Props to Strega, owen, KR, and Sars.
For once, it's actually worth mentioning what happens in the scenes from this week's episode, if for no other reason than the announcer's deathless overstatement: "She [Joey] gave up the love of her life [Dawson] for the comfort of a stranger [Jack]. Now that stranger reveals something private -- something Capeside won't forget." Whoa daddy.
We open in the Sanctum Dawsonorum, where Dawson "King Vitaman" Leery and Pacey "Lover" Witter are examining a scale model of the town, constructed by Jack "Tinky Winky" McPhee. Make no mistake: This is a scale model of professional quality, and is surely more than Jack could have been able to whip up in the spare time he's had since last week, but whatever. Dawson praises Jack's work effusively; Jack asks what Dawson needs it for, seeming concerned that Dawson intends to blow it up. Dawson reassures him, "There's no asteroid in my movie," and tells him it's for establishing shots and such. Pacey says it's "amazing what a little camera trickery can do," then excuses himself, saying he has a ton of homework to do, "including Peterson's assignment which I haven't even started yet." At this reminder, Jack recoils and says he hasn't started either. Dawson can't resist an opportunity to needle Pacey, and comments, "Pacey Witter is leaving early to do homework. Huh huh! Slightly less believable than an Enquirer headline." Pacey agrees that it's a disgusting habit. Dawson giggles some more and says, "Thanks guys, I'll see you later." Jack says he can stay. Dawson says he's just going to do a test shot. Jack says that's okay, and that he'd like to see it. Dawson says that's cool, and looks at Pacey. Pacey looks slightly surprised at Jack's offer to stay, but says nothing other than that they shouldn't stay up too late since it's a school night. At Pacey's departure, Dawson tells Jack, "Speaking as his closest friend, your sister has had quite a profound influence on him." Jack says, "Well, relationships will do that." Cut to the quick, Dawson turns, and utters, "Yeah" through his clenched jaw and walks over to the camera. Jack says, "Sorry. I didn't mean that the way that came out." I have no comment on his choice of phrase. Dawson stammers, "This hasn't been the easiest of situations for either of us, but your help on this film has been so significant, I just..." Oh, I get it. As long as Jack is willing to prostitute himself working on Dawson's lame-ass movie, all is forgiven between them? Whatever. Jack says, "So we're cool?" Dawson says "yeah" and asks what "this Peterson thing" is about. Jack says, "Eh, a poem. He wants us to write about something that's critical to our being, whatever; it's just another assignment I'm going to screw up." Dawson says, "It's a poem; it can't be that hard," thus neatly encapsulating the popular misconception that convinces too many teenagers, and too many sub-par pop stars, that they are competent poets.
Jack starts buttering Dawson up (FIGURATIVELY) by saying, "You know, I read your script. Uh, you're the expert writer here. Uh, any advice as to how to get to the good stuff?" Dawson unfortunately chooses to answer rather than demur due to his own inexperience, and says, "Um, listen to yourself. My writing's about opening up, you know? It's a chance to offer the world a peek at the very private part of yourself that you'd otherwise just stifle." Sometimes those things are better off stifled, but whatever. Jack confirms that he has heard right: "So, just listen to myself." Dawson asserts, "Yeah. I mean, you never know what you'll hear." Dawson asks Jack to hit the lights, and says again, "The perfect creek-side village," and focuses on the model No-Fault Hacienda, and then we see it in a monitor, and then the camera on the show cuts to a shot of the real N-FH, and it's all clever and post-modern and stuff. Except for the clever part.
Tonight's episode is brought to us by the movie Blast from the Past, or as I like to call it, Dave Foley Pays Some Rent.
Over at the high school, Pacey is hailed by the guidance counselor, Mr. Milo. Pacey starts out on the defensive, saying, "Now, before you say anything, I want you to know I have the situation under complete control." Mr. Milo asks what situation that is. Pacey hesitates for a second, then answers, "Well, whichever of my academic improprieties you were about to make me aware of." Mr. Milo tells him, "'Improprieties' is the wrong word. Try 'kudos.'" He goes on to say that he just got the mid-term reports for all the students on academic watch: "And after removing my jaw from the floor, I came to see you." He hands Pacey a paper. "You posted three Bs, two As." Pacey is stunned by this news, and says, beaming, "That's impossible!" Mr. Milo allows, "One would think so," and smiles back just as broadly, causing Pacey to comment that he doesn't think he's ever seen Mr. Milo smile before. Mr. Milo tells him to keep up the good work. Aw.
