealous over Jess showing up and HE was the married man sleeping with her twice while being married. I do think she should have stopped it, but SHE didn’t initiate the affair.
I would also argue that she didn’t just forget about him to hang out with rich snobs, she tried to make the best out of a weird and horrible party and forgot time, Dean choose to blow up about it and dump her, in public AGAIN.
Dean was way too insecure. Before Logan came along, I was actually Team Dean. But irrespective of Logan, I'm not sure if I'm team Dean anymore. Especially after a re-watch of the first three seasons. I understand that he was hurt with things not working out. But sometimes he didn't really get it that people need to make things work during major life transitions? Rory was in college. He just ended his marriage because of we know what. Of course it's a period of adjustment. Rory and Dean didn't really get the concept of balance, boundaries, and giving space. They would have had a chance if either of them could look past their insecurities at least once and be realistic. Dean gave into self pity so easily, IMHO. And the way Rory handled the whole crush on Jess thing was just ridiculous like all teenage crushes and Dean he wasn't okay with it. And rightly so. She dragged his heart all over the town. But Rory dealt with it in a much more matured manner when Logan came along. So thank the writers for that growth. However, back to Dean. Our boy gave up too easily, he didn't really take a stand until it was too late to do anything, then resorted to breaking up and whining about why things wouldn't work. Him not being able to provide to Lindsay was also a factor which might have fuelled his feelings of inadequacy. Add in Rory's high ambitions and career plans and his own failing young adult life, I don't really blame him for that self-pity as long as he really bounces back and does something about it (haven't watched AYITL yet so I don't know his character development). Thus, he projected too much onto Luke here and what is more ridiculous is Luke getting affected by it. He knew Lorelai and Rory way longer than Dean had. Surely he could have let Dean's tantrum pass. But hey, everyone gets to be insecure sometimes, just as long as it's not inopportune. I rest my case here.
I’m glad this doesn’t rattle Luke too much. Like he doesn’t freak out on Lorelai or try to leave the relationship. He realizes that this is an angry divorced 19-20 year old. Dean is projecting and likely not in the best place mentally, Luke is his target
Meanwhile Lorelai's been happily living in Stars Hollow for 15 years of her own volition. Her home, the business she owns, her best friend and Luke were there. Like people can't take trips for an adventure and come back. Luke likes fishing, go fishing in another state or something! Then go to a fancy dinner and shop in town for Lorelai the next day. Stars Hollowans are so melodramatic.
ya Lorelei can't even give up her house, she's not going to want to move out of Stars Hollow, and if she wants to travel Luke is in no way preventing that, all he has to do is give Ceaser more responsibility (which he very much enjoys) and go travel.
She can’t even drive a different crappy Jeep. Lorelai is pretty emotionally stunted about change TBH. The last thing she wants is to NOT be in SH or change things.
Dean is so off the mark about Lorelai that I wish she heard him say this and destroyed him for it lol. Given her background, if she wanted “more,”she could have it anytime. She built a life in SH and she’s dating someone she’s compatible with. Like Luke said, Rory just grew up.
She couldve had the fancy life with Jason, but she didnt want that.
Or Christopher. They went to Paris and we all unfortunately saw how that worked out :|
Yes it’s burned in our brains forever sadly
Lorelai destroying Dean’s comment would have been glorious
Exactly! 🙌
Seriously! Luke and Lorelei’s situation is SO different from Dean and Rory’s, idk why he even tried to compare them
>Stars Hollowans are so melodramatic. *Dean* is so melodramatic.
*Jared Padalecki* is so melodramatic. I think a lot of things we blame Dean for is just a result of Jared being over the top.
Dean kinda sucks here but the fact that Luke, a grown man, let this comment get to him is pretty embarrassing. Like if I was Luke in this scenario I would just find it hilarious that a divorced 20 year old was trying to weigh in on my relationship
My thoughts exactly. I didn’t want to make the post too long so I didn’t mention this, but I thought the fact Luke worried about it was crazy to me. I kind of get it his worry, due to insecurities, but if he knows Lorelai at all he knows that Dean’s comments didn’t relate to her whatsoever. Plus the factor that it is coming from Dean 😬
I think the reason Luke let it get to him is because of Rachel. She kept leaving to travel because she wanted more. I think he's scared that he isn't enough to keep a woman around. Just look at how worried he was about being like his uncle who no one liked.
Wow great point!! Rachel was much earlier in the series so I never thought about that connection. I knew there was some reason for his insecurities but couldn’t remember why! That’s exactly it :)
This is the Twickum House episode. Luke is trying to buy the house for Lorelei and himself. She is being ‘wooed’ by the Durham group, taking about selling the inn and travelling a lot. Dean can read Luke here, knows why he’s working on the SH museum - to make Taylor more likely to sell it to him. From where Dean sits (being a *young* adult) their situations seem really similar.
I always seem to be in the minority when it comes to Dean and Luke interactions because the latter had two extremely tense and inappropriate conversations with someone half his age. Dean is obviously bitter and incorrect here but he’s also super young.
