Dawson's Creek - Season 3 Wrap-up

Season 3 Gang


We have finally come to the end of yet another season of Dawson's Creek and it's time to give my thoughts on the season as a whole. Last season I was pretty impressed with the storyline improvements and character developments but wondered what would happen to the show once the original creator handed off the reigns to someone else. The answer to that question is a confused fucking mess that ended in sheer brilliance. I say season 3 is my favourite but understand, I don't mean as a whole, I mean as a realization of the ship that I was die hard for since Double Date way back in season 1 that no one thought would ever be a thing and let me tell you, I was met with plenty a scoff when I brought up that I thought they'd make a cute couple. Well, who's scoffing now 15 year olds from my past? WHO'S SCOFFING NOW!?


Captain Holt is right, it's an incredible feeling


Ahem, so what I'm saying is that the season as a whole isn't my favourite but the main story thread absolutely is. I mean it delivered me my previously thought to be impossible ship, how could I not love it? However, there were some glaring problems and tonal shifts. For starters, they spent a lot of the first half building up Eve and playing with this whole film noire vibe. It ultimately failed and she was promptly written out and the storyline scrapped. Then we moved into this awkward kind of aimless block where Dawson attempts to be a filmmaker again and then loses his shit when he gets a bad reception at a showing. We move away from film noire drama to basic high school drama but an even more interesting thing happens this season, Dawson fades into the background and then emerges as the villain in his own show. So, let's break everything down by character arc again, shall we?

Jack McPhee

First up, Jack McPhee. If I can give this show credit for anything, it's being pretty good at handling a gay character. There was an effort here to present a normal and well-balanced look at the struggles a kid who is gay would go through in high school and, as much as I love Kurt, he wasn't portrayed as a stereotypical "bitchy effeminate gay-type", he was just Jack and he happened to be gay. I really liked that approach and the fact that they never tried to camp him up. In fact, they even had him join the football team this season which was a thing that most gay characters were not usually seen doing on TV. I can't speak from experience but at a time when gay representation was barely seen, if at all, the fact that Dawson's Creek chose to portray Jack like this was pretty revolutionary. Sure, it sometimes comes across like #notlikeothergays but they tried their best.

I also enjoyed them exploring his romantic side as again, most gay characters at the time were relegated to sexless best friend to main girl characters. It was very risky of them to try and introduce a love interest for him. Unfortunately for Jack, Ethan ended up being a douche. Very few characters get to be happy in a relationship on this show and Jack and Jen are often left wanting.

I have to say that the best arc this season for Jack was between him and his father. I started out the season hating Mr. McPhee with a passion and preemptively awarded him Worst Parent on Dawson's Creek because he asked Jack to stay with the Lindley's even though he came back to Capeside to help with Andie. He sucked and yet, by the end of the season, he absolutely turned my opinion of him around. I think the scenes between him and Kerr Smith were some of the best of the season. Extremely heartbreaking and softened me to rescind Mr. McPhee's Worst Parent trophy because he really doesn't deserve that title this season.

On a related note: I said that the actor who played Mr. McPhee died suddenly and he did just not when I thought. I remembered his last episode being this season but it was in fact, next season. David died suddenly in October of 2000 during the filming of the Stephen King miniseries Rose Red a thing that I almost forgot happened and was so pumped to see (though it turned out kind of bad). So we do get a few more awesome Jack and his dad scenes but still way too short-lived.

Andie McPhee

Moving on to our other McPhee, Andie was screwed over hard this season. I loved her last season and a part of me is kind of ticked that they torched her to make way for Pacey and Joey even though I'm a hardcore Pacephine shipper. I just didn't like the way they handled her. First, they had her cheat on Pacey which is just a crime and to top it off, they have her steal the answers to the PSAT to cheat and then they have her make a fake rape claim against Joey's douchey boss. Seriously, screw that entire plotline and the narrative that women lie for attention that it perpetuates. I hated it. I hated all of it. They thankfully tone her down after this but she mostly fades into the background and that's a shame. I think they could have done more with her and it definitely would have been nice if they developed hers, Jen's, and Joey's friendship a lot more. They then tried to give her a brief thing with another character but really they were just trying to get us to like him so that we'd watch his dumb spinoff Young Americans. Spoilers, no one watched it and I still haven't because although I was mildly curious a quick google search yielded only results dubbed in another language and I was too lazy to dig further and then got bored and forgot about it.