Inside the school, Pacey comes tearing down the hall in jubilation, picks up Andie "Zagnut" McPhee and swings her around, ending by thrusting his tongue down her throat. Aw. Andie asks what that was for; Pacey says, "Just 'cause." Jack stands nearby watching this display, with his arms around Joey "La Barbe" Potter; he starts to nuzzle her as if planning to copy this move, but she laughingly rebuffs him, saying, "Don't even." Jack says, "What, we can't have a 'just 'cause'?" Joey says, "Sure, in private. But massive suck-face embraces are better left for bedrooms and private sunsets." Word, say I. Jack sighs loudly. Joey adds, "No offense," in the direction of Pacey and Andie, who answer in unison, "None taken." At that moment Dawson comes up behind Jack and after saying a very quick "hi guys" starts taking advantage of Jack's massive crush on him, asking when Jack might get a chance to work on the set for the pageant scene. Jack says he can do it this weekend if Dawson wants. Dawson says that's great and that he'll schedule the shoot for the weekend after, and takes off. Joey looks at Jack a bit quizzically but says nothing.
The bell rings. Pacey says he hates to be a stickler, but that they're late for "an hour of hell." As he starts to walk off, Jack says, "Yeah, you got your poem, stickler?" Pacey says he does. Jack gives Joey a brief kiss and follows Pacey. Joey walks over to Dawson's locker and says, "So! That was nice," referring to Dawson's ability to have a civil conversation with Jack, and expressing her surprise at it. Dawson says, "Some people are capable of moving beyond their longtime petty rivalries to a higher ground." Joey quite rightly answers, "Yeah right. If Jack wasn't [sic] doing your movie, he'd still be the enemy." Dawson says it's not true. Joey scoffs, "You are so Hollywood!" All I can say is that I'm glad she caught that, and saved me the trouble of pointing out Dawson's phoniness and his cynical use of Jack for his own purposes.
Outside the school, Ty "He's Kissing Christian" Hicks, unfortunately clad in a v-neck sweater with nothing on underneath, is annoyingly narrating his own actions: "Across the crowded green, he spots her. Stealthily, the lion crosses and settles in beside his prey, the helpless llama." Llama? Jen "Other" Lindley looks up briefly, and then down again, greeting him stiffly and without any apparent interest in him. Ty is undaunted by her "go away" body language, and says, "Well, as far as I know, there have been three phone messages to you in this last week -- adorable phone messages with my number included. So I was just wondering why you haven't returned any of them." Jen smiles dismissively and says he's on her "to call" list and that she's just working her way around. Ty says, "Not to toot my own horn, but I could swear you were into me that night that we went out." Jen replies, "Not to toot your own horn, or anything." Ty astutely concludes, "It was the party, wasn't it. All that Bible-speak, it freaked you out." Jen agrees that it did. Ty says, "Jen, that's not all that I am, all right? For your information, I'm not some Bible-banging Dorkus McWarkus here." Uh, I believe the term is "Dorkus Malorkus," or, alternatively, "Dorkus Maximus." Jen giggles and says that she's sure he's not: "It's just, okay, obviously your religion is something that's very important to you. I just see it as an inevitable obstacle in our relationship." Ty says, "Don't you think that we should go out on our first date before you map out our entire future?" Jen says he's sweet and funny, but that since he goes to Bible study three times a week -- about as often as she's been to church in the past ten years -- he should see why the two of them probably won't ever be more than friends. At that, she gets up to leave. Ty says that Jen's speech proves how little she knows him: "I'm not funny at all." Hey, he's right! Ty adds that he isn't giving up. Jen says that's a shame. Ty says he thought most women admired persistence. Jen says, "That just goes to show how little you know about me: I'm not most women." Woo. These two have all the chemistry of runny oatmeal.
