Episode Report Card 3 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Cinderella Story
By Wing Chun | Season 3 | Episode 17 | Aired on 02.29.2000
Another recap site would tell you that Pacey takes Buzz to a video arcade, where Buzz uses the Wack-a-Mole mallet to beat up other, larger kids, but I say that the camera pans back from a painting of an army on horseback, which is being described in a foreign language (Swedish?) by an old, quavery man (played by Scott Thompson) holding a cigarette with a very long ash. Darrill, standing beside Ash Man, occasionally prompts him in the same foreign language, and John, looking very bored, leans on the glass display case on which the painting is being displayed. When Ash Man stops talking, Darrill translates: "He is saying that this battle took place in 1807, and that, looking at you, he imagines you are one of these gallant young horsemen, riding a big chestnut charger to glory." Dully, John says, "Great." Darrill further translates, "Now he is saying that if we visit him seven more times -- only seven more times! -- he will show us his tin soldiers collection! What do you think of that, eh? Aren't we lucky?" John says nothing. Ash Man laughs wheezily. "Our visit gives him much pleasure," Darrill notes.
"Grade" A. "Dickhead" J. Moller shuffles papers in a café. Morgan plops down in a chair beside him. He asks where Joey is, and Morgan says she showed Joey around town, just like A.J. asked. Warningly, A.J. says, "You didn't," in time for the camera to pull back and reveal Joey, gliding into the café in her borrowed rollerblades. A.J. asks how her trip was, and Joey evasively tells him that it was "a trip." A.J. apologizes for not meeting her train himself (which I happen to think is inexcusable on a boyfriend's part), and she nods and doesn't explicitly accept his apology. A.J. asks, "Do you hate me?" and Joey deadpans, "Completely." Well, that makes 15,784,989 of us. They kiss. Morgan says, "Oh, good God. Get a room." A.J. says he hopes Morgan didn't totally wear Joey out, and Joey diplomatically says that it was very informative: "I had no idea that the Charles River ran through so much of the city." A.J. mildly scolds Morgan for taking Joey on that particular trail, and then tells Joey that he'd asked Morgan to pick her up, not take her "on an endurance test." Morgan tells A.J. that he's threatened because Joey is a better blader than he is. Joey smiles and giggles and generally basks in the reflected glow of A.J.'s and Morgan's comfortable friendship, which is actually nice to see from her; she asks how long they've known each other, and Morgan says, "Pretty much since we were zygotes." A.J. elaborates that they grew up in the same town, went to the same high school -- "Same college?" Joey asks. Morgan says that she got bored with "this geek" (word) and, wanting to make some new friends, studied "last semester at Sorbonne." Not "the Sorbonne"? Okay. Plus she pronounces it "Sore Bone," not even the accepted anglicized pronunciation which is more like "Sore Bun." Anyway. The Paris connection impresses Joey, and she tells Morgan that she's always wanted to study in Paris herself (leaving out the part where she explains what she did instead of going to France -- namely, let Dawson drive his boat back and forth over her). In French, and with terrible, terrible pronunciation, Morgan tells Joey, "Later, I'll tell you all his [indicating A.J. with a head-tilt] faults," and A.J. answers, also in appalling French, "Not if I can stop you." Joey doesn't know what they're saying, and says, "Sorry, my French isn't very good," which only means she's in perfect company. A.J. explains that because Morgan likes to embarrass him, he's not going to let Joey and Morgan hang out anymore. Morgan yelps, "See? Threatened." A.J. tells Joey not to be fooled by the "friendly banter," and that they "really can't stand each other." Morgan tells Joey that A.J. wrote about nothing but Joey in all his letters to Morgan, which news pleases Joey. A.J. smiles, and doesn't deny it. Morgan says, "I'll bet he never told you a thing about me." A.J.'s face falls. Well, Morgan, what's there to say? "I can't wait for you to meet this friend of mine; she's like the aging maiden aunt I never had!" Joey gropes for a polite way of saying, "Uh. No," but Morgan bails her out by saying that she can tell Joey and A.J. need some time together. A.J. marvels at her ability to take a hint, and as she gets up to leave, Morgan says that she's glad Joey's here, because she'd been starting to believe Joey was "one of [A.J.'s] fantasies." A.J. confirms superfluously that Joey is real, and Morgan agrees she is: "Flesh and blood." Joey shyly says, "That's me. Joey Potter: Flesh and blood." What? Some alterna-loser on the soundtrack whines, "And I think it's gonna WORK OUT FINE!" This couldn't be some of that foreshadowing I keep hearing so much about, could it?
"Critics are raving about Amanda Peet"? In the sense that lunatics rave?