Episode Report Card Sars: D | 2 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT The Anti-Prom
By Sars | Season 3 | Episode 22 | Aired on 05.16.2000
Over at the PB&B, Joey mutters that Dawson asked her to the prom and she said yes. Bessie "Like A Hot Knife Through Butter" Potter, seated on the couch, gives her sister a "you've got to be kidding me" look as Joey goes on to confess that she feels like she "made a huge, horrible mistake." Well, seeing as how you agreed to attend a formal event in the company an obsessive dweeb whose head belongs in a display case at the Museum Of Medical Oddities, yes, I think "huge, horrible mistake" covers the subject rather well. Joey babbles that Dawson told her that going to prom together would only "serve to re-cement our admittedly shaky friendship, but I don't know -- what about the undeniable romantic implications?" "Re-cement"? Joey keeps thinking aloud in the "and what about Pacey?" vein, and finally Bessie cuts through the bullshit to ask what effect Joey thought accepting Dawson's invitation would have, "if not to put you right in the middle of his tug-of-war with Pacey?" Preach it, Bessie. Joey says she just wants to get things "back to the way they were," and Bessie slings an arm around her and says mildly, "Come on, Jo, you're not that naïve." Joey says she's "backed up into [sic] a corner" and has no choice, and when Bessie demurs, Joey says, "Well -- no appealing choice." Bessie asks if Joey expects her to come up with an answer, and Joey says that she does, and she gripes that Bessie hasn't really come through "in the advice department" of late. Bessie tells her to "give [her] a problem that actually has a solution, and I'll solve it." The problem does have a solution, ladies -- punt Dawson for the extra point! Problem solved! God! Anyway, Joey rolls her eyes a few times before admitting that Bessie's right: "I mean, no matter what I do, somebody gets hurt. Including me." Yeah, boo hoo.
In the Capeside High cafeteria, the camera pans over a big sign for "Junior Prom Tickets," past an officious blonde manning the ticket table, and down to Andie crabbing, "I hate the stupid prom, the stupid prom can kiss my ass," and thwapping an orange peel onto her tray. Heh. Jack "Cherry 2000" McPhee busts open a pudding snack cup and asks mildly, "What's wrong with you?" Andie bitches that she thought Pacey would ask her to the prom, but now she has to "humiliate" herself and go alone. Jack points out that it's better than "going with an ex-boyfriend that [she's] not over yet," to which Andie scoffs, "I am so over him. I am! That's why I want to go with him, is because it'll be safe!" "Mm hmm," Jack says drily, lifting a skeptical eyebrow and eating his pudding. Andie can see her brother ain't buying what she's selling, and she asks sulkily if Jack has bought his tickets yet. Uh, wouldn't Jack go to the senior prom? What damn year is he in, anyway? Jack says he's "working on it," and he complains about the prom theme of "couples" and how each couple's name will be printed on all the balloons and souvenirs and whatnot, and how dumb a theme is that for a prom? I mean, why not make the theme "formalwear," or "decorating the gym," or anything else that you'd find at a prom anyway? It doesn't make any sense. Anyhow. Andie asks, "So?" Jack reminds her that, when they buy their tickets, they have to say "who they're bringing," and thus he has to announce to the entire world that he's bringing a guy to the prom. ["In a town that small, who wouldn't already know that Jack was gay?" -- Wing Chun] Andie points out that, when he shows up with Ethan, the entire world will pretty much get the idea anyway, but Jack protesteth too much that "he's not my date date, we're just going as friends," and when Andie rolls her eyes, Jack says that Ethan calls this "the next step towards self-acceptance and actualization, whatever the hell that means," and a hearty "word to that" -- Ethan hasn't even appeared onscreen in this episode, and I already want him to shut up. Andie observes that "it's not like [Jack] to care what other people think," and Jack grumbles, "You seen who's selling the tickets?" and Andie looks over at the officious blonde and snorts, "Barbara Johns?"