Inside, Mr. Peterson is collecting everyone's poetry assignments. He stops at Pacey, who is fumbling with his books looking for it. Mr. Peterson says, "Mr. Witter. Empty-handed, I presume?" Pacey frantically says, "No, it was in here. I mean, I had it at the locker. I must have... left it right here in my binder!" Way to confound expectations, Pacey. Mr. Peterson regards the assignment, which Pacey has apparently entitled: "Ode to the Sports Car." Mr. Peterson casts aspersions on the quality of Pacey's penmanship. Pacey says, by way of defense, that he worked hard on the poem. Mr. Peterson says, "I'm sure. However, you neglected penmanship, and presentation is half the grade." Half? Is the other half what a student gets just for showing up? What kind of crappy school is this? Mr. Peterson continues: "So, as I see it, you have two choices. You can bring the poem in tomorrow, written legibly, and lose points for handing it in late, or you can hand it in as it is, and the highest grade you'll see will be your old friend, the letter D." Pacey says that isn't fair, and Mr. Peterson says, "Fairness is overrated." Pacey turns to Jack and mutters, "Is it just me, or does that man get meaner every day?" Jack says, "It's not just you." Mr. Peterson hears this and asks Jack what he said. Jack says, "Nothing." Mr. Peterson says, "I trust that your poetry assignment went well, Mr. McPhee. We're all aware of how critical it is to your deficient grade in this class." Jack says that it went fine. Mr. Peterson says, "Good! Then perhaps you would like to read your poem for the class." Jack nervously says, "Uh, you said that these poems were just for you." Mr. Peterson says, "I changed my mind. These things happen." Jack and Mr. Peterson go back and forth a few times over this, until Jack finally capitulates. It's never explained why Mr. Peterson has everyone else's poem, but Jack held onto his. Anyway, Jack gets up and, broadcasting abject terror from every pore, reads:
Today
Today was a day.
The world got smaller, darker.
I grew more afraid.
Not of what I am, but of what I could be.
I loosen my collar to take a breath
My eyes fade
And I see him
The image of perfection.
His frame strong,
His lips smooth,
And I keeping thinking,
What am I so scared of?
I wish I could escape the pain,
But these thoughts, they invade my head.
Bound to my memory
Like shackles of guilt.
God please set me free.
At this point, Jack is too choked up to continue, and he takes off out of the room crying. Pacey gets up, and Mr. Peterson asks what he's doing. Pacey says he's going to go see if Jack's okay. Mr. Peterson yells at him to sit down. Pacey does so, staring him down with his arms crossed and ignoring the instruction to open his book. He should have gone after him anyway, but then again, he does more than make up for it later.
In a computer lab. Joey and Dawson sit side by side working on iMacs. Joey asks what he's looking at. Dawson says he's trying to get a peek at her "secret online handle. What is it, 'Juicy Joe'? 'Perky Potter'?" Joey counters with, "What's yours, 'Spielberg Stud'?" Checkmate. Behind them, one guy is not-so-quietly recounting Jack's creative-writing-class meltdown: "And then he starts to cry...I heard it from half the class. He's reading his poem, and he is just crying...Peterson makes him read his poem in class; he starts crying. Here's the best part: the poem? It's about a guy. McPhee's a total homo. Total. Like, no doubt." Of course, in a real high school, Jack would be called "a total fag," but I guess that word isn't allowed on network TV. (And before I start getting angry emails, no, that is not what I call gay people -- just what high school age boys tend to call them. Just so that's clear.)
Over at the Icehouse, Melissa Etheridge is yowling something as Bessie seats a group of women and Joey buses an adjacent table. Dawson comes up behind Bessie, who says "hi, Dawson!" As Bessie moves off, Dawson greets a distracted Joey with, "Got a second?" She says, "sure." Dawson asks if she's talked to Jack yet. Joey says she hasn't, since "he's still pretty upset about it," all the while busily going about her work. Dawson says, "I can imagine. The rumour mill's working overtime on this one." Way to confirm her worst fears, Captain Tact. He continues, "I've heard about the incident twice more." Joey says, "You've heard about it? I've heard everything from 'Jack is seen regularly wearing dresses down Main Street' to 'he's checked into a monastery to deal with his sexual ambivalence.'" Dawson regards her a moment, then observes, "You're being pretty flip about this." Joey answers, "Well, why not, Dawson? I mean, it's all a big joke," and shakes her head insistently. Dawson prods, "Is it?" Joey looks up, and says, "Well, what are you insinuating?" Dawson says, "I'm not insinuating anything, I'm just concerned about you." Joey shifts from "flip" to "pissed" in under sixty seconds, and spits, "What are you trying to do, Dawson -- give validity to some ridiculous rumour that Jack's gay?" Dawson protests, "No, Joey, I never said that!" Joey replies, "You pretty much did." Dawson says, "Joey, all I'm trying to do is find out what's going on, okay, and I would hope that you'd know me well enough to know that my concern is genuine, okay. There's no need to be so defensive about this." Joey, enraged by now, answers, "I'm not being defensive, Dawson. Why don't we just say what this conversation is really about -- your passive-aggressive way of highlighting some flaw in Jack that would get us to break up?" Um, Joey, it's not like Dawson's accused Jack of bad table manners. If he is gay, you'll probably want to know that. Dawson says simply, "That's way over the line." Joey says, "No. It's not. From where I'm standing I think it's perfectly in bounds," and stomps off, leaving me in the unique position of having to take Dawson's side.
