Episode Report Card Wing Chun: D | 1 USERS: A YOU GRADE IT Parental Discretion Advised
By Wing Chun | Season 2 | Episode 22 | Aired on 05.25.1999
Out in the restaurant, the kids smell smoke. Joey whips around and says, "There's a fire," and goes running into the back to find her dad. Dawson runs after her.
Outside, Pacey calls his father's attention to the billowing smoke. Pacey runs in while the Sheriff radios for help.
Dawson and Joey pull open a door and plunge into a room filled with fire. Mr. Pothead, still flushing madly, hears Joey call him but doesn't move. Jen follows Joey and Dawson into the room with the fire and stands perfectly still, apparently hypnotized by the flames, until Jack drags her out bodily. Mr. Pothead comes to the window of his office and yells to Dawson to get her out, but makes no moves to leave the office himself. This causes Joey to go completely hysterical and start jumping up and down, requiring Pacey to push her out. Dawson stays inside with the Sheriff, aiming a fire extinguisher at the smaller fires, and then throwing the fire extinguisher through the window of the office, making a big enough hole for Mr. Pothead to climb out. Beams fall as Dawson, Mr. Pothead and the Sheriff make their way out; Jen, Joey, Pacey and Jack stand anxiously outside, waiting for them to emerge. (Man, it really has not been a good year for Jen!) When they get out, Joey runs to her dad and embraces him tearfully. As he hugs her, Mr. Pothead stares over her shoulder at Dawson, looking desperate. Dawson gives him the Glare of Unfavourable Judgment and coughs weakly. The Icehouse burns. I'm sorry, but, big loss.
Okay, look. If it's wrong to laugh at the Big Daddy commercials, I don't want to be right.
As firefighters put out the blaze in Mr. Pothead's family business, Dawson seizes the oh-so-opportune moment to break Mr. Pothead's balls: "Is this your idea of taking care of things?" Mr. Pothead says not, "Perhaps not, but I sure as hell don't need to hear it from your ass," but, "It's not that simple, Dawson." Dawson, with the clarity that can only come from having no emotional investment whatever in a decision, declares, "You have to go to the police and tell them everything you know." Mr. Pothead says, "I can't. It's too dangerous." Dawson says, "This is too dangerous." Joey joins them and lays her head on her father's shoulder, saying, "I'm all checked out." Mr. Pothead regards Dawson a little smugly, as if to say, "When it comes down to it, Joey will choose me." She says, "They asked for the hero next," and plucks at Dawson's shirt, saying, "That'd be you." Dawson says, "I'm not a hero, Joey." Mr. Pothead tells him not to be modest, since Dawson saved Mr. Pothead's life. Dawson squints at him and replies, "Some situations are too tragic to have a hero; this is one of them." He gives Joey a brief kiss on the cheek and strides off, leaving her to stare after him with some confusion. At that moment the Flashes come running up to Dawson and throw their arms around him. Bessie "Accessory After the Fact" Potter arrives with Alexander in her arms and gingerly hugs Joey and Mr. Pothead.
Inside, as a police team inspects the damage to the Icehouse, the Sheriff tells Pacey, "The bastard was lying to me. He's in it up to his neck and he knows it." Pacey scoffs, "Come on. You don't even know if this has anything to do with him." The Sheriff says, loudly enough to try to draw a nearby police officer into the conversation, "A random arson incident in the middle of Capeside? [Yeah, he's got a point there.] Let's consider the likelihood of that, Pacey. If God hadn't blessed you with my good looks, I wouldn't know whose son you were." It's true -- the casting director did do a good job of finding an older guy with Joshua Jackson's absence of an upper lip. The Sheriff holds up his keys and says, "Why don't you drive yourself home before you make another embarrassing comment." Pacey says, "I think I'll walk." The Sheriff mutters, "See if I care." Pacey replies, "No one would assume you did, Pop." The Sheriff raises his voice again to involve the whole room: "You'll have to excuse my son, boys; his girlfriend moved away and suddenly it's his time of month." The cop extras chuckle. Pacey says, "Screw you, okay?" The Sheriff goes to grab his arm again, but Pacey smacks it away, and yells, "Get your hands off me, all right? Don't touch me again, ever!" The Sheriff says, "Finally, my boy gets a pair! [Inappropriate!] And all it took was getting his heart broke by some little girl with a few screws loose." At this, Pacey snaps and punches the Sheriff in the face, half knocking him over. When the Sheriff straightens up, Pacey gets in his face and says, "Andie did more for my life in six months than you did in sixteen years, you rotten son of a bitch, so if you wanna make fun of me, you wanna bust on me, that's fine, but you so much as make one more even slightly disparaging comment about the woman I love, and I swear to God you're going to be policing this town from a hospital bed, you understand me? One more thing. Even if Mr. Potter was involved in all of this, he's still ten times the father you ever were." Pacey walks off. The Sheriff wipes blood from his mouth. Okay, that was a great speech Pacey gave, but as if he could have punched hard enough to draw blood, and as if the Sheriff wouldn't have punched back twice as much, witnesses or no. I'm just saying.