Dawson's Creek

THIS DOES NOT CONTAIN SPOILERS TO THE OVERALL SERIES, ALTHOUGH IT OUTLINES ONE EPISODE THAT DOES NOT BEAR INTO ANY LONG TERMS OF 5th SEASON ARCS. IT IS SAFE TO READ, LISA! I have been watching the Dawson's Creek DVDs for quite some time now. When I got Season 5 a few months ago, I had been excited to watch it but it wasn't until this week when I got the chance. I have always regarded the show as a bit trashy and was slightly embarrassed that I liked it and was addicted to it, but I couldn't help myself. I'm a sucker for sappy stuff, even over the top dramatic high school angst, which is odd considering no girl even looked at me in high school and I didn't experience the angst myself. Still, I have since had relationships and I can really feel for the characters, even if they seem to young to be going through things. Today, however, I watched an episode of Dawson's Creek which changed my mind about the show forever.

The episode was called "Downtown Crossing" and was focused only on 3 characters: Joey (Katie Holmes), a mugger, and the mugger's wife, played by Merecedes McNab of Buffy and Angel fame. The first part of the episode concentrated on the mugger taunting Joey, pulling a gun on her, stealing all her money out of her account, her cell phone, and even her coat. Obviously they could not use the normal cheery theme song so a dark one was put in it's place that just flashed the main actor's names, even though Joey was the only one in it. The mugger finally left her alone, and despite her smart ass mouth and a kick to his head, he didn't harm her. She tried walking home in the snow with no coat and it was sad. Then the mugger showed up and waved at her, just to get hit by a car moments later. Instead of running off, after getting her coat and things back, Joey calls an ambulance and stays with the man, talking to him about his family. She begins to compare the man, who is also a drug dealer, to her father, and feels sorry for him. At the hospital, his separated wife and daughter show up and the parallels between her father and the mugger continue to build. When the wife finds out who Joey is and the circumstances surrounding the accident, she leaves. The wife wants nothing to do with the mugger, but the daughter adores her father. They leave, and Joey is the only one who can stand by the mugger as he dies and they talk about her father and why he did what he did. In the end, Joey sees the wife and daughter one last time. The daughter innocently asks "Did my Daddy do something bad to hurt you?" Joey looks at the girl and says "No, he saved my life." She preceeds to tell the child that the mugger actually pushed her out of the way of the car, then silently Joey despoits her money in the wife's purse as she leaves. This episode made me feel and even cry for a drug dealer!!! I don't care how cheesy the show is. Only brilliant writing can pull that off. Amazing.

Oh, and I also discovered that Joshua Jackson (Pacey) directed an episode and Robert Duncan McNeil (Paris from Star Trek: Voyager) directed several. And Dawson's mom was the virgin in Caesar times from Mel Brooks' History of the World Part I! I love www.imdb.com!

Dawson's Creek 1998-2003
Starring: With
James Van Der Beek as Dawson Leery
Katie Holmes as Joey Potter
Michelle Williams as Jen Lindley
Joshua Jackson as Pacey Witter
Mary Beth Piel as Grams
Kerr Smith as Jack McPhee
Meredith Monroe as Andie McPhee
Busy Phillips as Audrey Liddell
With
Mary Margaret Humes as Gail Leery
John Wesley Ship as Mitch Leery
Nina Repeta as Bessie Potter
Monica Keena as Abby Morgan

Qop! (Dawson's Creek - throughout the series)
"What about you, Joe? Are you a virgin?"
"You kidding? Years ago. Trucker named Bubba." ~ Jen (Michelle Williams) & Joey (Katie Holmes)

BONUS QOP!s
" You know, this town is the absolute embodiment of dull. Apart from the occasional sex scandal provided by yours truly, nothing happens here." ~ Pacey (Joshua Jackson)

" You mean that you guys would rather watch a movie about something than actually doing it yourselves?"
"Correct." ~ Andie (Meredith Monroe) and Dawson & Joey (James Van Der Beek & Holmes)

"Emilio Estevez. He was in those Ducks movies. Man, those were the best." ~ Pacey (Jackson, who starred in the Ducks movies with Estevez)

"Good teachers are just traumatized students trying to erase whatever went wrong with their own high school experience." ~ Jack (Kerr Smith)

"Tell ya what, grams. I'll go to church with you when you say the word penis." ~ Jen

"Wait a second. You're taking romantic advice from a guy who spent his evening trying to get 3 snails to sleep together?" ~ Joey (referring to Pacey's attempt to create a snail menage-a-troi)

"I make a cancer joke and Joey gets mad, or I make a crazy joke and Andie gets upset, or I make a joke about ho-bags and Jen starts humping the couch." ~ Abby

"I mean, you did just nude-up with the guy. Oh, I'm sorry, or did you guys do it through a hole in a sheet because that's very Dawson and Joey to me." ~ Audrey

"You and I are meant to be together, Joey. Period. The end. Cue happy-ending music." ~ Dawson (NOT at the end of the series)