Over at McPhee Manor, Pacey and Andie are studying at a truly magnificent, highly polished dining room table. As Andie goes over the text they're working on, Jack walks in to tell them he's going to help close up the Icehouse. Pacey says goodbye, but Andie says nothing and doesn't even turn to look at him. Ouch! Pacey notes that Andie was "a bit frosty," which Andie initially won't allow. Pacey elaborates: "The guy's had a hard day, and you've hardly said two words to him all afternoon." Andie announces in exasperation, "Well, I don't understand why he had to write that poem to begin with. I mean, if he hadn't written something that could have been so easily misinterpreted --" Pacey cuts her off with, "What, if he had censored himself?" Andie gets up and goes into the kitchen, saying, "Don't twist my words. Okay, look, I know Jack better than you do, Pacey, and ever since we were kids, he's had this whole 'different drummer' thing going on, and not everybody gets it, and he should have known better than to expose himself to someone as venomous as Peterson. That's all." Pacey says, "Uh, Andie? I may be wrong here, but I don't think guest-starring in his own public humiliation was Jack's intention. There's something deeper going on there." Andie says, "Like --?" Pacey says, "Like, maybe you should talk to him." Andie says, "About what?" Pacey says, "Well, for starters, about the poem. Maybe it wasn't misinterpreted." Andie scoffs exaggeratedly: "No. No! Jack is not gay, okay? He has talked about girls his entire life. He's crazy about Joey, he hates Madonna -- he's not gay!" Pacey says, "Have you ever asked him?" Andie firmly says, "No. And I don't need to." Pacey says, "Okay, well, hypothetically speaking, if Jack were gay, how would that make you feel?" Andie, visibly more defensive and angry now, says, "I guess I'd be disappointed." Pacey turns his back and says, "'Disappointed.' Geez, Andie!" Andie says, "You asked me how I'd feel!" Pacey says nothing. Andie continues, "I don't need this, okay? I don't need to be attacked about some hypothetical feelings about a hypothetical situation that is completely unfathomable." Pacey says, "Well, for his sake, I hope you're right." First off, when and how would Pacey get to be so enlightened about homosexuality? And second, that was a pretty realistic scene.
Jen. Ty. Phone. More rejection. More persistence. Jen relents. Ty should pick her up at ten. No one cares.
Back at the Icehouse, Jack swoops down unexpectedly and takes a bag of cleaning supplies from Joey, who says nothing to him. Bessie comments that he's been "quiet as a churchmouse" since last night, and that he "looks like he lost his best friend," and asks Joey what happened. Joey tells her she doesn't want to know. Bessie tells Joey she should go talk to him. Joey asks how you talk to someone about something he has made very clear he doesn't want to talk about. Bessie says she usually leads off with, "Long day, huh?" since that opens the conversation up, then asks Joey to lock up, and leaves. At that moment Jack comes back out (heh) from the kitchen. Joey visibly steels herself to say something, and then dutifully pronounces, "Long day, huh?" Jack is having none of it, and curtly says, "You wanna ask me something, I suggest you just ask it." Joey says, "Look, I'm sorry, Jack. People are already saying things." Jack says, "Since when do you care what people are saying? It's not like you." Joey says, "Well, maybe it's because you still haven't offered me any kind of explanation for what you wrote." Jack says, "I don't have to." Joey says, "You're right. You don't. It's just, um, you know, being the one that you are dating [sic], it would be nice to know if there was a particular reason why you did write a poem about a guy -- I mean, a poem that obviously has some degree of importance in your life, considering it did make you cry in front of a room full of people." Jack gets in his kayak and starts paddling up DeNial: "All right, look. I sat down last night before I went to bed. For half an hour, I wrote what I was feeling. And one of the images that came into my head -- it was masculine. Nothing sexual about it. It could have been me, it could have been the image of my brother -- I don't know, Joey. But I do know there was nothing gay about that poem." Across North America, viewers cackle gleefully. Joey nods vigorously. Jack continues, "And as for the crying -- I don't know. It hit a weird nerve when I started reading it -- unleashed some of the stuff I've been dealing with in my family, my brother's death. That's the only explanation that I have, and if it's not good enough for you, then you can just believe what everybody else is saying." He turns away, and Joey steps back in front of him: "Look, Jack. I don't believe them." Jack says, "I hope not, because I adore you, Joey, and I assure you, if I was ever to write a love poem, it would be about you -- nobody else." They hug, as Joey is momentarily reassured.
