Date of airing: February 3, 1998 (WB)
Nielsen ratings information: 7.34 million viewers, 5.0/8 in Households
There was a lot of kissing in this episode. I kind of had to laugh about the progress the characters undertook during this hour, as they were each getting a little bit of action (one of them more than anyone else could have bargained for). Pacey already had his kiss in the first episode of the series, while the other characters were still dealing with the idea of having their first kiss, trying to create the scenery in the head to make it extra special and perfect. And although Jen’s New York backstory was extremely vague (she could have done a lot of kissing before she came to Capeside), let’s just assume she also has never been kissed before, because she clearly saw something special in the act and not as something she wanted to waste.
In this episode, Jen, Dawson, and Joey finally got to feel the sense of locking lips, tasting tongue, and executing fluid transfer, and what it’s like to be in the middle of a teenage romance. For Joey, it only took a minute because she distanced herself quickly for reasons quite obvious, but there is also Pacey who took a lot more steps than his friends and has officially lost his virginity. If DAWSON’S CREEK ever gets a sex counter, it’s up to 1 now, because a 15-year-old boy has become a man by sleeping with his English teacher. Not even Dawson was able to speed through that development and this is his show. It might show how horrible of a person Dawson can be at times, although nothing is more horrible right now than the writers gliding straight into a student/teacher relationship, which is anything a soap opera (and the district attorney) could dream of. Would Pacey already be married by the time Dawson loses his virginity, considering the pace Pacey has taken on? Dawson is probably going to move in with his long-term girlfriend by the time Pacey has his first couple of kids, and Pacey definitely gets divorced as soon as Dawson pops the question. Those two can’t be friends after this episode when it comes to sex and relationships.
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| Sailing is a lot more fun when you do it with a person you like. |
The romance stories were somewhat boring though, and maybe I’m talking with the mind of a twenty-first-century TV watcher here. Joey went through a weird story to get her first kiss, but I guess that’s what a 15-year-old girl does to impress the rich boy who came straight off the boat of rich white people to spend a rich-boy summer in a town no one has heard of before. It’s probably a good thing Joey did not know that 15-year-old boys don’t mind hanging out with the town’s girls, because isn’t it more like winning a trophy when you managed to get with a girl from a small town and never have to see her again? Tasting the smalltown life? The whole thing gives awkward vibes to Joey’s first kiss and I would have liked it for Anderson (what a rich-boy name that is) to not have been such a charming creep. But I can’t say that everything that happened here was absolutely wrong because, in a way, it wasn’t. Joey’s sudden change in behavior after her day out with Anderson seemed realistic and as the 15-year-old girl that she is, it’s only natural that she would be head over heels and dream of her own Cinderella moment, even if it was cheesy and schmaltzy to watch at times.
Also, Anderson looked like a 20-year-old man, so there was an extra level of creepiness in the story, but it’s not like half of the cast looks older than the characters they portray. I mean, there was a moment during the high school movie production during which I saw James Van Der Beek’s beard growing. I’m almost sure he was required to shave at least twice daily. Anyway, Bodie gets a few plus points for his appearance in this episode – stepping in to make Joey look cool in front of Anderson was a good move on him. Dawson not having a clue in the same scene is going to make a failure out of him in hindsight, but it’s probably nothing new that he doesn’t think outside his movie-making bubble.
Meanwhile, Pacey turned from weird to creepy in this episode, as he kept touching Ms. Jacobs during their private tutoring session, expecting her to robe off her dress as a reward for his correct answers. Pacey became a whole lot more unlikable during this hour and his persistence to get his teacher on the table, undressed, so he can love her like the 15-year-old he is, made me want to punch him repeatedly. It’s almost like Pacey was two steps away from being a big-shot famous Hollywood producer with a super cool studio, ready to give big leading roles to pretty ladies, but first, they have to entertain him in a you-know-how way, because Pacey doesn’t just give his attention to you for nothing – he wants something in return. That Ms. Jacobs gave in and actually had sex with Pacey in the end... Well, congratulations, woman, you’re a rapist now in the eyes of the law. I wished this story would have been handled more realistically, but as it turns out it is more of a wish-fulfillment storyline and one that doesn’t even handle the drama like a daily soap opera would. However, I love to know what Republicans would have thought about this story, considering the “grooming” platform they picked up in 2022.
By this point in the series, someone must have come to the realization that Pacey was spending a little too much time with a certain teacher during afterschool hours. What I really found weird about the final image though was how confident and loving Pacey was. The boy just had sex for the first time, but it was him who hovered above Ms. Jacobs, kissing her neck, caressing her body, like this was a super romantic storyline. 15-year-old boys shouldn’t act like that, especially after just having lost their virginity to a woman twice their age. They should be stoked about having had sex with an older woman. They should have been asking her to do it again. Then again, I’m not speaking of experience here.
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| Hire Dawson for your movie, and it's going to look better. |
Then there was Dawson’s shot at being a director for a high school movie no one really gives a damn about except the movie club in high school. Fascinatingly though, and that might just be a sign of how I dabble in film and Hollywood myself, I always remembered the scene of Dawson taking over the shoot on the football field, with Pacey pulling the two-wheeler while Dawson was operating the camera in a sitting position. It’s basically a quick shot that establishes to the audience how talented Dawson is as a director, possibly not knowing that this is how Hollywood usually does it. In a way, Dawson is a stand-in for Hollywood, showing the viewers how movies were made. This is not at all a bad thing to do, although it doesn’t look good to the film class, since they clearly didn’t know how to make a movie – they were discussing the screenplay all day long, but they don’t have a producer who actually prepares the shoot.
Jen and Dawson’s kiss at the end of the episode was okay. I barely managed to care because Jen was too perfect in that scene, but there is something intriguing about the two together, and not unlike Pacey and Ms. Jacobs: While Pacey gets the teacher, Dawson gets the blonde city girl playing a cheerleader for an episode. Joey, on the other hand, had the random stranger who came into her life and then disappeared again. It’s almost like the characters’ first experiences were supposed to be the fantasy of real people wishing how their first kiss or sex would have come to be. Real-life cliches, if you will.
