Dawson's Creek - 208 - The Reluctant Hero

Original air date: November 25, 1998

I'd like to start off by apologising for how long it's taken to get this one out. I've had it written up for a while but needed to put pictures up and my life just became a shit storm the past few months which prevented me from doing so. Since things have hopefully quieted down in my life, I hope to get back to recapping regularly. With that out of the way, onto the episode recap!

We open once again in Dawson's room to find him watching a movie with Pacey this time. Pacey is shown to be a poor Joey substitute because he keeps asking for food during the movie but I actually think he's not a bad replacement. Pacey spends most of the time equating Dawson to Jimmy Stewart and saying that he is too nice and is a dying breed.

Come on, he's just trying to fill the Joey
void for you, Dawson

This argument that the show brings up serves to only piss me off. People do want nice people, they just want nice people with a personality and interests other than being nice. Being nice is a desirable quality, being boring is not. Mystery solved, guys.

Anyway, Pacey then turns his insulting eye on himself, calling himself a "needless waste" but insists he is happy with his status as a below average achiever. Well, this is a downer opener. Let's hope it picks up soon.

Jen enters, completely drunk off her ass, through Dawson's window. She mentions that her purse is in the hedge and that it's bright in Dawson's room before passing out on his bed. This is apparently not the first time this week and I'm a bit taken aback by this scenario.

Even Future Marty is confused

OK, what happened to Grams' talk with her where she told her that she wanted her to respect herself? It looked like Jen took that talk seriously. On top of that, she got burned by Max Ford last week but still didn't seem like she was getting drunk off her ass. My point is, this is added for the shock value and the drama, I really didn't see anything leading up to this and a really simple cue could have been given last episode that wouldn't have made this scene feel out of place for me. After Jen realises she's been used by the guy, they could have shown a brief shot of her downing some type of alcohol, just to hint to the viewer that she's going to get worse and not better. It would have been so simple but instead we go from slightly damaged/grieving but still somewhat level-headed Jen to balls out staggering drunk Jen in one episode. Writers, there is a way to create drama without just throwing crap at viewers to try and shock them. You can tell a cohesive story that is still full of drama and the viewers will still watch.

Fine. Just keep flipping character switches

The next morning, Dawson runs into his father who says he is getting more of his things to move out. This obviously upsets Dawson because he had a glimmer of hope that his dad was maybe moving back in, seeing him in the kitchen. Mitch asks Dawson if he wants to help him move out of their house after he's done school as a "friends thing."

Really, Mitch? Dawson is not your friend, he's your son and he is still trying to cope with you moving out and breaking things off with his mother. No, he does not want to help you leave, thus cementing the destruction of his own family and no, he does not want you to be a friend. Dawson does agree to help him but he asks that Mitch "skip the friend thing" since he already has real friends.

Burn!

Mitch then gives Dawson a letter that he'd accidentally taken. Whatever is in the letter completely thrills Dawson.

And this isn't even the best Dawson
reaction shot I got this episode

Meanwhile, Pacey is in his counsellor's office. His counsellor is going through a list of what makes Pacey such a failure which confirms what Pacey said about himself in the intro. He apparently even failed a career aptitude test which...neither I nor the counsellor thought was possible. Pacey asks what his options are and the counsellor says he'll have to do summer school, possibly repeat his sophomore year and if he manages to graduate, he'll probably end up on welfare.

See where your mission to have
no goals has gotten you?

Dawson runs down the school hallway to Joey to tell her the good news he got from the mystery letter. It turns out that Dawson's shitty creature feature won in the youth category of the Boston Film Festival. This is part of what the letter said:

"The clever send up of the horror genre shows a profound understanding of the traditional Hollywood fascinations and turns them upside down in an entirely refreshing and entertaining way.."

Ehhhhhh......what? How was his movie a "send up of the horror genre"? It seemed like a pretty standard creature feature to me. I know he added in the love angle but that's not in any way new and neither was his idea to kill off the supposed main character halfway through a movie. And seriously, "what the fuck?" to the "profound understanding of Hollywood fascinations", just what the fuck? He deeply understands what Hollywood is fascinated with? They are fascinated with standard creature features now? Because that genre has been pretty dead in the water for a while. I don't know, I'm probably just being nit-picky because I don't really like Dawson and I don't think he's as great of a film director as this show keeps telling us he is. But whatever, Dawson is super awesomely talented at film making.