Naturally, the scene finds Pacey in the principal's office, where he is telling her he won't apologize. The principal tells him he will. Pacey insists that he won't, at which Mr. Peterson breaks in and says, "What did I tell you. The child's an insubordinate little waste." Mr. Milo sticks up for Pacey, saying, "Hey, you're hardly innocent here." Mr. Peterson says, "And what does that mean?" Mr. Milo reminds him, "You made a student cry. Another student had an excessive reaction." Mr. Peterson says, "You call a student spitting in a teacher's face 'excessive'? That's the understatement of the year." The principal breaks it up, suggesting that they meet again the day, by which time, if Pacey hasn't resolved to apologize, she'll have to suspend him. Pacey stares into the distance with his jaw clenched manfully.
As Pacey leaves the office, he sees Jack waiting there and tells him Jack didn't have to come down. Jack tells Pacey that Mr. Milo wanted to talk to him: "I can't imagine what about." Pacey brings Jack up to speed on the apology and says, "I told them to screw themselves." Well, not quite, but I'll let you have your moment. Jack says, "That was stupid." Pacey says, "Whose side are you on here anyway?" Jack says, "My own. I can handle my own battles, you know. I didn't need you to make a spectacle of this whole thing." Pacey says, "Whoa, stop right there, Jack. I thought I was helping you out." Jack says, "Yeah, well, you weren't. I didn't need a hero. I recognize it's an addiction of yours, but this is one instance where you should have kept your nose out of it." Pacey is stunned silent by this speech.
Outside. Ty. Jen. "Was I not fun last night?" "Some people would call it the height of hypocrisy." "My religion doesn't assume that I'm a perfect individual, Jen. In fact, it expects that I'm not...Come on, your Grams likes me." "My Grams likes what she knows about you, which apparently isn't all that much." "And you plan on keeping it that way?" "It's a thought." Whatever.
Inside, Pacey, Andie and Dawson are walking down the hall, and Andie is asking Pacey what he's going to do about Peterson. Pacey says he's going to take the suspension: "After what that man did I'm not going to apologize to him; he doesn't deserve it." Andie says it doesn't matter what he did since Pacey spit in his face. She looks to Dawson for affirmation; Dawson says nothing. Pacey says, "You too, huh?" Dawson says, "Pacey, this is serious." Pacey exclaims, "You think I don't know that?" Dawson says, as he hurries off with great cowardice, "All we're saying is make sure you're aware of the consequences." Pacey yells, "I AM aware of the consequences, all right?"
Elsewhere, Jack is handing Joey a sheaf of pamphlets Mr. Milo had on his desk while Jack was talking to him: "You ever feel like you're trapped in one of those Lifetime movies?" Joey reads, incredulously: "'Gay and Okay,' 'What's Your Sexuality?' 'Am I Gay?' God, it sounds like one bad game show."
Back to Andie, who is asking Pacey, "What about your grade point? You still care about that, don't you? It's not going to survive a suspension, Pacey. It'll destroy all the hard work you've done, and you'll be right back at square one." Pacey completes her thought: "An academic loser." Andie says that's not what she said; Pacey says it's what she felt: "Andie, everything that I've worked for, what you've helped me to become is somebody who believes in himself, and in his instincts, and every single one of my instincts tells me that what that man did in that classroom is wrong -- it's just wrong." Andie resignedly turns away and whatever is in her line of vision causes her to gasp, "Oh my God."