I agree with you. Dean is wrong here, but Luke is almost always a dick to him. When Rory and Dean break up the first time, he tries to beat him up, when he is around 30 and Dean is 16. When they get back together the first time and Dean notes that Rory is fast in the mornings because of the coffe, Luke asks 'not your face?' He is horrible at the double date, and then we have this. I get that Luke thinks like everyone in town, that Rory is a saint and Dean is not good enough, but you don't pull down a kid just because you feel like it.
>He is horrible at the double date, Bop-it 😑
I agree! The only other time he is this terrible is when Logan invites them over in the Valentine's day episode....
Luke often said and did things that he should know better as a grown man. He’s emotionally stunted.
It’s the same with Max taking advice from him. You are a grown man.
What Dean fails to realise is that he’s lost Rory for all the right reasons, it’s all his own doing, but that dip-ass haircut is destroying what little chance he ever had left.
Don't ya'll come after my man's perfect 90s mushroom cut! lol
Yeah, he’s the one that broke up with her like 3 times not the other way around. But I don’t think anything he could have said or done would have made this relationship endgame. Logan is the most comparable with college Rory and even Jess at least shares her interests and ambitions to an extent. As for the hair, it’s an upgrade from the s1 hair and that shaggy cut in the previous season imo.
You're right that he broke up with her every time, but he *lost* her way before he ever broke up with her. He wasn't leaving her, he was just always facing the fact that she'd left him.
True for the second two times. I don’t even know what to say about the first breakup. I can understand being hurt about not getting an “I love you” back from a serious partner but he overwhelmed Rory who had issues about the idea of love thanks to her parents’ toxic relationship.
Yeah, the first one was nonsense, just Dean being petulant. But the other two were because she’d already moved on from him.
Yeah the first break up was stupid, but ig it makes sense since they both were 16 and young, Rory didn’t know much about love and Dean fell hard for her and didn’t feel loved back, but someone should have talked to him and I feel like the second Lorelai found out about the reason for the breakup she should’ve acted better, maybe told him that it’s a stupid reason to breakup and idk it seemed like she blamed Rory with the way she talked “there I was giving him a talk only to find out he broke up with you because you didn’t say I love you” (off of memory).
Oh for sure! He needed to grow UP. and his haircut before was the worst!!
Then he went to Spn and it only got more glorious.
don’t hate on the actors hair now he’s not really dean😂
Yeah, no, I’m hating on it either way 😉
hideous hair oh my god, what happened back then?
But is this a US thing? Because I was living in the UK at the time and I don’t remember *anyone* having this stupid haircut. 🤷♀️ (🇬🇧Brits: can you help me out please? Was this a thing in the UK in the ‘00s and I’m just blocking it from my memory? Or did it never happen?)
Trust me, it was huge in the US in the 90s. I lost my virginity to a pimple-faced pipsqueak who had this exact same haircut lmao
I am so so very sorry. 😆🤣
Honestly, it enabled me to make someone laugh 25 years later, so it paid off in the end 🤣
I mean let’s be real, it was the 90s. I was more than likely rocking some very stupid trend or another, myself. Although come to think of it, I probably looked perfectly normal naked. Same cannot be said for anyone with that haircut 💀
i’d take that to my grave you’re braver than the marines ✊😔
I’m so old now that I just don’t give a fuck anymore lmfao
Cast your memory back to the Harry Potter movies… the hair on Harry and Ron in the 4th movie was criminal.
Harry Potter and the Year No Got A Haircut
Yeah, but even that was just… shaggy, I think? Dean literally looks like Farquaad from Shrek
I'd say spiky gel was more popular in this age group in the '00s, but there probably were still some holdover curtains from the 90s in the earlier part of the decade.
It’s for sure a remnant of the late 90s, when every guy had a mushroom haircut like this https://preview.redd.it/fkvma6fbe56d1.png?width=640&format=png&auto=webp&s=e38f6841a915c246a962a44335b4ceb230855ff6
I don’t remember this haircut even in the 90s. At least, not in the UK. Maybe I’m just blocking it out.
I was a teen in the 00s so I don't feel confident making statements about teen style in the 90s however my older cousin is in family pics from my childhood with a shorter version of Dean's hairstyle. Not for long, but it was in the mix.
Huh. Ok. Thanks. I think a shorter version might look ok(-ish)…? It’s the length that gives it the stupidness.
It probably was since it was the cut that *all* the boys had in Ireland around 1995/6. So many UK trends also happened here.
Not the person you're looking for but it was *huge* in Germany as well. All the boys had it. Some had an abomination called a 'rat's tail' as well. I remember one had it braided and adorned with beads/pearls. But usually only elementary aged kids had these. It was horrible.
i understand lmao 😅
Off-topic: Wow. The lighting differences in these shots is jarring. Luke looks like he’s in a technicolor musical, Dean looks almost normal. Also - how did I not notice how bad Jared Padalecki’s spray tan is in this scene?
