Jess not being able to take Rory to prom is heartbreaking. It's like he has confirmation that he's not good enough for her despite him trying. And that just causes a chain reaction.  He can't even face her and his own failures and feels misunderstood and disrespected by almost everyone. Him running off just fits his pattern. Though he's the one in the later seasons that talks sense into Rory when she's running from her problems

I read a great summary under another video:
Dean is who her mother wanted for her, Logan is who her grandparents wanted for her. Jess is who she wanted

🥧 Whenever I say I'm team Jess I always hear "ohhhh you like the bad boy, huh?" and I literally have to restrain myself from going into a 2 hour monologue about why rory and jess are endgame and why Jess isn't just a 'bad boy'.

Now, I can just send them this video and move on with my life. So, thanks -- you captured my feelings pretty perfectly.

I firmly believe Jess and Rory are actually endgame. It's what the ending implies: Amy Sherman Palladino herself said it's a cycle, with Rory following in her mother's footsteps. Rory gets pregnant unexpectedly, the baby daddy is someone she doesn't see a future with (It's so obviously Logan, I don't know why people act like it's such a mystery 😂), Rory will raise her baby alone like her mother did, but Jess will obviously help her in any way he can just like Luke did. He will love her from a distance for years, but eventually they will get together. It's even referenced in the opening theme: Where you lead, I will follow. Logan is her Christopher, Jess is her Luke.

"WhY dId YoU dRoP oUt Of YaLe?!" lives rent-free in my head 🤣

Luke and Rory were the only characters who stood up for Jess for the accident. Luke hated that Lorelai kept yelling at him about his nephew that no one but Rory and him gave a sh**t about.

That scene where Lorelai said Dean wouldn’t get in an accident made me seethe with rage. That’s not how it works Lorelai. Even the most responsible drivers get into car accidents. That is how accidents work. You could make a mistake. Someone else made the mistake. They happen. The important thing is Jess took her the hospital and made sure she was ok.

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I totally agree that Rory should have not forgiven Logan after she found out about him sleeping with all the bridesmaids during their break since she didn't see them as truly broken up. I think it could have been a great way to change her character arc where she stands up for herself, dumps someone for the first time, and chooses what she wants and not what other people expect of her. Then the next time she sees Jess at the book event she would have been single for awhile, grown as a person, started doing what she wanted and not been the perfect person people wanted her to be. Also, when they kiss, she doesn't feel any guilt since she's not cheating on Logan, and I believe that's when the two of them should have rekindled their relationship since the both of them matured enough, finally equal and ready to be together with nothing holding them back anymore.

I think why Rory immediatly liked Jess is because he reminds her of Lorelai and why Lorelai hates him. Jess grew as a character because of Rory hence why he's always going to help her. I do believe that Jess was supposed to be in season 7 since his storyline was unresolved in sesaon 6 and we would get hints that Rory still loves him and why she says no to the proposal to Logan.

1 hour and a half of jess and rory TEAM JESS W

at first I wasn't team Jess, till he grew up.  Then in my opinion Rory is not good enough for him until she grows up.  But yeah, like you said, "right person, wrong timing".

I HAVE FOUND MY PEOPLE. I FEEL SO SEEN AND HEARD. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR DOING THIS 🥰❤️

I’ll always be a Team Jess girly. I don’t care what anyone says. When I say I’m Team Jess, I mean I’m Team ADULT Jess! The one who matured and became more stable. The one we see in season 6 and AYITL. I’m aware we didn’t see much of him to fully base that stance on, and before some of you guys start telling me “but Rory doesn’t deserve Jess anymore, he’s too good for her” WELL SHE WAS TOO GOOD FOR HIM TOO ONCE UPON A TIME. She deserved to be treated better by him when they were teenagers, and yeah, I think every Team Jess fan will tell you that they’re aware Jess was a bad boyfriend, but that doesn’t mean he was a bad person?? He was simply emotionally unavailable. He needed to work on himself first before being in a relationship, which he did, and he turned out amazing! He didn’t just do it for himself, but because of her positive influence on his life. I respect and admire that so much.

