About:
Drinks Taken: 8
Follow the whole rewatch here!
Welcome back to the Dawson’s Creek Rewatch Project, where I have to be honest – not a lot happened this week.
Let’s drink to what will thankfully be a short write-up that I’m composing on a very anxious election day, allowing me no energy to focus on anything else. Hopefully, by the time you guys are reading this tomorrow morning, we’ll all have something much better to drink to.
The Dawson’s Creek Drinking Game
Drink Once every time:
Joey purses her mouth or chews on her lip
Joey tucks her hair behind her ear
Sex makes Dawson and/or Joey extremely uncomfortable
Grams says “Jennifaaah”
Pacey wears a shirt that makes you want to blind yourself
Audrey declares something risqué or insane with utter confidence
Drink Twice every time:
You have literally no idea why Joey is mad
Pacey gives someone a really good hug
Cool Jen Lindley is totally crapped on by the universe
Onto the episodes!
5.06 “High Anxiety”
Dawson’s been dealing with some pretty serious anxiety since his father died, several panic attacks like his episode last week. He comes to Boston to meet with a grief therapist, Dr. Weir, but he panics in the waiting room and bolts before the appointment. He also decides to stay at Grams’ house instead of Joey’s dorm, which has Joey feeling weird and sad. But he doesn’t even end up staying at Grams’ the first night – instead, he goes to a frat party with Jack and gets TRASHED, which feels like the wrong move here.
Meanwhile, Pacey’s planning a party on the yacht, mainly to give Dawson something productive to do and a fun way to distract himself. He’s dismayed when Jack brings Dawson to the party all boozed up, because we’re now living in a world where Pacey Witter is more responsible than Jack McPhee. Look at that sentence, Jack. Look good and hard at that sentence and ask yourself what you’re doing with your life. Dawson, in his inebriated state, tells Joey that he blames her for Mitch’s death. In his grief-stricken and beer-logged mind, he only decided to stay in Boston because Joey left him a message telling him she’s moving on and he was afraid of losing her again. And, as we know, Dawson thinks his dad wouldn’t have died if Dawson hadn’t told him he wasn’t returning to USC. Joey is heartbroken, and leaves, and Dawson wakes up the next morning hungover as all hell on Pacey’s boat. Pacey gives him his secret hangover cure and tells him, gently but firmly, that he needs to make it up to Joey. Dawson feels terrible, and Pacey adds, “If it’s any consolation, I think Joey’s going to forgive you a lot sooner than you forgive yourself.”
She does, of course. Dawson apologizes to her sincerely, and tells her that he was spending so much time daydreaming about the possibility of a real relationship with her that when his dad died, it was an abrupt fall back to earth. “I have no idea how to get back there, and what scares me most is that maybe I never will.” Joey seems so relieved that Dawson’s actually opening up to her, and she kisses him and tells him, “You’ll find your way back. In the meantime, I’ll be daydreaming for both of us.” It’s nice.
Other stuff that happened this week:
* Audrey’s mom is coming to visit, and Audrey is STRESSED. As soon as we meet Kay Liddell, it’s clear why: she spends all of her time down-sizing Audrey, calling her fat and stupid in that seemingly innocent but totally passive-aggressive way some moms have. Audrey, her mom and Joey all go to dinner together, and after a night of silently observing, Joey finally gets fed up and tells off Kay:
You know, Kay, I’ve sat here this entire meal and listened to you do nothing but cut down your daughter. And I don’t know if you’re just upset with her because she’s not what you want her to be, or because she’s 18 and you’re not. Audrey may be dramatic, but at least she’s never boring. And she may be interested in a lot of different things, but that just makes her well-rounded. And as far as discipline goes, she obviously has a great deal because no matter what you seem to say to her, she somehow manages to grin and bear it. As you can see, I don’t really have that kind of discipline. Audrey, let’s go. There’s a party.
I LOVE COLLEGE JOEY. So does Audrey. She’s so touched and clearly smitten with her new best friend. Yay!!