Hooray!

Dawson says he's been given a grant to make another movie...what have you done, Boston Film Festival!? And he asks Joey to produce with him again. I laugh at this because the first thing I think about when I hear the word "producer" is the person who funds the project, and I'm just picturing Joey having to give up her measly waitress tips to fund rich boy Dawson's dreams as she cries into her apron.

Pictured: Dawson licking Joey's tears

Joey declines because she doesn't have time and crushes Dawson's good mood again. He sulks away from her.

He's a sad panda again

Jack approaches Joey the second Dawson leaves, which makes me think he was watching their whole exchange and just waiting for his chance to jump in, and he tries to apologise for the kiss again. Joey pretends like she never pulled a temper tantrum with him or gave him the silent treatment, but she totally did, and admits that he was right the night of the dance; that she was more mad at herself than with him. Jack looks super pumped that she's not mad at him.

Awesome! Now to make my move

Cut to Dawson typing on his laptop, he's presumably working on his new "masterpiece" *cough* but really it will just be a disappointing retelling of the events of season 1 and the beginning of season 2. Jen walks up and he tells her he is working on a script and she genuinely looks happy for him and seems glad that he's working on movies again, since he was so passionate about them when she first met him and he's done nothing this season but obsess over Joey. He tells her about winning his category in the film festival and she congratulates him and they joke about her being an actress in an award winning movie.

Jen is still one of the most decent
people on this show

Max Ford passes them by and Jen seems excited to see him. It is stated that he is the one Jen was getting drunk with the night before. So...what happened to the one night stand thing last week? I guess it wasn't explicitly stated that it was a one night stand but it was heavily implied that Max Ford was done with her and she seemed regretful about sleeping with him. Now they are best buddies and getting drunk together? OK, this is Capeside reset logic at work.

Max Ford invites Jen to a party which concerns Dawson. He asks her what is up with them hanging out, so I guess Dawson is as confused as the viewers. She says they are just hanging out and then invites Dawson to the party. Dawson makes a comment about having to choose between script writing and career advancement with getting drunk which causes Jen to get defensive. She claims she is not out of control and is just having fun.

She can see your judgement all over you

Andie and Pacey are talking about his meeting with his guidance counsellor and how Pacey thinks that a weight has been lifted because he has achieved full, documented slacker status. Andie is not pleased and tries to convince him to better himself. He says he doesn't know how and that he's not a hero, he's a joke.

God, I love her

She then encourages him to take the reigns and change his fate because "heroes are made, not born." Pacey seems to like this idea and at least thinks about what she said.

Jack tries to impress Joey by making jokes about cafeteria food, she laughs so success, I guess. He then asks her what she's up to and Clever!Joey retorts back with a sarcastic diatribe about her usual high society plans because, get it? She's actually poor. I guess she didn't learn the lesson Pacey did about their family losing their fortune, because I would hope she wouldn't mock the rich lifestyle just to rub it in his face. Jack is charmed by her outrageous wit and asks her to dinner and tries his hand at being "clever" by saying that it wouldn't be a date, it would be a dat. What's a dat, you ask? Well Jack helpfully explains that "you take the "e" out of the date and you have a dat." That explains...nothing. How is this clever or cute or charming? I have no clue but they banter about dats and finally agree to go on one.

Success!

Jack then joins Andie and Pacey at their table and starts bragging about having a date with Joey. Hey, hey, hey, Jack. She agreed to a dat not a date. Don't speed things up before she's ready. Andie congratulates her brother on scoring the girl of his dreams while Pacey looks like this:

Wait, she agreed to go out with Dawson and
you and yet rejects me? Fuck this shit.

