Episode Report Card Sars: D+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Discovery
By Sars | Season 1 | Episode 4 | Aired on 02.09.1998
Shouldn't the ad say "Nobody beats 'Nobody Beats The Wiz'"? Just wondering.
Pacey pulls up to the bike rack in front of the video store. As he dismounts, he sees TaMAHra sitting with Mr. Gold at the café and tossing her hair flirtatiously. Pacey slouches into the video store to the accompaniment of TaMAHra's silvery giggle.
Gail, attired in her Ally-McBealwear, coming home from work. Dawson gets up from his seat on the steps, and Gail says she didn't see him at the station yesterday and she'd thought he would stop by and say hello. Dawson stares at her but says only that things "got a little crazy." She asks if he has something on his mind. He says no, and she says she doesn't believe him: "You've never been very good at disguising that look of preoccupation you get when something is bothering you." Gee, might that have something to do with the giant nostrils blocking out the light of the sun? Gail, whose teasing tone implies that she has no idea what she's in for, guesses, "One of the many women in your life has got your head spinning." Dawson curls his lip and says, "Yeah, something like that," before trotting off to The Ryan Home For Wayward Girls, where he knocks on the door. Grams greets him with an icy, "Yeeees? What can I help you with?" Dawson forges ahead: "Two things, actually. First of all, I know that you don't like me [no comment], and that you look at me as some sex-crazed teenager [again, no comment] looking to corrupt your granddaughter, but I want to assure you that that's not the case, not at all." Grams, balefully: "What's the second thing?" Dawson, freaking out: "Um, I'm here to pick up Jen?" Okay, Helpful Writing Hint #27: when writing a scene, a recognizable point often makes said scene more effective.
In the park, Jen sits on a picnic table and listens to Dawson bleat about his old-fashioned notions of fidelity, which he thinks he must have inherited from his father's side of the family. Like, ha ha. Not. He apologizes to Jen for boring her. Um, Dawson? How about you apologize to the rest of North America too? Jen says he isn't boring her, and in fact she felt "a little hurt earlier" when he didn't open up to her; she figured he went straight to Joey instead. Jen has an extremely tight pair of pants on which only exacerbate her tendency to walk like a haywagon. Dawson mutters that he "won't make that mistake again," and makes Jen promise she'll "always be upfront and honest with" him: "I firmly believe that secrets destroy -- they wound and hurt and kill and -- I really want us to have a chance, okay? No secrets between us, ever." Um, Dawson? You've kissed her, like, twice, so chill, okay? Jen agrees, but tests the waters to see how he will really receive The Revelation Of Great Sluttiness: "Yeah, but don't you think that in certain situations there are things people just don't want to know?" The nostrils flutter briefly as Dawson replies, "No, 'cause even if my mom had fallen completely out of love with my dad, then she should have been honest with him --" but Jen interrupts, "I'm not talking about your parents." Dawson doesn't get it. She asks him if he hasn't wondered why her parents suddenly sent her to live in Capeside. Dawson says he thought she had to help out with her grandfather, but Jen informs him that Grams has been a registered nurse for forty years and doesn't really need her help. Dawson asks the real reason. Jen gathers her courage and says, "Okay. Honesty, right? Look, my parents didn't exactly send me up here to help out Grams. They sent me up here because the clichés about teenagers in the big city are true." Dawson: "What clichés?" Jen, impatiently: "Come on, you've heard 'em -- they grow up too fast, stay out too late, hang out with the wrong kind of people, have sex too young." Dawson, still not clueing in: "And your parents wanted to get you away from kids like that?" Jen: "No, Dawson, I was kids like that." Dawson chews his lip for a moment before the light of comprehension finally dawns in his vast cranium: "The sex part?" When Jen says, "Yeah," Dawson goes for nonchalance as he tries to ascertain Jen's exact level of experience and, um, willingness: "Boyfriend, right?" Jen, determined to rip off the blindfold: "Yeah, but not just him." Jen checks Dawson's reaction as he fakely chortles, "Okay, huh, so all that stuff you said about being a virgin before, I should probably disregard that." Jen thinks aloud that she might have sunk herself by telling him this, but he did ask for honesty, and she thinks he has a point -- he should know who he's dating. She asks, worried, "You're okay with this, right?" Dawson says, too easily, "Yeah. I mean, the way you were talking, I thought it was gonna be much worse." Jen asks him to hold her hand, and he forces out a "yeah, sure" as he sets his jaw and flares his trusty nostrils. Cue The Guitar Of Sexual Profligacy.
Pacey at his locker. TaMAHra and Mr. Gold flirting in the hallway. Pacey fuming. Sars hunting frantically for a Vivarin she thinks she dropped behind the couch last season.