Mitchum Was Right: Rory Gilmore Didn't Have It.

    Rory Gilmore becoming a failed journalist at age 32 came as anything but a shock to me. An entitled, white, wealthy-by-proxy, sheltered girl with little discipline from her childish mother and virtually absent father does not a strong Christiane Amanpour successor make.

    Journalism requires simultaneous grit, curiosity, and resilience. While Rory did display bouts of these qualities in isolated bursts, she did not employ them in the trifecta that the field demands.

    In the pilot, Rory almost gives up the chance to go to a prestigious private high school for a chance to stay closer to a boy she just met. She was sixteen, so I grant her grace, but it's the first instance of many where outside influences derail her ambitions. 

    Rory's main weakness is her entitlement and her refusal to acknowledge it.

    The most significant example of this comes when Rory accepts an internship at her boyfriend Logan’s father’s publishing firm, a hush‑opportunity offered after the Huntzbergers berated her at dinner for not being the “right kind” of rich.

    Rory performed well during the internship. She listened, she led, she commanded the room. But that's the limit of her strengths. Rory is a leader, not a do-er. Leadership is a valuable skill, but journalism requires more. Rory lacked the inherent curiosity that her inspirations before her possessed. Mitchum noticed this. He told Rory plainly that she "didn't have it". When I first watched Gilmore Girls three years ago, I was appalled by his bluntness. But the older I get and the more times I rewatch, I see how correct he was in his assessment. One fleeting moment of doubt from a superior was, in effect, the cause of her complete academic downfall. 

    If you haven't seen Gilmore Girls, you might expect our Rory Gilmore to take this as motivation. You might expect her to dive into her passion of writing more intensely: get involved, network, prove Mitchum wrong. Instead, she crumbled. Instead of being investigative, she became incarcerated; she committed larceny of a boat. 

    It's human to fall apart under pressure. But very few of us would resort to committing crimes because we didn't get our way. 

    After her boat-stealing escapade, her grandfather sets up a meeting with one of his friends that happens to be a top attorney in the area. The attorney reassures Rory that because of her clean record and familial background (rich and white), she will receive nothing more than a slap on the wrist and 20 hours maximum of community service. 

    Satisfyingly, the judge during her court hearing was one of the few characters in the series that had a very low tolerance for "rich, privileged children viewing the world as their private playground." She sentenced Rory to 300 hours of community service to be completed in 6 months and one year of probation. This is one of the only times Rory is not coddled and treated as though her actions won't have severe consequences.

    Rory is eager to take advantage of her privilege when it benefits her but quick to deny it when confronted. Rory pretends that she doesn't fall into the entitled, rich, and preppy demographic that her peers do and somehow, that makes her even worse than them. 

One harsh criticism was the only push she needed to drop out of Yale and become a felon, when she could've been using that time to strengthen her deeply lacking skills.

Ironically, the most inquisitive moment I remember of hers is the endeavor in which she investigated the fictional Yale secret society, The Life and Death Brigade. It comes as a surprise to no one that the main catalyst for this investigation is the involvement of Logan Huntzberger, the handsome and captivating campus womanizer. Funny that the reason for one of her only memorable acts of curiosity was to get more insight on the secret life of a boy she might be interested in. That speaks volumes about the character of Rory Gilmore. 

    For 26 years, Gilmore Girls re-watchers have glorified the lifestyle of Rory Gilmore for her smarts, wit, aesthetic, and love of literature. I admit those traits draw me to her too. But we cannot ignore that Mitchum was right. We cannot let nostalgia blind our ability to criticize the deeply flawed character that is Rory Gilmore. A few well-written articles and strong leadership skills are just not enough to make it as a journalist. Journalists need drive, and Rory didn't have it.