#the way her arc unfolds is so deeply unsatisfying!

[afairerplace]

some thoughts on jess & rory (but mostly jess)

Can I just say that Jess Mariano has possibly THE most believable and satisfying character arc on Gilmore Girls? He starts out as, quite frankly, an abrasive jerk. He’s surly, unpleasant, and has no earthly idea how to handle his emotions- or other people’s, for that matter. But we as the audience are understanding to an extent, because 1) we experience something of his softer, better side through his interactions with Rory and 2) we know a lifetime full of turmoil (absentee dad, drug-addled mom struggling to get clean, revolving door of would-be stepfathers) went a long way towards making him in to the difficult character that he is. 

We know there’s a sweet, intelligent guy buried beneath Jess’s rat’s nest of issues. Will we ever get to see that guy survive and thrive, though? That’s the question haunting his arc from the get-go. In early seasons, the answer appears to be a definitive “not right now,” which imo makes him a very frustrating character. He has so much potential! And yet he’s so failing to live up to it, instead squandering the (many, generous) chances he’s offered and leaning into his issues. 

The last we see of him as Rory’s boyfriend, Jess has backed himself into a corner and as a result is angry, scared, and completely at a loss as to how he should deal with the situation. He’s unwilling to work with Luke, unable to communicate with Rory (or anybody, let’s be real). Is it surprising that, upon burning all his nearest bridges, the kid who is told to get lost when he screws up too badly, the kid whose instinctive response to difficult situations and emotions is to shut himself down and other people out- is it really surprising that he chooses to bail?

Not surprising, no- but not excusable, either. Jess will never be a good guy unless he learns to deal with his baggage, mountainous though it may be. He’s at the age where it’s high time for him to start. We, like Rory, hope that his cruelly impromptu exodus will end up being a successful journey to find himself. And the best part about Jess is that it is! But to the show’s credit, it isn’t presented as something instant or easy, so that we can readily condone the horrible thing he did to Rory and to Luke. 

We see the ways in which he hurt the two of them, and we see that he’s still an emotionally-stunted jerk in his next few appearances on the show, albeit one who has awakened to the fact and is starting to do something about it. Jess ambushes Rory out of nowhere, loudly proclaiming his feelings for her in one of the most selfish, abrasive ways possible- but he’s at least sorting through his emotions rather than packing them away, making an effort to communicate rather than simply shutting down. He snarls at Luke when trying to steal back his car, and later grouches his way back to Star Hollow for his mother’s wedding- but he’s at least opening his hermetically-sealed heart a crack to the people who love him most. Jess is still not a good guy, by any stretch of the imagination, but he is clawing his way towards goodness, even if he’s still obviously terrible at it.  

By the time he makes his final appearances in the series, Jess has truly become a good guy. Is he a perfect guy? No, not by a long stretch. But he makes an effort to resist Logan’s hostile needling, even if he succumbs to bitter barbs in the end; he calls Rory out on her actions at a time where she’s desperately in need of it, although in an unnecessarily aggressive fashion that’s admittedly driven by Logan’s aforementioned behavior, and even has the presence of mind to soften his tone when he registers how upset she is. And when he realizes Rory is using him to get back at Logan during Truncheon Books' open house, his last moment in the original series, he keeps his (completely justified!) anger in check to bid her a bittersweet farewell. Not to mention his actions earlier in the same episode, where he embraces Luke and Luke's daughter and pays back his uncle in heartfelt appreciation of all Luke did for him. 

Jess Mariano begins his time on Gilmore Girls as a bitter, angry young man incapable of communicating his feelings or participating in healthy relationships. He ends it having done a complete 180, not without difficulty, not without effort, but with the appropriate amount of fits and starts it takes to grow into the upstanding, even admirable character he remains in the revival. What's so interesting to me is that Rory Gilmore's arc, the arc of the girl who is his love interest and catalyst for his own transformation, is very nearly his arc in reverse.

While Jess drags his own self kicking and screaming to the top in terms of personal and professional growth over the course of Gilmore Girls, Rory spends that time sinking lower and lower. The girl who once determinedly stuck to the course of academic success in spite of hostile high school classmates and a rocky start, grades-wise; who famously turned a deliberately dull assignment about pavement into a page-turner; who climbs onto her ex-boyfriend's roof to apologize for her bad behavior during their relationship- where is this girl by Season 6, let alone the revival? She's certainly not the girl we're seeing on screen. 

That girl is completely different. She's stolen a yacht and dropped out of Yale after receiving possibly the most nicely-delivered, well-meaning critique around; embarked on an affair with a married ex; and attempted to cheat on a later boyfriend out of revenge. Her self-absorption, inability to rise to the challenge, and penchant to carelessly trample over other people's hearts is only more acute in the revival. All of the drive and compassion that made young Rory so lovable to audiences and to Jess are all but gone from her character by the time we see her last- coincidentally (or not), by the time we witness Jess demonstrating those traits in spades. 

I think we're meant to see this as a chance for Jess to return the favor, to inspire Rory to grow in goodness as she once inspired him. I also think we're supposed to view this development in a positive light. But given that Jess's underlying issues arose from a lifetime of abuse and neglect, whereas Rory's arose largely from years of being coddled and spoiled, I can't help but feel the situation is more than a little unfair to Jess. 

And yet: "There is no justice in love, no proportion in it, and there need not be, because in any specific instance it is only a glimpse or a parable of an embracing, incomprehensible reality. It makes no sense at all because it is the eternal breaking in on the temporal. So how would it subordinate itself to cause or consequence?" (Marilynne Robinson, Gilead)