Can Not Spit It Out - Television Tropes & Idioms

alt title(s): Cant Spit It Out

If I fall in love with someone else, I will tell him/her now, and not shyly procrastinate, thereby dooming the object of my affection to perish just as I was getting up the courage to make my feelings known.
— From "The Things I Will Do If I Am Ever the Sidekick."

There is a piece of vital information that would clear up a character's problems, whether it is a misunderstanding of romance or combat. If the character just spit it out, it would save entire episodes... entire seasons of trouble and tears.

... so, naturally, they don't.

Whether it's due to embarrassment, ego, or just plain stupidity, they rush into whatever situation is going on. Sometimes this leads to a moral about the benefits of clear-headed conversation over fighting needlessly. However, most of the time it's just to provide padding to the series.

Sometimes, the reason one character Cannot Spit It Out is because the other side won't let them. Or else they seem to have a wall around their mind against the information.

Other times the character is just sometimes an ass. While the Ineffectual Loner has many chances to clarify his role, most of the time he'll just tell the heroes to figure it out themselves.

Of course, any time someone finally summons up the courage to actually say it, they will be interrupted. It could be sudden events in the plot taking priority, or another of their circle of friends suddenly feels the need to announce some unimportant item that needs everyone's attention right now. The moment is lost, and even when it isn't, they likely won't be believed anyway. And sometimes, most tragically of all, the person to whom this needs to be said dies just as the other person has finally gotten up the courage to make his or her feelings known.

Sometimes overcome by the Green Eyed Monster, or by Converse With The Unconscious.

If it's a magical curse that prevents the character from sharing information, then that character may be Tongue Tied.

See also You Didnt Ask, Idiot Plot, Oops I Did It Again, Three Is Company, Hint Dropping, Dug In Deeper. A specific sub-trope of Poor Communication Kills.

Incidental Note: The proper spelling of this trope is "Cannot Spit It Out," regardless of what the database seems to think. If the page header says "Can Not Spit It Out", then the link that brought you here used the wrong capitalization.

