About:
Drinks Taken: 10
Follow the whole rewatch here!
Welcome back to the Dawson’s Creek Rewatch Project, where a chance mugging turns into a life lesson, because this is Capeside Boston, people, and it’s a magical place.
Let’s drink to Pacey and Audrey getting it on!
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!
5.14 “Guerrilla Filmmaking”
Dawson’s working on Oliver’s movie, with all of his friends’ help – Jen’s doing the clapboard, Pacey’s operating the boom mic (poorly), Audrey’s co-starring, Joey’s giving inspiring pep talks, ugh and ChaMM took over as male lead after Oliver biffed it – and it’s really sweet, a nice moment of nostalgia for this group of friends who have been through so much together. (Plus ChaMM. Whatever.) It’s great seeing Dawson behind the camera again, even though he goes through something of a crisis of faith. That’s where Joey’s pep talk comes in, and just in time – Dawson figures out how to film the perfect, life-affirming ending to this film just as it starts to snow and Audrey gives an all-timer performance. ChaMM doesn’t even ruin it! It’s great.
But way, WAY greater – Audrey’s realizing she has feelings for Pacey, who realized his own feelings some time ago, but she’s filled with remorse because he’s her best friend’s ex-boyfriend. Aww, Audrey. They’re practicing Audrey’s lines when they accidentally start making out, and it’s HOT.
But she immediately feels awful about it and flees the scene, and then acts super uncomfortable on-set when she’s supposed to be kissing ChaMM as Pacey holds the boom mic mere inches from her face. She turns to Pacey and says, in front of everyone, “It’s too intense with you standing right next to me! You’re a terrible boom operator,” and she’s not wrong. She runs away, stalling the production, but Joey intuits what’s going on and brings Pacey with her to the bathroom where Audrey’s hiding. Joey’s so, so great here, and she happily gives Audrey and Pacey her blessing. “I love you both in the best, simplest way, and all I care about is that you’re happy.” SEASON 5 JOEY, YOU RULE. She’s now given her blessing to TWO best friends dating her ex-boyfriends, because she doesn’t have time for childish pursuits. I approve.
Other stuff that happened in this episode:
* Oh yeah, Joey’s still making out with her professor. They’re awkward in class, so they talk about it at his apartment later, and I guess she’s going to drop his class and keep dating him? I don’t remember this going much further, but that appears to be the plan for now.
* Ugh. So Jack is still living at the frat house for some reason, even though his brothers beat his ass last week. His formerly homophobic roommate Eric finds Jack day-drinking, because Jack’s an alcoholic, and joins him, and after some heart-to-hearts, Eric almost kisses Jack. Jack wisely pulls away, but the next day Head Frat Bro finds Jack and tells him that Eric has told the entire fraternity that Jack tried to kiss him. Jack’s FINALLY had enough and moves out, but before he leaves, he tells Eric, “You know the truth. You know what really happened in that room and you’re going to have to live with that,” and says he hopes Eric can find some help to deal with his clear issues of being a closeted gay man. But it’s nice – later, Jack’s sitting all despondent on a bus bench when Jen finds him, so he can be yet another stray invited to live in Grams’ house (again).
* Joey ends the episode walking home alone and throwing snowballs with cheerful whimsy. This may not seem important, but the episode ends with “To Be Continued,” so you know it is.
How many times did I have to drink?
7
Audrey’s greatest hit
To Joey: “Our friendship is the specialest thing that’s happened to me since I came here, and what did I do, I stepped all over it.” How could Joey be mad at that girl?! (She isn’t.)
Good burn, Dawson
After watching Oliver try to kiss Audrey on set, he sighs to Jen, “Jack and Grams have more sexual chemistry than these two.” Enter ChaMM.
Least likely dialogue
A line from Oliver’s movie: “I’m just the boy that’s gonna tear your soul apart.” Hellraiser-alert!
The truest thing anybody said this week
Professor Ken Marino to Joey, “I’m sorry, Joey, I’m a creep.”
The least true thing anybody said this week
Same conversation: “I’ve never done anything like that before.” NO ONE BELIEVES YOU, KEN MARINO.
Dreamy Pacey
He tells Audrey, “You smile, and the whole world lights up,” and that is both true and so, so sweet.
5.15 “Downtown Crossing”
“Downtown Crossing” is another one of those episodes – like “Appetite for Destruction” – that breaks from formula in a way that makes it really hard to write about but really wonderful to watch. Joey’s the only one of our regular characters who shows up in this episode, and nothing happens that furthers the A-plot of Season 5 (which is kind of hard to define anyway, other than “cute kids grow up cutely”), but it’s a special hour of television, one that I’ve always enjoyed.
So Joey’s walking home alone in the snow when she stops by an ATM to get money. A creepy guy walks alongside her and intimidates her for a while before eventually robbing her, first of her cash, then of her phone, then her ATM card and $500 in savings, then even her coat. But he’s clearly lonely, and feels bad about doing it, so he talks to Joey a lot about his own life, and even though Joey’s pretty understandably pissy throughout their interactions, it’s clear that she feels sort of sorry for him. He’s a drug dealer and wants to get out of the game so he can win his wife and daughter back – he stole Joey’s coat as a gift to his wife. Finally, he’s about to walk away and stops in the middle of the street to wave goodbye at Joey, and he gets hit by a car.
Joey calls 911 and goes with him to the hospital, because she’s a really good person (and also she’s in shock from being held at gunpoint and seeing a man almost die, so she needs her own medical treatment). She runs into a mother and daughter in the waiting room – Grace and Sammy – and realizes they belong to the mugger. She talks to Grace for a while, and admits what happened, but urges Grace to not keep Sammy from her dad. Joey knows better than anyone that just because your dad’s a drug dealer, it doesn’t mean you don’t love him and need him in your life. She goes in to talk to the mugger (who’s never named) one more time, telling him about her dad and hopefully inspiring him to be a better father to his own daughter, and then she tells Sammy that her dad pushed Joey out of the way of the car, saving her life and risking his own. Sammy thinks her dad is a hero, and Grace cries and tells Joey thank you.
How many times did I drink?
3
Uh, thanks?
The mugger immediately tells Joey: “I’m not going to force myself on you,” and while that’s good to know, it would be even better if it weren’t an option at all.
Gross
And he asks her if she’s a virgin. I don’t want to give the impression that this mugger isn’t awful. He’s pretty awful.
Special credits
“Downtown Crossing” has its own credits, set to ominous, wordless music, with names rolling across the screen alongside nighttime clouds. It’s cool.
Guess who
The mugger is played by Sam Ball, who’s been in a lot of TV and most notably had an arc on The Event.
Guess who x2
And his wife is played by Mercedes McNab, aka Harmony from Buffy!
That’s it for this week! I have a question for you, readers – do you remember “Downtown Crossing”? What do you think about this super unusual episode of Dawson’s Creek?
Meet me back here next Wednesday morning as we cover “In a Lonely Place” and “Highway to Hell.”
