A Character’s Purpose in the Story

Why Gilmore Girls fans love Jess a lot more than Zack — and it’s not the reason you might think

In season one of Gilmore Girls, on Rory’s first day at Chilton, she meets Tristan, played by Chad Michael Murray. He’s the resident bad boy, but he’s very interested in Rory, even (especially?) once he learns she has a boyfriend.

Tristan flirts with her and while they initially don’t get along, she warms up to him slowly. She sees a softer side that he doesn’t show a lot of other people, and she even ends up kissing him at a house party while she’s broken up with Dean.

Tristan eventually leaves the show when Chad Michael Murray got a much more lucrative contract on Murphy’s Dozen (a show that ultimately got cancelled, but was replaced in his schedule with One Tree Hill very soon).

This character has a purpose in the show: he’s a romantic rival. He and Dean are supposed to be rivals, to be the other arm in the love triangle. In case you didn’t click that link, love triangles, particularly in YA fiction (which Rory’s story is) are meant to be outward manifestations of the two paths the character can choose. Will Rory choose to be a housewife to Dean? Or will she seek a more cerebral match? I don’t think it’s an accident that Rory kisses Tristan shortly after That Damn Donna Reed, in which she plays housewife dress-up with Dean.