She is an important side character
Mrs. Kim (portrayed by Emily Kuroda) is the mother of Lane Kim, Rory’s best friend. She is the owner of Kim's Antiques. She is extremely conservative and very religious; she keeps Lane on a short rope, which leads Lane to rebel against her. Lane basically led a double life; she loved rock music, greasy food, make up, bright and fun clothing, hanging out with boys, and she hid many of her most precious possessions in the floorboards in her bedroom. Her mother had other plans for her, which included church, conservative clothes, no greasy food, no rock music, and certainly no boys.
Mrs. Kim was very strict, and when Lane had her first boyfriend, Lane was so afraid to tell her mother about him that she made up an elaborate lie and then a scheme to keep her from ever finding out. Throughout the show, there were many schemes to keep Mrs. Kim from finding out anything about the real Lane Kim.
In the later seasons, Lane finally did expose who she really was to her mother, and actually had to move out other mother’s house because she didn’t approve of who Lane said she was. Eventually, Lane realized that she actually missed her mother and desperately wanted her to be proud, so Lane confronted her mother and brought her over to where she lived. While Mrs. Kim was surprised and originally appalled that her daughter was living with two boys, she finally came around and their relationship started to get a bit better. Lane was still herself, but she no longer was afraid to stand up to her mother, and Mrs. Kim actually began to respect that.