Entertainment

'Gilmore Girls' Stars Who Should Join The Reunion

by Christine DiStasio

I need coffee. And, when that's gone, I need more coffee because this news is best handled with lots and lots of COFFEE in my system. On Thursday, Amy Sherman-Palladino confirmed that a Gilmore Girls reunion will happen at the ATX Festival with THE Lorelai and Rory Gilmore — I mean, Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel — in attendance. Yes, you heard that right, Gilmore Girls fans, so start dusting off your Bangles records and start planning for the greatest thing to ever happen to us all, like, ever. Seriously, this is almost as great as Sherman-Palladino revealing the real Gilmore Girls ending, which she very well might during this reunion panel. OK, just thinking about that makes me need more coffee.

If you've been obsessively re-watching Gilmore Girls on Netflix for the past month, you're probably feeling like Christmas just came early. It did, people, it did, because, in case you didn't already realize, A GILMORE GIRLS REUNION IS HAPPENING with all three of its inimitable components. I really just want to shake anyone's hand who was involved in getting this together while wearing a bandana on my head. While the reunion panel, which will run at the festival in June, is essentially perfect by Gilmore Girls standards, any real fan knows that Lorelai wouldn't settle for perfect, but she'd probably settle for brilliant.

So, in the interest of Lorelai's happiness, here's a definitive ranking of 10 other Gilmore Girls characters we want to see at the reunion. Please and thank you, ATX Festival.

#10 — Jared Padalecki: Dean

Do I even need to explain this one? Bye, Dean. Remember when you got married when you graduated high school and then cheated on your wife with Rory? Or that time you dumped Rory in the middle of the dance-a-thon? BYE. We all know who Rory's real soulmate is.

#9 — Sean Gunn: Kirk

I'm all-about a revival of some of Kirk's finest moments, but I never really understood how he was allowed to do every single job in town. So, that's why he falls so low on this list.

#8 — Keiko Agena: Lane

Lane was a great character, don't get me wrong. And she helped Rory navigate through some pretty rough times in her adolescent life. But she's really not one of the Top 5 characters that shaped Gilmore Girls. Sorry, Lane.

#7 — Yanic Truesdale: Michel

Let's be serious, Michel would absolutely not show up to a reunion of any kind. But, in the interest of this being my dream ranking of characters who could be on the Gilmore Girls reunion panel, Michel is up there. Mostly because he is the little voice inside my head that says all the things I can't because they're socially unacceptable at all times.

#6 — Edward Herrmann: Richard

So often I feel like Richard Gilmore was one of the underrated funny characters on this series. I mean, he came out with gems like the above AND there was the one time he stomped on the Haydens for insulting Rory and Lorelai in his home. Basically, he was funny (most of the time accidentally) and a boss, so there you go.

#5 — Liza Weil: Paris

And we've reached the Top 5. If you tell me that Paris Gellar, even when she was hating on Rory for coming to Chilton, wasn't the best of the best, you're lying. Seriously, I refuse to believe that you feel that way because Paris was amazing. At the very least, she could just make everyone in the audience seriously uncomfortable, like that one time she didn't get into Harvard.

#4 — Scott Patterson: Luke

Again, I don't feel like I need to explain this one but, I will anyway because I have a feeling Luke's coffee was the only reason why Rory and Lorelai were able to talk so quickly and make us love them. But Luke also was a pillar of the series. Without him, we never would've had that will-they-won't-they chemistry with Lorelai — nor would Lorelai have working rain gutters.

#3 — Melissa McCarthy: Sookie

Sookie St. James is arguably one of the greatest characters ever to be on television — she was a perfect friend, relentlessly funny, and a hell of a business partner. But the best part of this character is that it gave us Melissa McCarthy, and how could this reunion be complete without Lorelai's best friend? It couldn't.

#2 — Kelly Bishop: Emily

Even Lorelai knew when to admit that her mother actually had an amazing sense of humor. Emily Gilmore doesn't get as much credit as she should for being a huge (and often hilarious) part of Rory and Lorelai's relationship. Where would Gilmore Girls have been without all of those Friday night dinners? Nowhere. Just like Lorelai and Rory would be nowhere without Emily Gilmore — that humor had to come from somewhere. Also, Kelly Bishop is awesome.

#1 — Milo Ventimiglia: Jess

Did you expect anyone else to be in the number one spot on this ranking? Jess Mariano, aka Rory's soul mate who we lost way too soon and never got back in the capacity we wanted because Rory couldn't admit to how much she loved him. Well, I really need to know what Jess' spin-off series would be like and, to be quite honest, it'd be pretty incredible if Milo Ventimiglia got into full character for this panel.

Hear my prayers, Amy Sherman-Palladino and ATX Festival.

Images: The CW; gilmore-isms, brittapperry, girlsallmighty, halpertjames (2), taylortownsend, sandandglass, voldemorte/Tumblr; Giphy (2)