Nah, Pacey says he's OK with it but wants to be left out of it. Jack then worries about it being his night to watch their mother and Andie is completely fine with watching her because she has to study. You know, am I just dreaming or the first episode that it was discovered that their mother was a bit crazy, didn't Andie say that she mainly cared for her mother because Jack was "in his own world" or something like that? Now they are sharing the responsibility and taking turns? OK, sure. I guess it makes the Jack character less douchey and clueless. Seriously, I didn't like Jack at this point in the series and I still don't.

Later that day, Joey is getting ready for her dat. God, every time I write that, I feel like a sad hipster who is just so over "dates"

Dates? Over it

Anyway, she's getting ready when Dawson comes to the door. Drama will ensue. He's there to give her half of the prize money they won and Joey is actually pretty gracious about it, so props to her on this one. She thanks him and Dawson says he believes in her but then things take a detour into awkward town when he asks her if she's going out. Joey is all awkward but then says that she's just going out with a friend. Unfortunately for her, Jack comes down the walkway as Dawson is leaving.



Busted!



Dawson is now helping Mitch move, as he promised earlier but he is anxious to leave. Mitch tries his best to connect with his son but asks how things with Joey are. Dawson is not pleased and spits back that she dumped him and asks for his father's next question. His father then asks about Jen and Dawson spits back that she's probably "drunk and stuck to a sidewalk somewhere." That's...concerning. But Mitch is too focused on his issues with Dawson to take note of that morbid tidbit of information he was given about his son's friend and tells Dawson that he doesn't have to like his decisions but he has to respect them.

This is the best reaction shot.
Isn't it magical?

Mitch counters that Dawson is only thinking about outcomes and not intentions and then tells him that no one is out to get him. Dawson then tells his father that he's not in the market for another friend or buddy and that he just wants a father. Mitch agrees to respect this but looks hurt. I agree with Dawson, for once. It isn't Mitch's job to be Dawson's buddy, he has to be his parent and give him guidance and Dawson sorely needs that right now.

Dawson runs to Jen's house and asks if her invitation to take him to a party is still open. She agrees to take him to the party on the condition that he doesn't "bitch or moan" about her partying and that he keeps an open mind and doesn't judge.



It's a tall order for him, though



Jen makes it clear that she's no longer interested in him because he's in complete rebound-ville and says that it is not a date. Dawson agrees and they make plans to meet up for the party.

Dawson immediately fails to live up to Jen's request and is already judging the party as the "destruction of young America" the minute he walks in. Jen reminds him to keep an open mind and have fun, then she finds Max Ford and his random friend to dance and drink. Dawson chooses not to go with them and then mopes outside while Jen parties.

I've made a huge mistake

Pacey arrives at Andie's house and is greeted by her mother. She mentions Andie's dead brother again which makes Pacey ask Andie about her mother's condition. Andie claims she's getting better but just "slips" sometimes. Pacey is not entirely convinced.

They go up to Andie's room to study and Pacey is impressed with all of her trophies. Andie plays it off as nothing and proceeds to outline their study plan.

Joey and Jack are on their "dat", sitting by the creek. They are watching heat lightening and Jack explains that he is fascinated by lightening because he almost got hit when he was a kid. Joey makes the mistake of recounting a story about her and Dawson replicating the Ben Franklin kite experiment. Jack is not impressed but he recovers well and jumps on every opportunity to hit on her and make Dawson seem foolish.

Smooth

Dawson has a little encounter with Max Ford regarding Jen to highlight his evil, not pure, un-Dawson like ways. In other words:

Nyaaah! I'm only interested in sex, see? *twirl*

Back at Andie's house, Pacey is being a smart ass about highlighting important passages in his text and Andie needs a break. She doesn't get it because the phone rings immediately after and it turns out that her mother has gone to "Molly's Market" again. Nice job watching your mother, Andie. This is why two teenagers shouldn't be in charge of looking after their mentally ill parents. Man, this storyline is kind of really unrealistic now that I'm re watching it. Wouldn't they have a social worker checking up on them? The father is out of the picture and they are still minors and their mother is in no condition to look after them. It just seems strange that no one is stepping in to help them or make sure they are being looked after. At any rate, Andie promises to get to the market in five minutes and rushes to the market.

