Date of airing: April 28, 1998 (WB)
Nielsen ratings information: 7.12 million viewers, 4.8/7 in Households
Ten episodes into the show and the titular character has to make a decision already, and what a difficult decision it is: the blond girl or the brunette girl? I’m pretty sure it’s a question a majority of boys have broken their minds over and tortured themselves through sleepless nights, and at least some Hollywood executives may have thought about that question a lot and decided to put it into this episode of television, just so some of their real-life experiences can be out into a fictional television drama. It’s a question intriguing enough for Dawson and the show at this point, because the writers have finally, and voluntarily, stumbled into this mess with their characters, knowing that the season finale was around the corner and it needed to deliver the answer, not knowing whether the series will get to see a second season or not. Trying to work on an answer three episodes before the possible and forced series finale was a nice move.
This episode was okay. It turns out I liked Pacey and Joey’s snail hunt adventure in the swamps more than I did the lazy and insufferable double date, thanks to Dawson’s despicable behavior. Pacey and Joey at least had some fun while being revolted by one another, even putting a smile on their faces after what they thought was a terrible day marching through the swamp and freezing in wet clothes. But on the other side of town, there was Dawson, in the middle of a pissing contest to show his ex-girlfriend that he is the better and stronger man, and as soon as he won a cuddle bear for one of the two lucky ladies, he had to make it awkward for Marybeth by kind of forgetting for a minute that she was there. Dammit, Dawson Leery, was your brain not turned on during this particular moment when you turned yourself and the cuddle bear in your hands towards Jen? I get that making her jealous and winning her back was his main goal during the double date, but he just dished that wonderfully ridiculous lie to Marybeth on why he decided to take her on a double date, and then he had to ruin everything for himself and turn this day into one of the worst of his miserable, pathetic, egotistical life. He also had to ruin Marybeth’s night, whom I was about to start liking, but she was just a plot device in this episode who wasn’t even allowed to end up with the object of her affection for the sake of Dawson and Jen having their own scene on the malfunctioning Ferris wheel. What a waste for Marybeth, I hope she found a much better life after this episode.
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| Dawson emerges victorious in this pissing contest. |
The notion of Pacey sort of falling in love with Joey was kind of nice though. It’s not what I got out of their swamp adventure, because as it stands, their swamp adventure was already interesting enough without the subplot of one of them, possibly both, falling for the other. There was comedy in the plot with Pacey’s inability to think things through, like feeding a couple of snails to other snails or losing the boat, and I always loved Joey’s silent annoyance over absolutely everything Pacey was doing or saying, while also dealing with her own emotions she was trying to suppress. I mean, she was starting to work on getting the hell out of town in a few years, so she must have been extra busy working for this extra credit. And when she decided to suffer the fool that is Pacey for her ultimate goal to leave Capeside after school, then her fight is even greater than anyone could have anticipated.
By the way, the Pacey/Joey story could have gone in a bit of a different direction than Pacey staying in Capeside forever and Joey working on getting out of there. The writers should have asked why Pacey, the intelligent man he must be (even identified as such by his teacher), did not care at all about schoolwork or why he flunked the midterms. Joey could have asked Pacey why he has no interest in working for school when he clearly has the intellect to do at least solidly, working for a C average. I would love to know why Pacey doesn’t care, and I would especially like to know why Joey figured she didn’t care about her arch-nemesis whom she started to appreciate here decided to not give a damn about school work. It’s like he is already throwing away his life, and he is only 15 years old, maybe 16. And I don’t believe that Joey doesn’t have an interest in finding out why.
Plus, I would love to know why Pacey, the intelligent student that he must be, is failing his classes in the first place. What is it that makes him so lazy in school, but still so smart outside of it? Normally, that’s a sign of sheer intelligence and a high IQ, with the student being utterly bored of standard school work when their real interests are not being nurtured, but that’s clearly not Pacey. Something else is up with him and I would like to know what that is.
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| It's cold out here in the swamp. |
Meanwhile, Dawson and Jen could not have been more annoying for me. The two have been going through the second episode of break-up aftermaths, and I’m already yawning. Yes, I know, it’s all teenagers can think of when stuff like that happens to them, but for a scripted narrative, it’s not getting me any more excited to see Dawson freak out about Jen going out with another boy or not wanting to be friends with him, while the writers sort of forgot to pay attention to Jen in this story, no matter how emotional their moment was on the Ferris wheel. He said some words, she almost cried, and the writers gave an answer as to where they stood as a former couple, but all we saw in this episode was Dawson talking about wanting to get Jen back. Jen wasn’t talking about any of that to her own friends? The story never depicted her point of view of this story?
