Episode Report Card Sars: D+ | 2 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Boyfriend
By Sars | Season 1 | Episode 8 | Aired on 03.09.1998
Sanctum Dawsonorum. Dawson broods. As he begins to change clothes, The Flash barges in, presumably for another ill-starred father-son talk, and he asks Dawson, "So, how’s it going?" Dawson sighs, "Um, complicated. You?" The Flash responds, "Complicated -- squarely in the midst of what Dr. Keenan would refer to as Stage Four," and Dawson repeats, "’Stage Four.’ Dare I ask what Stage Five is?" The Flash frowns at this (actually sort of funny) wisecrack and says, "Anyway, on to you -- where’s Billy the Kid?" Dawson grouses that in all likelihood Billy has gone to hang out with Jen, leaving Dawson to go to tonight’s barbecue "solo" while Jen hangs out with his "new roommate." He asks his father what stage Dr. Keenan would put them in, and The Flash smirks, "High school." Dawson bemoans his fate: "Let’s face it, Dad. We’re a couple of nice guys, which stopped being a desirable character trait about half a century ago." The Flash tells Dawson that, although he probably shouldn’t give his son or anyone else "romance tips," every relationship will produce "its share of disappointments" and pain, and "anyone who’s never been hurt is either very lucky, or very lonely. The trick is to get through it." Dawson asks how, and The Flash suggests, "Compromise -- tears -- scuba lessons at the local Y -- different for everyone." Dawson asks if that works, and The Flash says glumly, "I have no idea, kid. No idea whatsoever," and chuckles at his own gallows humor as Dawson looks even more morose.
A tugboat honks its horn. Billy and Jen stand in the Capeside version of Golden Gate Park, and Billy says he wants to scoop Jen up and bring her back to New York with him, and Jen says that she would just turn around and come back to Capeside: "This is my home, Billy." Jen must have spent an hour with Miss Clairol, because her hair looks much blonder and better conditioned than in her previous scene. Billy reaches for her, and she pushes his hands away, and he says, "So this is really it -- you are leaving me for a guy who’s got an E.T. doll on his bed." Heh! Jen corrects him with the "collector’s item" line, and Billy says, "It is a doll!" Jen doesn’t respond to that, but says she should go to the party and find Dawson because she owes him "about four hundred explanations," and Billy says, "All right, then, before you leave, since who knows when, and if, we’ll ever see each other again, how about for old times’ sake, you and me, just one -- last -- kiss?" Jen, suckered in: "One last kiss and then you’ll go?" Billy, three fingers held aloft: "Scouts’ honor." Jen figures she might as well get it over with and leans in, and they kiss, and Billy tries to give her the tongue but Jen pulls away and says, "Goodbye, Billy," and walks off.