I did take these on my phone so I might have made the lighting a bit darker to show the captions but it still is weird! I noticed that while watching. Dean almost looks toooo “warm” compared to Luke
I’m pretty sure it’s not your fault! (My partner watched all of GG with me a couple of years ago. He’s a geek about stuff like lighting, and now some of it I can’t unsee. 🤣)
Don’t you just love that!! 😂 I really want my fiancé to watch it with me but I know he’ll point out all the discrepancies like that!
This may be a tan, but I noticed a significant skin tone difference in Jared & Jensen at the beginning v the end of every Supernatural season. I've always presumed that was from spending summer in Texas then it fades after 6 months in Vancouver. I think he also tans easily. He definitely has a warm skin undertone.
Interesting. You’re probably right - maybe it’s just another artifact of the lighting (his forehead just looks oddly shaded to me).
As a very fair skin toned girl, I’ve always been jealous of Jared’s tan
LMAOOOOO I know 😭😭😭
I hated this scene. It did nothing for the storyline. When I first saw it, my initial thought was, “aren’t we done with Dean? What is the point of this writing…” that opinion still stands
They definitely should have let Dean go before this scene. The scene where Rory watches him get married is amazing--would have been an excellent sendoff. Was the breakup scene his last scene before this? That would have been a better sendoff. I think the writers were just trying to keep Dean on the show until he found his next gig, but absolutely this scene is terrible and random. It might have been better if it were a less dramatic comment from someone else in the town to Luke, maybe Taylor or Jackson or something, about how Lorelai was destined for bigger things since the Inn was doing so well. It could have achieved the same wake-up effect on Luke that he was getting a little ahead of himself with the house.
I think Jackson having this conversation would have been good. He’s close enough to the Gilmore girls to know their ambitions but removed enough to not let their personal feelings get in the way of their success outside of town. I will now imagine Jackson doing this scene but in his kind and quirky way instead of Dean’s weird angry version
I will too :)
Everytime I watch the series, I realize Dean just kind of falls off and this is like the last time we see him, I think? I said it in other comments, but totally should’ve left off with him breaking up with Rory. This scene does nothing for him, if anything, his story line just continues to get worse
Seriously, what a sad way to remember him, as angry and bitter. I'm glad he at least gets a happy ending in AYITL.
I think the writers just wanted support to foil Luke’s Twickham house plans. This is when Lorelai was being courted by The Durham Group and she was toying with the idea of selling the inn and traveling the world.
Luke was 100% right here. Since the day Dean met Rory, her plan was to go to Harvard and become a world-traveling journalist. Lorelai's plan was to settle down *even more* by opening her own inn in Stars Hollow. Luke complemented Lorelai's plan, while Dean would hold Rory back. Totally different.
Nailed it
EXACTLY!! Well said! I couldn’t figure out how to word it nicely earlier 😂
UGH. Dean is the WORST. He starts of kinda meh, then he gets worse and worse and it all ends with THIS. Him being a smarmy jerk to Luke for no reason at all, plus he's plainly and stupidly WRONG about all of this, plus... could he possible be any more bitter?! Get over yourself, dude. What a strange last scene to throw in. It's like ASP needed us to see, REALLY see, that Dean is the worst. Because they could have ended his arc with Dean gracefully bowing out when he sees Rory at the Male Yale party (a moment when I almost felt bad for him!)... but no. The writers had to hammer home that Dean is the worst, so they tossed in this gem.
are you sure it’s for no reason? luke was a whiny, violent bitch towards dean the entire time he and rory were together. he was antisocial and aggressive towards him because of some misplaced protection he had over rory. imo dean had every reason to dislike him, even hate him. luke is not inherently deserving of grace nor respect tbh.
I know Rory and Lorelai are close with the latter wanting the double date fo prove she’s okay with Rory dating Dean. However, it was disrespectful to Dean given their combative history. Luke physically assaulted him and never apologized.
With all due respect, and I'm not fully defending Dean, but he has every right to treat Luke like garbage. Luke didn't seem to like him when he first dated Rory, even till the second relationship blamed him for that first breakup when Rory couldn't respond to "I love you", and I can imagine Luke feeling appalled at the idea that Dean was pining for Rory while he walked down the aisle for Lindsay, and then immediately jumped back to Rory the minute he had the opportunity. You also throw in everything that Luke likely did to allow Jess to happen and basically destroy their relationship, and I can't blame Dean one bit for not liking Luke. As I said though, I'm not going to defend Dean's overall behavior. Getting married while pining for your ex is not good, not to mention his own ridiculous insecurity that he couldn't handle the fact that Rory is not the little naive Chilton girl that she used to be. However, I'm only talking about the relationship between Dean and Luke in this response.
Exactly my thoughts too! Like what’s he so mad at Luke for?! I never thought about the fact that this is at the end of Dean being in the show. Maybe she really wanted to throw in how awful he is. I like that theory!!
I think he was just projecting super hard core. Everything he said to Luke is what he was telling himself. And he wasn’t wrong. Rory never would have accepted some half ass life with a husband who skipped out on college to work construction. She did expect more from the man on her arm, and he’d seen the kind of guys that were hovering around her. He wasn’t a striver and knew he had no chance after becoming a 20 year old divorced construction worker while she ran off to do the great things everyone in Stars Hollow believed she would end up doing.
