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In ‘Nick & Nora/Sid & Nancy‘, we meet Jess. Ah, Jess. How we will come to love you (well, most of us anyway). But at first, you seem a little surly. Ok, a lot surly.
The first impression we’re asked to get of Jess is:
- His mom can’t handle him – though we have no idea what kind of trouble he’s been in the past
- He instantly dislikes Stars Hollow – its perfection is his own hell
- He smokes and tries to grab a beer from Lorelai’s
- He barely talks, only nodding most of the time or ignoring people completely
- He won’t talk with his mom
- He may be a little humble about his smarts – telling Rory he doesn’t read
- He tries to get Rory to ditch dinner with him
- He doesn’t like being preached to in any way – gets mad at Lorelai for saying nice things about Luke
- He steals – first the charity jar, then Pierpont
- He’s mad at being away from everything he knows
- When Luke sets down the rules, he doesn’t say anything. He just leaves.
- He likes magic tricks
- He stole a book from Rory and put in margin notes. Admits to having read it 40 times before.
- Impresses Rory with his book knowledge. Already flirting?
So, you can see it doesn’t take long for us to establish that Jess is the bad boy and that he has a thing for Rory. He’s mysterious and smart, something that’s already contrasting with Dean’s clinginess. Did you right away think about this contrast? Did you want Rory to date Jess even now?
Watch this episode of Gilmore Girls on TheWB.com here.
Image: TheWB.com
I would choose Jess over Dean, but Logan was the best for me
In real life, Milo (Jess) and Alexis (Rory) were actually dating when Milo was on the show. I think you can see the real chemistry between them in their scenes together.
I liked Jess from the start, It’s so funny in that episode when Jess checks out Stars Hollow and they play that song, “This is hell, this is hell.”
ITA with Marie’s comment. Luke pushing Jess in the lake is easily one of my favorite moments in the series. I liked Jess from the start, particularly his interactions with Luke. Remember the episode when Luke tells Jess to change clothes when he’s working in the diner, and Jess comes down in the plaid shirt and backwards baseball cap. “I thought this was the uniform.” Classic.
To me, a girl who is IN to fisicals, that small one guy never was that cute. Never had a good moment in the series, not even when he was a writter. Dean was completely different, he was a good part of Rory’s character, cos she had someone who loved her (hot, cute and he get along wiht Lor). And about Logan don’t know what was he doin’ there, oh yeah, he paid the bills!
I couldn’t agree with you more RaeDae, I believe that if the show had continued Rory would have met someone else. Unlike the growing consensus among GG fans, I don’t believe that Jess and Rory would have gotten together later on. I think he served his purpose in that he was her essential “bad boy”. Like Lorelai said, “she’s at that age for a ‘jess’” and even in the later episodes where he basically showed Rory that she was making the wrong decisions and then when he made her realize that she was hopelessly in love with Logan. Dean was a great character in the beginning i understand how he felt in season 2. It must be hard to watch your g/f slowly fall in love with someone else before your eyes (teenage boys at that age are insecure anyways) and I don’t see anyone commenting on the fact that throughout most of Jess and Rory’s relationship he constantly questioned Rory’s fidelity also. However I do agree that Dean did a complete 180 in the later seasons (i.e. season 4-season 5). I think the reason for that was that Jared had an amazing opportunity to go do Supernatural and therefore the writers decided to write him off in a way that made his exit one the viewers would be anticipating if not lobbying for.
Hi. I’m a GG fan from Peru. I like Jess, but i think he’s not right for Rory. I don’t know (with all respect) which series the jess’ fans have been looking at, he never was sincered with Rory and his relationship was kind of a monologue, only Rory was fighting in that relationship. Dean and Rory wore more perfect for each other. At the beggining Dean showed that he knows about movies , music and book, Rory and him changed books. And he tries really to be by her side. I think if Jared hasn’t get the part in supernatural we have seen them both fight for their love. Girls don’t be so much in fisics!
Cheers!
Could not stand Jess at all. I was always a Dean and Rory fan, however, as the seasons went by you realized that Dean and Rory were not going in the same direction. So they would never work out. Jess struck me as someone who was a good friend for Rory, but I never saw their romantic chemistry. I am glad Jess grew up and became a successful, happy young man. As for Logan, I was mostly lukewarm on him until he was there for Rory when Richard was in the hospital. I really began to respect the character then, though there were still parts of him that I thought didn’t match very well with Rory’s personality. I don’t think we ever saw the perfect guy for Rory.
My sister and I are huge gg fans and jess and rory fans. We had an idea in our minds of how jess and rory’s relationship continued.
Rory would be having a rough time dealing with the lifestyle of the campaign trail so while visiting in philly ,for the campaign, on her day off she goes to visit her old friend jess. she tells him of how hard it is and how rude the people are and how she misses her home and her mom. He offers some words of wisdom and comfort to her. Rory feels safe with him and realizes this could be the guy that’s right for her……………..
