Episode Report Card Wing Chun: D | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Decisions
By Wing Chun | Season 1 | Episode 13 | Aired on 05.18.1998
Back in Capeside, Dawson and Joey walk along a little footbridge. She asks him what his deal is, and says that he didn't say a word the entire bus ride home. He didn't? After Joey went through that confrontation with her dad? Just because he was trying to decide whether he might want to kiss her or not? What a giant, seeping ass-boil. How selfish can a person be? Oh, I HATE HIM! Joey points out that if anyone should be "brooding" right now, it is she. Finally, she asks what her dad said. Dawson says Mr. Pothead was asking a lot of questions about her, and that he misses her and loves her. Joey sighs. Dawson goes one too far: "You shouldn't have left." Bullshit. She shouldn't have gone in the first place. Under the circumstances, I'd say she acquitted herself beyond reproach.
Joey decides she's in the mood for a little spine dancing and snaps, "Don't lecture me." Dawson protests, "I'm not," even though he is: "You've got to deal with him sometime." Joey goes quite easy on him: "I deal with him every day of my life, okay, Dawson? Every single second, I am dealing with the legacy that he left for me. He doesn't want me to deal with him -- he wants me to make him feel better. He wants me to say, 'I forgive you, Dad.' But I can't. I don't forgive him for anything. I'm sorry, but I can't." Dawson, who is so knowledgeable about such matters, tells Joey she should tell Mr. Pothead that. She asks what the point would be, if she did, and Dawson informs her, "The point is he's your father. Jo, he's your only father." Joey throws up her hands and declares, "I hate him, Dawson." Dawson sternly observes, "'Hate' is a strong word." Joey simply states, "Then it applies." Yeah! There's my spinebacker! Dawson somehow doesn't realize she just got the last word, and barrels forward: "Joey, sooner or later you're going to have to deal with these feelings of anger and resentment you've got toward him. Otherwise, you're just going to handcuff yourself to him for the rest of your life, and it's going to cause you nothing but pain." WRONG! She was in a perfectly good mood two days ago when she'd just received the news about the scholarship, and then Bessie FORCED her to go see him, when she clearly didn't want to and, in my opinion, had a very strong case never to speak to him again, if so she chose. And, when she saw him, she expressed very clearly and eloquently why she didn't want to see him, why she didn't feel he deserved to see her, and exactly how his actions had affected her. I think she has dealt with those feelings of "anger and resentment," and that, at this point, the only thing keeping her from leading a perfectly healthy life is the fact that she's still a dependent minor, and that she will be obliged to see him, when he gets out of prison, until she's eighteen. (Although, given that we already know what happens when he gets out of prison, I doubt she'll have to wait until her eighteenth birthday to cut him out completely, and that the state will probably go ahead and do that for her.) Anyway, instead of telling Dawson all that, she shrugs and asks, "Even in Paris?" As she walks away from him, she wipes her nose. Dawson asks, "You decided to go?" "Yes, Dawson," she says, and adds, "I think a geographic change is exactly what I need. It'll give me time to think, you know. Start over. Clear my head." Dawson tells her that running away isn't the answer. Gosh. Thanks for plumbing the depths of your own experience in this area to come up with that advice, Dr. Snore-a. Joey scoffs, "What is the answer, Dawson? Why don't you give me one good reason why I should stay? Give me one non-analytical, off-the-top-of-your-head reason why I should stay?" Dawson stares at her, and then swallows hard, and Joey sneers, "I thought so." She gets in her boat and starts a rowin'. Dawson sucks. I mean, "Dawson sniffs." Wait, no, I was right the first time. Row away, Spine Daly!
Hospital. Grams broods. Jen asks what's wrong. Grams tells her that Gramps has had another stroke. Jen tries to cry. Grams tells her Gramps is in Intensive Care. Jen doesn't get it. Grams tells her that God has a plan for everything. Jen's nose goes all pinched and she disses Grams's faith. Nary a tear falls from Jen's eyes.