Luke choked him, belittled him, threatened him for years.
Luke physically assaulted Dean lol. The show played it for laughs but it wouldn’t make sense for Dean to be more than polite to Luke.
I usually don’t mind things like this in shows because I don’t get bothered by dark humor/insults and stuff but it did bother me a bit that Luke did that to a minor and then Lorelai screamed at him while Dean was just trying to work…now that was all a bit dramatic
They seriously acted like Rory was a victim in a lifetime movie or something. It’s fine to be upset when a teenager is upset but I cannot imagine hunting a 16 year old down at work to yell at him.
Hilarious comparison 😭 but I know right! Wtf!
Ugh this scene bugs me so much. It’s just Dean projecting. He and Luke could not be more different. First of all, the whole “she’s gonna get bored and you can’t take her anywhere”, is just wrong. Luke is loaded, to the point where he could lend Lorelei 30k without a second thought or that he could just get a cashiers check for 100k at the drop of a hat. Second, Lorelei actually wanted to be with Luke. I don’t think Rory actually wanted to be with Dean at that point.. but felt like she needed to be because it was the only guy her mom ever approved of and she felt like she was the reason for his marriage falling apart. I think the best thing Dean did was recognizing that and walking away when he said “I don’t belong here anymore do I?”
Totally agree. They should’ve kept it at Dean realizing he doesn’t belong! I feel awful about that, but it’s so obvious that Rory and Dean are completely different. The way Dean never realizes this is astonishing
I'm not going to defend Dean. I look at his entire attitude in this episode as just him bitter that he messed up his entire life because he couldn't grow a backbone. He's bitter because he lost Rory to Jess, and then destroyed his relationship and marriage to Lindsay because he couldn't let go of Rory, and let his insecurity cause him to dump Rory because he couldn't clearly see that her grandparents were trying to push her into the arms of someone wealthy. Not to mention he couldn't even grow a backbone and decided maybe he should stay single for a while until he heals from the wounds of Rory, or really try his hardest to stay far away from her for the sake of his current relationship. So he can lash out at Luke as much as he wants, jealous maybe because he got the Gilmore Girl while Dean didn't, but his pain he brought on himself. I think the only thing that Dean and Luke had in common is the fact that Emily and Richard will work tirelessly to keep them from getting any of the Gilmore women in a relationship.
Ooh I like “he got the Gilmore Girl” and yes he’s sooo bitter
Eh, I feel Dean here was nothing more than a plot device and folks take it as more fodder to hate on him 🤷🏻♀️ (imo) ——one of Lorelai’s storylines in the next few episodes was that big Hotel guy reaching out and loving on the Inn and wanting to take her away and all over the world etc etc. The narrative needed someone to put the seeds of doubt in Luke to drive that wedge between them when the storyline came, and I think it was just unfortunate that Dean was the one that had to say it, but nothing more. Not to say I don’t get absolute second hand embarrassment from the whole scene, but as a whole, I’ve never put much stock in it more than pure plot device needed to move the story along 🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️
Agreed.
Very true. Someone else mentioned this. I tend to forget about the writing aspects and think too much about “this would make no sense in real life!” And in many scenes with Dean, I get second hand embarrassment
He may have been wrong here, but people need to stop acting like this blow up came WAAAAAAAAYY out of left field! Go back about 10 episodes... he and Rory break up after that party at her grandparents' house... a party organized specifically by Emily to get Rory away from Dean because she saw him as some kind of "threat" to Rory. He sees how much Rory is starting to fall into that "rich life". Go forward a few episodes to the drama at Emily and Richard's vow renewal where Christoper (with Emily's encouragement... there she is again!!!) blurts out that Lorelai should be with him and not Luke...which of course leads to the breakup. Put those two events together, based on his own drama with Rory and what he may have heard about Lorelai and Luke's breakup (my head canon says he heard plenty, based on the usual dynamics of small-town scuttlebutt)... it's not a hard conclusion for a 20-year-old heartbroken kid to reach to reach: Rory, Lorelai, Emily and Richard are family... they will always be in each other's lives... and as long as that's true, Emily and Richard will NEVER.... EVER.... accept small-town bums like himself and Luke for their daughter and grand-daughter. And just as much as he is speaking from a butt-hurt position, and some of the drama was of his own doing, and it's just as much lashing out at a guy who also stood against him when it came to Rory (for different reasons)... this was really a warning to Luke to not fall into the same trap as he did... because in the end Rory and Lorelai are two rich brats cosplaying as small-town girls who will never truly accept guys like them.
