Episode Report Card Sars: C- | 1 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Coming Home
By Sars | Season 4 | Episode 1 | Aired on 10.03.2000
Jen mutters conspiratorially to Dawson that "she's doing the official wait-for-Dawson-to-come-over thing." Dawson corrects that to read "the wait-in-vain-for-Dawson-to-come-over thing." Oh, whatever, gel monkey. "One more joke like that, and I am really gonna know how hard this is for you," Jen gripes. Zing! Point: Lindley. Dawson says that it isn't, that it's not easy but it's not hard either, and Jen rolls her eyes and says, "Well, whatever it is, why don't you just go get it over with?" Word. I can -- dare I say it? -- sympathize with Dawson in re: the awkwardness factor of the situation, but seriously, it's best just to plunge in and have done with it. Dawson calls what's about to unfold "a highly predictable moment," going on to say that he'll go over, he and Joey will chitchat "until the awkwardness overwhelms us both, and then we're just gonna part, each of us surprised at how surprisingly painless the whole encounter surprisingly was." Snerk. Damn -- I really don't hate Dawson that much at the moment. I actually have a shred of sympathy for the guy. I mean, yeah, you need a microscope to see said shred, but still. Anyway, Jen does the voice-of-reason thing: "Well, then, surprise me and go on over there." Dawson rolls his eyes, says all not-nonchalantly, "Arright," and heads over.
He bounds into the boat and says to Joey, "Hey." "Hey!" she says back, sincerely happy to see him. Dawson shoots Jack a couple of looks; Jack, his forty-eight seconds of screen time for the episode having expired, makes himself scarce. The Poignant Piano starts up. "So, how's it goin'?" Joey asks, grinning from ear to ear. "Uh, great, great -- it's goin' great," Dawson stammers. Down the beach, Pacey sees them talking. They exchange small talk about their summers, calling them "brief, but good" and each saying that the other looks great, and Dawson can't help himself and begins to beam at Joey, and Pacey looks utterly defeated and rolls his eyes and turns away. Joey looks uncomfortable. Silence. Then they talk over each other. Then more beaming. "It was good to see you," Dawson says, falling back on his old priggish tone. Joey hears the past tense there and deflates, but recovers with, "It's good to see you too." The Sad Clarinet comes in to join The Poignant Piano, and Dawson walks away. Joey shrinks down into herself -- an inevitable consequence of not having any functioning vertebrae, I guess -- and looks disappointed.
Dawson race-walks to the side of a building, slumps against it, and knocks his head against the wall, trying to catch his breath. He looks simultaneously proud of himself and like he might cry. I know that feeling, and it sucks, and Dawson deserves every flared nerve ending of it, but I have to give James Van Der Beek a bitty little prop for his acting there. Not a nostril flare in sight, for real. Impressive. ["You are fired." -- Wing Chun]