Episode Report Card Sars: F | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Baby blues
By Sars | Season 4 | Episode 19 | Aired on 04.24.2001
PB&B porch. Joey "Crown Royal" Potter leaves a message, presumably for Pacey, saying she thought she'd see if he'd gotten back yet, and to call her when he gets in. "Good Queen" Bessie Potter comes out and teases her: "It's official. You've become the neurotic girlfriend." "Become"? Joey starts to say that "it's weird," but Bessie interrupts to exposition that there's nothing weird about it: "He's away on a fishing trip with his brother." She leads Joey inside to show her the little yellow onesie she bought for the little Leery -- aw, it's so teeny and cute! -- and asks Joey to help her wrap it, but Joey freezes, then bolts: "I'm going to Pacey's."
Witterschloss. Dawson comes in with a pizza and asks Gretchen if she can make it to a naming shower for Gale the next day. Gretchen, setting the table, says she can, but feels bound to add that, the day after, she's "on the noon train to Boston." Dawson asks what's in Boston, and Gretchen replies that, if her interview with Cambridge Magazine goes as planned, she's in Boston.
Sars: Hello?
Contrivance: Hey, it's me. I'm at the Pig and Whistle and everyone's here -- are you sure you don't want to come out?
Sars: Dude, I told you, it's not my scene, and besides, I have work to do.
Contrivance: Aw, come on. You can work tomorrow.
Sars: Not until you start paying some damn rent around here, I ca -- hello? Hello?
Apparently, Gretchen applied for a job as an assistant lifestyles editor at CM, and they loved her application. Yeah, right. "Loved." If by "loved," you mean "binned." Anyway, Gretchen burbles on about getting paid to go to concerts and restaurants; Dawson's immense face falls, and he manages a faint "wow." "Speak your subtext, boy," she tells him. Dawson passive-aggresses that he didn't know she'd applied for the job, and Gretchen passive-aggresses back that she only recently decided to, and she'd hoped he'd "be psyched for" her. Dawson says limply that he's psyched, and it's a wonderful job, and he thinks she'd "be great at it." Very convincing, Dawson. Not. You couldn't have sold water to a man in the desert in that tone of voice. Gretchen snips, "But, ah, suddenly this tacit [sic] little issue that's been floating in the back of [sic] both our minds has become very real." Dawson says hesitantly that they'll have to talk about "the potential continent between" them eventually. Oh, why bother? Like you'll actually go to California. Gretchen shrugs her assent and asks what he thinks of long-distance relationships; Dawson isn't optimistic, but Gretchen points out that "we could also be that one couple." "Absolutely," Dawson glums. Gretchen mentions that one of them "could also join the other." Dawson raises his eyebrows all "ohh-kay" and says he couldn't ask her to come to California; Gretchen says she couldn't ask him to come to Boston, either. Dawson arches a snarled brow and asks what's going on: "Last week we're declaring our love for each other, now it sounds like we're breaking up." Gretchen thinks they're "dealing with reality." "Which is what?" Dawson snaps. "Right now? It's dinner, by candlelight, with the man I love." Dawson joins me in making a "whatever" face. ["I, on the other hand, opt for a '"man"?' face." -- Wing Chun]