Examples

Anime and Manga

Pick an Unlucky Childhood Friend. Any Unlucky Childhood Friend. It will also be coupled with the intended target Failing All Spot Checks on what few hints they do manage to give off.
This is more or less Rumiko Takahashi's S.O.P.: At least one member of the pairing must not be able to confess their feelings:
- Ranma ½. After spending most of the series calling Akane an "uncute tomboy", Ranma finally musters up the courage to tell her that actually, he thinks she's really cute — and then she doesn't believe him because she thinks he's trying to trick her.
  - Don't forget how Ryoga actually spends the entire manga obsessing over how much he loves Akane, but never actually tells her without being interupted by something.
- Urusei Yatsura: Ataru can't admit he really loves Lum because if he did, he'd have to give up his dreams of a harem. (It should be noted that this makes sense to no one other than Ataru, given his horrible luck with women).
- Maison Ikkoku: Godai is openly in love with Kyoko, but is too wishy-washy to 'fess up. Kyoko is aware of this, but is conflicted both by a rich rival suitor and her inability to let go of her dead husband.
- Inu Yasha: Although Inu Yasha and Kagome seem to have "reached an understanding" as to how they feel about each other, neither has been able to actually say the words, even to themselves.
  - Even worse (and more obvious) is the Sango/Miroku quagmire, where one side can occasionally get their feelings out, but the other either locks up or spoils the moment (though they did eventually get on the same page).
Dramatic example: Peach Girl
Love Hina did this a lot, and eventually referred to this in the Kanako arc OVAs
In Hana Kimi, Mizuki loves Sano, and Sano loves Mizuki pretty much from chapter 3 onwards. Also, that's about when Sano also finds out that Mizuki really is a girl. And neither knows about what the other knows until chapter 133.
Keroro Gunsou spent an entire episode milking the trope, as Momoka's attempts to refer to Fuyuki on a first-name basis lead to increasingly absurd changes in the conversation.
How anime fans (and anyone with half a brain) react to Arashi No Yoru Ni (One Stormy Night). They keep saying the word "friend" but you keep thinking one of them should just blurt out the obvious.
Many love triangles, such as the one in Kimagure Orange Road, have a third wheel who thinks that the main character returns their feelings. In the case of KOR, he doesn't, but feels it's far better to lead her on for the entire series instead of sitting her down and explaining the situation, as he does care for the girl as a sister and can't bring himself to hurt her feelings. It certainly doesn't help that the girl whom he does have feelings for is the best friend of the third wheel and a Hot Amazon who already promised to help the wheel girl, as well as willing to beat the shit out of him if he causes said girl harm.
In the first two seasons of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, the villains have their own reasons for doing what they're doing, but refuse to tell why despite Nanoha wanting to talk to them. Nanoha (whose main characteristic is her honesty and straightforwardness) decides that the only way to get them to explain their actions is to beat them in combat and demand an explanation. It works.
In Eureka Seven, three of the characters, a seasoned rebel named Holland, his girlfriend/second in command Talho, and a young boy named Renton get into an argument over an injured teammate. Holland pretends he doesn't care, and goes on a mission to save a head priest "for a lot of money." Renton is furious that he doesn't care. Talho understands that Holland is saving this priest because he can save their teammate. Holland beats Renton up for his suggesting they try to save their teammate, Talho slaps Holland for not telling Renton that he wants to save their teammate, she also slaps Renton for not realizing that Holland wants to save their teammate (but she doesn't tell him this). This leads to Renton leaving the crew, and falling into the company of a rival mercenary. Just because everybody Cannot Spit It Out.
Ai Yori Aoshi would have been much simpler if Aoi and Kaoru could just tell Kaoru's Unwanted Harem that he was taken.
- Also much shorter. On the upside, it paves the way for Tina's crowning moment.
  - Shorter, maybe, but not much. Tina already had a strong suspicion, Mayu clearly doesn't care if Kaoru is taken (even after he's married), Taeko never considered actually chasing after him until very late, and Chika... hard to tell just how serious she was being.
- Tina is a even better example. Her inability to confess her love to Kaoru before the series begins leads to her going on a year-long trip around the world, mainly to try and get over it.
  - This troper still greatly respects her for her grace in loss, and her retaining her loving friendship with Kaoru and Aoi.
Katekyo Hitman Reborn! stars Tsunayoshi "Tsuna" Sawada, an Unlucky Everydude with a crush on his classmate Kyoko who Cannot Spit It Out. One of Reborn's first tasks in making Tsuna a suitable heir to the Vongola Mafia family is using his "Dying Wish Bullet" to make Tsuna confess his love to Kyoko. But in the end, she still thinks he was joking, and he has yet to convince himself to confess a second time.
Used famously in CLAMP works, especially Card Captor Sakura, Wish and the newer series Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles and xxxHolic.
- They also tend to use a unique variations of this trope especially with the dreamseers. Who can see the possible futures both good and bad. They'll tell the rest of the cast whenever the future is good, however when the future is generally bad they won't say anything. The reason behind this is because as long as they don't tell the key players that future then they can change it, but telling others of that future can set it in stone. And the only dreamseer who actually DID say the future was still unchanged... said so after her death.
The inability of various characters in School Rumble to confess their love, Harima's feelings for Tenma being the principle example.
Hagino in Blue Drop for the largest part doesn't tell Mari that she is the commander of the space ship that caused the disaster in which Mari's parents died.
Kaorin of Azumanga Daioh can't do anything about her crush on the resident Huge Schoolgirl, as she becomes so flustered around Sakaki that it's amazing that she can talk at all.
The fact that the two sisters Asu and Kyou from Binbou Shimai Monogatari love each other a lot can't prevent them from communicating poorly on a regular basis, making them run in panicky circles where a few choice words would have helped immensely. But the making-up hugs are cute indeed◊. Awww...
