Episode Report Card Sars: C | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT To live and die in Capeside
By Sars | Season 4 | Episode 18 | Aired on 04.17.2001
Maine. Gretchen has a quaint small-town crustiness encounter with a quaint small-town diner waitress.
Mr. Lindley's office. A secretary comes in to announce Jen and Joey, snotting that "one of them is saying she's your daughter." Mr. L freezes in the headlights, then motions imperiously for the secretary to show the girls in; he takes a moment to arrange his face, and when Jen comes in, he swoops her into a huge hug. Over his shoulder, Jen looks annoyed, and she sort of semi-resists him and rolls her eyes and basically does an excellent imitation of a cat getting picked up by a total stranger. Mr. L calls Jen "angel" and says he's so glad to see her, and finally Jen wriggles away. Joey looks uncomfortable. Mr. L does Booming Dad Voice in Joey's direction, and Jen introduces them. Mr. L's first name is Theo. Oy. Mr. L asks what brings them to New York, and as Jen looks angrily away, Joey says that she'd never gone to New York before, and also that Jen got accepted at UNY. Mr. L stares at Jen, entranced, and then calls the secretary and tells her that Jen got accepted to UNY and to cancel the rest of his "day" and make them lunch reservations. Jen tries to interrupt, but he won't hear it, raving that a daughter getting into college, any college, is "a big event in a father's life -- huge, even." Jen smiles shyly as her father adds that it's "more important than some lame business meeting. We're gonna celebrate." "Lame"? Shut up, Mr. L. Jen looks like she might cry. So does Mr. L. Joey regards Mr. L with suspicion, then regards the floor with sudden and intense interest. Jen swallows hard.
Okay, kids? Quit setting yourselves on fire. Just…quit it.
Drue and Pacey enter a roadhouse-y kind of place, which has a nice mid-afternoon clientele happening considering that it's a weekday. As they stand in the doorway, Obi Witter Kenobi intones, "Mos Eisley. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious." Tee hee! Drue hands Pacey a fake ID, and there's some non-amusing banter about the "balding Asian man in his forties" that Pacey is impersonating before the waitress comes over, eyes the "David Kebo of Rhode Island" driver's license, and agrees to bring them three rounds of tequila. More weird non-expositional exposition about running a tab and Drue's birthday present from his dad (money, I assume, but again, who cares) before Drue begins to deliver a lecture on why he brought Pacey to the Big Ace Saloon. Pacey suggests that it's because Drue doesn't want to drink alone; Drue cops to that, but says there's more, namely that the Big Ace is right next door to Capeside Community College, an establishment which Drue suspects might figure heavily in Pacey's future. Pacey sighs, "Yes," and says that school felt lonely that day: "I mean, everybody's gone." Drue shrugs that it's ditch day, and Pacey slits his eyes at Drue and thinks better of unburdening himself, saying he doesn't think he wants to have "this conversation" -- i.e. how he'll get left behind next year -- with anyone, much less with Drue. Drue shrugs again, saying he thought Pacey should see "this place," and "despite the stigma of failure," he'll have a place to go, blah blah blah Cheers-cakes. They toast to "the future" and down the first of their tequila shots.