There are lots of reasons to love the 2007 series Gilmore Girls, with the quick humor, complicated family dynamic, and small-town charm, but even so, it isn’t without flaws. Perhaps the most discussed is Rory’s (Alexis Bledel) characterization, specifically in the later seasons. She is well-established as a golden child, with a glowing reputation throughout Stars Hollow, but Rory has a selfish streak. Though some people will say she drops off suddenly, the character flaw is evident long before the infamous boat-stealing incident, and Season 5, Episode 15, “Jews and Chinese Food,” brings it to the center as she treats Marty (Wayne Wilcox) unfairly. While Rory claims to want to spend time catching up with her friend, she seeks Logan’s (Matt Czuchry) attention at the expense of her day with Marty, proving how much she values his company.
Though this is far from the only example, it is especially noticeable because not only is Marty an innocent party, at least in this situation, but Rory is in her second year at Yale, making her old enough to know how to treat people. Five seasons in, she shouldn’t still be making the same mistakes she made in Season 1. While imperfect characters are more interesting in general, the main issue is that Rory never seems to learn from her mistakes. By showing Rory’s failure to consider how her actions impact other people, this episode exemplifies the ongoing issue of Rory’s self-centered attitude. While her treatment of Marty in “Jews and Chinese Food” is hard to watch, the most irritating part of it is the lack of self-awareness or growth.
Rory’s Treatment of Marty Is Selfish in ‘Gilmore Girls’ Season 5, Episode 15
“Jews and Chinese Food” has a lot going on as Luke (Scott Patterson) and Lorelai (Lauren Graham) react to another break up, Stars Hollow Elementary school puts on Fiddler on the Roof, and Paris (Liza Weil) and Doyle’s (Danny Strong) argue about their relationship, but Rory’s storyline centers on her plans with Marty. Having not seen much of Marty, Rory is quick to make plans with him when she runs into him, and doesn’t take no for an answer. She plans an elaborate Marx Brothers marathon, and it seems to be going well, uniting the friends after their awkward confrontation a few episodes before. Despite the success of the evening and the fact that Rory promises Marty that it will be just the two of them, when Logan unexpectedly shows up, Rory changes the plan.
Logan invites Rory and Marty to join his friends, and, admittedly, she hesitates at Logan’s invitation. But when Marty, unenthusiastically, agrees to go if she wants to, Rory jumps at the chance to throw out their plans. Not only is this a selfish thing to do when she has plans to hang out with just Marty, but she fails to see how her choice to alter things impacts Marty. Ever since Rory met Logan, she saw that he and Marty didn’t get along and witnessed Logan and his friends belittling Marty for his drastically different lifestyle. The entire evening is complicated by the fact that Marty hasn’t actually confessed his feelings for Rory, and she’s oblivious to them despite the signs. It’s perfectly fine that Rory doesn’t share Marty’s feelings, but if she wants to be his friend, she owes him some basic respect, which includes not putting him in a group of people where he is obviously uncomfortable and standing up for him when the others make jabs.
The night ends with Marty confessing his feelings for Rory, who admits she doesn’t share them, and Marty is forced to borrow money from her to pay for his food, which is undoubtedly a low point, and it’s hard not to feel sorry for him, especially when he handles the rejection so well. Of course, neither one is at fault for how they feel, but Rory’s behavior toward Marty before that moment doesn’t even qualify as good friendship.
Rory Has a Selfish Streak in ‘Gilmore Girls’
Rory’s failure to be a friend to Marty is aggravating, but it is not an isolated incident. In fact, throughout the series, Rory shows her selfish attitude on countless occasions. In Season 1, Episode 8, “Love and War and Snow,” Rory has a similar issue with Lane (Keiko Agena). After Rory and Dean (Jared Padalecki) begin dating, she becomes preoccupied and neglects her best friend, but after the situation blows up for Lane, Rory realizes that she is in the wrong and apologizes. Plus, she’s 16 and deserves some leeway for that instance. Yet it keeps happening.
She puts her interest in Jess (Milo Ventimiglia) over her relationship with Dean. She travels to New York for closure, skipping Lorelai’s graduation. When Rory sleeps with a married Dean, she doesn’t consider how her actions will affect Dean’s wife, Lindsay (Arielle Kebbel), and, in an especially telling moment, refers to him as “my Dean,” when she has no claim to the boy she broke up with. Even before Season 5, Rory has a history of selfish behavior, especially when it comes to prioritizing her crushes over everything else.
With so many mistakes to learn from, it seems like Rory should know better by the time of “Jews and Chinese Food,” and yet she never grows. By the time she is 20 years old, she should have figured out how to treat the people around her better than that. Not only has she failed to grow in five seasons, but this moment isn’t the last time Rory’s selfish behavior is on display. As late as the spinoff, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, Rory demonstrates the same behavior, carrying on with Logan with no concern about how it affects his fiancée or her boyfriend, Paul (Jack Carpenter), who is nothing but kind to her while she constantly forgets about him. Rory’s selfish attitude is exhausting, especially as she grows up, and in “Jews and Chinese Food,” that trait is on full display.
Rory’s Behavior Toward Marty Stands Out in ‘Gilmore Girls’
While there are plenty of times Rory disregards the other people in her life, the way she acts toward Marty in this episode stands out because it is so clear. She practically begs him to spend time with her and then throws out the plan when a better offer comes along. While Marty could have expressed his discomfort with this group of people or told Rory he didn’t want to go, she shouldn’t have put Marty in that position, especially after knowing how poorly Logan treats him.
It’s a basic social understanding that drastically changing plans on a person at the last minute is rude, and Rory does this for no reason other than she would rather be with Logan. And all this when Marty is nothing but kind to her. He brings leftover food to her apartment, helps her when she loses the Chilton student she hosts, and even braves Paris’ wrath to spend time with Rory. Marty isn’t a perfect character, and when he returns and lies to his girlfriend, Lucy (Krysten Ritter), about not knowing Rory later, he is definitely in the wrong, but in Season 5, Episode 15, there is no justification for Rory’s behavior and that’s why her selfishness is so distinctive in this storyline.