At the market, her mother is in her PJ's and chatting to the customers about how her husband takes care of everything. Andie tries to get her mother to come home with her but her mother refuses to leave. Pacey steps in and talks Andie's mother down. He calms her by asking her to help him shop and Andie's mom finally says that she has lunch meat in her fridge. So Pacey asks if she will make him a sandwich and she agrees. They all leave the market peacefully.

Pacey is a hero

At the party, Dawson spots Jen in between Max Ford and Max Ford's friend on a bed. Since this is network TV, they are only kissing and are fully clothed but the implication is that Jen was about to be a part of a Devil's three way.



No eye contact during a devil's three way,
so it was written, so it shall be


Dawson rushes in to save her even though, she didn't seem to want to be saved. I'm on the fence on this issue. On the one hand, if a person doesn't want to be saved, you probably shouldn't save them just because you don't agree/approve of what they are doing. On the other hand, Jen is kind of really drunk and in no way able to give proper consent to this act. Plus Max Ford and friend seem to be pretty in control of what they are doing while Jen looked pretty out of it, I think it's clear the evidence points to them getting her drunk to take advantage of her and that is not cool. That is rape and that is fucking serious. So, I think I'm leaning towards:

Dawson is now a hero? Kind of, maybe except
that Jen seems coherent enough to tell him to
stop what he's doing so maybe she did
want a little double "p" action.

Jen is not grateful or happy that he saved her though because she's still convinced she was having a good time. She then throws up on a white picket fence before telling Dawson that he should accept her for who she is. Dawson tells her that she is hiding from the fact that she is unhappy and she points out that he plays by the rules and is the unhappiest person she knows. Dawson counters that he would take his sadness over hiding from it any day because it is real. He then tries to convince Jen that she's special but she isn't having it. Dawson asserts that she is special and hugs her, he then offers her a place to stay since she can't go home.

I'm still bugged about the lack of Grams in this episode. Like, where did she go? One minute she's chastising Jen about partying and sleeping around and saying that she won't tolerate it and then it's like she's just letting Jen do these things and doesn't notice the fact that she almost never sleeps in her own bed? Weird.

Jack and Joey return from their dat which becomes a date because Jack kisses her. So, how's that needing to be alone so that you can find yourself going, Joey? Pretty fucking crappy from the looks of it.

I hated Jen for doing this to Dawson with Cliff
but it's OK when I do it to Dawson with Jack.
Fuck Dawson's feelings!

Andie finishes putting her mother to bed and then thanks Pacey for what he did for her. She says she's proud of him and Pacey is happy to hear those words directed at him. He then suggests they go back to her bedroom and Andie assumes it's to make out.

You're a sly one, Mr. Witter

Dawson has brought Jen to Mitch's house. Dawson apologises for being hard on his father and Mitch tells him that he can be both his father and his friend. Dawson agrees.

He brings Jen some water and she calls him her hero. Dawson disagrees with "hero" and tells her he's just a friend. That's nice. Dawson's fairly likable in this episode. Jen then asks about his next movie and he tells her it's a romance. Jen requests that his movie not have a happy ending and Dawson says he'll see what happens when he finishes writing it but Jen is adamant.

Over it

We end the episode with Joey climbing through Dawson's window only to not find him in his room. I don't know why, but it makes me happy that he's not there. Probably because she'd just end up being a bitch to him and making him feel worse than he already does about their break up. I mean, she's got balls to go out on a date after breaking up with Dawson claiming she wants to be alone and then expect him to accept her with open arms as a friend again.

Don't let the window hit your ass
on the way out, Joey

And that was the Reluctant Hero. It was an alright episode, I actually liked Dawson in it so that's a plus but I admit one thing kind of irks me. All of the heroes in this episode were male and all of the females were dependent on the males to save them. I wish at least one of the females could have been a hero in this episode but this show tends to paint women as fragile and in need of help or stone cold bitches that stomp on men's hearts. It's a minor nit-pick though, at least for now. We'll see how this series progresses with this issue, if at all.

Side note: The song playing at the end of this episode is one of my favourites and because this show used it (perhaps more than once?), the song has been forever cemented in people's minds as "The Dawson's Creek Song" and that makes me sad. The song is actually called Acoustic #3 and is by the Goo Goo Dolls. For your listening pleasure:

See what I mean? So pretty!

