Date of airing: January 13, 1999 (WB)
Nielsen ratings information: 6.80 million viewers, 4.5/7 in Households
written by: Jenny Bicks
directed by: James Whitmore, Jr.
This episode was about sex. From beginning to end. And some of the characters almost did it (some for the second time), yet the episode only ended with the core six coupling up with one another in pairs, being in new and improved relationships that could either last for a lifetime or just for a handful of episodes, because this is still a primetime soap opera and the couples cannot stay together forever.
However, it is interesting how the writers decided that this was the episode to pair up the three couples of romantic interest and essentially continue into the next episode with something of a new premise at hand. This is kind of cool, because it is probably what the writers were working towards after they introduced Andie and Jack and immediately gave them love interests. They immediately brought Andie together with Pacey to quip around, and they immediately got Jack closer to Joey for the sake of bringing trouble between her and Dawson. All while Dawson and Jen are seemingly back together, and this time around their new relationship should maybe be improved by the fact that they have learned a lot from their previous attempts at romance, let alone what they just went through in recent episodes. One would almost think that Dawson and Jen would last the longest of the three couples, considering their history.
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| The auditions are a grueling process for the creators. |
This episode was good, putting a final note on a part of the season that tried its absolute best to create new couplings and have love be their guiding light for the next chapter of the season. It is no coincidence that the DAWSON’S CREEK of 1999 begins with all three couples together at last, having a true and meaningful romantic evening together, without pressuring themselves into sex, after the DAWSON’S CREEK of 1998 was all about sex and being as naughty as possible (Dawson once told Joey who he was masturbating to in the mornings). Let the DAWSON’S CREEK of 1999 be all about what follows when you move past the initial stages of romance and mess things up with sex. Let this year’s DAWSON’S CREEK begin with Joey drawing a picture from a nude model, because American television is prudish and needs to be taught a lesson.
It is interesting how much time each of the couples took to get through the day talking about relationships and fantasizing about what they really wanted out of their current lives. Okay, Jack and Joey were a little slow at that, but it seemed like they had the most “action” at the end, when Jack talked through art about what it is like to have sex, and Joey almost got an orgasm right there on the spot. Yes, that moment was silly and kind of unrealistic (I am actually surprised Joey kept it together and Jack knew so damn much about art that he almost sounded like a 30-something writer for television who took a course on art to put it into a scene for a script), but hey, Jack was naked, and his mast was most certainly erect at some point during his art analogies, so they must have had the best “action” of the night. Compared to the other two couples who were just kissing around, not even going to second base or the likes.
By the way, Dawson climbs into a girl’s bedroom while she is asleep? I would consider finding that weird, but then again, I am no Dawson, and I am not living in a small east coast town like Capeside where boys climbing into girls’ bedrooms is apparently a regular occurrence. Sometimes it surprises me how you can keep your doors or windows open like that during the night and not be scared that anything bad will happen and you will be woken up by a burglar. When I once realized in the middle of the night that I left the front door unlocked, I jumped out of bed and corrected my mistake, hoping I was not stumbling over any dangers in the process. America, you are nuts. Lock your damn doors and close your windows!
Dawson and Jen producing the movie is an interesting little story to throw in the show at this stage. After Dawson happily told Joey that they won last year’s film circus and got some money to make their next movie, I did not even think that Dawson would in fact be interested in doing another feature, but here we are, with a finished script (that sounded nuts and almost like it was attempting to make fun of DAWSON’S CREEK itself), with Dawson and Jen casting for the roles, and with half of Capeside High being interested in smelling a Hollywood-type process by auditioning for an amateur movie. Is now the time to showcase what Dawson can do as a director, after he told us many times how things are supposed to be done, and what it means when certain story choices are taken? Does it mean that this is the beginning of Dawson as a failed writer and director? Were the writers going to take that chance and put meta jokes into the series, like during the beginning of the episode when Pacey asked Dawson how many teenagers he knows who talk with all the multi-syllable psychobabble words? Consider me amused by that line.
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| PG-friendly nudity on broadcast television. |
There was one moment during the casting process that intrigued me, and it happened to involve both Chris and Abby. He seemed like he was in the role Dawson was trying to cast (noticeable by Dawson’s intrigued facial expression), while Abby could not have given a single damn about what was happening here and if she was even interested in taking part in this process. Then Chris kissed her, and he became the asshole who must not be cast (the male dominance of Hollywood in a nutshell), while Abby might have become the woman character Dawson was looking for in his movie. I am not sure if that was ever an intention by the writers here, but it came over like that for me, making me think that Chris and Abby will continue to be a hot topic this season, maybe even for Dawson’s movie, which means their troublesome characters are relocated from general Capeside life to the set of Dawson’s film. I still do not like Abby though. Why is she such a mean bitch again?
