Episode Report Card Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Barefoot At Capefest
By Wing Chun | Season 3 | Episode 11 | Aired on 01.11.2000
At Capeside High, Andie and Pacey meet awkwardly at the foot of a flight of stairs and hesitate for a moment before Pacey gestures, "After you." Andie: "I want you to quit." Pacey: "No." Andie: "This is my after-school activity." Pacey: "Tough bananas." Andie: "Quit!" Pacey: "If I stay in the play, I'll get a 'C' in English. Plus Broderick thinks I might be good." Andie: "Broderick is a terrible English teacher and an even worse theatre director." Pacey: "So?" Andie: "I got into this to get over you, and now you're here." Pacey: "Yeah, but..." Andie: "'But' nothing. You suck." Pacey: "You quit then!" Andie: "Fine, don't quit." Pacey: "Fine, I won't." Both of you, CRAM IT.
At Green Grove, Dawson is getting his coat, but not before instead getting the idea to do a little snooping in an adjacent room. Nikki comes upon him and asks, not unkindly, what he's doing. He says, "Your film geekdom is definitely not evident in your bedroom décor." Nikki correctly divines that Dawson's room is "wall-to-wall Spielberg one-sheets." Dawson observes that she says that like it's a bad thing, and she says it's not -- just that "there's so much to be passionate about, it seems kind of silly to only focus on one." Dawson counters, "Yeah, but if you're lucky enough to find that one thing, why not just immerse yourself in it?" Nikki says that he shouldn't get her wrong -- she loves film -- but loves it because it allows her to explore all the other subjects that interest her: "If all you care about is film, then you're just going to end up making movies about other movies. What good is that?" That's pretty good advice, I think. A pensive look settles on Dawson's gargantuan face.
Nikki sits down on the bed and apologizes for her father: "Ever since the divorce, he does this really aggressive thing when it comes to me making friends." Dawson asks her if she's "cool with" the divorce. She wryly lists the by-products of her parents' divorce, including shuffling between their homes, veiled comments her parents make about each other, and their relentless insistence that she always look on the bright side of things, and concludes, "I'm just dandy." Dawson says that her demeanour would lead him to believe that she's not affected by any of it. There's that steady, observant, filmmaker's eye. Bravo! She says it's a well-crafted disguise: "Inside, I'm just another angry kid." "How angry?" Dawson asks. "Angry enough to make a film about it," she chuckles, and asks him about his parents' divorce. He takes a beat; she apologizes for prying, and he says that since she was honest with her, he owes her as much. (Really, he's anxious to turn the conversation back to himself -- but y'all already knew that, right?) He says that most of the time he's fine: "Maybe I'm just self-obsessed, but I don't think about it that much, you know?" "Maybe"? He goes on to say that sometimes it just sneaks up on him -- "the disappointment of being the product of something that didn't work out" -- and that since one's parents are one's primary examples of love, it's hard to come to the realization that his weren't strong enough to...but then he suddenly becomes aware that he's shared too much, and books, calling over his shoulder that she should thank her dad on his behalf.