Next up is The Election.

Dawson's Creek - 207 - The All Nighter

Original air date: November 18, 1998

Ok, so last episode was the big break up between Dawson and Joey. Things have now changed completely. Case in point, this episode opens up in Dawson's room but minus Joey. Instead, Dawson's mom has joined him for movie night.

They are watching Shakespeare, to show how deep and troubled Dawson is, I'm sure. He's going on about how Shakespeare conquered all the stories first, someone has only taken high school English, I see. There were writers who conquered romance and tragedy long before Shakespeare came around, Dawson. He also goes on to say that Shakespeare's parting lesson, "the genre of genres that he arrived at after years of toil and sacrifice" was tragedy. Um, except that the last play he is credited with writing was a comedy called The Two Noble Kinsmen written in 1613. Then again, it's also labelled as a "tragi-comedy" so maybe Dawson is half right.

But he's also half wrong

Whether he's right or not, he still sounds pretty pretentious, equating his high school break up with Joey with real works of tragedy. He does show concern for his mother though as he states that she's been crying a lot. She says that he concerns her too because he has not been wallowing. Dawson doesn't see a point as it won't get the person back but Gail points out that you don't wallow to get someone back, you wallow to give yourself time to heal. Good point.

You were a bit too supportive. Try picking at
Dawson's insecurities and manipulate him a
little more, then it will be like Joey never left!

The next day, the teacher is spouting off Shakespeare in class as he tells the students about the upcoming midterm worth 50% of their grade. He seems really pretentious which might explain why the kids of Capeside are also so pretentious.

During the teacher's speech, a mysterious boy we've never been introduced to before, throws a note at Jen. It tells her not to forget to smile, so I guess he's trying to be charming.

Hey look, it's Max the alien from Roswell and
Buffy's friend, Ford! They are one and the same!

Class ends and Joey runs to catch up with Dawson, who is obviously trying to avoid her. Joey tells him that they have to talk to each other some time and I disagree. They don't have to do anything. I find it hilarious that Joey breaks up with him and asks for space but doesn't give Dawson the same courtesy. You know, he maybe wants some space too to get over the whole break up but noooo. Joey must have everything all the time, she should be able to break up with Dawson and still have him be her lap dog. Case in point, when she asks him what he wants to say to her, he replies with "go away" and Joey says "besides that" in an irritated tone. Um, Joey? You asked him what he wanted to say and that is what he wanted to say to you, deal with it. Of course she says that she didn't think that asking for space and breaking up with him meant avoiding each other all together and then whines that it isn't fair. Once again, Dawson has my back.

Joey does not like hearing this. Everyone should
bow down to her will, at all times.

I'm just going to say one thing that surprised me on this rewatch, I like that Dawson is growing a bit of a backbone this season. It's quite nice and I relish when he actually calls Joey out on her bullshit. Someone in the show had to do it and it's nice to see our main character finally be something other than a clueless twit.

In the cafeteria, Andie is talking about a purity test in a magazine which makes Pacey uncomfortable, presumably because of the whole squicky Tamahra situation. Andie thinks he doesn't want to do the test because he doesn't want to give away how "pure" he is and Pacey agrees that he's "Mr. Embarrassingly Pure"

Those words are going to bite you in the ass,
Mr. Witter

Andie then convinces Pacey to go to their teacher's cram session after class so that they can be prepared for their English mid-term.

Max Ford walks up to Jen during gym class and tries to flirt with her. She keeps her guard up and although she smiles when he makes a joke, she brushes him off.

Dawson walks up to Jen and asks her if she's going to attend the study session for the English mid-term but Jen says she's not really in the applying herself zone these days. Dawson says that she should come so Jen says she'll think about it since Max Ford is hitting on other girls anyway.

