Daria and Helen in “Unfinished Business”

Daria

Yeah? [Helen enters] No, I don't want to talk about it.

Helen

Talk about what?

Daria

Whatever it is you came in to have a heart to heart about.

Helen

I came in to ask you to rinse off your dishes before you put them in the dishwasher. Your father found a cheese fry melted onto his "World's Greatest Dad" cup and he thought it was some kind of rodent. Now he's sworn off coffee.

Daria

Then I should be hearing from the Nobel committee any day now.

Helen

All right, then, I'll leave you to your reading. [starts to leave]

Daria

Don't I seem inordinately unhappy to you?

Helen

I don't want to pry. [sees look on Daria's face] Well... I did overhear your argument with Jodie.

Daria

Do you think I'm a rigid, unrealistic, unforgiving self-righteous jerk who can't hold on to a friend?

Helen

She didn't say anything like that.

Daria

But, do you?

Helen

Daria, you have strong beliefs and you want to live by them. That's not a fault or a character flaw. It's admirable; it's what makes you who you are.

Daria

Jodie didn't think so.

Helen

Jodie is a little more pragmatic than you are. She didn't appreciate being criticized for it.

Daria

I don't blame her.

Helen

And since she's pragmatic, she also knows that the fact that someone's having a bad day doesn't make them a bad person.

Daria

What about someone with a pattern of alienating people with her self-righteous pronouncements?

Helen

People aren't as easily alienated as you think, Daria. Ask Jane. She'll tell you.