Episode Report Card Jessica: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Love Bites
By Jessica | Season 6 | Episode 18 | Aired on 04.08.2003
Back in the girls' room, Harley sniffs that she can't believe she's crying in the bathroom. Joey sighs that it's an "age-old tradition" to sob in the john, and admits that she did it herself in high school. Harley snaps sobbily that if her high school experience turns out anything like Joey's, then she is doing something horribly, horribly wrong. Which is sort of true. Except for that summer where she got to sail around the world with Pacey. That part sounded pretty good to me. Joey shrugs that "that's just how it goes with the high school dance." You think your date will say all the things you're dying for him to say, she explains, but "inevitably, you end up in the girls' room, crying." Personally, I didn't cry at my prom, but I knew lots of girls who did. I think that many, many girls put a lot of pressure on themselves as far as the prom goes (pressure that, in retrospect, seems ridiculous), and that tends to manifest itself in tears when you're sixteen or thereabouts. The morning after my prom, I woke up and realized that it wasn't nearly the big deal I had made it out to be in the dark, dank recesses of my brain. It helped that I realized in the midst of the prom that I didn't really like my date all that much. Anyway.
Boys' room. Pacey asks if Patrick likes Harley. Patrick does. Pacey congratulates him and says that "true feelings for a woman" will make him "strong," will make him "stupid," and will take him closer to "becoming the man he wants to be." Pacey makes love sound kind of like the army.
Girls. Joey explains that, while girls expect their boyfriends to pour out their hearts at prom, the boys expect to get laid. "Well," Harley begins, and Joey's eyes bug out. She directs Harley not to have sex with Patrick under any circumstances. "I know!" Harley squeals.
Boys. Pacey instructs Patrick to tell Harley that he likes her. This leads, somehow, to Patrick head-butting him. Don't ask. It just happened.
Girls. "So you've really had a bad time at every dance you've been to?" Harley asks. Joey plays with Harley's hair. "Yeah," she says, and then corrects herself. "Except this one. This one was nice." She smiles at Harley in the mirror and Harley snips that she's glad someone had a good time.
So, Joey walks in on Patrick and Pacey wrestling in the bathroom. That's not a euphemism or anything. She gives them an incredulous look, and the boys disengage. She cocks a brow and walks out. Patrick wonders why he's taking advice from Pacey. "Like you're some kind of Yoda when it comes to the chicks," he snorts. Pacey furrows his brow. "Have you seen my date?" he asks. Patrick thinks about this and nods. "Tell me more, sensei," he says, clapping his hand on Pacey's back.