Episode Report Card Sars: C- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Keyser Snore-ze
By Sars | Season 4 | Episode 8 | Aired on 11.21.2000
Outside the Capeside police station, Pacey waits for Doug. We see that he's holding a box of Krispy Kremes. Awww. When Doug emerges, Pacey starts to proffer the donuts, thanking Doug for letting him come on the ride-along: "It was illuminating." Doug accuses him of sarcasm, but Pacey is sincere, saying that what Doug does "matters more than any job I'll ever be able to hold down." Doug snorts that, the day before, Pacey didn't think it mattered at all, but Pacey says he knows differently know -- he knows it matters to the blind guy, and to "some dumb kid" that Doug will keep from getting in a car wreck, and in a million other ways that Pacey will never notice. Doug starts to wander off, shrugging that if it weren't him doing the job, it'd be someone else. Pacey argues, "But it is you, Doug -- it's you, and I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss that." Doug regards Pacey warily as Pacey adds that he'd consider himself "lucky" to "someday ride shotgun" with Doug. Doug thinks that "would be a mistake." "You don't think I'd make much of a cop, huh?" Doug doesn't. He does think that Pacey is "a daring original." Pacey looks up, startled that Doug has expressed a positive thought about him, and Doug goes on that Pacey has a talent for "flying in the face of conventionality," and is better at breaking the rules than enforcing them: "And you know what? I actually admire that in you. I really do." Aw. Pacey looks as if he might cry, but then quickly takes the opportunity to tease his big brother, and they walk off into the sunset with their donuts, teasing each other.
Gretchen comes in to find Dawson doing an Internet search -- most assuredly not on the IMDb, either -- on Mr. Brooks. He blathers on about considering himself "an encyclopedia of filmic history," but maybe he doesn't know everything, blah dee blah. The search doesn't turn up anything under "Arthur Brooks," and Gretchen suggests searching under a nickname. There's some dumb flirtatious badinage that doesn't bear repeating, and Gretchen eventually leaves. Dawson, whose hair looks like a tea cozy made of wet reeds fell on his head, searches under "A.I. Brooks" instead, and gets a list of films and a bio. Taken aback, he reads up on Mr. Brooks.
Jack answers the door of Emancipated Manor, formerly The McPhee Institute For Cryogenic Reanimation Research, formerly McPhee Manor, to find a soggy-from-crying Revenge Of Molly and her scary Mrs. Robinson sister on the front stoop. SMRS reports that Molly asks if they could come by and see Jack. "What is it, Molly?" Jack asks. "I'm sorry I got you fired," Molly chokes out. "What?" Jack says, incredulous. They go for a little stroll over to a bench, and Jack asks why Molly thinks his getting fired had anything to do with her. Molly snuffles that she heard Lead Dad yelling at Jack after the game, and then that day at school, Lead Kid told her that if she had stopped more goals, then Jack wouldn't have been…she starts sobbing for real, and Jack gives her a hug. She wails out another apology; Jack tells her it's okay, and shoots SMRS a look. SMRS just stands, arms folded, and looks worried. Jack tells Molly haltingly that Lead Dad and The Homophobic Dad Gaggle fired him "because they disagree with who I am…as a coach, not you as a player. They knew I was right about you, they just couldn't admit it." Molly wheezes tearfully that SMRS told her it isn't her fault, but she didn't believe SMRS because she doesn't understand how anyone could fire Jack. Jeez, me neither -- look at the lashes on that boy. But then, I guess that wouldn't cut much mustard with Lead Dad and The Gaggle. Jack explains euphemistically that he's "confusing" to people like Lead Dad, but we can't hate people "because they're different" -- we have to go on "being the person that we can be." Molly seems to accept this, and leans her head on Jack's shoulder. Jack busses her forehead. Work it, It Came From The Molly! Heh. Just kidding.