In Kannazuki No Miko the plot would have been almost completely different if Chikane had told Himeko about what happened in their past lives.
After episode 9 of Abenobashi Mahou Shoutengai, Sasshi finds himself unable to bring himself to tell Arumi that Masa-jii is dead.
In Tekkaman Blade, an early episode has D-Boy's transformation crystal being broken, forcing him to use a modified Pegas robot to transform into Blade. Late in the series, when he's losing his memory due to a Deadly Upgrade, he forgets that his crystal broke and starts trying to transform on his own. Despite that he is searching the ground frantically and asking, over and over again, where his crystal is, Pegas refuses to say even something as simple is "I have your crystal, give me the command," instead uninformatively urging D-Boy to transform. Later, he dryly explains, "D-Boy refuses to access my Tek-Set function."
In Kanon, no one thinks to mention to the main charrie that the girl whose death traumatized him 7 years ago was still alive in hospital.
This is a somewhat less obvious example, but this troper has long suspected that in Code Geass, Suzaku might not have gone to such extremes if he had known that the Euphinator incident was completely accidental, and Lelouch had actually intended to cooperate with Euphie, were it not for a poorly timed Mode Lock. Predictably enough, Lelouch never thinks to mention this, and Suzaku is left with the impression that he deliberately and ruthlessly betrayed both of his childhood friends and orchestrated a genocide of the same people he was supposedly acting on the behalf of to make himself seem like a hero for intervening, when he was actually simply making the best of a disastrous situation. While this troper sees this as quite sensible, the odds that Suzaku would actually believe Lelouch if he told him are rather low at best. Things are that bad between them.
- Lelouch's real problem here is that he never tells them the answer to what they asked, such as "Did you geass me?" gets a "Yes" instead of a "Yes, but only to confirm your rebel identity".
- C.C. is blatantly guilty of this as well. Think how much shorter the series would have been if she'd told him in the beginning what his parents were really up to.
- While that would seem like the better choice, the only reason it doesn't happen from the get-go is because C.C. starts off the series as wanting to use Lelouch for her own gain and giving him the Geass in the first place for the LOLs/so she can die.
In Kaleido Star, Ill Boy Ken Robbins tries often to tell Sora Naegino that he greatly loves and admires her, but never gets the chance. In a more adult version, Kalos Eido loves his best friend Sarah Dupont, but feels guilty for their common past and doesn't want to let her know. And last, Jerry the policeman can't tell his best friend Kate that he loves her since they've been friends for decades and he fears to lose that friendship When he does tell her, he graduates to Victorious Childhood Friend.
- To be fair, Ken does manage to tell Sora his feelings in the second season — and then the policeman ruins it by thinking that Ken means he's one of Sora's fans. In the end, poor Ken never gets to tell her the way he feels.
In Princess Tutu, Ahiru can't tell Mytho that she loves him — Not because of nervousness, but because she'll cease to exist once she does. This becomes very troublesome in the first season finale when Princess Kraehe offers to return Mytho's emotion of love, but only if she says that she loves him.
Evangelion: This Troper wonders if telling Shinji beforehand that Touji was piloting Unit 03 would have made Episode 18 turn out differently. This is not necessarily a case of Cannot Spit It Out — it might actually have ended the same way....
- It would. In the manga, Shinji already knew this beforehand, and the same events occurred; the only difference was Shinji's reasoning behind his actions.
In Chrono Crusade, it's hard to say that the plot would have changed had he told Rosette, but Chrono constantly dodges around telling Rosette about his past — to the point that "one of these days, I'll have to tell you a story" practically becomes his Catch Phrase. The few times he does seem to be about to explain it, he's interrupted. In the manga, Rosette has to go into his soul and dig around in his memories to find out the truth.
All Daisuke needs to do in DNAngel to stop transforming into Dark is to get the girl he loves to love him in return — but that includes loving Dark, since Dark is a part of him. Daisuke is unable to bring himself to tell her the truth, partially because he's scared of rejection and partially because part of him isn't sure if he wants Dark to leave.
Subverted in Yu Yu Hakusho. Just before Yusuke leaves to face his demon heritage, he has one last meal at the Yukimura diner. Cue Yusuke's marriage proposal, which Keiko reacts to rather nonchalantly. The subversion comes when Keiko returns to her room — Yusuke drops "Oh, come on, Keiko... you know I love you." without nary a second thought. Keiko's response? An even more nonchalant "Yeah, yeah."
Hinata regarding her feelings for Naruto. That about covers it.
- Until she did spit it out.
In Hidamari Sketch, Sae has trouble telling her little sister Chika how much she really cares for her.
- Likewise, Natsume is sending Sae mostly confusing messages, although it's admittedly quite hard to get through Sae's obliviousness.
Tatsuya and Minami in Touch. He likes her and she likes him, and she even kisses and confess to him before the 20th episode. It still took over 100 episodes...
Mahoraba takes the romantic variety to insane levels, leaving you to wonder if either of the mains have tongues at all until the last episode.
Effectively invoked in Mahou Sensei Negima, when Negi tries to ask his father's allies who his mother is. Unfortunately, Rakan swore them to silence until he "acknowledges Negi as a man", seemingly so that Negi would have even more incentive to beat him in their upcoming fight.
In Saki, Nodoka desperately tries to cover up her feelings for Saki whom she keeps referring to as nothing but a friend—not to much avail, though.
In Tegami Bachi, Connor is unable to bring himself to tell Lag that Gauche, whom Lag befriended while being delivered to Cambel Litmus, was fired from his Letter Bee position after going missing. In a one-shot story, a woman's maid is unable to reveal herself as the person who had sent her the picture postcards, because she had been forced to sell the gift she had received from her future employer when the two were younger. One of Lag's Heart Bullets reveals the secret, which the woman takes well.