Back to Jack, who is telling Joey he's really going to need her help: "I have a feeling it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better." "I'm here," she says, shrugging happily. Then Jack glances up and the camera slams into what is presumably his blue locker, on which is now painted, "FAG." Joey looks stricken. Jack doesn't know how to react, and glances around at all the extras who are staring at him. Then he walks over to his locker, alone, and opens it. Joey watches him for a second, looking like she's about to throw up, and then steps between Jack and his locker and tells him to kiss her, so they make out with the whole school watching, including a particularly ashen Andie.
Then we get an ad for Cruel Intentions, or as I like to call it, Bitchin' Liaisons.
Back at McPhee Manor, Jack is drying dishes. Andie comes up and thanks him for cleaning up. Jack says, "Dialogue! That would mean you're talking to me again, correct?" Andie says, "I've been really unfair the past few days." Jack says, "That's okay. I knew you'd come around." Andie asks Jack if he has to be so immensely forgiving, and whether he doesn't have a single ounce of meanness in his body: "At the very least it would make our sibling squabbles more interesting?" Jack says he doesn't need them to be more interesting since he wins them as they are. Andie says, "It's just, um, it's been really hard." Jack agrees: "For both of us." Andie says, "Yeah, but you're better suited for this sort of thing." Jack says, "No one's suited for public ridicule, Andie; you just deal with it." Andie says, "I don't. When I first heard what happened to you in class, my initial reaction was resentment. Of all the possibilities, you know? I didn't even feel sorry for you, I just thought, 'Oh great, thanks! You know, just when things seemed to be slowing down in my life, and now I have to deal with this.' And as much as I love you, Jack, it's just, everything that has happened to us in our lives has made me so afraid, and I just didn't think that anybody could understand that, I mean, especially you; you're so strong and independent -- and then I read this. It's your poem. I kept one of the ones that I tore down. It's a really beautiful poem, Jack. And I don't know if it means that you're gay or not, and you know what? I really don't care. But I'll tell you what I do know: The person who wrote this poem? He's just as scared as I am. Jack, you're terrified, and I'm your sister and I had no idea. And I just want you to know that I'm here for you, and that I love you, and you're not alone." They hug. Whew! Jack says nothing. Glark very insensitively adds, "I'm gonna call you 'sis' from now on. You like that, Jackie?" Wing Chun subdues him by throwing a crock pot at his head. Jack says, "Thank you." Aw. I guess that ought to put Pacey in his place.
Elsewhere, Joey is jogging at a pretty leisurely pace across a footbridge toward the No-Fault Hacienda. Cut to the Sanctum Dawsonorum, in which Dawson is fooling around with the "Creekside" model Jack built, as Joey climbs through the window, asking if she can come in. She says she's sorry for yesterday. Dawson says he understands. Joey notices the model and says it's amazing. Dawson agrees, and waits for her to get to the point. Joey says she needs his advice, even though she knows that because of the situation it might not be easy for him to give it. Dawson says, "Talk to me." Joey says, "I'm thinking that maybe you were right about Jack and the poem." Glark says, "That was always my favourite nursery rhyme!" Wing Chun stuffs a sock in his mouth. Dawson says, "That he meant to write it." Joey says, "Well, he says he didn't, and you know, he has a thousand reasonable excuses that all make sense, it's just...they don't make sense. I just keep wishing that I had done what you had told me -- if I just would have [sic] asked him if...he's gay --" Dawson says, "Then why don't you?" Joey says, "If I do that, then he'll know that I've considered it, and if he knows that I've considered it, then it'll always be there, that I've considered it." As long as you haven't considered it. Dawson says, "It's the elephant-in-the-room syndrome," and then explains for the ignorant in the audience: "The obvious but unspoken topic, the thing that's always lurking but never brought up." Joey closes her eyes in dread. Dawson adds, "Of course, in your case it's a gay elephant." Joey says, "You know, this isn't funny," though she's smiling. Dawson says he had to say that. Joey throws herself back on the bed. Dawson walks over to the bed, sits down with his back to Joey, and insists, "You have to ask him. I mean, if there's one thing that I've learned about relationships in the past year, it's that they begin and end with honesty." Glark adds, "Especially the 'end' part, huh Dawson?" before being buried under several empty cardboard boxes. Dawson continues: "And if you want to save what you have with Jack -- and I believe that it's worth saving -- you've gotta be honest. You know?" Joey says, "Yes." Dawson says, "So go. Go hunt an elephant." Joey says, "Thanks," and starts to go, then stops and turns around and looks at Dawson and says, "Thank you," and goes back out the window. Dawson says nothing, presumably considering his new status as uncoupled, well-meaning stooge.
