‘Gilmore Girls’: Paris Geller Always Knew Rory Gilmore Wouldn’t Succeed as a Journalist

During the earlier seasons of Gilmore Girls, Rory Gilmore was presented as the Gilmore family’s future success. After Lorelai Gilmore destroyed her parents’ plans for her, Emily and Richard Gilmore turned their attention to Rory. While it was largely assumed she’d be a massive success once she got into the real world, one person foreshadowed her future failures early and often. Paris Geller pointed out that valedictorians rarely succeed in the real world, and she was correct about Rory. 

Chilton named Rory Gilmore valedictorian over Paris Geller 

Rory Gilmore and Paris Geller were enemies who eventually grew into friends, but the early years of their friendship were wrought with problems. Paris and Rory were in direct competition while at Chilton. Fans assumed a fight would break out when Rory got everything Paris had worked hard for, arguably without working anywhere near as hard.

Harvard rejected Paris, who had spent much of her young life working toward admission. She also failed to secure valedictorian honors at Chilton. To make Rory and Paris’ shaky friendship even more unstable, Rory managed to secure both of those things. Not only did three Ivy League schools accept her, but Chilton named her valedictorian. Paris, surprisingly, was OK with it. 

Paris Geller said Rory would likely be a failure

Showrunner, Amy Sherman-Palladino, foreshadowed Rory’s future failures throughout Gilmore Girls. No one was as straightforward about the ever-responsible Rory’s future trouble as Paris. In season 3, while preparing for graduation from Chilton, Paris pointed out that she didn’t mind not being valedictorian. She explained to Rory that she googled the statistics of valedictorians and found that they often didn’t do well later in life. 

Paris pointed out that many had gone on to have business failures, crumbled marriages, and early deaths. While Paris was surely just trying to get into Rory’s head, she wasn’t exactly far off. Rory left Yale without a solid relationship and with no discernable career path. When Gilmore Girls fans caught back up with her nine years later, not much had changed. Paris’ premonition came true, more or less. 

Paris was right all along, according to ‘Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life’

While fans largely assumed that Paris was being purposefully passive-aggressive with her statements, it turned out that she was correct when it came to Rory. Paris, who did not gain entry into three Ivy League schools and was not Chilton’s valedictorian, managed to be wildly successful. In contrast, Rory, extremely successful in high school and college, spent most of her 20s and early 30s directionless. 

When fans connected with Paris in Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, she owned a fertility clinic. She also appeared to have more than enough money to live comfortably. While her marriage ended in divorce, she seemed unfazed by it. Rory didn’t even have an apartment to call her own. She was no closer to finding a full-time writing job than when fans left her in 2007 and she was carrying on an affair (again).  

Whether or not Rory eventually got her life together remains to be seen. While there were murmurings of a second Netflix revival, those rumors haven’t materialized. It has been five years since the release of the revival. Still, it doesn’t seem like Netflix is any closer to making Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life 2.