Thoughts?
My initial reactions to the men in Rory’s life were the same as Mac’s – liked Dean, hated Jess, was annoyed with Logan. I was glad to see Logan go, but I had more sympathy for Dean, even though he was the classic immature clingy young guy. At least he was upfront about everything – with Jess, you never knew what he would do next. Yeah, he got more mature, but I think by then Rory had grown beyond him.
I think if the character of Rory had continued, she would have met someone else while on the tour bus with Obama, and maybe THAT would have been the man for her. I think she had the right guys for the various phases of her life, but I just don’t think any of them would have been the guy for her for the long haul. She had outgrown the little small town life, and had learned to walk in both the world of Lorelai and the world of Yale and her grandparents. She could find her way around anywhere at that point, and none of the men in her life was ready for that. So the love of her life is not one to be found in the series — maybe if they made a movie in ten years, that could be the plotline – where does Rory end up and what is her husband like and does she want kids? Now THAT would be interesting! Ten years beyond Yale, there would be SO many changes in Rory’s life, that even Alexis could get interested in doing that storyline! (We can only hope.)
Funny, I’m just now re-watching the Jess seasons (the best two season of GG!) I love Jess, loved him from the very beginning. Yeah, he has that bad boy thing, but when he is with Rory… Those two had the *best* chemistry. Those longing looks from season 2! And the best conversations. And yes, I wanted them together right from the start. But Dean has always driven me nutters. Too clingy. Too dull.
“I heard he controls the weather and wrote the screenplay to ‘Glitter!’”
I love Jess Mariano <3
I think that the character of Jess teaches us a lesson: Learn to see beyond conformity.
Loved Jess from the moment I saw him, not just in spite of his (many) flaws, but because of them; I totally buy into the whole mysterious bad boy package…getting into fights, pissing off Dean, spinning Rory into a tither. Who else walks around with a book in their back pocket? Honestly, he’s ruined me for all other boys…::swoon::
I have always liked Jess right from this first episode. I consider he was a very good character for the show. We know that he is the bad boy that smokes, drinks, steals, gets into trouble and ignors people. He doesn’t like Stars Hollow or the people living here, but Rory seems to be the only person who can make him talk. In the end of the episode they show us that besides his bad side, Jess is also smart, funny, reads a lot, and even shows Rory a little of his soft side.
I liked Dean until the moment in season 1 when he got upset because Rory didn’t said “I love you” back. From that point I disliked him, so when Jess came I was happy cause I knew that eventually he and Rory will get together.
I am one of those who believe Jess is the best guy for Rory, but I refer to Jess from season 6, because he needed to find himself and grow up. At the same time I think it was good for high school Rory to experience a relantionship with a bad boy that obviously had deep feelings for her, but was afraid to show them.
I liked jess from the beginning aswell. I think he brought with him a level of mystery that know one could really figure out. The attraction between jess and rory was instantaneous and to be perfectly honest I never really like dean so was happy to see rory and jess together.
I never loved Luke more than the moment when he pushed Jess in the lake.
Let’s face it — the casting was perfect. Because he’s several years older but short :), he looked like he was part of Rory and Dean’s age group, but that extra swagger and confidence he brought in the body of a kid made him really be able to do this role.
And in that tight sweater where you can see how well he’s built — he’s extremely SEXY. That’s why we put up with all of his behavior, apart from the hope that, as Rory wanted to believe, he had a good side that she could bring out of him.
It was a great storyline that ended perfectly. This was a great beginning.
Louise i agree with you 100% but dont you think dean started to notice her attraction to jess? when he saw this he started to smother rory with phone calls, pages showing up at her house etc. plus wouldnt you want to let someone off easily not drag them along like she did in season 3. it just causes more hurt to dean when she dragged him around like that just to make jess jealous
I liked Jess right form the beginning.
The fat that his mum sent him away does make you think, what has he been up to? but that an air of mystery to his character which is just a little bit exciting! =P
When he back chats Luke I did feel a little negativity towards him, but when Luke pushed Jess in the lake I think he realised he couldn’t treat Luke the way he treats most people and that he had met his match. Therefore, it evened out the playing field.
I agree with ‘ggfan’ that from the Dodger moment there was definately sparks between Jess and Rory, however, I didnt want them to get together just like that becasue she would have had to hurt Dean and that’s just not right.
The first time I watched GG I just could’nt stand him. He gradually started to grow on me every time I watched the whole series until I decided he was the best guy for Rory.
On the other hand, I liked Dean the first time and couldn’t stand him the second time I watched the whole seasons.
As for Logan, I always have the same feeling, not matter how many times I watch it: annoyance, but it’s getting better.
i immediately liked jess right when he walked of that bus once you saw him you knew this season was going to be crazy, and once everyone saw him with rory everyone saw the kinder side that he would only show to rory. i think rory started crushing on jess right when she called him dodger and he knew it was from oliver twist.