Dawson's Creek - 323 - True Love

Original airdate: May 24, 2000

We made it! It's the last episode of season 3 and what a long and winding journey this has been but we're finally here. Will Joey and Pacey finally get together and defeat Love-killer aka Dawson? Let's find out.

The episode opens with Dawson and Mitch running into Joey and Gail because apparently neither of them have lives outside of these kids and they are going to be his parents' best man and maid of honour respectively. That's really weird. Joey is actually still talking Dawson after what an asshole he was to her at the anti-prom. I'm honestly flabbergasted that the writers thought this was a good and normal thing for her to be doing after that. I think we're supposed to go with that Joey is just as excited that her surrogate parents are getting back together that she's forgotten Dawson sucks but it still doesn't wash to me. Still, she looks pretty uncomfortable around him while he's strutting around like everything's cool. You know it isn't Dawson.

Joey bemoans the ugliness of bridesmaids dresses but spoilers, hers is really normal looking and pretty cute. Dawson thinks she'll look amazing and this is where Joey gets super uncomfortable and shoots him a look. Bitch, she's told you how many times that she just wants to be friends? Here's the thing, Dawson not only ignored her for most of the season but got ragey possessive and jealous the second he found out that his friends liked each other. Not only that but he seemed to think that after throwing a huge baby tantrum all over his friends for daring to have feelings for each other that were not previously discussed with him, Joey would magically fall in love with him again. That's gross. He strong-armed two people apart and is pouty for not being rewarded for it.

Joey gets the hell out of there as quickly as she can because Dawson made everything weird for her and she's not over her feelings for Pacey, you jerk. Dawson is sad but I don't care because he's the worst.

The WORST

Doug is helping Pacey with his boat and questioning his decision to go away for the summer. He warns Pacey that he can't run from his problems and is concerned that he hasn't told Joey how he feels. Doug...just a few episodes ago you were discouraging Pacey from pursuing this because Pacey would end up alone or some junk. Why do you care about his feelings now?

Jen is cleaning out her locker with Jack when Henry appears. Like a child, Jen asks Jack to talk for him but he refuses. Henry tries to approach her but she frosts him out so Henry also tries to enlist Jack to talk for him. Jack says no.

Jack ends up fighting for them anyway by translating their argument over a book Henry is supposedly looking for but actually wants a second chance. I side-eye Jack for calling Jen a drama-queen. I mean, she did way over flip out but I think she has every right to be mad that Henry planned to be away for the whole summer without telling her. However, Henry apologizes and Jen tramples on his poor heart and honestly? I can't get past how creeped out I am by Henry to feel sorry for him. I want to, Jen was overly harsh to him but all I could do during this scene was feel horribly uncomfortable and tell Jen to be careful what she says because he will absolutely kill her in her sleep for not taking him back.

That is the face of a man plotting where to bury her body
Run Jen!

Andie appears at Dawson's house to get her yearbook signed but also to push him to make amends with Pacey. She even marked a picture of the two of them for Dawson to sign but he's not really having it. Andie lets him know that Pacey is leaving on a trip for the summer and that they're going to have a party for him. Dawson refuses because his parents' rehearsal dinner is that night and even if it wasn't, he wouldn't go. He's needlessly harsh to poor Andie too. He even pulls a dick move and signed on the page with the faculty pictures. Why would you do that to your friend, Dawson? You're the worst. Andie tries one last time with Dawson by appealing to their mutual hurt and that he should let go of the pain and forgive. She then thanks him for his shitty signature because Andie is an actual nice person.

Joey gets pulled over by none other than Deputy Doug who goes through with the entire charade, asking for her licence and registration and telling her she was going below the posted speed limit. Joey promises to be careful and Doug finally tells her that Pacey is going to be leaving for the summer by sailing down to the Florida Keys. He wanted to let her know before it was too late for her to do anything and she thanks him.

We cut to Pacey coming out of a grocery store, presumably with provisions for his trip. Joey is waiting for him to scold him for leaving town. She accuses him of running away and he says that he just doesn't want to spend his summer watching her and Dawson work on their relationship from afar. Joey then complains that he wasn't going to say goodbye and Pacey admits it's because he's played it out in his head a dozen times but he never gets what he came for. She asks what that is and he says that he wants her to ask him to stay. Joey claims it's not her decision to make but Pacey says it is and always has been. It's always been her indecision that's kept them apart (so true). She says she asked for time and Pacey says he's giving it to her, three months of it. Joey accuses him of giving up and he retorts that she gives up to, case in point, her unfinished wall that he bought her. They split up in anger.

