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By Sars | Season 2 | Episode 21 | Aired on 05.18.1999
Fade up on Jack staring out on the water. Jen walks up to him and offers him "a bite of Subway for your troubles." Yeah, okay -- my dad wants to put my mom and my sister in a loonybin, but a bite of your turkey sandwich will cheer me up right quick! Not! Anyway, Jack gives Jen the scoop, and Jen says he did the right thing by calling his dad, but Jack doesn't agree. Jen tells him to look at the "bright side to this -- maybe Andie's gonna get better. Maybe if you and your dad move back in there's a chance for reconciliation." Jack laughs, "Yeah, right -- us and the Middle East." They both hitch themselves up to sit on the railing and Jack asks, "So what's your deal anyway? Are you gonna stay at the Leerys' forever?" Jen says, "Oh, ouch," and laughs, but now that Jack mentions it, Jen should probably put some distance between herself and Gale "Charo" Leery, because her hair looks terrible. Anyway, Jen characterizes the situation as "kinda dire," and when Jack asks about Jen's parents, she says, "They made it pretty clear how they felt about me when they sent me here." Yeah, really. Jack says that Jen has changed since she came to Capeside, but Jen demurs: "After what happened with Grams, they'll never believe that anything's changed." Jack tells her to give them a chance; maybe they've changed too. I, however, doubt that, since Jen's parents -- in a word -- suck.
Cut to the Icehouse, where Joey serves a customer coffee, after which Dawson swoops in on her in his patented Sam-The-Eagle style, and they do that thing where they say "hey" to each other and she sticks her arms up over his shoulders while he bends his knees to make himself shorter, and they touch foreheads and google at each other like they invented kissing, and they kiss with the lip mics turned up to eleven, and can someone wake me when the season ends? Waiter! Another espresso! Joey drags Dawson over to look at the renovations Mr. Potter has undertaken on the Icehouse. Dawson says, "Look at this place!" but in an admiring "gee whiz" way, rather than in the "damn, I didn't think it could look any crappier, and yet it does" tone I would have adopted. Memo to Dawson: yes, they remodeled it specifically so that your head would actually fit inside. Apparently, Mr. Potter has had a brainstorm with The Icehouse After Dark (tm LuluB), which will feature Ty's friend the singer and other entertainment nightly; Joey refers to it as "the lounge," or perhaps "The Lounge," and Dawson wants to know if he'll "need a tie to get in here now." Mr. Potter, busying himself with probably-useless-Mike-Brady-esque plans, says he thinks Dawson might have some pull with the owner. Like, ha ha. Not. Joey talks about the transformation in her dad, and how he's become a sitcom father, especially compared to the "grumbling dejected mass of negativity" she knew from before. Dawson says, "A relative of yours was grumbling and negative? That's not possible." Har. Dee. Har. Har. Joey says, "I'm happy, so sue me," and Dawson says he loves "this new happy-go-lucky Joey Potter." They kiss. Sars gags. Joey "has work to do" and leaves. Mr. Potter introduces Dawson to his "old friend Pete," whom he knows from their "days in the merchant marines together." "Merchant marines"? Can they just give Herman Melville a writing credit already? Dawson launches, without preamble or thought to how it might make Joey feel, into a pitch to get Mr. Potter to do an interview for his final project; Mr. Potter, "flattered," agrees to do it in exchange for help from Dawson with the carpentry. Mr. Potter hands Dawson a level, and Dawson holds it and asks, "What does this do?" and Joey laughs at him while accompanied by The Guitar Twang Of Forced Levity.