Rory’s great-grandmother seemingly returned from the dead.
On season one, episode three, Loreli’s (Lauren Graham) mother, Emily Gilmore (Kelly Bishop), pointed out that her dinner plates used to belong to Lorelei Gilmore the First, Richard’s mother.
During that same episode, Richard also said: “Lorelai the First was my mother. She was an extremely accomplished equestrian, a distinguished patron of the arts, and she was also world-famous for her masquerade balls. She was quite a woman, my mother.”
Throughout his monologue, he refers to her in the past tense as though she were dead.
But 15 episodes later on “The Third Lorelai,” Rory’s great-grandmother is alive, well, and terrorizing Emily.
Lorelei the First, played by Marion Ross, made several more appearances before her character dies (seemingly for a second time) on season four, episode 16, “The Reigning Lorelai.”