Later, Joey is standing at the rehearsal as Gail and Mitch rush the preacher through it because they've been there/done that and are really just doing this for the party. I mean, I infer that because they're more worried about their dinner guests arriving and really, this is a renewal and they have done it before. Joey is scowling the whole way through and I completely feel that. She is in the presence of Leerys, after all.

Joey is all of us

Dawson tries to ask Joey for advice on his best man speech and Joey is completely uncomfortable with that idea because she doesn't feel like she has great relationship advice these days. Dawson responds by snippily asking her if she has someplace else she'd rather be, namely Pacey's going away party. Joey puts on a fake smile and says she's here but Dawson is unhappy with only having her body here and like, what did he think would happen when he held their relationship for ransom and forced her to ignore her feelings for someone else to keep their friendship? Seriously, what? This episode wants me to feel really bad for Dawson and I just don't. He's reaping what he sowed. He's also the villain and no one can change my mind.


To further prove my point, he gets mad at her for not enjoying being with him and she tells him that she's doing the best she can. She asks him to cut her some slack and he throws that back at her saying that she shouldn't make him feel like she's stuck with him. Hey Dawson? If you don't want people to feel stuck with you, maybe don't trample on their feelings and give them friendship ultimatums? Maybe try that? He claims he doesn't deserve it but he so does, however Joey agrees with him and apologizes. He tells her to just go but she's adamant that she's staying.

At Pacey's party, everyone is there but Dawson and Joey. Grams is even there and it's sweet. The kids are complaining about their lack of love lives and Grams tells them the saucy story of how she kissed a boy with beautiful blue eyes and surprise, it wasn't Jen's Gramps. Grams has no regrets and this makes the teens feel even worse about their own love lives but it also inspires them to do something about it.

Dawson is looking for Joey at his parents' rehearsal dinner but she's out sulking by the dock. He goes out to her and they both agree they don't want to fight. Joey apologizes again which annoys me but then she uses her words for once! She admits that she broke things off with Pacey because she didn't want to lose her friendship with Dawson because they've spent all their lives together and it means a lot to her that she can call the Leery home her home as well. She then says that if she thought he wouldn't be a butthurt whiny baby about everything, she wouldn't have broken things off with Pacey, my wording, not hers.

Jen says that she wishes she hadn't let Henry go without telling him how she really feels. I personally think she dodged a bullet and should keep him away forever but Grams thinks she should do something about it. After an awkward transition to a stunt driver who pulls a u-turn, Grams ADR tells us over this atrocious footage that they're going after Henry. My words aren't doing this scene justice, it's an absolute trainwreck of a scene. The ADR voices do not register the crazy U-turn at all and the turn itself is pretty lack luster. It's just *chef's kiss* so bad.

Joey is walking out of the store on her way home because Bessie asked her to pick up orange juice. She sees her unfinished wall now has the words ASK ME TO STAY painted over it. Pacey walks out and reveals that he called Bessie who came up with the juice pretense to get her there. Joey is not too bright and asks what this means. Pacey says he's not ready to give up on her but he needs to know that she's not ready to give up on him. Hence the very straight forward message on the wall. He says he spent an hour and a half just staring at the unfinished wall the other day so he figures, now it's her turn and leaves her alone with his heartfelt words. Choose him, Joey!! Kiss him!

Yes, I'm the desperate sexually deprived friend from
Girl Next Door in this scenario

Next day is the wedding where Mitch and Gail swear to not be awful to each other anymore. I'm bored, this is boring. Get back to Pacephine! Joey is happy but also sad while watching the service. Pacey has shown up to the wedding, much to Dawson's annoyance. Curses! How dare he remind Joey how much better he is than me!

Grams is still driving and has finally found the bus. Jen gets out and starts shouting for Henry until she finally finds him and runs up to give him a publicly way too much information speech in front of everyone and outs him as a virgin. She then kisses him so I guess they're made up for now. Spoilers, this does not last, I'm pretty sure Henry ends up in jail for killing a bunch of women. True facts.

Back at the wedding, Joey talks to Pacey. He asks her for her decision but she can't give him a reason to stay. Pacey says that is her answer. Joey looks a bit upset and while I agree with Pacey that she kind of did make her decision, I can say for certain that even if being too scared to make the decision you want is a decision in and of itself, it still sucks and will haunt you for the rest of your life because it's not the decision you really wanted to make. Being scared and put in a position where you have to worry about hurting a bunch of people suuuuuuuuuuucks. Hugs for Joey.

