Which Episodes Of The 'Gilmore Girls' Revival Is Dean In? Expect Only A Brief Appearance

Gilmore Girls is about many things: the love between a mother and daughter, the differences between three generations of women, community, growing up, and more. While the true love story on Gilmore Girls is between Lorelai and Rory, each of their relationships became a focus of the show. Rory dated three different guys as she grew up and each relationship taught her something about herself, starting with her first love, Dean Forester. Like her other two exes, Dean will return for the Gilmore Girls revival, but we don't know what his storyline will be, or even what he's like as an adult. One thing that could provide some clues, however, is which episodes of Gilmore Girls Dean will be in, and unfortunately, things aren't looking great for members of Team Dean.

Now, Gilmore Girls fans can agree on a lot of things. We all would love to have a cup of coffee in Luke's Diner, sit in on a Stars Hallow town meeting or spend a night in the Dragonfly Inn. But when it comes to who Rory should end up with, fans are decidedly split. Dean was a kind, consistent, lovestruck first boyfriend and although his later storyline includes some big mistakes (like having an affair with Rory while he was married to someone else), I'm still excited to see him again.

But it seems that I won't be seeing very much of him. In an interview with Us Weekly, Jared Padalecki said that he was only able to film Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life for one day because of his Supernatural schedule. Still, he told the magazine that he thinks fans will be satisfied with the result:

"I wanted to be a bigger part -- I think they wanted me to be a bigger part in it as well. But it was shot during Supernatural, so I only did one day. But in that one day, it was a really good amount of stuff I got to do, and explained a lot."

IMDB also lists Padalecki as only appearing in one episode, and though that is not a confirmation, it would make sense that he was only able to film enough to appear in a single episode. According to IMDB, that single episode is "Fall," the finale, which is supported by another clue. See that photo of present-day Dean above? When you download it from Netflix, the file name includes Fall, so it's very likely that he'll appear in the finale. We'll just have to wait and see if he managed to film enough in that one day to surprise viewers with appearances in more than that.

While I find Dean problematic in many ways, the revival wouldn't be the same without catching up with Rory's first love. It's not so much that I'm craving a full new storyline with Dean, but that I want to check in and see what he's been up to, and Padalecki's interview makes it sound like that's exactly what we're getting. that seems to be exactly what we'll get.

I have high hopes for Dean's current life. He was always a kind soul who struggled with getting over Rory and figuring out his own path. As Lorelai said in the original series, Rory couldn't have had a better first boyfriend, and Dean deserves to get some closure. And based on the still, it looks like he'll have a moment in Doose's Market, which is fitting and lovely.

I hope Dean's final scene is a happy one. So much of the end of Rory and Dean's relationship was a struggle to come to terms with being on separate paths, but hopefully, they've both found happiness and can end their story on good terms.