Episode Report Card Jessica: C+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT 100 Light Years From Home
By Jessica | Season 5 | Episode 19 | Aired on 04.16.2002
Product Placement Party. It's now night, and M2M is still "singing." As if they have enough songs in their set to last more than an hour, tops. This song also really, really blows. Anyway, Joey's flirting with some guy I vaguely recognize. I think he either works for MTV or was on a season of Road Rules. I don't know, and it's not important. All you need to know is that Charlie manages to run the guy off and Joey finds this somewhat charming, although most people would merely find it stunningly annoying.
In the next scene, we learn that Jack is real drunk.
Audrey. Pacey. Angst. Moving on. Okay, fine: he's mad she lied. And she yelps that she really didn't want to ever have this conversation, because she knew he would "never let it go." Pacey points out that they certainly are having a good time now, aren't they? Look what lying does, kids! It tears people apart! Listen to Saint Joey: liars are doomed to burn endlessly in hell! Hell! Where they'll also be poked with sharp sticks and be forced to wear ugly outfits for all eternity! Hell, I say! Audrey sort of apologizes, and admits that she "messed up." Pacey looks at her thoughtfully and says that he thinks there's more to do than that. "What more do you want to know?" Audrey asks, then spits that Josh Hart-not was "[her] Dawson" and that breaking up with him was really hard and sometimes she wonders if she made the wrong choice. "Is that what you wanted to hear?" she asks. "Yes," Pacey says quietly. Josh Jackson's doing a bang-up job with this scene, by the way; his expression when Audrey threw out that phrase "my Dawson" was truly stellar: disappointed and disgusted at the same time. Pacey walks away. "Are you mad at me now?" Audrey asks him before he's out of earshot. "Why would I be?" he responds, very evenly. Um, because that was a really low blow? Audrey says that he's really freaking her out, but Pacey just shrugs and reminds her that "lying is for people who are in serious relationships," and that they "were never that serious." Audrey looks enormously hurt by this, but shakes it off and agrees. Then she walks off.
Later, Pacey and Joey walk on the beach, through the reeds, talking. It reminds me of that scene last year where she told him that she lied to Dawson about them having sex, which is, by the way, the point at which I decided I was going to boycott this show forever and ever. That worked well, didn't it? Pacey points out that "old-school Pacey" would just dive right into this "messy love triangle," and would end up losing the girl anyway, so he's decided not to fight it. Joey has the good grace to look somewhat guilty, and starts to speak up. Pacey cuts her off, telling her that it's okay: he's not making the same mistake twice. Joey wonders how he knows that this would even end up like, you know, that other thing that happened on this show that one time that I think someone told me about once. "Because, Joey, she said, 'He's my Dawson,' which as you know is my own personal kryptonite," Pacey reminds her. Joey points out that she didn't end up with Dawson. Of course, she didn't end up with Pacey, either, so I don't know how good an argument that is. "He's part of the past," Joey says. Pacey snorts that Dawson is "the past, present and future," (God no!) and that he just wants a woman with "no soulmates to speak of, and smallish feet." Dude, I wear a size-five shoe! Pace, call me! "You want Audrey," Joey says. Pacey shrugs that he's not going to get her. "If you open yourselves up to the possibility that you need each other, you might just fall in love," Joey simpers. Oh, barf. Pacey looks thoughtful. "So, what about you?" he asks, and wonders if she's going to follow her own advice. He nods at Charlie, who is conveniently walking to the beach with his surfboard right at this moment. "Him? No, that's different," Joey says, telling Pacey that she doesn't even like Charlie. "Of course not," Pacey drawls sarcastically. "The blushing, the laughing, the flirting, the singing?" He grins and shakes his head, and Joey admits that maybe she likes Charlie just a bit. Especially since she saw his mighty big package. "But in that stupid, fun way," she qualifies. Pacey thinks she ought to go for it. "He came to see you, and he called me, a rather intimidating ex-boyfriend, to find out where you were. That takes guts," he says. Joey shrugs. "Or he could just be an idiot," she says. Pacey grins. "He could be. Why don't you go find out?" And so she does.