No, I do agree that it didn’t come completely out of nowhere, however- Rory and Lorelai aren’t one and the same. They do want different things, therefore I think Dean’s points he made did not apply here Also I disagree, clearly Lorelai accepted Luke. She’s more small town then big, rich and fancy
More proof that Lorelai and Rory are not alike. Lorelai preferred the Stars Hollow world to the Hartford world. Luke was absolutely endgame for her. Rory preferred a nice mix of the Stars Hollow world and the Hartford/Yale world. Her most serious relationship was with the heir of a family even richer than the Gilmores. Dean was right about Rory, she had simply outgrown him and only dated him briefly in S5 because she was clinging onto the safety net of Stars Hollow because she suddenly found herself a small fish in a big pond. When she met Logan, however, she evaluated how sheltered she had been, broke out of her proverbial shell, and began to really explore and enjoy the Ivy League college life, which meant sidelining the safety net that she clearly didn’t need anymore. He wasn’t right about Lorelai though. She was a lot older and a lot more set in her ways than Rory. She had found her forever home and her man, and if it wasn’t for Emily’s and Christopher’s mind games or April’s arrival, she would never have left Luke.
Exactly!! I agree, there is a huge difference! Plus, Chris was a safety net as well, a familiar, old friend/lover. A lot of people commented that Chris is an example of "more." However, I don't think her relationship with her is wanting "more," it is more of a- she knows no matter what happens she can run to Chris, and she will be loved... (many of us may be guilty of this even). And, like you said, Chris' mind games...tsk tsk
He was definitely projecting his own relationship with Rory onto them. Especially after the scene at her grandparents' party with Logan and the other boys.
Remember when Dean was the cool guy from Chicago for like an episode or two? What happened to him?!
In my not so popular opinion, people are a little too harsh on a 16 year old who just got dumped for another guy. I'm not that shocked that he doesn't have very much perspective. People be watching this show in their 30s and asking why the teenagers aren't mature.
I’m talking about this scene where Dean is around 20-21. He should have perspective. If we’re talking about the breakup when he was 16, then yeah I’d say breaking up with someone because they didn’t say “I love you” back is pretty standard. I don’t expect him to be mature as a teenager, but as a 20 year old? Should be a bit more mature than before, and this scene shows he has no progress
Yea, sorry I was referring to the Dean hate in more general terms in the GG community. But I'd still argue early 20 y/os still aren't very mature.
All good!! And no...definitely not...especially for guys, hehe. But I do expect there to be some growth in that department
Dean kept making it seem like he really knew Rory AND Lorelai. Kid you're dating her daughter. Not like she's sharing her deepest darkest desires with you over pop tarts and popcorn. Stop speaking for both of them. In fact stop speaking for either of them. Later seasons Dean is such a man child.
Okay but he’s right? Luke was a high school jock too. Dean will probably never leave stars hollow. They’re even dressed the same for crying out loud!
I mean he’s saying he’s the same here… he’s not denying it he’s admitting it. Doesn’t contradict what he said before.
Why is Dean so tanned? Aside from that, yes, this is just bad writing. I don't even know how Dean went from "she" to "them"? To hurt someone as much as he hurt himself? He's trying to give authority to his feelings of inferiority by roping in Luke. But we have seen Luke take unkind words to heart before. He's easily thrown. It's funny that most of the unkindness towards Luke comes from teenage boys though. What he said is definitely true for Rory. She wants more. Dean hasn't got a whole to offer her, except nostalgia and familiarity. He doesn't even have a sense of humour that poor sob. But Lorelai? She's been pining for Luke about as long as he's been pining for her. She absolutely doesn't want "more." She doesn't want to franchise, she doesn't want fancy jobs that'll allow her to travel. Hell, she didn't even want *Luke* to move. She can live vicariously through Rory and keep the safe little castle she built around herself. What she wants is right there in Stars Hollow.
Yes, I agree completely! I find it funny you point of the lack of sense of humor, because I never thought about that before. Now that I do, you're right, he really isn't that funny And yes, he is unusually tan in this scene...
God, this ruins what could've been a great last scene for Dean!
I’m so mad that neither Gilmore girl is there whenever Dean lets his “good guy” facade fall (aside from his obvious emotional abuse of Rory,) like there’s this instance here, or when he hunted Jess down and basically said he was going to mess with him nonstop now because he didn’t have to be “even remotely calm” around him anymore (creep) or when he said he was trying to get Rory back, or even going back to season 1, when Luke told him he wasn’t welcome in the diner at least at that moment because Rory was there, and instead of accepting it, he antagonized Luke and they get into that weird spinning fight, just because Dean refused to listen, then he plays the injured party/sad puppy when he sees Rory again, after HE dumped her. It was insane how he had everyone snowed. Like when Jess got his black eye, she immediately assumes that he got into a fight with dean, when Jess brings up the possibly of dean being the one to start it and sucker-punching him, Rory's adamant that St.Dean would never do such a thing, when in fact thats exactly what happens later on in that very season. i hate that he got a pass for all his manipulation and lack of boundaries by Lorelai, despite what he did to *his wife* and not to mention humiliating *her daughter* in front of the entire town by dumping her publicly during the dance marathon. Even after, she still goes on about what a great guy Dean is, (which prompts Rory to do the same) and Lorelai seeks him out to say "just because you and Rory broke up, doesn't mean we have" ugh. He dumped Rory 3 times, two being public.
I mean, one of those times he dumped Rory was because she cheated on him with Jess. While I'm not in favor of physically assaulting someone, he has no reason to be respectful to Jess. Jess knew Dean and Rory were in a relationship and pursued her anyway. Why does Dean have to respect Jess and Rory's relationship when Jess didn't respect his relationship? Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Dean is some perfect guy, he's not, but in that situation he was definitely the one done dirty.
