Thanks to Miss Alli, Wing Chun, and the gang on the DC forums.
Previously on Dawson's Creek: Pacey busts on Joey for going to a frat party; Joey and A.J. kiss; Grams pontificates on true love and Pacey watches Joey sleep; Joey asks Pacey his opinion of her mural, and he doesn't think much of it; Joey's mural gets improved -- uh, I mean, "defaced"; Pacey and Matt Caufield get in a fight; Principal Green expels Caufield, and Caufield threatens Principal Green with his father's mighty wrath, and Principal Green politely tells him to stow it.
Fade up on the members of the Capeside PTA, arguing and milling around and muttering "rhubarb, rhubarb." Joey "Andy Bore-hol" Potter, Pacey "Fight Club" Witter, and Dawson "Lock, Stock, And Two Flaring Nostrils" Leery sit stunned amid the chaos. "This isn't going well, is it?" Dawson mutters, and Pacey mutters back that it depends on who you ask, and Joey observes that "if you're an enraged parent with a misguided agenda, it's going great." A father bellows in the superintendent's direction that he doesn't recall the Board of Ed passing anything "that allowed a lunatic to start handing out death sentences just because one of our kids acted like a kid!" Cries of approval greet the guy's outburst. The superintendent, Dr. Fielding, tries to calm everyone down by saying that he's urged Principal Green to reconsider his decision, but that Green controls all disciplinary matters at Capeside High, period. Matt Caufield's father gets up and asks Dr. Fielding if he considers himself a member of the Capeside community. When Dr. Fielding says yes, Mr. Caufield wants to know if Dr. Fielding plans to let "the personal prejudices of an outsider" ruin Matt's future; cut to a shot of Matt, attired in his nattiest stoner-at-a-court-appearance suit and smiling vaguely. Joey hisses at Pacey that she has to say something, stands up, and calls out, "This is ridiculous, this whole thing has been blown out of proportion!" Dr. Fielding says sourly that "this is a PTA meeting, young lady, not a pep rally," and tells her to sit down. Cut to a nubile blonde, accompanied by a camera crew, surveying the room from the back and taking notes; cut back to Joey, who asks if anybody is going to defend Principal Green. Mr. Caufield says that Matt tells him Joey is the one "whose mural was destroyed." Joey says impatiently that "this has nothing to do with" her, and Mr. Caufield says she's exactly right: "What it has to do with is the scare tactics of a man whose extremism and notions of justice are better suited for urban war zones than our civilized community." Joey stares at him in disbelief before growling, "You did not just say what I think you said," and Dawson looks at Mr. Caufield disgustedly as Mr. C goes on to say that, if Principal Green did his job, "none of us would have to be here tonight." A woman on the Board reads my mind by noting that "if you were doing your job as a parent, Mr. Caufield, maybe your son would still be in school right now," and as Dawson and Pacey clap for this sentiment, the woman continues that Matt has a file in the guidance office "over an inch thick." Joey raises her brows in a "ha!" way in Mr. C's direction and says that Principal Green is a fair man. "I'm sure he seems that way to you, dear," Mr. C says, his voice dripping with condescension, "and to some of the other students whose families don't embr --" "Don't what?" Joey interrupts him with a sneer. Mr. C finishes, over groans from Pacey and others in the crowd, "Don't embrace the values that we as a community --" Dawson, to his credit, leaps to his feet and shouts at Mr. C that he doesn't know anything about Joey's family, and Dr. Fielding bangs his gavel and calls for order. In the ensuing silence, he stands to face the crowd and announces that, as of Friday at three o'clock, if Principal Green hasn't reduced Matt's expulsion "to a more reasonable sentence," he will ask Green to tender his resignation. Cheers erupt. Dawson looks stunned; Joey flops into her seat and says again, "This is ridiculous," and Pacey asks if what he thinks just happened actually happened -- if Green is getting railroaded into changing his ruling. "Either that or out of town," Dawson mutters, and Joey says, "Let's go."
Cat and hair dryer falling into bathtub at same time.
After the rally. Jen praises Pacey for sticking by Joey, and asks how he feels. He feels "like dogmeat," as it turns out, because -- to the surprise of exactly no one -- Joey "didn't even thank" him. "She will, one day," Jen says, and Pacey asks how she knows. "'Cause every duck has its day," she teases him. "Just ask Henry." Henry's still on the show? Crap. Jen claps him on the shoulder and heads out, and Pacey looks at Joey, surrounded by well-wishers.
