Episode Report Card Sars: D | 2 USERS: B YOU GRADE IT Homecoming
By Sars | Season 3 | Episode 2 | Aired on 10.05.1999
The waterfront. Andie broods. Enter Pacey. Andie says she hoped he'd find her there. Pacey says he told himself a thousand times not to come, and Andie asks why he did come. Pacey: "'Cause I owe you that much." Andie, voice quavering: "I've already told you how sorry I am, what else can I say?" Way to expect a whiny apology to cover you, Andie. Not. Pacey: "There's nothing else to say." Andie: "So you don't think you can forgive me?" Pacey, resolutely not looking in the direction of Andie's whimpering sobs: "Whether or not I can forgive you, Andie, is not going to be what keeps us apart. What you did -- our relationship was like this beautiful thing, and I don't think you ever realized how powerful it was." Andie weeps as Pacey goes on in the same tiresome you-made-me-what-I-am-today vein that we had to endure at the end of the second season. She stepped out on your ass, Pacey, so kick her to the curb already. Anyhow. Pacey goes on to say that he realized, when she started to get sick, that he might not be the same person for her that she was for him, and he adds, "I can never go back to loving you the way I did, knowing that my love wasn't strong enough the first time around." I never thought these words would appear on my word-processing screen, but what the hell -- well put, writers. Tears pour down Andie's face. Pacey says, "I can always forgive you, Andie, but I can never forget." He sighs and gets up, and she gets up too and snivels, "But I still love you, Pacey," and I don't mean to sound all judgmental, because I've not led a blameless life, but Andie, you should have thought of that before you hid the sausage with Marc-y Marc and his funky bunch, okay? Andie takes Pacey's hand, but he pulls it away and says, "Goodbye, Andie." He walks away, and Andie keeps crying.
As a remake of "Time After Time" plinks away in the background, The Flash and Dawson get out of the SUV at Estrangement Estates (tm Wing). The Flash stops on his way up the lawn and looks out, and Dawson follows his gaze to see Joey slumped on the dock. Damn, the women on this show have terrible posture. Dawson furrows his brow and goes to investigate. Joey says she's not sure why she came over, but "your house is like magnetic north -- certain nights, it just draws me in." She says that over the summer she used to come by the dock in her boat sometimes, "for old times' sake, I guess." Dawson says they can't go back. She says she knows that, she's realized it for awhile, and she starts to say, "Earlier tonight," and Dawson interrupts to apologize, but Joey says it's okay, she thinks she had to see him with Eve: "In some weird way, it helped me. I mean, seeing you on that stage, something inside of me clicked, and for the first time -- I felt how wrong it would be. I mean we, we really do need to move on and to meet new people and to have new relationships." Dawson says, "It's weird how that happens, isn't it?" and as Joey turns to look at him, he adds, "You still love the person, you just stop needing them like you used to." Joey says, "Yeah. It's weird, and -- it's kinda sad." Dawson doesn't answer, sighing instead. A moment of silence passes before Joey asks, "So we're friends, and then we're a couple, then friends again, then we're a couple, so -- so what are we now?" Dawson says, "We're Dawson and Joey." Joey looks puzzled, and Dawson undoes his dorky mall-booth necklace and puts it around her neck. He watches her as she admires it around her neck and smiles. Joey wants to know, "Do you think every Joey has a Dawson and every Dawson has a Joey?" and I would like to thank the writers for giving that line to Joey instead of to Dawson, because it made me ill, but not as ill as it could have. Dawson smiles wryly before answering, "I hope so. For their sake." Joey half-smiles. They sit in companionable silence on the dock as the camera pans up to the strains of "Time After Time." You know, I thought that would be a lot worse.