Episode Report Card Sars: D | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Neverland
By Sars | Season 3 | Episode 18 | Aired on 04.04.2000
Cut to the Potters sitting down to breakfast outside. On Cape Cod. In February. March? April? Didn't Pacey JUST call the weather "freezing cold" in the last scene? Can the writers institute a one-season-per-episode rule and stick to it? Joey asks, "Do you think it was more than just an impulse?" Uh duh, Joey. Wake up and smell the longing. Bessie shakes her head: "I don't know, Joey." Joey grumbles, "Thanks, you're a big help," and Bessie sort of laughs at her and says she can't tell Joey what she wants to hear because she honestly doesn't know, and she advises Joey to "talk to someone about it, someone who can help you figure it out." Joey snorts, "Who? Dawson? Pacey, Andie? This is what you're supposed to help me with." Bessie says she's sorry, but she can't "shed light on this one," and Joey stares at her in disbelief.
Meanwhile, Doug tells Pacey that he needs "to forge ahead. Things can work between you two if you first defuse the bomb." He goes on to say that Pacey has to tell Dawson about what happened with Joey: "Now, the trick is to do it in a manner that makes it impossible for him to hate you." Doug suggests that Pacey take Dawson to a place "that reminds [Dawson] of the strong history" between Pacey and Dawson, a place that will make Dawson think about how much Pacey really means to him. That way, Dawson will still get upset, but he'll remember "that [Pacey's] friendship is more important to him," and in fact he'll respect the fact that Pacey cared enough to tell him what happened, and he'll tell Pacey "to go right on ahead, and you and Joey can just drive off into the sunset." Nice theory, Doug -- very Dale Carnegie -- and it might work on a person whose self-absorption needle didn't dwell in the red zone, but we're talking about Dawson here.
Pacey, dubiously: "That's your advice?" Doug wants to know what's wrong with it; Pacey says there's nothing wrong with it, "it's just very thought out and un-Dougie-like." He adds that, even if Doug's "ridiculous plan" worked, Doug left out a few things, like Joey punching him and bitching him out, and Doug points out impatiently that Joey wouldn't have "reacted so strongly if she didn't feel something for" Pacey too. Pacey mulls this over.
McPhee Manor. Andie "License To Perk" McPhee prances out of the house to join her brother Jack "Out In Left Field" McPhee at the breakfast table. Outside. On Cape Cod. In -- oh, forget it. Obviously, Capeside is part of some large-scale Epcot-esque biodome experiment. Anyway, Andie grouses that they have no hot water, she's run out of shampoo, she has two tests today, blah dee blah, and wants to know what Jack is "so smiley about." Jack confides that "Eazy" Ethan is coming over that afternoon and staying for the weekend. "Do I smell a romance a-brewin', big brother?" Andie needles him, and Jack scoffs that it's possible "for two gay males to be friends without it turning sexual, you know?" Oh, we know, I assure you. Andie says she didn't mean Jack's "orientation," but rather the fact that he "can't wipe that grin off" his face. Jack protests too much about how he's glad to have found a friend, one who accepts him and understands, it's "a gigantic relief" and so on and so forth. Andie wonders what their father has to say about Jack's weekend plans; Jack shrugs that, since "Angry Pants" McPhee (tm Kisle) has a business trip planned for the weekend, he figured "why risk a fight?" Andie cringes. "What?" Jack asks. "Uh . . . Dad canceled it," Andie sighs. Jack groans and rubs his forehead with his sleeve before saying bravely, "You know what? So what. You know, it's a harmless situation, you know, I'm an adult, pretty much, and if I want to have a friend come over to the house, I can, you know? There's not a damn thing he can say about it." Enter Angry right on cue to ask, "There's not a damn thing who can say about what?" Andie leaps into the breach with an nearly incomprehensible comment about Congress and the President and the "tax initiative reform thingie," which Angry appears to buy, and he leaves. Andie and Jack make "phew!" faces at each other.