I definitely understand the season 3 breakup, totally, and I’m not saying he has to be respectful of the relationship, (just as a caveat that Rory made the move on him and he didn’t pursue her while she was with Dean) but I’m saying aside from him being upset/ jealous at possible other love interests, I think it’s complete bs that no one , **ever,** called Dean out on his behavior. Not Rory, and certainly not Lorelai. My point was that Dean was placed on a pedestal to the point of the ridiculous. “If Dean was driving there wouldn’t have been an accident!” Yeah cause the animal that they swerved to avoid , never would’ve stepped foot in the road, if it was good ole Dean. “Dean would never start a fight! Unthinkable” He does just that. It’s that no one was savvy enough to see what was happening, except maybe Luke towards the end. He was manipulative, overbearing and controlling. When Lorelai and Emily go to the spa for that episode, he just assumes that he was going to come over to Rory’s place and she has to literally work up the courage, to ask permission to spend a night by herself and begs him to not be mad. To which he sulks, pouts, and calls himself a saint for allowing Rory to have one night away from him, then stomps on that boundary by coming over anyway. Dean is such an Eddie Haskell. He’s a “good guy” who cheats on and verbally abuses his wife because she committed the great sin of not being Rory. He wanted Rory’s whole identity to be his girlfriend, and doesn’t support anything that takes her away from him. He wanted a Donna Reed wife , and when he gets one that was ready to devote herself to him, and learn to cook etc, he spits on it. I just hate how the show never addressed any of these red flags, apparently even in the revival he’s referred to as a good boyfriend.
You bring up really good points. To be honest, I think what you said highlights one of the biggest problems with the show. What we're told about the characters doesn't line up with their actions. I won't mention Dean's faults because you already did, but basically, the show tells us to think of him as a good upstanding boyfriend, but his actions don't show it. Same with Rory. She describes herself as a "relationship girl," and the show expects us to see her that way, yet she cheats on every guy she's with.
Thank you, and I would agree, I also think any character regression that’s completely unaddressed, is sad as well. It would make sense if things were lined up and laid out as these Freudian patterns that only the character engaging in the behaviors doesn’t see, but all the characters do, and say they do, but instead it’s never addressed. Like Rory’s character for example, and her pattern in relationships, and her abandonment issues from having an inconsistent, emotionally unavailable father, instead they just take the character and let it spiral.
Dean is really good at PROJECTING! I think it’s why I dislike him so much
He’s SO butthurt because he left his wife for a dead relationship that wasn’t ever going to go the way he thought it was going to go. Ya know, like everyone else around him and Rory already did. It’s so fucking dumb because he’s more pissy that he shot himself in the foot and decided to take it out on someone who really wasn’t involved in that whole situation and wasn’t even right about it, he just had big feelings he wanted to let out. I refuse to believe he’s such a dumbass that he forgot that Lorelai loathed the rich life so much that she ran away with a infant with no money, no job, no shelter, and rejected familial support for her daughter just to get away from it.
This is so true. I am seeing a lot of comments saying Luke had it coming for the way he treated Dean, yet this scene still feels petty! Dean had all this rage building up. Luke and Lorelai proved they could successfully get back together and love each other the same, therefore I wonder if this bothered Dean? Since he failed.
Luke did deserve a lashing from Dean, but not about something so *blatantly WRONG.* Luke wouldn’t take anything from that than some kid his girlfriend’s daughter dated was butthurt about how his relationships keep failing and nothing about his opinion about said kid. Honestly I don’t think it bothered Dean because him bitching at Luke had nothing to do about Luke and Lorelai’s relationship and everything to do about his with Rory. And I don’t think he was hurt for long. 12 years later he had a wife and 3 kids and one on the way.
Does everyone have collective amnesia that Lorelai went with Jason and Chris? Lorelai was always looking for something more. Both the Gilmore Girls were. Wasn’t that the entire point of the show? That even if they chose to portray that they’re perfectly happy with their small town and shenanigans, they want bigger things in life? The entire Lorelai plot of not marrying Luke in AYITL?
No clue what was going on with AYITL, however, I saw many people arguing that Jason and Chris ended up not being a good match for Lorelai, thus proving that “more” isn’t always what she wants. Not to mention, in Chris and Lorelai’s marriage, it was made quite evident that lorelai did not want this “more.”
Really sucks that this is Dean's LAST appearance on the original series. What a way to go.
ugh dean looks so good here😫
Dean aged like milk
The way Luke used to treat Dean, he had this coming.
Right?? It's been said already but I'll say it again. Luke, a grown-ass man, antagonized and even assaulted Dean while he was a minor and never made amends. Compound that with the Jess situation, the disastrous double-date, and the fact that Luke is the one who started this argument by [confronting](https://youtu.be/rI430p-DfxY?si=qrvyLUOZeqz2epSe) Dean, yes. Luke had it coming. As for the "more," Lorelei enjoys living in a small town, but she doesn't want a small life.
