‘Gilmore Girls’: Did Caesar Go to Chilton?

Gilmore Girls’ final episode aired in 2007, but the beloved series has gotten renewed life on Netflix. The original seven seasons of the show are available on the platform, and the streaming giant even released a revival back in 2016. If you have the chance to rewatch the series, you may notice a familiar face pops up somewhere unexpected, leading to a lot of questions.

Eagle-eyed fans noticed that Caesar appears to be a Chilton student

In Season one, Rory attends a dance at her prestigious prep school with her then-boyfriend, Dean Forrester. Dean and Rory simply don’t fit in at Chilton, and things didn’t go particularly well at the dance. Dean ends up having a fight with Tristan Dugray, before the couple decides to head home.

During the fight scene, a young man is seen sitting at a table. Eagle-eyed fans noticed he looked an awful lot like Caesar, Luke Danes’ right-hand man. There is a good reason for that. The dance attendant is, in fact, Caesar, but little else is known about the circumstances that brought Caesar to Chilton. Was he a student? Was he at the dance as a date for another student, or was Alvarado simply repurposed as a different character at a later date? Sean Gunn, who portrayed Kirk Gleason, was, after all, repurposed.  Aris Alvarado, the actor who portrayed Caesar, cleared up some confusion on social media.

Aris Alvarado confirmed he’s easily spotted at Chilton

Alvarado confirmed that the actor fans spied in the Chilton scene was, in fact, him. Alvarado also dismissed the notion that he was merely an extra, who was later given a different, more substantial role. He insisted, on Twitter, that he was actually playing Caesar in the Chilton scene.

Alvarado’s admission left fans reeling. If Caesar was a Chilton student, how did he end up in Stars Hollow, and, more importantly, how did Rory never realize her former classmate was working in her beloved diner? It’s entirely possible that Rory and Caesar wouldn’t run into each other if they were in different grades. Still, it seems likely that, at some point, Caesar would have noticed Rory in a Chilton uniform and mentioned his alma mater.

A fan theory suggests Caesar was the male version of Lorelai

Alvarado never mentioned how his character went from an Ivy League feeder school to working in a diner in a tiny hamlet in Connecticut, but fans have a theory. According to Bustle, some fans think that Caesar may have been the male equivalent of Lorelai Gilmore.

Lorelai decided to abandon her upper-class upbringing and make it on her own. Then 17, with an infant in tow, Lorelai walked into the Independence Inn and requested a job. She first worked as a maid before being promoted to the general manager of the establishment. She held that job until the place burned down, and she opened the Dragonfly Inn with Sookie St. James. It is never mentioned how Lorelai stumbles upon Stars Hollow in the first place, though.

It’s entirely possible that Caesar also bucked an upper-class upbringing to strike out on his own. Just like Lorelai, he could have happened upon Stars Hollow, walked into the diner, and found himself a job. It’s not entirely implausible, but it certainly seems like something Amy Sherman-Palladino would have mentioned if Caesar’s role was supposed to be symbolic.