Sure, he's all fun and games until he offers you
up as a meal to a bunch of vampires.
Just ask Chanterelle

All of our characters are now prepared to go to the study session but the catch is that their teacher has now cancelled it because he has a cold. The test, however, is still on for the next day. Max Ford takes the opportunity to once again try his moves on Jen and offers his place up for a study session. She scoffs at the idea but he tells her she can invite her friends, and then he turns around and invites Pacey and Andie for her. They haven't really been friends with her for a while, Abby has but for some reason, she is absent this episode. Much to my disappointment.

Anyway, Pacey and Andie accept which makes Jen accept too. Andie then runs off to invite Joey along and Pacey runs off to invite Dawson.

Get ready for a night of unbridled awkwardness!

They arrive at Max Ford's house, which is more like a mansion and Andie immediately tries to take control of the situation so that everybody stays focused on studying. This doesn't last long as everyone breaks pretty much right after Andie explains their study plans.

You tried, Andie

Max Ford tries to impress Jen with his wine selection and tries to convince Jen that he just wants to get to know her and that he thinks they are a lot alike. Jen agrees to not base her opinion of him on his reputation and most of the audience groans because she seems to be falling for his "misunderstood" schtick.

Really, Jen? It's so obvious that he's playing you.

The group finally gets into studying as Andie plays gameshow host trying to get the correct answers out of people for points. She tries to get them to remember the most famous of the romantic poets which Joey answers correctly with Keats*. Andie then asks for his most famous quote which Dawson answers correctly as "Beauty is truth, truth beauty." Joey confirms his correctness and says she forgot to which Dawson snarks "It would seem so."

Dawson's claws are out

Since things are getting heavy, Max Ford suggests everyone take another break and go to his hot tub. Andie complains that they already took a two hour break but then Max Ford finds her magazine with the purity test which piques everyone's interest. They all decide to stop studying and take the test.

Andie takes charge once again and hands everyone a piece of paper and pencils to mark down their answers for each question. Everyone takes turns reading the questions out. We then go into a montage of them reading off various questions in an effort to sound raunchy but the important one to the plot is the last one which is read by Joey. "Have you ever been in love? If so, how many times? Give yourself a point of purity for each time."

Uh-oh, looks like Joey has something to hide...

Andie starts to mark their tests and Joey remains true to herself by running away from whatever is bothering her. Dawson takes note of her look and follows her into the kitchen. Joey then yells at him about giving her space and we once again have the writers just writing drama for the sake of a dramatic scene while forgetting what's happened so far. Now, all of the sudden, Joey is on about space again and Dawson not giving her any when at the beginning of the episode, she was whining to Dawson about avoiding her and giving her too much space. It's little errors like this, or laziness if you will, that makes your characters seem really self-centered. Joey now comes across to me as someone who just wants everything to be the way she wants it. She wants Dawson to give her space but she wants him to still be around for her when she wants him around. Nice job, writers, your main love interest is a self-entitled bitch.

I only want space when it's convenient for me!

Anyway, she runs away again leaving Dawson in the kitchen with Max Ford's younger sister. She looks about twelve and I really freaking hate it when shows about teens introduce young kids who obviously have crushes on the "teens" because the kids are cast at the right age while the teens look like adults, especially around the actual kids so it just comes off as creepy. I hate this whole subplot.

Just...no

Andie has finished calculating the results of the tests and the results are as follows:

Max Ford - 66% (least pure)
Jen - 69%
Dawson - 85%
Joey - 85%
Andie - 92%

She does not have Pacey's test result because he never handed it in. You think she would have noticed that before reading the results aloud but dramatic tension and all that. Andie tries to get him to give her his test but he refuses and Max Ford asks him if it's because of question 16. Andie is confused so she looks up the question again, much to Pacey's disappointment.

Question 16: Have you ever had sex with someone twice your age?

Of course, since Pacey won't answer, Max Ford rubs it in by congratulating Pacey on "laying the pipe with Ms. Jacobs" and Andie puts two and two together and figures out he means the teacher that left town. She then gets upset because Pacey said he was embarrassingly pure and leaves the room.

Poor Andie

Dawson is looking for Pacey and Andie and bumps into Max Ford who lets Dawson in on his little plan of bedding Jen. I don't know why guys are so forthright and skeevy to Dawson about their intentions with Jen. I mean Billy the kid did the same thing, and it just really makes them seem like old timey cartoon villains.

