Jealousy: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Earlier this week we kicked off a great discussion about the use of Jealousy as a theme on Gilmore Girls. Jealousy is not unique to Gilmore Girls, but it has always served as a means for change and revelation. One of the comments, by mcityrk, was very thorough on the topic, so I decided to turn it into a new post so we can continue the discussion:

“Jealousy as a recurring theme is one of the great plot drivers in GG. In some limited romantic cases it served as a positive as in the example highlighted in the original post where Richard’s jealous show of true emotion served as the trigger to reunite the grandparents with minimal fuss. It also was a positive in clarifying Lane’s feelings for Zack [the discussion with Zack’s band groupies] that focused her on what she wanted and thus needed to do to make that relationship work. It was a positive for Lorelai in clarifying Luke’s feelings for her when Jason tried to get back in the picture. And finally it was a positive for the fans on the intellectual/social level by setting up the Rory/Paris “frenemy” dynamic with all its ups and downs, betrayals and redemptions that were wonderfully sprinkled throughout the series and due entirely to Paris jealousy/insecurity towards the “chick from the sticks”.

However in most cases jealousy was a negative wedge that jeopardized friendships and romances and forced us to see characters in ways that took them off their pedestals. There were the romantic triangles which usually ended up badly; i.e. the Tristan vs. Dean vs. Tristan dynamic that ultimately contributed to Tristan’s downfall and left Dean exhausted from jealousy and thus less viable for the long-term with Rory; the jealous boyfriend yo-yo orbiting of Dean and Jess around Rory that ultimately left them all excluded from each other’s company; a similar yo-yo symmetry for both Max and Luke, and Chris and Luke around Lorelai that resulted in only minimal happy moments for any of them and a lot of agony for Lorelai. Throw in some minimally jealous butting-in behavior from Lorelai in the Luke/Rachael and Luke/Nicole possibilities which contributed to these couples breakups. And it’s hard to forget that jealous mental justification from Rory that allowed her to be intimate with Dean while he was still married.

Finally, let’s think about the mutual jealousies in the Rory/Logan dynamic as the ultimate snake in the garden. From Rory’s jealousy of Logan’s date at the grandparents renewal service that set off her aggressive sexual behavior, to her get-even ploy to Logan’s dalliances by dating Robert at the Pulp-Friction gathering, to her loneliness triggered sniping due to jealousy when Logan had an attractive colleague in London, Rory had several mostly unwarranted jealousy-driven dark moments. Only her jealousy/anger over Logan’s sexually amoral and even cowardly behavior after their “breakup” seemed truly justified and within the character of someone we thought we knew. Logan’s jealousies were more monstrous and even dangerous at times. From his constant belittlement of Rory’s friend Marty on each and every possible occasion; to his disgust with Robert, nominally a friend of his, for trying to casually spend time with Rory; to the breakup/blowup with Rory triggered by Jess’s sudden appearance, Logan showed serious jealousy/possessive behavior that no amount of mellowing out and seasoning would ever cure. Our friend Rory dodged a bullet by not ending up with the Huntsturkey!!”

What do you think??

Images: TheWB.com