Lorelai Gilmore

Template:Infobox character

Lorelai Victoria Gilmore is played by Lauren Graham. She was named after her paternal grandmother, Lorelai "Trix" Gilmore, and is mother to Rory.

Raised in Hartford, Connecticut, Lorelai is a highly talkative, free-spirited woman, a child of the eighties and part of the MTV generation. She was born on April 26, 1968.

Her wealthy parents, Richard and Emily, raised her to be a proper young lady of good breeding. They had her future in society planned out and arranged for her to come out to society after her sixteenth birthday, but Lorelai was always rebellious and resentful of her structured, sheltered and silver spoon upbringing.

Character traits

Lorelai's eating habits are famously unhealthy; she is a caffeine addict and subsists mostly on diner food and takeout. She and Rory had regular food-and-movie nights (in the early seasons), during which they would buy enough junk food for several people and proceed to eat most of it. The only time she is noted to have desired fruit and vegetables was when she was pregnant with Rory. She does not cook; when not eating leftover takeout or junk food, she frequents Luke's diner. Rory and Lorelai usually enjoy breakfast at Luke's daily, and sometimes eat lunch or dinner there as well. For those times when Lorelai is required to prepare something domestically, such as the Chilton bake sale, she turns to her chef friend, Sookie, to do the cooking (Cinnamon's Wake).

Lorelai is innately humorous and has a witty remark for every situation, often with a pop culture reference. Her remarks can either confuse or charm those who aren't familiar with her. She is also known for being very talkative and having a way with words; Max Medina calls her a "wordsmith" (Cinnamon's Wake). Additionally, as the manager of the Independence Inn, she is able to think quickly on her feet and handle various situations, such as improvising rooms for people when the inn catches fire (A Tale of Poes and Fire).

Beginnings

As a teenager (played in flashbacks by Chelsea Brummet), Lorelai dated Christopher Hayden, son of Straub and Francie, while in high school, and became pregnant right before her society debut (at age 16), which embarrassed and disappointed her parents. Although she usually defends her circumstances, deep down she knows how they felt. After Straub tried to convince Emily and Richard to have Lorelai have an abortion, Emily completely refused, and they decided to have them marry instead. Christopher was amenable, but Lorelai realized they weren't ready. Lorelai is known for being stronger and more independent than Christopher; when she realized she was in labor, she drove alone to the hospital (despite not having her driver's license).

After her daughter, Lorelai "Rory" Leigh Gilmore, was born, she lived with her parents for a year before running away to find a job at the Independence Inn in Stars Hollow. The owner of the inn, Mia, took her in, gave her a job as a maid, and let her and Rory live in the back in a renovated potting shed. Lorelai was very efficient at her job, and gradually worked her way up over the years to the manager position. The inn is where she met her best friend, Sookie St. James.

Lorelai attended Hartford Community College and earned an Associate of Arts degree in business while running the Independence Inn. After the inn burned down, she and Sookie owned and operated the Independence Catering Company in order to fund renovation of the Dragonfly Inn, their long-term dream, which opened to rave reviews on May 6 during Season 4.

Family life

For many years, Lorelai had almost no contact with her parents, except for visits during major holidays. The rebelliousness of her teen years stayed with her in adulthood. As they both grew up, Lorelai and Rory's relationship evolved into the relationship of two best friends or sisters, rather than a parent to her child. Lorelai stated the fact that their relationship was best friends first, mother daughter second. Lorelai would only use the "mom card" as a last resort. It wasn't until she needed to borrow a very large sum of money for Rory's education at the exclusive Chilton Academy that she bowed down to her parents and started seeing them regularly at the mandatory "Friday night dinners".

Lorelai repaid her parents for the loan when a real estate investment that Richard had made in her name at the time of her birth paid off, but Rory also made her own bargain with her grandparents for Yale tuition. Lorelai continued to attend occasional Friday night dinners, partly as a way to see Rory while she was busy at college.

Lorelai is somewhat insecure when it comes to the relationships between herself, her parents, and Rory. Because her daughter gets along better with her grandparents than she herself ever did, Lorelai often feels that her parents prefer Rory over her. She thinks they view Rory, who is considerably more subdued and more classically "feminine" than her mother, as the daughter they should have had. This seemed very evident when Rory moved in with her grandparents who welcome her with open arms following a rift between Rory and Lorelai after Rory attempted to steal a yacht and dropped out of Yale. Her fears were further cemented when Rory adapted very well to her grandparents' lifestyle, even joining the DAR. Lorelai and Rory later reconcile when Emily becomes too controlling of Rory's life, as she was of Lorelai's.

