Episode Report Card Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Cinderella Story
By Wing Chun | Season 3 | Episode 17 | Aired on 02.29.2000
Joey cries in the train station waiting room. She wipes her face at the appearance of Pacey. He asks what happens, and she says nothing happened. He prompts her: "You got bored? You got homesick? He finally ripped off his rubber mask and revealed his true alien features? What?" Joey collects her things and stomps out, saying she doesn't want to talk about it. Pacey follows, saying, "Oh. Well, forgive me if I'm having just a little bit of trouble with the no-questions-asked part." Yeah, really. I think that's probably a pretty long drive to make in the middle of the night; he is entitled to some kind of explanation, not to mention -- hello? -- a little gratitude? And why is she crying so much over A.J.? She knew him for like five minutes!
Anyway, morning dawns in Capeside and Dawson strides into the restaurant, which looks a lot better put together than it did when he stomped out of it earlier. Gale is sitting at the bar and wishes him a good morning. He says he was about to apologize for having undercut her authority, and to offer his help, but that it looks like she's doing fine without him. She hands him a cup, which he expects to be coffee, but which instead contains clam chowder which he judges to be really good. To make a long story marginally shorter, she's decided on a name -- "Leery's Fresh Fish" -- and Dawson starts to say he thought that's what The Flash was going to call his restaurant when The Flash cuts in, "It's her name too, Dawson." Turns out that Gale is very good at delegating. She hired The Flash as a general manager, gave Bodie a partnership interest, and, recognizing that Jen would never make a good waitress, decided to make her a hostess instead. Dawson is impressed that they work so well together. Yes. Good for them. In a world where "good for them" means "whatever."
Pacey drives along the highway and asks if Joey's ever going to speak again. She snaps, "What do you want me to say, Pacey? 'You were right'? You were right, okay? Right, as always. Pacey Witter: The only person in my life who ever speaks the truth." This evidently isn't what Pacey wants to hear and he says that her assessment of him "is not entirely accurate." She tells him that he told her what was going to happen, and he begs to know what did happen. Joey wearily says, "There was another girl," which is true on its face, but misleading. Pacey does a long blink, and says, "Oh. I'm sorry, Jo." She says that the whole time she was watching them, she kept thinking, "This is it. This is real, just like Pacey said. This is the real thing. And it reminded me once again what exactly I don't have." Pacey says that if she keeps looking, she'll find it. Joey says that she won't, and that it should be obvious by now that she isn't meant to. Uh, Joey, Morgan is the thirty-four-year-old single chick -- not you. You're only sixteen. Pacey also points out her age, but Joey says that the reason she thinks she'll never find a "real" relationship is that in her whole life there have only been two people who've really known her: "Dawson and --" Pacey protests that A.J. didn't really know her, and she tells him, "I was going to say 'you,' Pacey." This pushes Pacey over the edge, and he abruptly pulls the car over. They both get out and he demands, "What did you mean by that?" "By what?" Joey snaps. "About me knowing you better than anybody else," he clarifies, and she says, "Exactly what I said, Pacey. You know me, okay, in a way no one besides Dawson ever --" "I'm not talkin' about Dawson, right now, I'm talkin' about me. I mean, you can't keep on doing this to me, Potter!" Joey squeals, "Doing what? So, I count on you, I tell you secrets --" "And you call me in the middle of the night to pick you up? Why?" Joey misunderstands him, and angrily apologizes for having called, and Pacey urgently says, "I'm not mad that you called me -- I just want to know why you called me." Joey says he was the first person she thought of, and he asks, "And what does that mean, Jo?" Joey says it means that she can talk to him, and that he's there for her. Pacey asks, "Don't you ever get tired of talking, Jo?" Joey says she doesn't, and Pacey says, "I don't want to talk anymore." Joey demands, "What are you trying to say, Pacey?" and he reaches out with both hands, grabs her face, and plants one on her. The camera immediately cuts away. The first scene in MONTHS that's rung true, with good performances by all participants -- one that really made me feel Pacey's urgency and terror and Joey's willful misunderstanding of his meaning -- and that's all we get until April. DAMMIT!