Episode Report Card Wing Chun: D | 6 USERS: C+ YOU GRADE IT Show Me Love
By Wing Chun | Season 3 | Episode 21 | Aired on 05.09.2000
Later, Pacey is at his boat, pulling the True Love sign and letting it float off. Kim says, "That'll be the last shot." I agree, and then she changes her mind: "No, someone's going to pick it up!" Sure enough, a hand appears, and as I compulsively repeat, "Please not Andie, Please not Andie, Please not Andie," the camera pans up to show that the hand does, in fact, belong to Andie, who, holding the sign upside down in front of her, says, "I have something I need to tell you." From the depths of despair, Pacey manages, "I already know you hate me, Andie. I just don't think I can hear it tonight." She sighs and says she doesn't hate him, but that she felt hurt and betrayed, and that it would be easy for her to turn that anger into hate, but that she doesn't want to carry around that burden -- doesn't want to be that kind of person -- so she doesn't hate him. "Thank you, Andie," he says quietly. She says that "hate" is a pretty strong word, but that (as she hands him back the sign), so is "love." Oh, lord. Why couldn't they just leave her out of this?
As Dawson writes at his desk by the light of a LAVA LAMP, which my sister, who co-starred with Joshua Jackson in The Skulls, also has in her room. Shout-out? He looks up at the sound of a tap at the window, and sees Joey climbing in, holding a videotape. Okay, Pacey? Now you really need to give up, because if she's reverting to this particular pattern, even in light of everything else that Dawson's done, then she's clearly given up all hope of moving forward with her life and has instead elected to build a cottage next to Dawson's in Nostalgiaville and is, for all intents and purposes, lost to you forever. She asks Dawson whether the invitation still stands, and he gets up and says that of course, it does, and she hands him the video, which is E.T.. I'd think he'd already own that, and, hi, way to guarantee that he'll think he still has a shot at your pants -- a better shot than ever, in fact.
Dawson is surprised that, after everything that's happened, she'd rent that. Dully, she says, "I thought it was time to see it again." Dawson reminds her that she's always said E.T. was "sad and depressing," and she says, "I just feel like watching something tonight with an ending that I know like the back of my hand," without adding, "and the fact that I left my spine back at the B&B be to come here and relive 1998 is, to my mind, very sad and depressing." But anyway, see? See how she chose a movie that was predictable, just like her relationship with Dawson would be if she went back with him? See how it's the opposite of her relationship with Pacey, where he can do something as banal as come up behind her and still surprise her? See? Get it? Do you see what they've done here? Are you sure? Because I can go back through it again and explain it to you. Dawson says some shit about the moment when E.T. tells Elliot, "I'll be right here," and Joey says, "Right now, those are some of the most comforting words in the world." Dawson looks heartened by this statement, but Joey knows she's lying to herself, and to him, and can't hold his gaze for long for fear that he'll find her out. Fat chance of that, Joey; his head's pretty big, and it's hard for him to look past it at you. Your secret lack of interest in him is perfectly safe.