By the end of the series, Rory goes off to Chicago to begin a career reporting for politics for an online magazine. Emily believes that since Lorelai and Rory no longer need her money for any tuition, that their routine Friday night dinners will end, so she proposes that she and Richard are willing to pay for some works of extension to do at the Dragonfly Inn as an excuse to keep frequenting her daughter. Lorelai is against this idea, but she learns to spend time with her mother and accepts to keep going to their usual Friday night dinners, implying that she will maintain a friendly relationship with her parents.

Romantic relationships

Besides an on-again, off-again relationship with Christopher, Lorelai's romantic relationships have included Alex Lesman, an outdoorsy coffee house entrepreneur, Max Medina, a teacher at Chilton who she almost wed, Jason Stiles, and Luke Danes, the owner of the local diner.

Alex Lesman

Lorelai meets Alex at a seminar in which Sookie reunites with a former friend. They agree to go on a fishing date, although Lorelai has never fished. Lorelai enlists Luke Danes to teach her how to fish. This was more of a casual relationship than a meaningful one. The moment when the two of them stop seeing each other is not portrayed in the series, but Lorelai kind of confides her cold feelings about her relationship with Alex to best friend Sookie.

Jason Stiles

Jason and Lorelai know each other from childhood. Jason's father is one of Richard's partners and Lorelai and Jason both attended camp together. Jason pursues Lorelai and they began a secret affair, partially fueled by the rebellious nature of the affair. Upon discovery by Richard and Emily, Lorelai continues to date Jason until dealings with Richard's company find Jason pitted against Richard. Lorelai refuses to support Jason's suit against her father, and breaks up with him.

Max Medina

Max is a well-read teacher at Chilton to whom Lorelai is instantly attracted. Despite the forbidden nature (he is Rory's teacher), Lorelai agrees to date Max. Their relationship becomes serious over the course of the first season, and Max proposes to Lorelai twice. The first time was deemed romantically inadequate and he was refused; on his second try, he takes Lorelai's advice and sends her one thousand of her favorite flower, the yellow daisy ("Love, Daisies and Troubadours"). Lorelai accepts and their relationship continues until Lorelai's bachelorette party one week before the wedding, at which she realizes he is not "the one" and she can't marry him ("Red Light on the Wedding Night").

Christopher Hayden

Because he is Rory's father, Lorelai's parents approve of Christopher, and have continually pushed her to pursue a relationship with him. Despite several marriage proposals, Lorelai maintains a casual friendly "no-strings-attached" affair with Christopher throughout the years. However, Lorelai, discovering Christopher with a steady job and a Volvo (in place of the motorcycle he often appeared on in earlier years) starts agreeing to the idea of settling down with Christopher. However, the idea is crushed by the arrival of Christopher's new daughter Georgia, nicknamed Gigi, with his girlfriend Sherry Tinsdale.

Lorelai decides to keep Christopher at arms length, but still comes to his aid when Sherry leaves Christopher and Gigi to work in Paris. Christopher and Lorelai eventually rekindle their relationship following Lorelai's disengagement to Luke Danes. Christopher tells Lorelai he still loved her, had always loved her and would never stop loving her, and that he didn't want to spend the rest of his life without her. He is convinced that Lorelai is the one for him. He finally convinces her to marry him in Paris but a few of Lorelai's chance encounters with Luke spark Christopher's jealousy and Lorelai's denial. The final straw in the relationship is in the form of a character reference Lorelai writes about Luke that Christopher discovers. Although Lorelai wishes to commit to Christopher and their marriage, she cannot keep lying to herself and to him that she still has deep feelings for Luke and they decide to divorce.

Luke Danes

Although Lorelai routinely consumes massive amounts of caffeine and diner food at Luke's, their relationship is platonic for many years. At first Luke is just "the guy that pours her coffee". However, he is also there for her as Rory's surrogate father and admires Lorelai from behind the counter. Lorelai and Luke go way back to the first time they met, Lorelai frantic for coffee and Luke the harried diner owner who presumably is attracted to Lorelai at this first encounter as it's discovered he has kept a memento from it years later. The fortune that Lorelai scribbles for Luke is brought out and mentioned at their first date.

Their relationship becomes serious. The first huge step is taken by Luke, when he listens to self-help tapes on how to love and recognize the woman you want. Lorelai is impressed by his change and flattered by him and they start to romantically date together. Eventually Lorelai, after losing contact with Rory over a huge disagreement, is deeply touched by how Luke wants to help her get Rory back. This dedication to her daughter prompts Lorelai to make a wedding proposal to Luke. He accepts and they begin expanding and renovating Lorelai's two-story home. The wedding date is postponed until Lorelai reunites with Rory. However, Lorelai senses hesitation in Luke when she begins planning the wedding. April Nardini, Luke's secret source of hesitation, is a daughter that Luke unknowingly conceived in a previous relationship with her mother Anna. Lorelai discovers that Luke has been hiding knowledge of April's existence, although he tried to tell her and the right moment never seemed to happen for them, and they eventually postpone the wedding again.

