Stars Hollow
‘Gilmore Girls’: Who Is the Father of Rory’s Baby? A Full Breakdown of the Mystery
Gilmore Girls may be 25 years old, but there’s one Stars Hollow mystery fans have yet to solve: Who is the father of Rory’s baby?
While Gilmore Girls ends with Rory (Alexis Bledel) leaving Stars Hollow to report on Barack Obama‘s early presidential campaign (Yes, that was actually her job!), Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life concludes on a far less certain note. In the final seconds, Rory and Lorelai (Lauren Graham) sit on the steps of the Stars Hollow gazebo, and Rory turns to her mother to drop a bomb with the last four words of the series. “Mom?” Rory says. “Yeah?” Lorelai replies, to which Rory responds, “I’m pregnant.” As Lorelai’s jaw drops, the show fades to black.
Seeing as Rory has multiple partners during A Year in the Life, and sees the return of all three of her main boyfriends from the original series, there are multiple candidates for the father of her child. Scroll to find out which guy we think is the most likely option — and who we wish it was below!
Gilmore Girls, All Episodes, Streaming Now, Hulu & Netflix
Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, Streaming Now, Netflix
Paul
Bet you forgot about Rory’s boyfriend of two years, Paul (Jack Carpenter), didn’t you? Much like Rory, many forget that Paul is in the picture for most of Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life. We actually don’t know much about Rory and Paul’s relationship, including how often they saw each other off-camera.
If their sex life was as uneventful as the rest of their relationship, it’s clear why a night together wouldn’t be documented during the limited series, but we’d wager to guess Rory and Paul were going through a bit of a dry spell, and he is not the father.
Dean
Sure, Dean (Jared Padalecki) is only in one scene during A Year in the Life, and they certainly didn’t knock boots in the aisle of Doose’s Market, but it isn’t out of character for Dean and Rory to sleep together when he’s married. It’s actually a canon event. While it would be low-key iconic for Rory to pull ANOTHER “My Dean” moment, it definitely wouldn’t occur off-camera. For that reason, Dean is definitely not Rory’s baby daddy.
Jess
Coming in as the #1 man we wish was the father of Rory’s child, we have Jess (Milo Ventimiglia). Much like Dean, Jess is not intimate with Rory during A Year in the Life. (Surprisingly, they never do the deed during the original series either.) However, it’s definitely clear that Jess still has feelings for Rory (as seen in the yearning gaze above).
Jess may not be the baby’s biological father, but we know he’d step in, just like Luke (Scott Patterson) did for him, if Rory needed him. Oh, Jess, we’ve always known that you had Step-DILF energy.
A Wookiee
One of the most popular theories about the father of Rory’s baby is that he’s an unknown character. During Episode 2 of A Year in the Life, “Spring,” Rory tells Lorelai that she hooked up with a guy dressed as a Wookiee (think Chewbacca). While Rory’s baby daddy being an unnamed Star Wars cosplayer would be iconic, the timeline of Rory’s pregnancy indicates that it is not the case. Seeing as Rory tells her mom that she is pregnant in the fall, the Wookiee theory would mean that she is already five or six months along in that scene. Of course, it’s not impossible, but it’s definitely unlikely.
Logan
Of course, Rory’s very own Christopher (David Sutcliffe) is our top pick for the father of her baby. Throughout the later seasons of Gilmore Girls, Rory’s relationship with Logan (Matt Czuchry) mirrors the relationship Lorelai’s parents wanted her to have with Christopher before she got pregnant. While Rory turns down Logan’s proposal, they find their way back to each other and start hooking up, even though they are dating other people.
Given the timeline, it’s most likely that Logan and Rory’s relationship led to her surprise pregnancy. As we hold out hope for another Gilmore Girls spinoff to solve this mystery once and for all, we’re pretty sure this full-circle moment ends with a baby Huntzberger-Gilmore growing up in Stars Hollow.
Costume designer Valerie Campbell said in a now-deleted TikTok that Logan is the “only obvious choice.” She added, “And Amy [Sherman-Palladino] herself said, ‘Why are people even questioning who the father is?’ It’s because it was supposed to be very, very, very, very, very obvious.”