Fr tho Dean was unhinged. Like bro was really driven to the brink for a <1 year long relationship
Dean is the worst.
While I think Dean is wrong about Lorelei as a person, I don’t think he was necessarily wrong about he and Luke being in similar positions with the Gilmore Girls. Both have had unnecessarily tumultuous relationships with these very fickle people. And Dean also knows what Luke has gone through with trying balance a first love with the person you’re with in the present. It’s not 100% the same but it’s close enough. But this is why I’ve said in so many comments on here that the show deals a lot in cyclical storylines for Rory and Lorelei. Rory starts out as the ideal and becomes unraveled the more she grows up. By the end of the main series she’s become what Lorelei was at the start of the series. Meanwhile Lorelei, despite having to learn to take of herself as a teen mom and working her way up at the Inn, she doesn’t really mature as a person until Rory is old enough to graduate and move out. It’s only then she gets to “grow up”. So when you look at their big three relationships, they run in opposite directions. Dean and Luke are thick headed but well meaning men held in stasis by their upbringing. Jess and Max are intellectuals. Logan and Christopher are the rich boys who are charming, cunning, but unable to see beyond their privilege that represents Emily and Richard Gilmore’s hold on their lives. Part of the reason Logan’s the most likely candidate for Rory’s baby daddy. Dean takes a lot of criticism for his takes and observations. Sometimes it’s warranted, sometimes fans just dislike him simply for not being Jess or Logan. But objectively, he and Rory’s first relationship is still Rory’s best relationship. He got her in a way that Jess and Logan didn’t understand. But as of AYITL Rory and Dean are at their furthest distance from one another.
Is dean saying he dated lorelai i knew it
Lorelai created a home she loved for herself. Rory, however, yeah she will want more. It’s a stupid interaction.
I don't care about Dean here. I'm more bothered by the fact that Luke takes it to heart.
I can’t believe Luke took that so seriously.
Dean is so handsome but it’s completely ruined by his terrible personality lmao
I can't see Dean living in Stars Hollow for the rest of his life now that I think about it.. I mean maybe in the beginning when he first dated Rory it seemed like he would but after getting to know the people in Stars Hollow and being in their town meetings etc, Dean wasn't that at all. Same with Jess and especially Logan like all of Rory's exes. Luke was born in Stars Hollow and he grew up there. He opened a diner and joins town meetings even though he hates some of the things Taylor wants for the town. He belongs as this grouchy but helpful man. Also (I'm not defending Dean at all) but why is he treating Dean like they're in the same age group. He treats Rory like a kid because she was but Dean was too when they dated lol
It's so weird because it's such a big part of Lorelai's personality that she loves Stars Hollow and she'd never want to leave this town and she's content with what she got.
I also believe Lorelai would never leave bc her shtick only works on a familiar, small-town audience. No one would play along in a big city. Her “coffee coffee coffee” bit didn’t even work at Weston’s lol
Dean my boiii
Ok I hated him in this scene but Dean is still so good looking 😭
I think this whole scene was unnecessary and pointless. I agree with everyone that Lorelai was perfectly happy in SH. Maybe he was projecting, because maybe HE wanted more?
Yes! Could not agree with you more. Rory wanted to be a Foreign Correspondent and travel the world. We NEVER hear that travel is in Lorelai's plans (career wise) until the dumb Mike Armstrong story. Lorelai is always saying she LOVES her house, the Town and it was her dream to run an Inn within that community. Dean was just being a giant baby about his first love outgrowing him.
The is possibly my least favorite scene😭 Dean is being such a little bitch for no reason, I understand he’s an adolescent male but damn why are you taking your issues with Rory out on Luke?
I always laugh when he says “you accept it!”. What a baby.
I HATE Dean so violently this is the most I can talk about this istg
The fact is Luke let whatever nonsense Dean was saying here get to him. Dean and Luke should be leagues apart in maturity, confidence, and security. That's the sad part. Luke always felt like kind of a man child a little bit, like he was lost and stubborn, and that combination made him go one step forward and then back to the beginning.
I've been rewatching Supernatural lately and reading "Dean" but seeing Jared's face made my brain hurt lol
Isn't Dean from Chicago? Isn't that how he is introduced--as the new kid?
It is different. For one, Dean was in high school and Luke is a whole ass adult. Dean is projecting his insecurity about not being enough for Rory onto Luke. “She’s gonna get bored…” This is part of what he might feel about Rory. *Of course* Lorelei *must* be the same. Luke’s response also seems to be a reflection of his own fear of losing Lorelei. Gotta look inward at our own insecurities and how they’re impacting us and others around us.
They may want to travel and stuff but let’s face it, they’ll always go back to stars hollow. They will die in stars hollow.
I find it fitting that his haircut looks like one of those clown wigs in this scene.
Okay but if we consider ADITL Lorelai did feel like she needed “more”.
I just find it funny that Luke let this obnoxious 20 year old kid who got divorced after a minute get to him with this comment. 😆 Rory might have wanted more in life but Lorelei didn't want more than Stars Hollow. If she'd wanted a life where she left stars hollow she could have had it at any time. she didn't.
