Episode Report Card Jessica: C | 2 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Use Your Disillusion
By Jessica | Season 5 | Episode 5 | Aired on 11.06.2001
In the living room, Dawson grabs Joey's arm and tells her that they have to leave the party, immediately. She tries to introduce him to Wilder before they leave, but he can't do it. He runs out of the house. Joey makes an apologetic face and follows him. Wilder and the other professor guy just shrug, and go back to the brie.
Outside, Dawson's panting and leaning over a wall. I think he's having a panic attack. I had a panic attack once, and I don't recommend them; they're quite horrible. Joey wonders what the heck is going on; Dawson explains that he just couldn't stay inside that house one more second. He knows that he was the one who wanted to go out, but he just couldn't handle it once they got there. He then tells her some story about almost losing it in the grocery store one day, and says it felt like "a total, complete loss of control." Joey points out that he didn't lose control, that he manages to hold it together, but Dawson brushes this aside and tells her that he can't handle "random emotion that blindsides him out of nowhere." And he knows he wanted to come to the party, but as soon as he got there, he "like, changed his mind" for no good reason. "That's allowed. It's allowed!" Joey tells him, pleadingly. Dawson huffs and flares, and tells her that he was really, really hot inside the house. It was really hot. He was too hot! Joey mildly says that the house was a little warm, but she thinks he might be getting the flu. Hey, maybe Dawson has the anthrax! They go back to the dorm to assess his physical condition. Not like that. Ew.
Jen and Charlie walk down the street, and talk about her little mistake. She says that she saw Charlie holding his sister's arm, and…Charlie tells her that he was looking at his sister's engagement ring. Jen sputters about the general niceness of being engaged, and then points out that Charlie told her he was working. He was, he says, but his shift got changed, and he couldn't call her to tell her because she was supposed to be at the play. "Then my sister called and told me she had big news. And the rest? The rest is on my pants." Wow, if I had a dollar for the number of times -- never mind. Jen blushes and offers to wash Charlie's pants for him. To do all his laundry, for that matter. For a month! Charlie just nods. "That's a start," he says. Dude. I don't know if it's a good sign that he's so willing to let her do his laundry. Doing someone's laundry, unless you're married or whatever, is sort of gross and subservient. On the other hand, she did humiliate him in public. I don't know. Moving right along. "I screwed up. I'm sorry," Jen says. Charlie takes her face in his hands and tells her that she has to learn to trust him. Besides, he points out, she was spending the day with Pacey. Would it have been cool for him to jump to conclusions if he'd seen them together? "No," Jen says. Charlie says he wouldn't have, because he trusts her, and they have "something special" Yes, if "something special" means "great sex." Which, actually, it sort of does. Jen nods, and tells him that she agrees, one hundred percent. He's totally right. "Of course I'm right," Charlie says. "I'm always right." Jen smirks and tells him that she'll "let that one slide, but only because [he has] whipped cream on [his] crotch." He grins. They hug.