Episode Report Card Sars: C- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Dear old golden rule days
By Sars | Season 4 | Episode 17 | Aired on 04.10.2001
Back from the break, Joey wanders into the Sanctum Dawsonorum and looks at the black-and-white pictures on the wall -- one of Jack, Jen, and Andie, and one of herself and Pacey. Dawson appears in the doorway and remarks that he doesn't have any of the two of them: "Have to do somethin' about that." In the background, there's a Battleship Potemkin poster, which, while a slight improvement over the Spielberg-iana of past seasons, is still awfully pretentious. Joey smiles, then gets to the point, namely that she's thought about it, but she can't take the money; she'd never be able to pay him back. He says she wouldn't have to, but she says she would, and she wouldn't even take "hundreds…instead of thousands" from him, because…"it would ruin our friendship?" Dawson finishes for her. "Yeah," Joey shrugs. And here's the obligatory reference to What Went Down Last Spring, with Dawson remarking wryly that if their friendship can survive that, it can survive anything. "Not this. I can't do this," Joey says firmly, and makes to leave. Why not? He dictates everything else she does or feels; what's different about this? Dawson stops her; he knows how much Worthington means to her, and he doesn't want her to throw away the opportunity. It's too much -- can't he understand that? No, he can't; he can't understand why she won't let him help her, and they've "always been there for each other." "This is different!" "How?" Excellent question, Dawson (see above). Dawson blathers on about how much pain Joey has had in her life, like, please -- we don't need a reminder. We know. Her mom died. Poor. Little. Joey. Potter. E. Nough. ALREADY. Joey narrows her eyes: "Don't do this. Don't feel sorry for me, Dawson." That's not what this is about, he claims; all the pain he's seen her go through in the past, he could never fix, but this he can fix: "All I need you to do is let me." She can't. Won't she even consider it? She has! "Just let me say 'thank you' and go." Joey leaves. Dawson flaps his arms in confusion.
Tom Frost's office. Jen says that she's ready to talk about her dad. Immediately brought to tears, she admits that she can't remember the last conversation they had, and Tom Frost says encouragingly that he knows it's hard, but "the key is to keep talking about it." How, she asks -- she doesn't even remember what happened. Tom Frost asks if someone else was there who would remember. "Like my mom?" Jen quavers, and shakes her head. Her old boyfriend? No. Tom Frost, who has on way too much lip balm in this scene, suggests that she track someone down who can help her "fill in the blanks." Jen sighs heavily.
Witterschloss. Dawson taps on the porch door, and Pacey lets him in; he just missed Gretchen, it seems, but Dawson actually wants to talk to Pacey: "Pacey, your hair looks like crap. Please cut it." Okay, no. Dawson does ask if Joey told Pacey about the money. "Yep," Pacey says flatly, busying himself with a stack of CDs. "So what do you think?" Pacey thinks that fifteen grand "is a lot of money to give somebody with no strings attached." Preach it, my man. Dawson lets that slide, saying that Joey deserves to go to Worthington, she deserves more than -- "what, more than me?" Pacey interrupts sharply. Dawson again refuses to take the bait, saying earnestly, "That's not what I said, and it's not what I meant." He takes a seat beside Pacey and goes into the Joey-beat-the-odds spiel, saying that he can't stand to watch her "lose it all" and he doesn't think Pacey can either. Pacey sets his jaw and glares at Dawson, but when Dawson asks if Pacey can see Joey "being happy anyplace else," Pacey admits that no, he can't. But could you see Joey maybe doing something for herself? Because you really should see that. And let it happen. Because she's not your freakin' concubine, either of you, so let her make her own stupid mistakes. Dear show: I hate you. Signed, Sars.