“I don’t know how to tell you things”

LORELAI: I’m sorry.
EMILY: All right, you’re sorry.
LORELAI: I don’t know how to tell you things Mom. Um, I don’t know if you’ve noticed this or not, but we don’t communicate very well. When something good happens to me, I’m just afraid you’re gonna make me feel bad about it. And when something bad happens to me, I’m always afraid you’ll say “I told you so.” I’m not sure if that’s always fair, and I’m sure I share part of the blame for this circle we get into, but you think your words don’t have any effect on me, but they do. And, I just didn’t want to feel bad about this, so I waited. And I really didn’t mean to hurt you.

Lorelai apologises to Emily for her part in their fight, explaining that she’s scared to tell Emily anything, good or bad, for fear of how she will react. She makes it clear it wasn’t done as a deliberate act to hurt Emily.

Emily makes no sign that she is even listening to Lorelai, and continues writing the letter she was working on when Lorelai interrupted her. As Lorelai pours out her heart to her, the most Emily does is turn her head away: is she ignoring Lorelai, gathering her thoughts, or does she look away for fear that the sight of Lorelai’s face will cause her own tightly controlled feelings to pour out?