Also, I’d like to imagine him being a steady presence in her life now that we know she’s a mother. He can even be her Luke! Even if they won’t be together romantically, I feel like they’ll be connected for life due to his uncle and her mother’s marriage. He even inspired her to both write a book and go back to Yale. I feel like she went back not because of whatever he said, but because she saw how even he found a way to turn things around. He reminded her of the first thing she fell in love with, which was books! She didn’t pick up a single book since the fifth season, and the first one she did was the one he wrote and gave her. It was the first step she needed before she got that reality check or wake-up call from when she realized her grandmother was projecting onto her and treating her like the daughter she should’ve had.

Anyway, they’re the classic but tragic case of “right person, wrong time.” They always believed in each other and constantly pushed one another to be the best version of themselves. LITERATI, YOU WILL ALWAYS AND FOREVER BE LOVED BY ME 😭❤️

And don’t forget about the symbolism of Rory’s car! It’s the car, Dean built her for his love confession; it’s a sign of their relationship. And the evening Rory gives in to her sympathy for Jess, she lets him drive the car, and gets the car crashed - the „perfect relationship, the love between Dean and Rory.

1:24:31 I think she’s so open to him because here she feels like she’s not worthy of love anymore because she’s a “failure” and she knows Jess is the only one who loves her unconditionally so seeing him is being reminded she’s loved

Ooh i just realised something!

Lorelai dislikes Jess, the way Emily dislikes Luke!!

Jess IS Rory's Luke!

Can never stop talking about this. I feel like in the current trend, people went back to hating on Jess but I never changed my opinion. He's just a kid who is neglected and everyone expects him to be bad. People say oh his development in later season doesnt make sense or was abrupt but like if you really think about it, what has he ACTUALLY done that warrants this "oh he's trouble" judgement? stealing a gnome? pranks around town? boy fights with people who deserved it? He has a rough exterior bec he built a wall around himself as a defense mechanism, but he's not a low life, he raised himself up, I think of younger Jess as like Matilda, going to the library by himself and teaching himself stuff, just bec he wasn't sweet and cutie doesnt mean he was undeserving of love, it is unrealistic that he'd have become sweet and caring when he wasnt given any of that. His biggest flaw was his inability to communicate properly (again realistic), it causes all his problems.

I looooooove in the first episode we're introduced to him, he goes out of Luke's diner and sees Stars Hallow in its rainbow butterfly happy go lucky atmosphere as the song "this is hell..." plays over it 😂. Bec from his perspective yes this little town is so disturbing. He was a jaded new yorker.


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Regarding the bedroom scene: I think it's important to remember that consent back then wasn't a concept that everyone was aware of. Actually media back then romanticized dubious consent quite a bit. Ofc he was wrong but I believe he wouldn't make that mistake again because we all are more aware of the importance of consent and boundaries than we were

So refreshing seeing others who have the same thoughts I do when I watch this show 🙏

your discussion on cognitive dissonance and people who were raised in extreme religion or cults was veryy powerful and accurate. it took me 2 tries and like 3 years for me to fully leave the mormon church and actually start to deconstruct it. just wow. thank you for that because i relate to rory so hard💖💖💖 rory/jess was my fav ship of the show too!!

I love jess, and i so think him and Rory in season 2 are perfect for each other. But i think as the seasons go on and he grows into a better person and Rory grows into a much more privileged person (and you can really see this starting in season 5), they are no longer a good fit. And i think that's because Jess deserves better than the person Rory becomes. I don't like the idea of him being Rory's Luke (in part because the older i get, the more i don't like how Lorelai treated Luke, though Luke also had his issues). Especially after a year in the life.
Also, Rory also has a pattern of not respecting relationships and cheating emotionally/physically, i can't imagine her not cheating on Jess eventually, and he doesn't deserve that.
On a side note: i hate how the later seasons treat Liz as this quirky but well meaning person when what we get when we first meet Jess, both from him and Luke, is that Liz is super neglectful at best and abusive at worst. You don't even get the impression she cares about Jess (as seen in the episode where Luke lies to Jess about Liz wanting to see him).

I can see what Rory sees in Jess (as a teen and an adult), but I can’t really understand what Jess would see in Rory, especially as they get older. The running theme through the whole show is everyone thinks Rory is “special” but Jess (and Dean, Lane, Paris, etc) is a lot more “special.” Maybe Rory would be more like him if she had grown up with more freedom to be her own person. The funny thing is Jess and Lorelei as teenager would be the match.