Comics

Charlie Brown's inability to talk to the Red-Haired Girl in Peanuts.
In the 1990s Marvel Comics series Sleepwalker, Rick Sheridan finds himself unable to explain his sudden sleeping problems, caused by Sleepwalker being trapped in his mind, to his girlfriend Alyssa, mostly because he's afraid of how he thinks she'll react.
Spider-Man suffers from this trope in spades, with Peter Parker unwilling to reveal his dual identity to his Aunt May, because he fears the shock will kill her, and later because he doesn't want her constantly worrying about him risking his life as Spider-Man. This became a Wall Banger in and of itself after a while, and it became even worse when Peter wouldn't tell his first girlfriend, Gwen Stacy, the secret either. He never told Mary Jane while they were dating, either — she had to tell him that she knew his secret.
- When May does find out and talks to Peter, it's one of the most touching scenes in comics, including the part where she specifically points out that she's a big girl and she won't just keel over, and that she will be worried, but he has her blessing. Unfortunately Ret Con'd by One More Day.
The current Cable series tends to get sapped of any and all momentum it may have built up at least once an issue, as all the conflict roots from Bishop's complete inability to simply explain his apparent Face Heel Turn to the X-Men he's been working with for years, despite countless opportunities to do so.
For most of his super heroing career, Captain Marvel Jr couldn't tell anyone his name, because it happened to also be his transformation phrase (minus the "Jr"). (He's now known as Shazam, having taken over for Billy Batson, who took over for the Wizard Shazam as guardian of The Rock Of Ages.)

