Episode Report Card Wing Chun: D | 1 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT Stolen Kisses
By Wing Chun | Season 3 | Episode 19 | Aired on 04.25.2000
Hey, a promo for a show called Young Americans! And that kid Will is in it! And it premieres in the summer! Who knew? What a wild coincidence!
Pacey mopes in the living room. Andie observes that he looks "a little storm-cloudy." He says he'd just been thinking that now would be a good time to start that "debilitating drug habit" he'd been considering, and then mutters that he's just kidding. Andie says that Will is not what she'd expected, and "sweet." Pacey blah blah blah expositioncakes, like, we all saw the promo -- shut up! Andie says that Will told her about his dad, and Pacey is surprised that he did, and then asks, "Do you like him or something?" Andie shrugs and says, "Maybe! Maybe not!" and then -- whoa, I may not be able to finish the recap because I just got called into work on this speech of Andie's: "But don't you think it's better to just be honest and open about things like this? I mean, who wants to carry around this burden of guilt over moving on -- which, by nature, has to happen? I want you to be happy, Pacey." Pacey chuckles.
Henry finds Jen crying in the kitchen. She admits that she was jealous. He says it's okay to be jealous. She blah blah setting traps to keep people away blah blah you broke down those walls, blah blah what if I lose you blah blah insecuritycakes. He says he kind of liked it when she was jealous.
The Flash invites Mrs. Flash to join him at the bar. He read the toast and then got the urge to see Tom again. He's started watching their wedding video. They kiss on the TV screen within the TV screen. The Flash had a mullet at their wedding. He talks some more about letting her go when she moved to Philadelphia but, really, who can get past the mullet? Who wants to? An ovary busts out an acoustic version of "Daydream Believer" accompanied by piano as the Flashes dance in the present day, and on the video. I start to wonder whether I should bother going on.
And then I'm called in AGAIN on the next scene! Man, how much Undramatic Non-Irony can one episode contain? I better get double time and a half for this. Dawson sorts through some old photos depicting younger versions of himself and Joey doing karaoke in simpler times. She approaches tentatively, planning to break the news, but Aunt Gwen conveniently interrupts them. She offers to leave but Joey says it's okay, and takes off, instead. Aunt Gwen has a painting in her hands, and tells Dawson she thinks it might help him "find [his] way back." Oh, thank God Wing Chun isn't still alive to see this -- it's the l'il Archie painting of Dawson and Joey, only it's shot in an EVEN TIGHTER close-up. Dawson beams at it. "Way back to what?" he asks, and she suggests, "The way back to what made you this little daydream believer." Hey, y'all, don't forget what's probably going on between Pacey and Joey outside EVEN NOW. Right? That's what I'm here for! Then there's the usual praise-for-Dawson-from-a-tertiary-character as Aunt Gwen tells him how imaginative and brilliant he is, and instead of, oh, THANKING her, or, maybe, DENYING it, he simply says, "I can't find the inspiration anymore! It's easy for you -- the evidence of your talent is all around you." What, the house? The evidence that she was able to meet a rich old guy and fuck him dead so she could keep his house? Because he couldn't possibly mean her excremental paintings. It seems that Aunt Gwen is more on my side: "When my time is up, I want to know that I did one thing well: Loved somebody. The rest of this is just an expression of that one thing." She asks him, "What's your one thing?" He doesn't know, so she tells him to close his eyes and paint his future. She asks him what he sees.
Acoustic "Daydream Believer" starts up again. Fade to the yard, where Pacey sits beside a fire. Joey walks out and sits beside him, leaving enough room for the Holy Spirit between them, as the nuns used to tell Wing Chun's mom when she was in high school. Pacey assures her that he doesn't plan to kiss her again. When she says nothing, he asks what's going on, here, and she says she doesn't know. He asks whether she doesn't think he deserves a better answer than that. She tells him she's been trying to get him out of her head, or to pretend that her feelings are "some bizarre hormonal glitch," but it isn't working. He asks whether she really wants it to work. She whispers, "I tried to tell him." Pacey asks what happened, and she says she couldn't find the words, which is ironic (and from the floor, Dramatic Irony rouses himself enough to mumble, "It really isn't"). Pacey asks her what she would have said, and she sighs, "I don't know." He shakes his head and tells her he doesn't believe her. She gets up and starts snitting at him that she doesn't have any answers, and he shoots back that that's only because she's been too scared to ask herself the right questions. He reminds her that he knows how he feels, and she knows how he feels, but that the real issue is how she feels: "So how do you feel?" he asks. "Awful," she replies. He says he does too, and explains: "When I was kissing you tonight, I don't think that I've ever felt better and worse at one time in my entire life. I mean, the very idea that Dawson or Andie would find out about us is killing me. It is tearing me up on the inside to have these feelings for you, but I can't get rid of them!" He finally stands, and declares, "I can't keep on kissing you, Jo." She asks what he means, and he says, "I mean just that. I can't keep on kissing you. All right? I've done it twice now. I can't be the one that's always initiating this; I can't be the one who's always giving you the answers." She sniffles, looking at the ground. He asks her to look at him, and she says she can't. He asks, "Please?" and she gathers her composure and looks up. He says, "If you felt even one shred of what I feel for you, then we wouldn't be standing here having this conversation." He starts to walk away, but she grabs his hand as he passes and kisses him. I have to admit, it's another pretty great kiss. In fact, that whole scene was pretty good; if Wing were here, she'd observe that it's nice for crusty old married broads like her to remember what it's like when a relationship first starts up and it's all scary and exciting. Plus most of the reason the scene was good was that, since Katie Holmes really phoned it in from the SUV parked up the path, Joshua Jackson did enough acting for both of the performers in it.