Episode Report Card 1 USERS: A YOU GRADE IT Abby Morgan, Rest In Peace
By Sars | Season 2 | Episode 19 | Aired on 05.04.1999
Cut to Capeside High. Jen, her hair ratcheted back in an unnecessary black headband, whips open a door and clomps into the school building. As she walks down the hall, other students stare at her and whisper, which makes her clomp even more defiantly to her locker.
Later, in what looks like a kindergarten classroom, the students sit in a circle; a woman named Elizabeth introduces herself as a grief counselor who will "facilitate a discussion about AbiGale." "Grief counselor"? Jen glares at Elizabeth as she says she knows the kids "have all been dealt a heavy blow." Meanwhile, Andie "Seratonin Inhibitor" McPhee sits glumly with her arms folded and Pacey "Lower The Drawbridge!" Witter picks at his fingernails. Jack "Will" McPhee also sits with his arms folded, smirking skeptically as Elizabeth natters on about sharing feelings and the grieving process. Some random extra announces to the group that "the Girls' Service League is distributing yellow armbands that we're wearing in honor of Abby's memory." Jen shakes her head as the girl says that anyone who wants one can pick one up in the cafeteria. Then Elizabeth says, "Jennifer -- I was told that you were a close friend of AbiGale's. Would you like to talk about some of the feelings that you're experiencing?" Jen, with an effort at restraint, mutters, "No." Elizabeth tells her that "that's perfectly okay" as Jen fights tears. Then Elizabeth calls on Andie and asks her if she knew Abby, and Andie says that she did, and Elizabeth asks if she wants to talk about her feelings, and Andie says she guesses she feels "shocked." Andie goes on to say that Abby "was so incredibly alive and she had such a great spirit, it's -- it's really a tragedy." Pacey and Jen stare at Andie in disbelief when they hear this, although strictly speaking Andie didn't lie or anything. Andie looks down at her lap. Jen grabs her bag and clomps right out of the room, apparently disgusted by the hypocrisy of the grief counseling session.
In the caf, as the random extra chick thanks someone for wearing a yellow armband, Dawson looks around for Joey. Dawson's hair has sunk to new depths of silliness in this episode -- it looks like one of those unexplained crop circles. Joey sits down with her product-placed Diet Coke and immediately says that she knows they have "a lot to talk about concerning the other night," and I reach for a recently sharpened fork in the event that the phrase "finding myself" or any derivative thereof leaves her lips. Fortunately, Dawson cuts her off with, "Joey, let's -- could we just not -- go there? Right now there's a lot of stuff going on, and -- we can analyze this to death later." Joey says, "Great." Then she scoots closer to Dawson and confesses, "The truth is, I never really liked Abby." Gimme a D! Dawson admits, "Ditto." Gimme a U! Joey goes on, "I actively despised her." Gimme an H! What does it spell? DUH! Dawson talks about the weirdness of everything surrounding Abby's demise and says he "can't imagine what the funeral's gonna be like." Joey doesn't plan on going to the funeral, and when Dawson quizzically says, "Yeah?" Joey explains, "Dawson, the last funeral I went to was my mom's. I mean, I haven't even been to her grave site -- I think going to Abby's funeral will just open this Pandora's box of emotions that frankly I'd rather keep sealed tight." Dawson decides against saying something supportive, opting instead for judgmental: "Joey, your mother died three years ago. You've got feelings you haven't dealt with, how long were you planning on waiting?" Instead of snapping, "Until you get a clue, jackass," Joey admits that part of her is still waiting for her mother to come back, "like her death was just this -- cosmic error, and eventually God will realize that He made a terrible mistake and He'll send her back to me like he did my dad, and, and I'll have my mom again." She looks down and says, "I know it sounds ridiculous." Dawson says no, it doesn't, but then promptly dismisses it as "a child's false hope" and tells her she'll have to let it go. Instead of sneering, "Oh, kind of like your movie," Joey smiles sadly and says she doesn't want to let it go: "You don't know what it's like, Dawson." That hasn't stopped him from running his mouth off before, but this time he manages to keep his trap shut. Memo to Joey: go over to Grams's house and borrow a cup of vertebrae, will you?
In the bathroom, Jen splashes water on her face and drinks it out of her hands. Andie walks in and says, "Jen?" and Jen, both sides of her entire face streaked with runny mascara, looks up quickly. Andie says she's been looking for Jen since she "just stormed out of class -- are you okay?" Jen weeps, "Like dealing with Abby's death isn't hard enough, but to watch everybody parade around acting like, like Abby was their best friend, it's sickening. Aside from me, Abby didn't have a single friend in Capeside." Andie points out that maybe Abby didn't deserve to have any friends: "Well that's because she was a -" Jen finishes for her: "A bitch! Come on, Andie, say it -- Abby was a bitch." Jen gets some toilet paper to wipe her face, and Andie says, "Well, I wouldn't go that far," to which Jen responds, "You would've three days ago! But now that she's dead you wax poetic about her great spirit, it's so insincere," and she prepares to blow her nose as Andie tries to defend herself: "Well, I don't think it's appropriate to malign her character after she's gone." Jen snarls, "It isn't maligning if it's true," and as Andie shakes her head, Jen continues, "Believe me, it would have been easier for everybody if Abby had just been this wonderful person with these virtuous qualities, but she wasn't. She was mean. And the least that we can do is acknowledge who she really was." Um, Jen? How about "acknowledging" some of that survivor's guilt you've got going there? Jen clomps out of the bathroom, and Andie follows her and tells her she knows how Jen feels, and Jen bitches about everyone "treating [her] like some kind of celebrity" just because she saw Abby pitch into the drink, and as she keeps on clomping down the hall with Andie in tow and those two giant half-moons of runny mascara gleaming on her cheeks, she gripes, "You know, it's funny. Abby spent her entire life shattering our fragile egos, and that's why people disliked her so intensely. Leave it to Abby, even in her death [sic] she's still exposing hypocrisy." Andie says that she feels bad, but still, she tried to make friends with Abby and Abby rejected her every time. Jen wheels on Andie: "She rejected you? If you hadn't rejected her at the wedding, none of this ever would have happened." Andie: "What?" Jen: "You kicked us out of the wedding, Andie, that's why we were at the docks in the first place." Andie, grimly: "Don't say that." Jen: "I'm sorry, okay, I can't do -- I gotta go home." She leaves Andie standing morosely in the hall. Two words: What. Ever.