Film

In the movie Spider-Man 3, Harry Osborne has a terrible grudge against Spider-Man, as he believes him was responsible for the death of his father, Norman. As one of the only people who knows Spider-Man's real identity, he spends the greater part of the movie making things difficult for Peter Parker, battles Spider-Man a few times as the Green Goblin, and eventually, in one of said battles, gets injured. Later in the movie, Peter asks Harry to help fight the team of Venom and the Sandman, but Harry declines the offer. At this point, the Osborne family's loyal butler Bernard arrives, and tells Harry that Spider-Man was really never responsible for Norman's death, and that he died of his own folly. Apparently, the butler knew this all along, but still allowed Harry to play out his vendetta against Spider-Man.
- According to the DVD extras, the butler was a hallucination for Harry to justify himself. Note how only Harry sees him during the entire movie.
  - Seriously? I thought there was a scene where he talked to the butler while Pete was right there, and Pete didn't act like anything was off...
  - Wait. If the Butler is a figment of Harry's imagination how can the Butler know that Peter didn't really kill Harry's father and Harry not know?
- To be fair, Spider-man himself was partly responsible, as he obeyed Norman's dying request not to tell Harry.
- Many people believed that the butler's reason for not speaking out until then was that Harry was not ready to listen, and that attempting to tell Harry this truth earlier would have just resulted in being fired and unable to help him later.
- And lets not forget Mary Jane. If she had just said that she got fired from her job, about half of the conflict in the movie would disappear.
- Peter is unable to tell Aunt May about how Uncle Ben died until late in the second movie. Justified in that he was partly responsible.
Several Abbott and Costello films play with this, with Costello needed to impart some important information, usually that the movie's villain is nearby. However, while he mimes speaking the words, he's so scared that he literally cannot make any kind of audible sound.
Used rather movingly in the 1989 Batman film. Bruce tries to tell Vicki he's Batman, but he just can't bring himself to actually say it. When she gets tired of waiting and walks away he disgustedly mouths "I'm Batman" to himself.
Tragically used in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Shu Lien and Li Mubai are deeply in love with each other and pretty much everyone knows, including themselves, but Shu Lien's first love and fiancée was actually Li Mubai's best friend, and he tragically perished in an event that Mubai still blames himself for. Therefore, to not shame the dead guy's memory, they can't act on their love. And don't do so until Li Mubai is fatally poisoned and, in his last moments, he shares a Last Kiss with Shu Lien.
- Maybe it would disgrace the late friend's memory according to Asian codes of honor. However a Western hero could be safely assumed to approve of his best friend and girl getting together after a decent interval of mourning. In fact heroes have even been known to ask their best friend to "take care" of their girl if "anything should happen" with pretty obvious sub-text.

Literature

In The Rise of Endymion, the eponymous main character spends a great deal of energy angsting over a period of time that his love spent unaccounted for while he was off touring planets, having kidney stones, and eluding the Space Pope. No, really. He deduces that this time was spent with another man, and angsts accordingly. At length. Of course, he can't bear to ask her about it; otherwise she might have told him that thanks to some time travel tomfoolery, the other man was him. However, considering how much of the plot's pacing hinges on said lover's constant reluctance to give information that would explain anything to anyone, maybe not.
- To be fair, he did ask, and she tearfully told him she had a baby, and begged him not to ask further.
In Robert Jordan's Wheel Of Time series, all characters assume they know best. Each lies or hides the truth "for the greater good." The resulting confusion, interpersonal conflict, jealousy, and setbacks invariably stem from the main characters' inability or unwillingness to communicate. In the end, it turns out all the good guys are on the same side! Who knew?
A recurring theme in Anne McCaffrey's books, where couples spend entire books (occasionally several) pining for each other until something forces one or both to admit their feelings. (See: F'lar and Lessa in Dragonflight, Afra and Damia in Damia, Sebell and Menolly in Dragonsinger)
In the book Destiny (book 3 of the Rhapsody series), dragon-blooded Marty Stu Ashe cannot reveal the identity of his new wife to his soulmate, the equally sueish lead character, Rhapsody, for reasons that were never made very clear (possibly spelled out in greater detail in the previous book). It turns out that the wife was Rhapsody herself (who had the memory magically zapped from her mind for the same reason Ashe couldn't tell her himself).
Rebecca (Daphne du Maurier). The heroine is convinced that she's a complete failure compared to Rebecca, her husband's first (dead) wife, until she finds out that the husband murdered Rebecca. Which cheers her up immensely.
Everything ever written by Russell T Davies.
Sophie Hatter in Howls Moving Castle is cursed to take the form of a 90-years-old woman — and part of the curse is that she can't tell anyone. If she tries to, she's either interrupted or people misunderstand her.
In Isobelle Carmody's "Ashling", Rushton and Elspeth love each other, but neither of them admit it until Rushton has an emotional breakdown and tells her that he thinks that she doesn't love him because he can't use his psychic powers, when she was actually ignoring him because she thought he was carrying on with Freya. So sad.
In The Name Of The Wind, Kvothe finds himself unable to tell Denna how he feels, at first out of mischance (and her frequent, frustrating absences), but later it is because he fears he has nothing to offer her, and that if he were to pursue a romantic relationship with her it will end badly, as most of her relationships apparently do. Instead of trying to work up the courage anyway, he ends the book as an Unlucky Childhood Friend. Of course, this is only the first part....
Seregil from Nightrunner takes at least a book and a half to spit out anything: the secret of his protege's heritage, his true feelings for his protege, his own murky past....
Harry Driscoll from The Frog King hates the word "love" at first, then when he has the chance to attempt to redeem himself to his ex-girlfriend and show how much she means to him... he abuses her and her new author/boyfriend and only realises he never said he loved her until it's too late.
Romeo And Juliet uses this trope, making it Older Than Steam. Tybalt confronts Romeo, challenging him to a swordfight. Romeo tries to explain that there's therefore no reason for their two families to keep feuding, since he and Juliet recently got married. Tybalt won't let Romeo get to the part about marriage, assuming Romeo's unwillingness to fight is simply the act of a coward. Then Tybalt makes the whole conversation moot when he fights and kills Mercutio instead.
Edgar Rice Burroughs used this trope a lot. His character's justification was usually that they thought the other person already knew, or that they didn't realize the information was important. This results in situations, like one character fighting alongside another for several days before realizing the other character is his long lost father (The Gods of Mars), a man in love with a woman thinking she's already married because she mentions she loves another man when really she's just talking about how she loves her brother (Tarzan at the Earth's Core), and one character thinking he's a genetically engineered monstrosity when really he's a totally normal amnesiac human (The Monster Men).
Stephen King's DarkTower series does this a hell of a lot: Whoops, pregnant with a shapeshifting deamon baby and I'm one of the fathers and there's two of us. Funny part is I never had my way with you. My seed is being passed to you by an oracle who'll proceed to rape you for a good 30 pages. Gosh darn, can't not love Stephen King.