That's right, I'm going to tie her to the train tracks!
Mwahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaa!

Max then brags that when the light on the guest house is off, that means that he and Jen are inside "lowering their purity levels" and Dawson will be outside and alone.

Jen tries to engage Joey in conversation but Joey has her usual wall up where she is concerned. Jen tries to give Joey sympathy over her break up with Dawson, even though she knows Joey might not believe her and Joey snaps that she doesn't believe her. Jen finally loses it on Joey and I just love it:

Jen: You know, I used to think that it was our mutual feelings for Dawson that kept us apart. I never really considered the fact that maybe you were just a bitch.

Yay, Jen! You tell that bitch.

Joey realizes that she is just a great big bitch and apologizes for being harsh with Jen. They somewhat bond over the fact that they both just want to experience something without talking about it to death but don't hold your breath. I'm sure they'll hate each other again next episode. Or at least, Joey will hate Jen again.

Pacey catches up with Andie and tries to make amends with her but she isn't having it. He lied to her and she wanted him to be honest with her. Now, I understand this. I've been in a situation where a partner lied to me about their past experiences and I wasn't mad that they had past experiences, I was mad that they lied about it and lead me to believe that we were experiencing things together for the first time. So, I'm in Andie's court until she starts talking like this:

Andie: It's not a joke, okay? I'm serious, and despite your braggart tendencies, Pacey, it's not exactly an admirable event.

Pacey: That's not fair, Andie. You're judging me, and you don't even know the circumstances. Besides, I slept with her, not you.

Andie: Why would you do it, Pacey?

I'm sorry, you lost me. I get that she's disappointed that Pacey slept with an older woman, maybe even intimidated now but it almost sounds as if she's blaming him. I mean "it's not admirable" "why would you do it?" Um, he did it because sex and teenaged boys are stupid. The real question, that no one, fucking no one, seems to be asking in this show is "why would she do it?" You know, why did Miss Jacobs take advantage of a 15 year old student? And no "because sex" does not work in her instance. As an adult, it was her responsibility to be the fucking adult and not fuck her student. Why does this show insist on making this Pacey's mistake and not Miss Jacobs'? It's really fucking creepy and there is no way they would let that fly with an older male teacher taking advantage of a younger female student.

I'm as horrified as Woody by this double standard

 Jen is heading for the hot tub when Dawson stops her to warn her about Max Ford's nefarious plan to sleep with her. Jen is aware that Max Ford wants to sleep with her and seems ok with it and then asks Dawson how he knows that she doesn't have a plan of her own.

Dawson then runs into Dina, Max Ford's little sister who seems very interested in his love life. She then reveals that she has the answers to their tests and that she has Joey's answers and hints that he'd be interested in her results. She then says that there is a fee for the tests and puckers her lips.

Can I just ask, what is the obsession teen shows seem to have with horny kids trying to force the teen characters to kiss them? It's not funny, it's disturbing and weird, especially in a show like this where the actors don't look remotely teenaged?

But Dawson refuses to kiss her, thank God, and she gives up the secret anyway. While Dawson has only been in love once, Joey has been in love...twice! Dun, dun, DUN! Dawson is most disturbed by this news and I'm left thinking "oh god if this resolution is something really fucking lame like she fell in love with Dawson twice then I'm going to puke."

It's going to be you twice, isn't it?

Jen is enjoying the hot tub with Max Ford who makes his intentions clear. She asks him "what if I don't want to mess around?" and he assures her that they won't and that he's not a bad guy, he just wants to have fun. That seems to be the all clear for Jen because it's not like he would be lying about not wanting sex in order to have sex with you or anything.

Oh, honey...

Dawson finds Pacey and asks him if Andie is ok. Pacey says she's fine but she wants to be alone and Dawson asks him why he didn't just write "no" for that question. Pacey says it's because he didn't want to lie to her and I'm going to have to call bullshit on that because he already lied to her when she asked him about his purity level and he claimed to be extremely pure. Pacey then encourages Dawson to say what he feels more.

