Jess Mariano managed to be one of the most developed characters on Gilmore Girls but was also one of the most frustrating to watch. Despite being extremely intelligent, funny with just the right amount of snark, and resilient, Jess made a lot of decisions that begged him to do the opposite of what he chose to do.
Unfortunately, Jess didn’t hear any of the advice he was given by Luke and Rory but he needed to. From dropping out of school to running away to being an outcast, Jess was lovable but by far one of the more annoying characters on Gilmore Girls.
Updated on July 7th, 2022, by Lynn Gibbs: Regardless if a Gilmore Girls fan was Team Jess or not, it was easy to recognize all of the annoying things Jess Mariano got away with or did in the small town of Stars Hollow. Fans wanted more for his underappreciated character and haters wanted him out of Rory’s life forever. Jess wasn’t all that bad though, and he did have sweet moments with Rory. The problem was that he never felt like he fit in, which promoted more annoying behavior that some fans couldn’t stand.
He Got Jealous of Dean & Rory’s Friendship
Nobody was innocent when it came to the love triangle that was Rory, Dean, and Jess. After Dean and Rory’s timeline ended because of Rory’s obvious feelings for Jess, they became friends again.
Although they didn’t work as a couple, they still cared for each other as friends. However, Jess wasn’t fond of Dean and Rory’s friendship because that was how he landed Rory in the first place — friendship. Whether it was Jess interfering with Rory and Dean’s romantic relationship or getting annoyed at Dean and Rory’s friendship, Jess’ reactions to Dean and Rory were annoying.
He Continued To Antagonize Dean To Make A Point
Even though Jess had great character development throughout the show’s entirety (including the reboot), his vendetta against Dean was unwarranted. The only reason why he didn’t like Dean was that he was dating Rory when Jess first moved to town.
It was nonsensical to hate someone just because they were dating someone he had a crush on. Instead of ignoring Dean and growing a friendship with Rory, Jess went out of his way to bother Dean or say things that made Dean overthink. It was a bullying nature that wouldn’t have been there if Jess didn’t start it.
Jess Never Tried Improving His Relationship With Lorelai
Every Gilmore Girls fan knows that Rory and Lorelai’s relationship is the most important in the show. They had a deep bond that couldn’t be broken. Jess picked up on this connection quickly but instead of warming up to Lorelai to prove to her that he was a good suitor and friend for her daughter, he continued the bad-boy schtick.
Lorelai loathed Jess and didn’t want Rory around him. When the two started dating, Jess could have had a heart-to-heart with Lorelai about the man he really was, but that never happened. He seemed to be fine with everyone in town hating him, which was frustrating to watch.
His Horrible Treatment Of Everyone Who Wasn’t Rory
One of the only people Jess respected and spoke to kindly was Rory. He had his moments with Luke but outside of those two characters, Jess was a menace to Stars Hollow on purpose. He knew the town’s selectman, Taylor Doose, despised him and pulled pranks on him purposefully. He was also sarcastic with guests at Luke’s Diner.
Jess didn’t deserve all the heat, of course. After all, he was just a teen. But at the same time, he made his life harder in Stars Hollow by acting out. If he treated everyone around him the same way he treated Rory, it would have been a different story.
He Kept The Swan Story From Rory
When Rory was able to convince Jess to join her for one of her grandmother’s Friday night dinners, he showed up remarkably late with extremely visible injuries. When he tried to proceed normally as if he wasn’t walking around with a black eye, Rory took him aside to ask what happened.
Jess remained tight-lipped about everything so she assumed he got into another fight with Dean. Jess ended up storming out from dinner early because he couldn’t be truthful about his injuries. This was incredibly annoying because if Jess was honest about being attacked by a swan, an embarrassing night never would have occurred. This became one of the more memorable Friday night dinners for all the wrong reasons.
He Lied To Luke About School
Jess worked a lot. When he wasn’t serving burgers and bickering with Luke at the diner, he was busy driving forklifts over at Walmart. Luke suspected something was amiss when he went to embarrass him for being an employee of the month and Jess’s boss told him that he was working long shifts like a full-time employee.