Live Action TV

One of the worst ongoing examples is from Monk; the titular character has obsessive-compulsive disorder, but it's almost never mentioned, even when it would help. On one occasion, he shook hands with two white women, then a black guy, then asked his assistant for a wipe, like he frequently does. The black guy assumes Monk is racist, and explicitly asks him if he has any excuse. They tried to say Monk wasn't racist with Natalie saying "He loves Rainbows!" and Monk doing a rainbow-type of a hand motion.
Subverted in Buffy The Vampire Slayer, "Once More, With Feeling", in which several "Can't Spit It Out" plot threads that could have been milked for weeks, if not seasons, are dragged into the open by a demon's musical curse.
- Sadly, since this was all-wangst-all-the-time season six THEY STILL &%$@ MILKED THEM!!
Doctor Who, "Doomsday". After Rose chokes out "I love you" to the Doctor (transmitted as a short-term holograph into the parallel world she's trapped in) it's his turn. "Since it's my last chance to say it... Rose Tyler—" And then the transmission cuts, he vanishes, and this troper sobs for the next ten minutes. Every time.
- Even when he gets a second chance to tell her in "Journey's End", the Doctor is too broken to say more than "Does it really need saying?". However, his part-human clone fares better.
- Also in 'The Satan Pit', where it looks like he might finally ask another character to pass 'I love you' along to Rose, the Doctor bails out at the last minute - in a very sweet way, mind. "Tell Rose, tell her...Oh, she knows."
Lost.
- And then of course, the castaways ignore good advice that is spit out. Even by themselves. "Don't wander alone in the woods full of tree-smashing monster-thingies." Always good advice. But no....
In the series Smallville, arguably every problem befalling the characters stems from Clark's refusal to tell anybody about his powers.
In Terminator: The Sar... whatever. If: Riley talked to John, John talked to Sarah, Derek talked to either of them, Sarah told people where she was going OR they just had a nice, normal family dinner once in a while, they would figure out in about 5 seconds that Jesse was holding Riley hostage, that she had pretended to be a school official to get info on John, was lying to Derek and is not on their side. Instead they remain oblivious and one of them gets killed.
A lot of problems in the show Reaper come from Sam's inability to tell Andi about his problem with the devil.
- However, he does tell her about them later, in the second Season when she witnesses Sam beheading one of the souls.
Almost every single thing that happens between Serena and Dan towards the end of the first season of Gossip Girl could have been avoided if she had just told him about Georgina.
- Can also be used for Blair, Chuck, and those "three words, eight letters."
If it weren't for this trope, there would be no Sports Night. Every character on that show is far too busy talking and having emotions to f#&%ing communicate with each other.
Firefly has two examples in Mal and Inara and Simon and Kaylee. In the former case, both of the parties involved can't seem to make their feelings known, mainly because neither of them can let go of their pride. In the latter case, it's mainly Simon with the foot-in-mouth problem, though Kaylee has her insecurities as well. It took a Reaver siege in the Big Damn Movie for Simon to finally open up. Mal and Inara... not so much.
The second season of Heroes could have been about fifteen minutes long if characters who were on reasonably cordial terms at the end of the first season a) remembered each other's phone numbers and b) bothered to discuss the, y'know, impending pestilent apocalypse with each other.
- The Mohinder/Bennet subplot was a particularly awful in this regard: Mohinder spends the entire season obsessing about the world-killing virus. Bennet waits until the second to last episode of the season, after their partnership has imploded and Mohinder has consequently shot him, to mention "Oh yeah, the Company has been experimenting with that for decades."
This trope is the fuel that powers every soap opera ever written and is what allows them to keep babies switched for years, lovers separated and family members feuding. In addition to situations where a character is too afraid to say what needs to be said, soaps love to use "last minute inturruptions" where JUST as someone is going to tell their big secret to the person who needs to hear it, someone else comes in the room and not only derails the conversation, but usually says something that ends up convincing the one with the secret that it's a good thing they haven't said it out loud quite yet.

