Episode Report Card Sars: C- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Keyser Snore-ze
By Sars | Season 4 | Episode 8 | Aired on 11.21.2000
Sort of.
Joey at the front door of Casa Conception, asking The Flash if Dawson's at home. The Flash invites her to check Dawson's room if she'd like. She marches in; The Flash looks amused and tells Joey that, if Dawson's up there, she should tell Dawson that The Flash knows, "and congrats." Oh, that The Flash. Don't let the fact that his ears touch his shoulders fool you. He's no less than a Mr. Marple.
Joey walks into the Sanctum Dawsonorum and finds Dawson and Pacey disposing of evidence. A bit late for that, isn't it? But maybe that's how The Flash figured it out. Anyway, Joey demands an explanation. A moment later, complaining that "it's a bitch gettin' up here without a ladder," Jack tumbles through the window of the Sanctum. He sees Joey, who gives him a wave and an evil smile, and asks what's up: "I thought we were supposed to be doing this alone." We get a long shot of the three boys wearing their "busted" faces as Joey says gleefully that she knew it -- they did it, didn't they? Pacey tells her to calm down, "there's no reason to jump to silly conclusions," and Jack stammers that they didn't really pull off the prank, and Dawson adds that "we all have airtight alibis" as Pacey snarks that "we all know Drue did it" and Jack tries not to burst out laughing.
"On the other hand," Dawson says, if they had wanted to pull the prank, Jack could have swung by and napped the dog after he met Drue at the hardware store (shot of Jack sneaking around the Smalls residence, looking both ways, then creeping towards the unattended retriever); Dawson could have run the "Mitchmobile" over to the boatyard after Drue dropped off the keys, using the code given to him by Pacey to break out Smalls's boat and bringing it back to the rendezvous point Jack mentioned earlier (shot of Dawson doing just that, and…huh? Rendezvous point? Whatever, moving on); Pacey could have had Drue drop him off near the mysterious rendezvous point, painted the sail, and headed over to the gym after the key hand-off from Dawson to bring everything in and place it in the pool (Pacey paints the sail, then herds the dog into the front seat). "And by eleven we'd be done, and everyone would still be none the wiser," Dawson gloats, adding that it's just "a hypothetical." Pacey adds that Drue is "the arch-criminal behind it all," and Jack smugs that Drue "got what was coming to him for so long." "Karma," Joey smiles. "Exactly," Dawson smiles back.
Deep in the marshy brush, Pacey and Dawson bury the evidence. All around them, frogs trill. Dawson asks what Pacey's thinking. "I'm thinkin' we pulled it off," Pacey says. The two of them set about filling in the hole, and Pacey continues, "And I'm thinking that something's been right tonight that hasn't been right for a long, long time. I just keep forgetting why we're not still friends." Because Dawson's a fuckknuckle? Dawson stops mid-shovelful and peeves, "You know it's not that simple." "Of course not, it's just that --" Pacey starts, and Dawson interrupts, "I know." They shovel in silence for a moment; then Pacey admits that, when Dawson told him he'd never trust him again, it ranked among the five worst moments of his life. Dawson -- of COURSE -- counters that, when he walked out and saw Joey and Pacey on his porch, "that was my worst. Number one with a bullet." Count yourself lucky, then, Gel-y Roll Morton. And get over it already. And SHUT UP. Pacey chews his lip, then asks if maybe, someday, he could convince Dawson that he's trustworthy again. God, Pacey -- run AWAY! He's not a good friend, as he's proven A HUNDRED TIMES! Dawson says mildly that he would like to believe that's a possibility. "I gotta try," Pacey murmurs, gathering his things. He turns to face Dawson: "I'm not ready to give up on you." Pacey? GIVE UP. We have. It's quite liberating, really. Dawson looks at him silently for a second, then grabs his jacket and observes, "Well, if it doesn't work out, we could always just kill each other." Wow. Good one. No, seriously -- that's not a bad line, especially coming from Dawson. They walk off through the reeds together, shovels in hand, and The Flute Of Potential Friendship Rekindling ushers us into the closing credits.