Episode Report Card Sars: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT That's what friends aren't for
By Sars | Season 4 | Episode 23 | Aired on 05.22.2001
Tea and sympathy at the Ryan Home. Jen talks about how she used to think her mother sent her to Grams's house to punish her, but she doesn't think that anymore; she thinks her mother really loved it there, because she'd find any excuse to bring Jen up to Capeside. "Those were good times," Grams muses, pouring tea, "but sad, for her." Jen asks why, and Grams observes that some people spend their lives "chasing the happiness they had in high school." She adds acidly, "Thank goodness that won't happen to you." Heh. Jen's like, "Huh?" and Grams makes fun of the gang for "carrying on" and getting "so dour and depressed about everything -- things can only get better from here." Tee hee! Jen laughs. There's a knock at the door; it's Jack, who got halfway home and decided he didn't want to leave Jen and Grams alone on their last night. Grams chuckles, "Another sentimentalist," and hands Jack the cookie jar. Jack, triumphantly: "Yes!" Aw. More packing-related banter before Jen asks if Grams really isn't sad to leave the house. She's not; she finds it "rather exhilarating," and says that the three of them "are about to embark on a greeeeat adventure." Jen smiles, then asks if she and Gramps always lived in the house, and Grams reminisces about how they lived with Gramps's parents for a while ("I would not recommend that" -- ha ha!), and about their first apartment, and how they used to sleep up on the roof in the hot weather, and they'd look at the stars and the lights from the summer houses and listen to the music from the parties, and they liked the summer houses so much that they decided to buy one and live in it happily ever after. Aw.
Dawson answers the phone to find Pacey on the other end. Pacey's in "paradise, man, paradise," blah blah blah, he's working hard but it keeps his mind off of "stuff." Awkward pause. Pacey asks, "How is she?" Dawson says gently that Joey's "doing the same thing" as Pacey, "keepin' busy," and she doesn't say much, but Dawson knows that she thinks about Pacey a lot and that she'd appreciate a call. Pacey can't go there yet. Dawson understands, and offers to say something to Joey if Pacey wants, but Pacey would rather he didn't, and that's not why he called, anyway. Dawson looks puzzled; Pacey explains that, of everyone in Capeside, it's Dawson he regrets not saying goodbye to, because for a long time, he only cared about being Dawson's best friend. Oh, now, that's just way beyond. He could call to say goodbye, fine, but we've never seen any evidence that Pacey considered Dawson a top-notch best friend, or that Dawson has ever acted like even a mediocre friend to Pacey for so much as five minutes, and I really resent the "writers" constantly forcing their best-friendship down our throats when they haven't shown it to us, ever. Anyway, Pacey sums up by saying that, in spite of everything that's happened, he still thinks about "the way things were." Dawson smiles, gratified, and makes a joke about "two dorks" wondering if they'd ever get girlfriends, and Pacey smirks, "Well, speak for yourself, huh?" Heh. Nice one. Dawson says he's glad Pacey called, because he didn't get a chance to tell Pacey something that he really wanted to: "I'm proud of you, Pacey." Yeah, yeah, it sounds condescending, but it's actually kind of nice. For Dawson, anyway. Pacey smiles in spite of himself, and thanks Dawson. Dawson wishes him luck "out there," and Pacey says "you too," and they hang up as The Piano Of Resolved Issues comes in on the soundtrack.