Music

This is the premise of the song "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" by The Police. The narrator is in love with a girl, but can't work up the courage to tell her.
Likewise "I Want to Tell You," by The Beatles.
Same with "When You Walk in the Room", most famously covered by The Shearchers.
In "Living Next Door to Alice", most successfully covered by The Smokies, the narrator has been in love with his neighbor for 24 years, but couldn't tell her.

Video Games

Final Fantasy VII did it, but it did it right. Cloud is convinced he used to be a member of SOLDIER, and all evidence is towards this — he has the uniform, the sword, the skills and the glowing eyes. However, after leaving town to join SOLDIER, he failed to get in, and instead enrolled as a basic grunt. After his idol burned down his hometown, maimed the closest thing he had to a childhood friend, nearly killed his best friend, and stabbed him through the chest, he was patched up by Evilutionary Biologist Hojo as part of an experiment. However, the combination of the drugs and trauma completely destroyed his mind, and when they escaped and Zack died defending him he utterly snapped, adopting an elaborate system of Fake Memories and osmosed personality from Zack. The only person who knew all this was Tifa, who met Zack on the mission. But, being in love with Cloud, she was unable to tell him anything. Her inability to do so earns Cloud a Mind Rape and a Heroic BSOD, which Tifa has to fix in a Journey To The Center Of The Mind, after the damage has been done.
- Not only would this information from Tifa help Cloud not have his BSOD, it would have probably kept him from being so easily controllable by Sephiroth, and it definitely would have helped the players, trying to muddle through the horrible pacing, awkward situations, and sometimes downright horrid translations from Japanese text to English. And even then, it's 20 hours and a whole disc later until you figure this very important plot point out.
- Don't even start on Irvine's inability to mention his past association with the other main characters and even the villain.
A significant portion of the conflict and tension in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Explorers of Darkness could have been easily avoided if Grovyle had taken a moment to explain himself. Indeed, once the main characters find out the truth, they go into hiding for several days and a number of tense sequences result... until the main character comes up with the brilliant idea of telling the guild about it. This simple act eliminates at least 80% of the angst, reduces the events of at least three earlier adventures to a simple off-screen quest, and helps give the main characters transportation and escorts to the next few areas.
In Fire Emblem, Hector and Florina's entire support conversation set is based on Florina being unable to say two words to Hector, when all she wants to do is thank him for saving her from certain doom in Laus. It takes Hector and her pegasus fighting to get her to finally spit it out.
- Of course, her androphobia didn't exactly help...
Used absolutely heartbreakingly in Prey. Tommy asks himself in the mirror why he won't just tell Jem he loves her. He eventually does after having had to kill her.
An interesting example: It takes a borderline Heroic BSOD (or maybe Villainous Breakdown is better considering the character) for Viconia in Baldurs Gate 2 to admit that she loves the protagonist. She has no problem sleeping with him, but confessing love is trickier.
- Of course, this is entirely in-keeping with drow culture. Hell, in the few cases where drow have fallen in love, the relationship tends to collapse under the weight of suspicion. Love Hurts, especially when both partners have Chronic Backstabbing Disorder.
Toward the end of Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time, Toadbert recovers his memory, and becomes frightened by the brothers’ gathering the Cobalt Star shards, but runs away before he can tell anything. He tells the brothers to rub some dirt off the sketch he had given to them earlier, which reveals the other Shroob Princess, but gets turned into a mushroom before he can say anything else. Peach is about to tell the brothers about the Cobalt Shard before a flying saucer attacks, and misses several opportunities to tell them before Bowser pieces together the shards, freeing the elder Shroob Princess.

