Meredith has the sense that she might have missed the point, mostly because all of that's just a relief. He's being honest with her, she knows he is, and it's possible that she should be more worried than she is about just what he means by all of it, but it's rare that she's felt like he wasn't being honest with her. She's been there before, buried under the certainty of her own badness, believing the people she loves deserved better. As much as she doesn't want him to feel that way, at least it's something she recognizes. It's something that can be survived.

"But it's not all pretend," she says, half pointing out the facts she does have, half just trying to be sure what they are. "You aren't pretending to care about me. Our conversations are real. The way you look at me is real. Everyone's done things, everyone leaves things out, Sean. That doesn't make it all a lie. We're still real, aren't we?"