When Luke confronted Jess about being full-time, Jess shrugged it off. The problem was that Jess should be in school, not working full-time hours. It all came to a head when Luke saw Jess skip school to go to work. Luke and Jess had strong parallels to one another — he would have understood where Jess was coming from if he expressed himself instead of always running away.
He Left Stars Hollow Without Telling Luke
Luke seemed to be the only member of his family who was actively trying to help Jess, especially when he first arrived in Stars Hollow. Luke let Jess live with him in his studio apartment above the diner, gave him a job at the diner, helped him get enrolled in school, and was the closest thing he had to a father figure.
At the start, they had a deal. Jess would go to school and he had to graduate. Annoyingly, Jess broke that deal and Luke kicked him out. This wasn’t a surprise because it was one of the rules Luke set from the beginning. So Jess left for California without saying anything to the man who gave him so much. Leaving without saying a word was one of the worst things Jess did to Luke.
He Took His Anger Out On Rory
After he lied to everyone about his school attendance and found out the consequences of skipping class to work, he was noticeably upset. He ended up at a party with Rory, which was a bad idea from the start, and he had a one-man pity party in one of the upstairs rooms.
When Rory found him, she tried to figure out what was wrong. Instead of talking about it, he tried to make a move on her. Rory stopped him because she was understandably confused and not ready for whatever he was suggesting. Because nothing was going his way, Jess snapped at her and Rory left. As fans, it was frustrating watching Jess be so closed off to someone who begged him to open up.
He Tried To Run Away With Rory After Not Speaking To Her
Jess and Rory have a lot of history, and a lot of it felt like it was unfinished by the end of the show. The time that he showed up at her college dorm and asked her to run away with him could have been a portal to another universe in which they ended up together. If only they had some form of communication first. But in the end, Rory and Jess never made sense.
When Jess showed up unannounced at Rory’s dorm, they hadn’t talked in a long time. Even more annoying, he suggested that they run away together. Jess knew full well that Rory loved Stars Hollow and worked hard to get to Yale, why would she run away with an old flame?
Rory Constantly Sat Around Waiting For Jess
Even when things were great in their relationship, things were uncertain for Rory. There were times when Lorelai would watch Rory sitting around waiting for him to call. Jess didn’t see anything wrong with this, seeing as his life was made up of last-minute plans and not a lot of talking.
One night, after not calling her at all to make plans, he showed up at her house. He only found her mother Lorelai there to give him a much-needed wake-up call. Many of the times that they were shown together on screen, it seemed that Rory showed up places hoping he’d be there. Their miscommunications were a huge problem fans had with Rory and Jess.
He Left Stars Hollow Without Telling Rory
Right after Jess found out that he couldn’t graduate because he’d skipped too many days of school, he began a downward spiral into a pool of ill-placed emotions. From getting into an argument with Rory to having an all-out brawl with Dean at a house party, Jess was having a hard time fully accepting that he messed up.
Luke, the only person in his family who seemed to be paying him any attention, found out that he was no longer in school and kicked him out. After all, they had a deal. Instead of talking things over with his girlfriend Rory, he left to find his biological dad in California. He could have at least left an angry, but equally poetic voicemail.
He Called Rory On Her Big Day And Didn’t Say Anything
For a man that rarely communicated, he did have good quotes from time to time. Except for the day he called and said absolutely nothing to Rory on her graduation day.
While Jess was on his self-imposed break from his life in Stars Hollow, Jess called Rory often. He called enough for her to eventually figure out it was him calling, and that was also how she ended up breaking up with him. On the day of her graduation from Chilton, he called yet again without saying a word. Rory told him he broke her heart and that they were done, but even this didn’t prompt a response from him.
He Told Rory That He Loved Her After Years Of Silence
This goes along the same vein of Jess mishandling his emotions, pushing everyone away, and then not saying anything when she broke up with him. After all of that drama, he returned to Stars Hollow and ran away every time he and Rory wound up at the same place at the same time.
One night, he finally refrained from running from her and told her that he loved her after a year of radio silence. This was the most annoying thing Jess had ever done because it was a sad reminder that they would have been great together. He just needed time to mature and heal. While this was one of the sadder moments for Jess, it was annoying for Rory because he was a year too late.
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