Top 10 Gilmore Girls Moments

But all they did was sleep! After Rory’s first formal dance at Chilton, she and Dean end up innocently falling asleep at Miss Patty’s dance studio. Lorelai and Emily wake up early the next morning and panic when Rory isn’t there. In typical Emily fashion, she manages to blame the whole situation on Lorelai, dredging up issues from their past while she’s at it. This may not be one of the happier moments in the show, but it sets up one of the major conflicts of the series: the complex relationship between the three generations of Gilmore women.

Years of hard work pay off for Sookie and Lorelai when they finally manage to open their own inn, the Dragonfly. Lorelai has been trying to realize this dream since the beginning of the series; but between financial struggles, waiting for their dream property (RIP Fran) to become available and all the issues refurbishing the building, we thought this moment might never come. Any excuse for all of our favorite Stars Hollow weirdos to get together is a good one, and this is no exception. There’s a lot of drama going on in this episode, but Kirk and his night terrors add some much needed levity.

While Lorelai’s busy making sure the test run at the inn goes smoothly, Rory’s a little busy with something else. Sure, there was some foreshadowing leading up to it, but were any of us really expecting perfect, “make a pro-con list for every decision” Rory Gilmore to lose her virginity to a married man, even if he was her ex-boyfriend? Whether you were Team Dean in earlier seasons or not, no one wanted to see it happen like this. When Lorelai finds out, the conversation is devastating to watch. Under her mother’s questioning, Rory’s romantic immaturity becomes increasingly obvious and her confidence in what she’s done crumbles.

Let the games begin! Period costumes, love triangles, quirky Stars Hollow events - there isn’t much more you could ask for in a Gilmore Girls episode¬– which is probably why this one rates as a fan favorite. The town is hosting a 24-hour dance marathon and Lorelai is desperate to win. She manages to convince Rory to be her partner but unfortunately Rory’s got other things on her plate. After months of flirty banter between Rory and Jess, Dean has finally had enough. He ends up breaking up with her in front of the whole town- or at least everyone who’s still awake.

After Rory and Dean’s first breakup in season 1, Rory refuses to be “one of those girls” who falls apart when a guy breaks up with her. Instead, on the morning after her breakup she rearranges the living room furniture and wakes Lorelai up at 6am to have a productive day of running errands. Lorelai has a different idea of how to get over a breakup. She tries to convince Rory that she has to “wallow:” stay in pajamas, eat junk food and watch sad movies. Rory refuses, but after going to a Chilton party that night and kissing Tristan, she is officially ready to wallow and eventually confess her true feelings to the idiot she loves.

After Rory’s boss Mitchum Huntzberger tells her that she doesn’t have what it takes to be a journalist, dashing her lifelong dream, she temporarily stops being the Rory Gilmore we know and love. Stealing yachts, quitting school, and moving in with her grandparents gets her into a months-long fight with her mom. The 10-episode feud between our favorite mother/daughter pair felt like it might never end. We don’t know about you, but we were totally on Lorelai’s side on this one. When Rory calls to say she’s coming home and going back to Yale, we couldn’t have been happier.

Let’s be honest - we’re pretty sure most fans cared more about Rory getting into Harvard than they did about their own college applications. When the time finally came to find out if she was going to get the “big” envelope or not, we were waiting as impatiently as she was. After finding out that Paris didn’t get in (because she was being punished for having premarital sex, obviously) we were even more anxious. The moment when mother & daughter see all the envelopes has got to be one of the most satisfying of the series. We’re kind of still not over the fact that she chose Yale, though.

Every girl has got to go through a “bad boy” phase and unfortunately Rory is no exception. We know, we know, Dean was a total dud, but you can’t argue that Jess brought out the worst in Rory in these early seasons. She skips school, misses her mom’s graduation ceremony because she’s visiting Jess in New York, and wrecks the car that Dean built for her. But we get it, Jess is on Rory’s level in terms of intelligence and totally gets all the pop culture references that fly over Dean’s head. Rory surprises Jess (and the audience) by kissing him while she’s still dating Dean.

Admit it, you still get just as weepy as Lorelai, Sookie, Jackson, and Luke when you watch this scene. Boyfriends–and fiancés– come and go on “Gilmore Girls,” but the most important relationship is the one between Rory and Lorelai. They go through their ups and downs throughout the series, but in the end, they’ll always be the most important people in each other’s lives. Hearing Rory talk about her mom’s influence on her life during her high school valedictorian speech would bring tears to just about anyone’s eyes.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

Lorelai’s Graduation
“Lorelai’s Graduation Day”

Rory and Logan Jump
“You Jump, I Jump, Jack”

Emily Sees Where Lorelai and Rory Used to Live
“Emily in Wonderland”

Jess Thanks Luke
“Last Week Fights, This Week Tights”

Max’s Proposal
“Love, Daisies and Troubadours”

Luke and Lorelai join Ross and Rachel, Jim and Pam, and Mindy and Danny on the list of ultimate “will they, won’t they” TV couples. After seasons of flirty banter and undeniable chemistry, we knew it was only a matter of time before these two got together. It may seem crazy that our number 1 “Gilmore Girls” moment isn’t between the two Gilmore Girls, but after all the romantic build-up, this kiss was really the moment we’d all been dying to see. No fan could have asked for a more perfect first kiss, and it just meant that much more having watched their deep friendship grow over the years.


Do you agree with our list? What’s your favorite Gilmore Girls moment? For more heartwarming top 10s published every day, be sure to subscribe to MsMojo.