Dawson’s Creek Season 2: A Reflection – Part 2

When we last left the humble folks of Capeside, things were starting to heat up between Jack and Joey, and Dawson remained his brooding petulant self. Pacey and Andie were even starting to get a bit closer. Let’s see what happened in the next few episodes.

In “The Election,” Andie decides to run for student body president, and enlists Joey to help. Joey is reluctant at first because she is wary of how the folks at school view her due to her father being in jail and all, but comes around when Stupid Abby is mean to Andie. This prompt Joey to attempt to usurp Abby and Chris’s campaign. Jen and Dawson unite to help take Dawson’s mind off his parent’s looming divorce, getting into trouble by pulling pranks and capping it all off with some skinny dipping. In the end, Abby’s horribleness leads Andie to quit, prompting Pacey to “hot mic” Abby into saying a bunch of stuff on the PA, leading to her downfall. Also…Jack won’t talk to Joey about his family.

Some “High Risk Behavior” rears its ugly head in the next episode, with Jack agreeing to pose nude for Joey’s art project after ruining one of her awesome drawings. I think he did it on purpose so he could woo her with his wiener, but I digress. Pacey and Andie are moving towards having some teenage sex, so Pacey takes her out for fancy dinner and a night at a bed and breakfast. Dawson and Jen work on casting his new movie, and settle on Chris and Abby as the leads, keeping these horrible characters up in our business for the foreseeable future. I wish one would fall of a pier and drown already. A cliffhanger of sorts going into the next episode, with our three couples in various state of make out and hinting that one of them may go “all the way.”

The cliffhanger is answered in “Sex, She Wrote“… eventually. The episode opens shortly after the previous one ending, with the various couples going their separate ways with the sex question hanging in the air for all concerned parties. Stupid Abby finds a note in one of the many classes that our main characters share, talking about sex and whatnot, and she enlists the help of Skeezy Chris to get to the bottom of her little mystery. After some Veronica Mars-style sleuthing, all the possible sexfenders end up in the same class much to Abby’s delight. Joey and Dawson both admit to each other that they had sex with their respective partners, which is a lie. It is revealed that Pacey had written the note to Andie do to his concern over the direction their relationship was going, but not for the reasons you think. Pacey is smart for the first time ever and has Andie to thank for it. He’s falling in love and everything and is slightly scared. How cute!

The boys and girls split up in “Uncharted Waters,” with the boys joining Sheriff Witter and Mitch on a fishing trip and the girls helping Gail with a news report about teenage girls. Pacey continue to feel and be inadequate in the eyes of his father, leading to an emotional break down on the beach as he helps his drunken father back to the boat. Dawson stares daggers at Jack the entire trip, oblivious to the fact that he is setting exceedingly high standards for Pacey by being so awesome. Meanwhile, the girls have little fights with each other, with Jen and Joey still fighting over Dawson and Stupid Abby being a bitch to everyone until she gets kicked out. Good times!

Dawson finds a new star for his movie in “His Leading Lady,” and since the role is pretty much Joey redux, Joey doesn’t like her. Jen meets Christian Dawson, aka Ty, whose “aww, shucks” attitude has Jen interested… aside from the whole Christian thing and the Bible Club first date. Pacey finds out that Andie is taking medication for manic depression, tries to be supportive, but Andie thinks he is smothering her. After some more reassuring words about how awesome she is, they stay together.

After tackling teenage sex a few episodes prior, the show goes for the jugular with a two-parter about a homosexual student. Who could it be? Certainly not Jack, the guy in a relationship with precious Joey. Alas, in “To Be Or Not To Be…” a poem gets Jack in trouble, and all the kids at school think he might be gay after he writes about finding comfort in the arms of a man. Pacey stands up for him in class by spitting in the face of the teacher, which could ultimately lead to a suspension if he doesn’t apologize. Andie doesn’t support what Pacey did, which kind of causes a rift, but only because she thinks that Pacey wants her to support everything he does, when in reality he just wants her support. Dawson pretty much does cartwheels around the set when he thinks that Jack is gay and the future possibilities for him and Joey, while Jack denies to Joey that he is gay. Jen is also around, finding out the it isn’t all about Jesus and the Good Book with Christian Dawson.

In the culmination in the next episode, “…That Is The Question,” Jack and Andie’s dad comes up from Providence to take them away, after which Jack tells him that he is not Tim (his dead older brother), never will be, and that it is time to accept him for who he is. After his suspension, the teacher continues being an ass, so Pacey looks at school bylaws about teacher behavior in an attempt to get him to change his bahvior. A school board meeting is called, but the teacher walks away instead of facing the music. Meanwhile, Jack, after tearfully admitting to his father that he is gay, goes to tell Joey as well. Jen and Grams confront Christian Dawson about some of his narrow-minded comments about homosexuality, leading Jen to question their budding relationship. Dawson continues doing cartwheels.

In the third and final part of season three, we’ll experience all sorts of good times, with (spoiler alert) a death of a cast member, another getting thrown out of her house, and other shenanigans. Hooray!

Until next time…