* Jen works with the girl she saw ChaMM cheating on her with to prank ChaMM in a major way. They “accidentally” show up at the same time to ChaMM’s room, pretend they had no idea about each other and get upset, but then “let” that dumb-ass talk them into a threesome. I can’t believe this dipshit actually thought that would work. Instead, they steal his clothes and push him, naked, out into the hallway. Yay!!
* Jen and Jack still aren’t talking. Definitely not yay.
* Pacey’s still hard-core flirting with Karen Torres, but realizes through accidental deduction that she’s Danny’s girl on the side. He’s bummed, but that doesn’t stop him from hitting it off big-time with Audrey at his party.
How many times did I have to drink?
5
Guess who?
Kay Liddell is played by Desperate Housewives‘ Brenda Strong.
Yikes
Audrey tells Joey that her mom used to borrow her clothes and hit on her boyfriends. Yeesh.
Kay’s outfit
She’s a cool mom.
Audrey’s greatest hit
She had such a good time at Pacey’s party, and thanks Joey for bringing her. “I didn’t even have to invite myself along!” <3
Best pop culture reference
Jen tells Pacey that there’s no way this new girl is also ChaMM’s sister, “unless, of course, they had some sick Flowers in the Attic thing going.”
Jen’s wisdom
When Dawson’s complaining that all of his friends are walking on eggshells around him, she replies, “Everyone’s trying their best, you know.” Dawson needed to hear that, and he admits that he’s very lucky to have such good friends.
Poor Joey
As soon as she decides to be with either of these needy boys, they fall apart and then blame and resent her for no good reason.
5.07 “Text, Lies and Videotape”
Joey’s independent study is really intimidating her, because she’s the youngest and least outspoken in the group. But she figures out some smart stuff in the correspondence they’ve been studying, and Professor Ken Marino is IMPRESSED. They flirt a whole, whole bunch, though of course Joey has no idea they’re flirting. I believe Professor Ken Marino does have an idea. So does Audrey, who calls Joey on it, and Joey smiles herself to sleep as she thinks of him.
Meanwhile, Pacey’s still mooning over Karen, who’s mooning over her married boyfriend, who just so happens to be Pacey’s boss. This is just like For Love or Money! There’s a fancy party at the restaurant, and Karen’s excited to attend with Danny, despite Pacey’s lectures, but then Danny’s wife surprises him by showing up, and Karen’s crushed. Pacey goes to Karen’s house with leftovers to cheer her up, and it seems like they’re getting close – but then Danny calls, and leaves a really apologetic, loving message on the machine, and Pacey leaves while Karen picks up the phone to forgive Danny. You know, like For Love or Money.
Other stuff that happened in this episode:
* Jen and Dawson have gotten really close, and she seems to be one of the only people who can get through to him right now. So she stays with him and forces him to actually honor an appointment with Dr. Weir, because of course Jen understands how helpful therapy can really be. And it does seem like Dr. Weir is able to understand Dawson, and he makes some small progress in his early appointments with her. He deals with his anger at himself and his dad, and ends the episode discovering that Mitch entered Dawson’s documentary into a film festival, and it was accepted. That’s a nice gift from his late dad.
* Jen’s got her own college radio show now, aww. And Dawson and Grams are her most regular listeners, aww. And she dedicates a song to Dawson, aww.
* Audrey’s auditioning for Real World: Ibiza by filming herself doing or talking about various fun things, and among all the goofiness, she actually learns a little about herself and her terrible relationship with her mother.
How many times did I have to drink?
3
Me too
Dawson says of the wise and philosophical new Jen, “I love College Jen.” I love College All Of These Kids!
Guess who
Dr. Weir is played by NCIS‘ Pauley Perrette.
ILU, Joey
After hearing Audrey’s confession to the camera, she tells her, “For what it’s worth, I’ve met your mother, and you’re nothing like her.” Their friendship is SO good.
Most meta moment
Professor Wilder’s talking about Kafka’s fiancée Felice Bauer, and says, “They had this intense romance, a kind of will-they, won’t they that went on for years. Ultimately, nothing happened.” Thanks for spelling out the bad news for us, Marino.
That’s it for this week! Meet me here next Wednesday morning as we cover “Hotel New Hampshire” and “Four Scary Stories.”