Cue Dawson going to find Joey. He confronts Joey about her test and before she can go on the diary tirade again, tells her that Max Ford's sister told him her answer. She won't tell him who the second guy was and now I'm becoming more convinced that I was right about it.

Quick, run away before you have to answer him!

Max Ford's creepy sister appears and starts mocking him about his fight and Dawson spazzes out on her about first kisses having repercussions and leading to broken friendships and broken hearts and then he tells her not to rush it. You know, apart from his sad sack whining about Joey, he has a point. Kids really shouldn't be so encouraged to rush into relationships and dating. But Dina runs away crying and Joey has appeared behind him looking disappointed in him.

God, Dawson. You should have just kissed her.

Dawson then sees that the light has gone out over the guest house.

He's a sad panda

Joey goes to console Dina and basically says the same thing Dawson says about growing up sucking but she says it in a nicer tone, so I guess it's ok. She does say that sometimes relationships do work out and seem magical and that she'll be ok.

Next morning, everyone wakes up and Andie starts freaking out about not getting any studying done and it's already 6am.

Meanwhile, Max Ford thanks Jen for their fun and then rushes to get out of the room, despite Jen asking him to wait for her. He clearly doesn't want them to be seen as a couple and she clearly just got used.




She's a sad panda



The gang band together and Pacey organizes a 3 hour cram session. The show then does a montage of them answering various literature questions. After they are done, Andie congratulates Pacey on taking charge and apologizes for flipping out. She says it's because she's freaked that she's so inexperienced next to him and he reassures her that she will have experience. Kind of a big assumption there, Pacey.

I'll allow it

Dawson finds Joey and tells her how he had been wishing that they had never kissed so that maybe they would still be friends but that he has come to appreciate what their kiss brought into his life and even though he is hurting now, he does not regret being with her. In turn, Joey confesses who the second guy was. Are you ready for this shocking revelation? Can you handle the suspense? It was Dawson both times.

Joey: Dawson, the 2 times I feel in love, on the test, they were both you. I mean, the first time I fell was for my friend, the Dawson I grew up with, the boy across the creek, and the second time was after we kissed. I mean, you became this whole new person to me and....I fell in love all over again.

Uggghhhhh!!!

I'm sorry, that is just the cheesiest thing ever and having a crush on someone does not equal "love". Dawson agrees to give her the space she needs without hostility but I can't help but see it as caving into her demands to have him as her stand by while she explores other options.

The gang head to school only to find that the test has been cancelled. They all resign themselves to going to their other classes and being tired for nothing but Pacey has another idea:

Nap time! Or...possibly they've all been shot.

I usually really like the character episodes where they are confined in a location and forced to deal with their problems but this one just felt off to me. I guess it mended Dawson and Joey's friendship or at least started the course towards that and it made Pacey finally confess to having sex with his teacher to Andie but it just didn't entertain me the way that Detention did last season. Max Ford, or Chris in this show, just was not that interesting an insitgator to me. He just looked bored and skeevy half the time, he wasn't as fun as Abby was.

Also, I really don't like the way that this show has been handling Pacey's relationship with Miss Jacobs. They flip between insisting that what they had was together was love, to insisting that Pacey is the bad one in that scenario. While they may have loved each other, it was a bad relationship but not because Pacey was in the wrong. Miss Jacobs is the one at fault for letting that relationship go as far as it did, for encouraging it and for making Pacey feel like he was the one who screwed up. She never apologized for doing that to him, for saying "look Pacey, I should have never put that pressure on you not to tell anyone or to engage in this relationship." and when Pacey tried to tell her that he wanted it too, she should have told him "It was still wrong, you may not understand this now but I did take advantage of you and I am sorry for that." Then she should have left town and never come back. My point is, Pacey wanting sex with an older woman wasn't wrong, a lot of teens get crushes on older women or men because they are trying to figure out their ideal mate or preferences. It's the adult who is in the wrong for taking advantage of that naivete and inexperience. It is up to them to be responsible and stop things. An adult who sleeps with a teen or child will always be scum to me. Sorry, writers, you aren't going to convince me otherwise.

So anyway, we'll see if Dawson and Joey remain friends in the next episode, The Reluctant Hero.