When we last left our denizens of Capeside, they had just served detention together, kind of working out a lot of the issues that they were having. I have a feeling that something big is going to happen as we get closer to the season finale. Let’s find out…
Episode eight begins with the arrival of Billy, a “Boyfriend” of Jen’s from New York. Poor little Dawson gets all insecure (shocker) and pouts throughout most of the episode. On the other side of the love quadrangle, Pacey has to rescue a super drunk Joey at a beach party, while Mitch and Gayle, Dawson’s parents, reach a breaking point after the whole Gayle affair thing. I bet they get divorced eventually. Oh, and I guess Dawson and Jen broke up?
In part two of Billy’s short two episode story arc, he takes Pacey and Dawson on a “Road Trip” to Providence to get their minds off the girls. Dawson chats up some film nerd chick for a while but decides not to close the deal after all, getting a kiss in the parking lot for his troubles. Back in Capeside, some douche of a football player spreads a rumor that he and Joey had sex, so the girls decide to get him back by having Joey pretend that she is pregnant. Hilarity ensues, a douche bag football guy gets his comeuppance.
Four folks go on a “Double Date” in the next episode, but it’s not the four you’re thinking: Jen goes out with fancy quarterback Cliff, while Dawson invites some one episode wonder named Mary Beth to join him at the carnival. The forced double date culminates in a pissing contest at the milk bottle toss, as well as a broken ferris wheel, giving Dawson yet another opportunity to go all emo in regards to Jen. The “B” story revolves around Joey tutoring Pacey in biology to get a better grade and help prevent Pacey from failing. After getting a little wet in the marshes, Pacey catches a glimpse of a nude-ish Joey in the side mirror, pops a boner, and asks Dawson what he would think if he pursued her. Dawson at first says it’s okay, but then decides to try to get Joey all for himself. Finally, Mitch is still hating on Gayle, can’t trust her, and you can see where Dawson gets some of his emoness from.
“The Scare” is set p perfectly to be about a pregnancy scare or something, but with none of our characters having sex with anyone, I guess it won’t happen. Instead, it is an episode about Friday the 13th and how Dawson is some super great prankster. Dawson holds a seance to entertain everyone at the Leery Homestead, with Cliff bringing Jen and the boys picking up some crazy chick while grabbing snacks. Ultimately, Jen tells Cliff not to be Dawson, and some serial murderer that chatted up joey ends up getting caught in Capeside.
By this point, it has been well established that, while super smart, Joey is broke, so in order to help pay for college, she enlists the help of Jen and enters a “Beauty Contest.” Pacey also decides to enter in order to win the prize money to use as rent for some hip new bachelor pad. While Pacey’s candidacy devolves into some “Braveheart” inspired meltdown, Joey and her horribly-dubbed singing performance win over the judges and she takes second place. Pacey starts chatting up another one episode wonder named Hannah von Wenning that was expecting to win, and you hope to see a romance begin, but I guess she went back to boarding school in Connecticut at the end of the episode.
The abbreviated season 1 wraps with an episode called “Decisions.” Joey is offered the opportunity to spend the next semester in France, because, you know, she’s super smart and all. She also goes off to visit her father in prison with Dawson in tow, and tells her dad she is going to France, in part to “start over,” but also to just get away from her horrible life. Dawson gets upset, per usual, because they just started a relationship or something. Grams tries to get the atheist Jen to pray for her no-longer-comatose grandfather, and when she doesn’t he dies as a result. Poor Pacey is at risk of failing everything and repeating his sophomore year and gets hassled by his brother Doug for being such a loser. At the end of the episode, Dawson and Joey make out for a bit, then decide to sleep on where there relationship is going and whether or not she heads off to France. Will she or won’t she?
Until next time…
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