The Gilmore Girls revival premiere is just around the corner, and fans are about as desperate to revisit Stars Hollow as Lorelai is for lots and lots of coffee. Aside from the ever-contentious debate about which ex-boyfriend Rory should end up with, one of the largest questions that has trailed the series is where she winds up in her career. What Rory’s job is in the Gilmore Girls revival also happens to be a big part of A Year In The Life.
When we last saw the spunky, young journalist, she had just graduated from Yale and was struggling to land a job. A last minute offer found her hitting the road to cover then-Senator Barack Obama’s campaign for an online publication. It was hardly a classic 9-to-5 gig and Rory wasn’t even sure how long she’d be gone, though one can assume it kept her working for quite some time given that Obama won the election.
When A Year In The Life picks back up nearly a decade later, Rory’s professional life is in similarly uncertain territory. Due to an early first look, many speculated she ended up as a teacher at her high school alma mater, Chilton, but a later trailer revealed that Rory is still a little aimless. “I have no job. I have no credit. I have no underwear,” she tells Jess (yep, he’ll be back).
During one of their ritual Friday night dinners, family matriarch Emily Gilmore refers to her granddaughter’s lifestyle as a “vagabond existence.” Though promos show Rory moving back into her old room, it’s clear that it wasn’t because she lost a recent job or went through some big change — she never quite put down roots. "It's real time, so it's been about eight years that she’s been living a bit of a vagabond lifestyle, kind of chasing each story that she becomes passionate about and wants to tell," Alexis Bledel, who plays Rory, told Us Weekly in September. Instead, Rory's been trotting the globe, “crashing on couches and staying with friends.”
Though it’s initially surprising that Rory never pinned down a permanent job, it also makes a lot of sense. She may be smart and organized and driven, but if we know anything about the Gilmores, it’s that they don’t do anything the ordinary way. Just because she hasn’t been clocking regular company time doesn’t mean she hasn’t been successful, and we’ve seen her rebound from plenty of setbacks over the years. Of course, we’ll have to wait until the Nov. 25 premiere to see just how Rory conquers unemployment.