Joey comes up to Bodie and he asks if she's ready to go. Bodie is cute. Just noting that for the record. "Think she'll let us in the house?" Joey asks, and Bodie says that if not, they can sleep in the car, and offers to let Joey drive. Joey says no thanks -- she doesn't want to deal with the stick shift -- but before she can explain, she trails off at the sight of Bessie and Alexander at the back of the auditorium. Bessie says something all mock-sternly about Joey not backing down from challenges, at least not the Joey she saw in front of all those people before. "You saw?" Joey asks, and Bessie says that Alexander insisted on coming, and how proud Alexander is of "his Aunt Joey," and how, when she's not around, Alexander "goes on and on about how talented you are, and how smart, and how brave." Aw. More Bessie, please. The sisters smile at each other; predictably, Joey changes her mind about driving home.
Sunset. Snowiness. Principal Green packs up his office. Joey knocks at the door and comes in, and Green says he hopes she hasn't gotten herself "in trouble." Joey says he still has a few minutes, he could still change his mind, and he asks if that's what she wants. "No," she scoffs, and then, "maybe, I mean -- I don't know." "Why is that?" he asks gently. Joey says she knows he's doing the right thing, but she feels like she failed him, because they couldn't stop what happened: "We weren't loud enough, or strong enough. And I'm really sorry." Green looks sad. Joey begins to cry. Green tells her he's never felt more successful than he does right now. He thanks her for fighting for him. She smiles a little: "You're welcome." "I guess it's time to go home," he says. "After you," Joey tells him, and they walk out of his office together and wish each other goodbye, and as he rounds the corner, he sees the hallway lined with students applauding him respectfully. An inspirational song plays as the writers of Lucas file for copyright infringement, and the Greens meet up about halfway down the hall and exit the school to the sound of clapping. All right, I confess: I got played by that scene. I misted up. I'm not made of stone, folks. Anyway, thus endeth the Greens, which does make me sad, because I liked both of their characters.
More snowfall. Gail is on the phone, and Dawson says that it "sounds like distinctly good news." Gail tells him the station is going to run their story that night, and also, one of the producers asked Gail if she'd like to do other special reports for them in the future. Dawson laughs happily and asks what she told them. "I told them I'd get back to them -- in about twenty years, if and when I'm retired from the restaurant business," Gail says, looking sheepish. "You're kidding," Dawson says, and he seems to think she really is kidding at first: "I thought this is what you wanted." Gail says she really just wanted the chance to say no and leave on her own terms, "and start fresh, with no regrets." She then thanks him for inspiring her, calling him the "quiet hero" and showering him with a bunch of other undeserved compliments in the same vein, none of which I plan to dignify by repeating. Dawson good-naturedly accuses his mother of "editorializing." Yeah, try "lying."
Pacey drags Joey across a street in town and announces, "Perfect, we're here." Joey laughs that she doesn't know where Pacey thinks "here" is, "but it seems to me we're nowhere." Pacey reminds her of where "this whole thing" got started, with "a girl, a wall, and a paintbrush," and punctuates it by whipping a paintbrush out of his pocket. "You bought me a paintbrush," Joey says. "No, you lame-o, I stole this from your permanent collection," Pacey says, and points over his shoulder with the brush at a peeling wall behind him. "You bought me a wall?" Joey asks. Pacey says he actually rented it, for a hundred bucks. Aw. "You bought me a wall?" Joey repeats, but she's smiling. Pacey says that she said that already, and tells her, "It's a limited-time offer, so you should get cracking." Joey, giggling, asks if Pacey noticed "the size of this thing," and Pacey says he thought her "endeavor" should be bigger and better than her last one. Then he picks up a can of paint, saying that it might not cover the whole wall, but that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step; Joey says she'll need Pacey's help on this one. Pacey hands her can and brush and says, "Nope, not this time. You're on your own, sister." He makes to leave, but before he can go, Joey tells him that he's unbelievable, and that just when she thinks she has him figured out, he does something outrageous that "completely challenges" her, that nobody else would ever think of, and -- she stops herself, smiling, and adds, "In case I don't say it enough -- thank you." Pacey looks at her tenderly, but settles for saying, "It's about time, Potter. It's about time." Word. As the James Taylor song starts up again, Pacey heads off, and Joey turns back to look at the wall, and the camera pans back to show her looking up at the blank canvas of the brick and seeming very small in front of it. Nice shot by the DP.
Strangely, the captioning has a voice-over by Dawson as he narrates his mother's news story, but since we don't hear it on the soundtrack, I won't bother with it. On the Dawson's Creek, Joey gets in some sort of trouble, and Pacey kisses her. Speaking of "it's about time."