Web Comics

In The Order of the Stick, Haley at one point becomes unable to speak intelligibly at all for some time until she expresses her feelings for Elan by an Anguished Declaration Of Love.
For the first year of Avalon, the characters seem (progressively less) unable to say the word "lesbian", which complicates Ceilidh's attempts to ascertain whether her best friend Phoebe is one (as rumor would have it). When she finally asks Ryan outright why he would ask out a lesbian, she learns all about what started the rumor, among other things. Unfortunately, by this time Ceilidh's constant innuendo has half the school — including Phoebe herself — convinced that she's a lesbian.
Eric (one of the Loserz webcomic's protagonists) has this problem with Alice. Despite the fact that she already told him she liked him. See here.
Shakespeare. Ophelia. Does it really have to be spelled out?
In the second part of the Love Potion arc of Sluggy Freelance, Gwynn curses Torg by turning him into a half-man, half-donkey and causing him to bray every time he tries to say something important in order to make sure that he does not tell anyone about her plan. Unfortunately, while on a date with Zoe, Oasis arrives and abducts him, kicking Zoe in the face in the process. Under the curse, Torg is unable to tell anyone what happened, causing Gwynn to believe he mistreated Zoe, but he eventually manages to get Riff to find out the truth.

Web Original

The entire reason Dr. Horrible wanted to make a Freeze Ray was so that he could work up the courage to talk to Penny. Unfortunately, due to his own terminal shyness and his later vendetta against Captain Hammer, he never does get to tell her how he feels about her. And then Penny dies.

Western Animation

In one episode of {{Sponge Bob Square Pants, after Squidward has played a prank on SpongeBob, he realizes how much he's humiliated him and goes to his house to apologize... but every time he tries to say "I'm sorry", he just can't pull it off without doing weird cartoon-takes.
This is the cornerstone of Ulrich and Yumi's UST in Code Lyoko.
Sam too, from Danny Phantom. She's outspoken on so many things... except her obvious crush on Danny. She's had a lot of close calls with other romantic rivalries as a result. They [predictably] got together in the end.
In the Chip And Dale Rescue Rangers episode "Good Times, Bat Times", Chip tries to reveal his feelings to Gadget. Twice. He always fails.
- So does he do in several FanFics. This troper should know, he drove this to extremes.

Real Life

The description mentions not admitting affection for someone, but I've noticed that the opposite is also common in dating. How many women pretend "nothing's wrong" while letting resentment build to relationship-shattering levels? Or feign affection to a guy's face only to malign him as a creep behind his back, but never consider that he might leave her alone if she just asked him to instead of misleading him? And I'm sure women reading this could come up with comparable examples for men...

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