Episode Report Card Sars: D | 1 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Detention
By Sars | Season 1 | Episode 7 | Aired on 03.02.1998
Hallway. Bathrooms. In the men's room, Dawson gives Pacey a "what can you do" look, and Pacey gives Dawson a "drop dead" look and leaves the bathroom without a word. In the ladies', Abby comments on the "weird sexual tension" between the other four as she puts on lipstick. In response, Jen and Joey flush their respective toilets. Like, ha -- oh, forget it.
Back in the library. Abby and Pacey bicker back and forth -- Abby bored blah blah blah Pacey "where's your Ecstasy" blah blah blah Abby wouldn't share it with "Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer" blah blah blah Pacey "perverted reindeer games" fishcakes -- as once again the screenwriters of Heathers wonder whether their checks got lost in the mail. Anyway, "reindeer games" inspires Abby to suggest that they all play a game, namely Truth Or Dare, and Pacey and Joey at the table and Jen and Dawson snuggling in the stacks all groan, and Abby wheedles, "Please? I'll be your best friend," and joins Jen and Dawson among the books as Pacey and Joey follow her. She'll submit first, she says, and Dawson doesn't want to play, and Abby insists, and he jokingly asks what planet she came from, and she says "Earth" and then "my turn," and Dawson protests, but Abby snarls, "Look, there are rules to this game, and your turn is over. Now it's my turn, and I want to ask -- Pacey! Truth or dare, Pacey?" He threatens her by saying, "Just remember, it's my turn next," and she makes "oh, I'm so scared, not" noises, and he doesn't care which, truth or dare, so Abby decides "truth" for him and asks again why he got detention. Pacey glares at her with his blackened eyes; the others wait expectantly. Pacey gabbles for a minute, then decides he wants a dare instead, and Joey needles him, but he stands firm. Abby says fine, take a dare, and dares him to kiss Jen on the lips for ten seconds. Dawson splutters, but Abby pushes Jen towards Pacey and says, "We're waiting," and Dawson folds his arms, and his nostrils expand to fill an area roughly equal to the total acreage of Levittown, and Joey looks positively overjoyed as Pacey sneers, "This is stupid," and Jen says that nobody wants to play the game, and Joey says innocently, "I do, and Pacey, you said 'dare' -- you'd better do as she says." Pacey looks at Dawson and says, "Fine, what do I care," and as Dawson's brows shoot up and Abby laughs, Pacey and Jen kiss. Dawson fumes. They break the kiss, and both of them got more into it than they thought they would, and Jen looks at Dawson apologetically and wipes her mouth as Pacey turns on Joey and snarls, "Okay, Joey, Miss You'd-Better-Do-As-She-Says, truth or dare?"
Joey tries to object but Pacey cuts her off, so she chooses truth. Pacey rubs his hands together: "Who do you like?" Joey parries the question by pretending she doesn't understand it, but Pacey won't be put off: "Yeah. Simple question. Who are you in love with? The truth." Pacey folds his arms and looks at Dawson, who looks blankly back at him. Jen furrows her brow sympathetically as Joey stutters, "Did I say 'truth'? I meant 'dare.'" Abby mocks Joey and the rest as "wimps," and Joey says she'll do anything, so Pacey dares her to kiss Dawson on the lips for fifteen seconds. Joey says, "No way. No," and Dawson tells Pacey to "grow up" as Jen looks anxious, but the others gang up on Joey, and when Pacey points out, "You did say you'd do anything," Joey says, "Fine. Dawson, come here." Dawson walks over to Joey with marked reluctance, and when he reaches her he looks longingly at Jen, and Joey looks at Jen too, and Abby whispers gleefully, "I'll keep the time," and after a great deal of fidgeting, they kiss, with decidedly more fervor than Pacey and Jen had. Joey raises her hand to touch Dawson's face as a Lilithite begins to croon huskily on the soundtrack, and a pre-crying Jen bites her lip, and Pacey smirks, and Abby keeps time, and when Abby says "fifteen" they don't stop kissing right away, at least not until Jen nervously says, "Okay," and they break apart. Dawson looks befuddled, Joey looks horrified, and Abby asks cheerfully, "So, are we having fun yet?" The others all turn to scowl at her.