Adding to Lorelai's doubts and fears of their relationship, Luke requests that Lorelai have no contact with April. Lorelai respects his wishes until he requests her aid in April's party planning. Unfortunately Anna disapproves and adds to Lorelai's doubts of her and Luke's relationship. Lorelai eventually grows impatient and resentful of Luke taking so long to sort out things with April and after having avoided him for some time, she gives him an ultimatum—elope with her and get married now or never—to which Luke's hesitation causes her departure, possibly from the relationship entirely. Lorelai, full of doubt for her presumed stagnant relationship with Luke, goes to Christopher for comfort.

At first, Lorelai and Luke remain somewhat detached but supportive after the break up. Lorelai avoids his diner and Luke until he asks Lorelai for help with April's appendicitis and, at the hospital, the man discovers that she got married. He later asks her for a character reference for a custody battle with Anna over April. He comes to Lorelai's aide when Richard is in the hospital and Christopher is missing in action. Eventually, after Lorelai's divorce from Christopher, they have a discussion about their relationship in the maze made of hay during the Stars Hollow spring break festival and both apologize for its problems. In the end, after coming through for her and Rory on many occasions - the most relevant one is the one depicted in the finale, where Luke organizes a big "bon voyage party" for Rory before she leaves Stars Hollow - Lorelai and Luke return to each other. Lorelai knows Luke is the one for her and can depend on him to be there for her and Rory. In the final scene at the diner, Rory notices that Lorelai is wearing a necklace that she's never seen before. From earlier scenes in the episode, we learn that the necklace was given to her from Luke, who at the end of the party has a reuniting kiss with Lorelai in front of the diner. Rory makes a remark on this necklace Lorelai is wearing. Lorelai, while she says she loves it, gives a look behind her back where Luke is standing. He later enters the frame and asks the Gilmore girls what do they want from the menu. Lorelai tells him she needs to take some time to think and decide what to eat and Luke responds "Take all the time you need". This becomes an obvious sign that she and Luke could have spent some special moments together off-screen where their future wedding was discussed. Having learnt from their own experiences that being hasty brings nothing but trouble, the couple gets back together and decides to not rush things when they can still act like young lovers during the upcoming summer and take their responsibilities in the next season, which resulted in never having been produced since the show was canceled, but it gave the series the proper, feel-good yet realistic, open-ended closure.

Trivia

• Her favorite song in Junior High was Shadow Dancing.
• According to Season One DVD trivia book, Lorelai Gilmore is 5 feet 8 inches tall, but the actress portraying her, Lauren Graham is slightly taller than this at 5 feet 9 inches tall. Chelsea Brummet, who played the young Lorelai, is 5 feet 4 inches tall.
• Her feet are size nine.
• Her favorite band in high school was The Go-Go's, but in season one, she cites Metallica as one of her favorite bands. Also high on that list would be The Bangles.
• As a baby she had a big head. ("My first complete sentence was 'Big Head want dolly.'" — "Emily In Wonderland")
• She burnt all of her baby pictures because of her big head.
• She can smell snow before it falls; had a special relationship with snow because many things happened during the snow (Rory born during a snow storm, Lorelai's first kiss, Rory's first steps, when Lorelai was a little girl and she was sick with an ear infection she wished that something wonderful would happen; the next morning snow fell and she was convinced that some fairy godmother sent it just for her.) Her relationship with snow falls apart, however, during season five when a bunch of problems occur because of it.
• A recurring joke in the first few seasons is Lorelai asking other people (usually Luke) if they have a pen.
• Throughout the series, Lorelai's political views seem to get along with Democrats. According to flashbacks in the episode "Dear Emily and Richard", Lorelai claims she intends to register Democrat, mainly because it would go against her parents will; in a similar occasion, in the Season one episode where Chris and his parents show up at the Gilmore mansion after more than a decade, Lorelai makes one of her funny bits and declares she hates George W. Bush's face, to everyone's shock and dismay; in another episode in season 3, the episode intro has Lorelai making a funny bit with Rory where she says "I think I'm in touch with the other side" and Rory thinks she's speaking politically by giving the funny answer "..With the Republicans?"; in the final episode, Lorelai's daughter goes off into the world pursuing a career as an online reporter for Barack Obama's campaign, both women seem enthusiastic about this not only because it's Rory's first important job, but also because it fits their mutual views on politics.