Episode Report Card Sars: D | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Hurricane
By Sars | Season 1 | Episode 5 | Aired on 02.16.1998
No, as a matter of fact, not everybody needs a little KFC, or any KFC at all.
Later that day, despite darkness having fallen hours before, the sun shines down on Capesideans ("Capesudlians"? "Capesidites"?) putting all their crap back out on the sidewalk; a news voiceover intones that Hurricane Chris took a detour out to sea, leaving "only moderate damage." Not so the iron skillet that just bounced off my forehead, but I'll have to find a way to crawl over to Mr. Coffee somehow, because the camera cuts next to TaMAHra's front porch. TaMAHra thanks Deputy Doug and calls the experience "a very interesting day." Well, all except for the "interesting" part. Anyway, Doug apologizes for pulling a gun on Pacey and asks her out again, and she says no thanks, she's "seeing someone right now," and Pacey smiles happily. The Witters finally leave. TaMAHra shakes her head. Words cannot describe the dreariness of that subplot.
Dawson, his hair expertly sculpted into a teardrop-bike-helmet shape, comes out onto his front porch and sees Gale, rocking in the porch swing and staring out into space. He ducks back inside and leaves her alone as The Flute Of Poignant Melancholy tootles. Running his hands through his hair, the Drama Club Vice President then spots Jen emerging from the kitchen. She announces her imminent departure, but says she has few things to say first; Dawson tries to interrupt, but she tells him to hear her out: "This seems to be the day of truth, and I'm taking my turn."
She chokes back a sob and says, "I lost my virginity when I was twelve, to some older guy who got me drunk. I don't really remember his name, but after the first pregnancy scare I went on the Pill, and I used condoms...most of the time...some of the times, um, I don't know, it's kinda blurry." She turns her back to him and continues, "I was really -- I was really drinking a lot and having blackouts and stuff and [sigh] I was sexualized way too young, and I don't wish that on anybody." Dawson, to his credit, looks genuinely saddened by her story, as he should, and I forgot all about this revelation, which I think explains a lot of Jen's mixed-up and self-destructive behavior from the second season. Anyhow. She turns back around to face him: "I mean, sex at such a young age more often than not is a bad idea. I finally got caught having sex in my parents' bed -- Daddy's little girl, fornicating right before his very eyes. He still can't look me in the face, but then again, he shipped me 200 miles away so he wouldn't have to." I've said it before, I'll say it again -- Jen's parents suck. Dawson doesn't say anything as she draws nearer to him and says, "But, Dawson, I'm not that girl anymore -- I never really was, and I'm not that white-as-snow image you've got either, I'm somewhere in between, and I just, I'm just trying to figure it out." Dawson stammers that "it's not you, it's my own stupid hang-ups," and confesses that he made the mistake of using his parents' sex life as a measure of their happiness. Jen tells him that sex doesn't equal happiness; Dawson says that he knows that now, and Jen, who really really needs to wipe her nose, apologizes for lying to him but says she can't apologize for her past, she can only start over, and, she says, "It would be really nice if you would be a part of that." "On one condition," Dawson says. "That you'll have me." He goes on to characterize his own behavior as "unredeemable [sic]," and says he doesn't deserve someone "as passionate and open and honest and beautiful" as Jen, and he's got that one right. They hug. Jen cries some more. Dawson asks, "Take two?" and Jen sniffles, "Mm hmm."