Also, Katie's acting in this scene is so fucking good. I never gave Katie her dues before because I didn't think she was that great but damn it, she's nailing this. Dawson interrupts them and Joey nervously takes the camera from him so she can go and take pictures to escape the awkwardness when Pacey asks if he even gets a goodbye. Katie, as Joey, has this frightened look on her face and her eyes shift to Dawson as if she's scared to show how hurt she is at Pacey's leaving in front of Dawson. It's a brilliant little detail that not a lot of actors would do and I think it really drives home my point about Dawson being a murderer of love.




Henry murders women, Dawson murders love
#TrueFacts

Once Joey leaves, Dawson asks Pacey what the hell he's doing here. Pacey is here for the wedding and Dawson coldly says he'll pass on the congrats to his parents. Pacey congratulates Dawson on winning the war over Joey because he got exactly what he wanted. They both agree that things will never be the same between them. It sucks because Pacey still wants to be friends but Dawson is an immature butt-monkey.

Jen is happy but embarrassed with how she got back with Henry. She then suggests that Jack seize his own day and go after Ethan. So they all drive to Ethan.

Back at the wedding Dawson claims he used to be able to look into Joey's eyes and know exactly what she's thinking but now he has no clue. I'd argue he never knew what she was thinking because he never bothered to actually get to know her outside of her connection with him. He only ever sees her as his friend, his soulmate, his girlfriend and he's never really seen her as herself. Joey tries to tell him that she's thinking about everything they can do over the summer together but she sounds on the verge of tears as she's saying all the fun stuff they can do together because she really wants to be with Pacey.

Jack tries to pull the same move as Jen did with Henry on Ethan. It does not go well. Surprise, Ethan is either back together with his boyfriend or...always had a boyfriend. The show says that he got back together but this is the same actor that played Parker on Buffy and honestly, he just oozes sleazeball to me so I always read it as they never really were broken up or he really mislead Jack on the nature of the "break". Anyway, he sucks and Jack does not get a happy reunion.

Dawson gives a really boring best man speech but I'm super biased because I dislike Dawson and find his parents' drama boring at this point. Love means you can forgive anything apparently, even cheating, demanding an open relationship to get revenge sex, and just being awful in general.

Joey asks Dawson if he really meant what he said and he said he did and tells her to go to Pacey. She looks super confused. Dawson has finally realized that he's been holding Joey back, first with the Paris trip and now with Pacey. Dawson says that she has to go to him because he can tell her that it's a colossal mistake and that all roads lead back to him but she has to see for herself. I just LOVE that he's treating this as if he's giving her permission because he knows they are going to be together eventually. No, scratch that. I hate it with the passion of a thousand burning suns. He wants her to be happy but Joey doesn't know what she wants. Dawson says that he won't stand in the way of her happiness anymore and tells her that she's free. The writers really actually made him say that so I'm now convinced they viewed him as the villain too. I fully believe this is canon.

He tells her to go before he changes her mind and then she runs like hell and leaves us with the most iconic image of the show:

Mmm! Dawson, your tears are so yummy!

Cut to Jack back at home where...holy shit! They managed to film one last scene with Jack's father. I really thought that last time was his last episode but he got one more scene and it's actually super beautiful. Jack is upset over Ethan and he lashes out at his father who has done a complete 180 since the start of his arc. He comforts Jack and it's the sweetest thing ever, saying that he's glad that Jack is his son. It's all I ever wanted for Jack and it makes me even sadder that we won't see his father again.

Farewell Jack's dad, you truly redeemed yourself

Jen, Andie and Jack have turned up in Dawson's room to watch movies and cheer him up. Dawson wants to be by himself but they refuse to leave him alone. These are all great friends but I maintain that Dawson does not deserve them.

Meanwhile, Joey has run down to the dock to find Pacey. Pacey doesn't want to hear what she has to say which is fair since she's rejected him numerous times already. Joey tells him how much he has challenged her and been by her side every day but still he's not getting it. She finally says that she thinks she's in love with him and then that she knows she is. She's scared but she doesn't want to run from her feelings anymore. Pacey asks what she wants to do but instead of asking him to stay, she says she wants to go with him. Then we get perfection.

All aboard the S.S. Pacephine! She's finally sailing!

My only gripe is that he doesn't let her go home and get some clothes together or since Joey obviously went home to change out of her wedding clothes, didn't grab a quick bag herself but I guess they wanted us to be surprised by her impulse to go with him instead of stay behind in Capeside, right up to the end. Still, she could have said all this and then gone back to her truck to get her bag, like "I was prepared" and it still would have worked and kept us in suspense. But really, who cares?

Look how happy she is!

And that is the end of the wonderful season 3 which is honestly my favourite of the entire series thanks, in large part to the Pacephine arc. I'll talk more about my thoughts on this season in the season 3 wrap up post. Until then, stay tuned for season 4! One year closer to the magnificently awful college years.