#literati
The reason why Jess specifically was the only one who could break Rory out of her funk in Season 6 isn’t just that he sees and understands her in a unique way (though Amy has said that’s true) or that pulling himself up from rock-bottom inspired her (though that’s true too), but specifically that she had been the only one who believed in him. That aspect of it is so incredibly important, because what Rory was experiencing here was a Crisis of Confidence.
Through Season 2 and 3 (maybe even all the way to Season 6) the show posed this question: “Who’s right about who Jess really is? Rory or Lorelai?” Was Lorelai being too judgemental, or was Rory being naive? And after the fall-out at the end of Season 3, it pretty much looked like Lorelai was right. I think Rory herself thought Lorelai was right at that point. You can see it in the way she talks about Jess and Dean at the end of Season 4: choosing Jess was a Mistake. She had made the Wrong Call. And she begins to see going back to Dean as a way to “fix” that error of judgement. Only it clearly wasn’t, and Rory spends Season 4 and 5 making a series of disastrous mistakes which really set her up for a fall when Mitchum comes on the scene. Her crisis of confidence seems sudden, but is it, really? Can Rory really trust her instincts?Her recent experiences have mostly told her No. So why not believe the expert? What does she know, really? Which is why Jess’s success in Season 6 is SO IMPORTANT! To Rory! Because that “I knew you could do something like this. I knew it. I KNEW it!” isn’t just about being proud of Jess. It’s about her regaining confidence in her own judgement.She had been right about Jess. She had seen something in him that nobody else had, even though nobody else believed her, and she had fought for him, and she had been right. She wasn’t just some naive, overly optimistic little girl; she was right. Everyone (except maybe Luke) had been wrong about Jess, so it was possible that Mitchum might be wrong about her, too.
-Spring series-
Gloomy Days, Warm Hearts: a love story by Rory Gilmore & Jess Mariano