Later, Pacey dangles his legs off a dock. Andie walks up and asks him how it went. Pacey looks at her, and, after a beat, says that it went as well as could be imagined: "They suspended me for a week. Why'd you bother coming down here?" Andie says it's because she cares about him. Pacey regards her a moment, and says, "Do you?" Andie recoils and says, "What kind of question is that?" Pacey says, "It's a reasonable one, Andie. Hey, do you have any idea what I went through today? How much I needed your support?" Andie says, "Pacey, I can't support every thing you do." Pacey says, "I don't want you to agree with every decision I ever make. The world would be a boring place if you did. But what I am asking for is to know some way, somehow, you're there for me." Andie says, "How. Dare. You. I challenge one action of yours, and you throw it in my face like it's some sort of weakness?" Pacey says, "It's not just me; you weren't there for your brother Jack, either." Andie says, "Oh yes I was. I apologized to him and I came to apologize to you too, but for some reason I was struggling with it all the way down here. That reason has suddenly become crystal clear: Jack is innocent, Pacey. What's happening to him right now he has no control over, but you? You knew what you were doing in that classroom." Pacey can't contain himself at this and yells, "What would you have me do? Just stand there and let Peterson do that to him when I knew the whole time --" Andie yells back, "There are other ways of handling --" as Pacey yells over her, "-- that it was my fault? Andie, it was MY FAULT."
Pacey's voice breaks as he explains: "Peterson knew that he couldn't get the best of me, so he went after your brother. If I hadn't instigated him that day, none of this would have ever happened. That's why I had to stop it, however I could. I had to stop it." Andie says, "Why didn't you tell me that you felt responsible?" Pacey says, "Because, Andie, you didn't want to hear about it. You just wanted me to clean up the mess, and there are some messes you just have to live with." Andie blinks at him. Pacey says, "I'm going to go home now." As he walks past her, Andie asks, "Do you want me to come with you?" Pacey says, "No. Not tonight." Andie watches him go with a stricken look. I have no response to that, other than to say that Andie could use some sensitivity pills along with her Zanac.
Elsewhere on the docks, Joey walks into the Icehouse out of uniform and greets Jack, who asks where she's been, since he's been covering both shifts. Joey decides this is an opportune time to ask, "Are you gay?" Without turning around from his countertop swabbing, Jack says, "Excuse me?" Joey walks toward him, babbling: "Are you gay? I mean, you don't have to answer right away; I just had to ask right away, because it's been building up in me, and there's just no easy way for a girl to ask her boyfriend if he's gay, but I just asked, and I know that you already told me the poem wasn't about a guy, but I just feel like when we discussed it, we never really discussed it, and I never really asked the one important question that you can feel free to answer at any minute now --" At this point, Jack finally breaks in and says, "No, no, I'm not gay." Joey breathes, and runs her hands through her hair and says, "Okay. You don't know what a relief that is. I mean, not that I care -- I would have dealt with it fine, I promise -- it's just, you know, who wants to deal with all the obvious and not-so-obvious issues of a girl who's dating a guy who turns out to be gay, and it's just so hard, and --" Jack takes her face in her hands, and she shuts up again, and they kiss to a soundtrack of Hootie. Jack's all macho: "Do you feel better now?" Joey says, "You don't even know. Could you do me a favour?" Jack says, "Yeah, what?" Joey says, "No more poems? For a little while?" Jack says, "You got it. No more poems." They gaze lovingly at each other some more, and then kiss in that way that only a boy and his beard really can, and then she puts her head on his shoulder, and he decides that the best thing to say to her, post-clinch, is, "I'm not gay, Joey. Okay?" Joey breathes, "Yeah." As the Hootie swells, "Only lonely on the inside," the camera closes in on a near-hyperventilating Jack, his face locked in nausea and dread and denial.