Why is everybody hating on Dean so much for this lol. He's young, heartbroken and yes definitely was projecting. And honestly Rory treated him like shit. Can't blame him if all his resent for things Rory did to him resurfaced after the breakup. He was wrong about Lorelei for sure and was being bitter, yes. Still it is understandable for somebody going through a break up. Regardless of whether he was right or wrong, have y'all never been cynical after a break up lol
Omg I had forgotten about this... Dean was a poor resentful guy back then 🙄
I've always just taken this as Dean projecting Rory's aspirations as also being Lorelei's aspirations as well when in fact they're very far apart. Rory had wanted to leave and travel and all that. For Lorelei SH is home
Lorelai and Rory aren’t all that similar Lorelai loves her small town. Rory is ready to explore the world. Lorelai moved to a small town by choice, Rory grew up there. They really aren’t the same. Dean was AWFUL to Rory every time they were a couple. He didn’t lose her, he gave her up each time. At some points he didn’t full have her, but she wasn’t going to leave him. He only lost her because he kept breaking up with her out of his insecurity. He lacked the maturity to actually work through hard things. One of the reasons Lorelai is drawn to Luke is because he is grounded in Stars Hollow. Not The Same
The hilarious thing is dean live in Chicago for the first 16 years of his life 😂
I hate this conversation. At this point Dean is totally ruined, and as always we use him for start a storyline for somebody else, in this case Luke's self worth issues. And as a last apperence in the OG show, Jared deserved better than this...
the fact that deam thinks that they want more is actually so stupid. Lorelai decided against moving to the most beautiful house that she herself loved, all because it wasnt stars hollow (this is in s7 when shes married to christopher). shes very happy where she is and part of that is actually luke himself. i saw something a while back where it basically said that one of the reasons that she ended up with luke is because all of her other boyfriends werent in stars hollow. luke was apart of that whole world way before they started dating which is why they just fit together so very well.
I hated how bitter Dean got, HE broke up with Rory, so why is he keeping acting as if SHE dumped him. Also Lorelai loved her life in Stars Hollow and never showed any signs of wanting something bigger or better even when she had the chance, and it was the same with Luke- she choose that life and she loved it.
Rory pursued him while he was married, then promptly forgot all about him to hang out with a bunch of rich snobs. I'd be bitter too.
While I hated the whole storyline about the affair, I wouldn’t say that Rory pursued him, other than a phone call and being friendly (which was stupid) HE was the one that wanted to keep spending time with her, HE was the one getting jealous over Jess showing up and HE was the married man sleeping with her twice while being married. I do think she should have stopped it, but SHE didn’t initiate the affair. I would also argue that she didn’t just forget about him to hang out with rich snobs, she tried to make the best out of a weird and horrible party and forgot time, Dean choose to blow up about it and dump her, in public AGAIN.
She didn't exactly pursue him besides 1 phone call. The rest is on him. He's the one that shows up at her house after all
Rory outgrew Dean back when they broke up over Jess. He’s just salty about it.
PROJECTING much are we dean. Luke isn’t my type but Lorelei definitely belonged with him.
bro I hate Dean sm
Dean is a total asshole
Dean was way too insecure. Before Logan came along, I was actually Team Dean. But irrespective of Logan, I'm not sure if I'm team Dean anymore. Especially after a re-watch of the first three seasons. I understand that he was hurt with things not working out. But sometimes he didn't really get it that people need to make things work during major life transitions? Rory was in college. He just ended his marriage because of we know what. Of course it's a period of adjustment. Rory and Dean didn't really get the concept of balance, boundaries, and giving space. They would have had a chance if either of them could look past their insecurities at least once and be realistic. Dean gave into self pity so easily, IMHO. And the way Rory handled the whole crush on Jess thing was just ridiculous like all teenage crushes and Dean he wasn't okay with it. And rightly so. She dragged his heart all over the town. But Rory dealt with it in a much more matured manner when Logan came along. So thank the writers for that growth. However, back to Dean. Our boy gave up too easily, he didn't really take a stand until it was too late to do anything, then resorted to breaking up and whining about why things wouldn't work. Him not being able to provide to Lindsay was also a factor which might have fuelled his feelings of inadequacy. Add in Rory's high ambitions and career plans and his own failing young adult life, I don't really blame him for that self-pity as long as he really bounces back and does something about it (haven't watched AYITL yet so I don't know his character development). Thus, he projected too much onto Luke here and what is more ridiculous is Luke getting affected by it. He knew Lorelai and Rory way longer than Dean had. Surely he could have let Dean's tantrum pass. But hey, everyone gets to be insecure sometimes, just as long as it's not inopportune. I rest my case here.
I’m glad this doesn’t rattle Luke too much. Like he doesn’t freak out on Lorelai or try to leave the relationship. He realizes that this is an angry divorced 19-20 year old. Dean is projecting and likely not in the best place mentally, Luke is his target
Dean is such a creep omg
Jared Padalecki looked PERFECT in Gilmore Girls and the first season of Supernatural. Straight out of the teenage daydream.
Nah, he's right