This Sopranos and Gilmore Girls Theory Is Freaking Me Out
Tony Soprano and Lorelai Gilmore... know each other?
In this world, I always thought you could be one of two things: a member of The Sopranos fandom, or the Gilmore Girls hive. (I don’t make the rules!) They’re two opposite sides of the television spectrum that rarely collide—especially within their own cinematic universes. What business would Lorelai Gilmore have mingling with Tony Soprano, anyway?
Well, leave it to the Internet to prove me wrong. Though Lorelai and Tony never sat down for a cup of coffee—or planned a hit together—the two characters do know of each other. One eagle-eyed fan recently noticed a crossover between the two series, sharing their findings on Reddit. And it’s a doozy.
Apparently, in Season Six, Episode Four of The Sopranos, an episode of Gilmore Girls plays on Tony’s television. Meanwhile in Season Seven, Episode 17 of Gilmore Girls, Lorelai jokes that her father, Richard, who’s wearing a tracksuit, looks like he’s about to have lunch with Tony Soprano. As Reddit user Firstasatragedy dutifully pointed out, this isn’t a simple coincidence. No. It’s much bigger than that. If Lorelai knows who Tony Soprano is—and Tony Soprano know’s Lorelai is—then both characters are fictional beings in each other’s worlds. It seems as if we have a television paradox on our hands, but I’ll let the Reddit user explain:
So obviously this means that both the Sopranos and Gilmore Girls exist as television shows in the other’s respective universe. But more alarmingly, this means that each universe has now become a televised universe of itself within their own universes. When the Gilmore Girls watch The Sopranos, they will see themselves in the show. Likewise, when Tony Soprano watches Gilmore Girls, he will witness a direct reference to himself. It’s like the effect of two mirrors facing each other: the universes of the Gilmore Girls and the Sopranos are infinitely replicated all the way down.
Does anyone know the executives at HBO and the CW? I don’t know who’s responsible for such a mind-bending crossover, but kudos to them for upending my knowledge of early-aughts pop culture. As a Gilmore Girls fan, I never got around to watching The Sopranos (they’re both long shows, OK?). But hey, if Lorelai is into it, I’ll give it a shot, too.
