Lorelai and Rory

Lorelai comes into Rory’s bedroom at her grandparents, and they make up their fight, with Rory emotionally apologising for her behaviour the day before. Lorelai lets her know that she has spoken to Dean, and knows about the “I love you” that didn’t get returned.

Rory confirms Dean’s story, but for some reason doesn’t tell her mother that Dean sulked and got angry with her rather than being kind and understanding, or that he seemed to partly blame Lorelai for the problems in their relationship.

This may be because she is hoping to get back with Dean, and doesn’t want her mother to know about it, or because she genuinely doesn’t realise how badly Dean behaved, and completely blames herself for what happened.

Lorelai lets Rory know that she has set her a poor example in relationships, and that she hasn’t thought enough what she’s supposed to be teaching her. She tells Rory that she is still learning too, and that she wants Rory to know how to say “I love you”, even if Lorelai herself can’t say it yet.

This was an unusual moment on a teen drama series, where the mother admitted how clueless she was and that she didn’t have everything figured out either. Amy Sherman-Palladino was always trying to explain to the television executives that Lorelai was a different kind of mother, and Rory a different kind of daughter.