My main point is that Andie was done dirty this season and that's a really big shame considering how good she was in the second season. The writers seem to think that the girls only matter if they are linked with one of the guys and that's really sad. As much as I love my ship, I hate that it came at the expense of a great character. Andie is bubbly, sweet, smart and most of all, supportive and I am happy that they brought that back at the tail end of the season. As much as she was broken-hearted to see her first love with someone else, she wanted to see them happy and that says a lot about how great her character is (in spite of the shit the writers made her do this season).

Jen Lindley

How about we take a look at Jen's arc next. Jen is one of my favourite characters and while she had a lot of really great, shining, friend moments this season, I was mostly bored by her arc. She started off great, a sardonic, grungey teen with a chip on her shoulder. She didn't take bullshit from anyone and I really think this was a cool direction to take her after everything she went through in the second season. I love her friendship with Jack and how much they get each other and are there for each other. I also like that she got to confront her mother for her part in sending her to New York.

Ultimately, her arc this season turned out to be about love and that's nice and all but I found it mostly boring? Maybe some people liked it but I just found it mostly off-putting and that's due in large part to my own personal tastes and the fact that I could only see Henry as a serial killer from every other role I've seen him in. His eyes are creepy and he always looked like he was secretly plotting to murder her and eat her organs. But even putting my bias aside, I didn't really like the Henry character. There was way too much emphasis on his innocence and being younger than Jen and I don't know, that felt kind of gross and hollow. Also, Henry didn't seem very interested in learning about Jen and what she likes so much as doing generic grand gestures to make girls swoon. He bought her a ring one time and it was kind of ugly and also Jen never wears it so how much was it about her and not just "this is thing girls like so I get it for her" thinking? Ultimately, it's also hard to rewatch because I know how pointless this all turns out to be. I should feel the same with other relationships but Pacey and Andie were really interesting and it was so easy to get invested in them, despite knowing how they end. Henry and Jen are just boring and so it was harder to sit through. I'm much more excited for Jen's development next season because this, she was mostly just on the sidelines getting wooed by Henry and having a brief "no strings attached" thing with Pacey.

Pacey Witter

Speaking of, Pacey was the king this season and is a large part of why I love this season so much. It is very Pacey focused and that is a good thing for me. He's the hapless side kick at the beginning, running around and helping Dawson but slowly, he comes into his own again, pulling away from the douchey "get laid, Dawson" friend role and into super awesome supportive friend and hopelessly in love type. I dig that. I have a huge soft spot for unrequited love stories, I think a lot of us do. This season didn't give Pacey a whole lot to do and I think a lot of his really strong acting spots came from the beginning of the season and right at the very end. The middle, he was mostly relegated to staring longingly at Joey, which don't get me wrong, I'm all for that wish fulfillment/insert fantasy but it just didn't exercise Josh's acting talents too much.


Can I just say also that I really hated the kid storyline. Precocious Mouthy Kids are like my kryptonite. I hate them so much and it's almost always painful to sit through as a child actor tries their best to recite the words that are either way above them or with an edge they've never had. It's not their fault but it's a trope I cannot stand and it pops up a surprising amount in shows. So even though I love Pacey with a passion that is probably way too much for a fictional character, I really hated sitting through those plots with him and it contributed to making the middle of the season hard to watch. I mean, the beginning of the season was just balls to the wall crazy, strippers, noire, cheating, fake rape allegations, beating up bullies who deface paintings and then wham! We hit a wall of dull where he's babysitting a bratty kid. Pass.


Still, all of that was worth it for the end episodes of season 3 in which we got some solid drama and probably the best drama this show had ever achieved and will never achieve again. Pacey was the ideal boyfriend that any teen girl could have asked for, courteous, honest, vulnerable, strong, and romantic in all the ways Henry failed at. Henry stood on a rooftop and proclaimed his love for Jen while embarrassing her, Pacey supported Joey's causes and passions and bought her a damn wall so she could paint it because he was proud of her artistic abilities. That says a lot more about how much he cared for Joey than a meaningless gesture. Like, yeah, it's nice to get your girlfriend flowers but that's like the bare minimum of niceness. If you really want to impress your SO, support them in what they like or are passionate about or get them something they really enjoy, that tells them that you are listening and care about them. Have I ranted too much about Pacey? Is there such a thing? My point is that Pacey is the hero of season 3 and the one you really wanted to see succeed.

Joey Potter

Meanwhile, we have Joey who is honestly an MVP this season as well. If I were to hand out more awards for this show, she would receive Most Improved Character because holy cats, I reread some of what I wrote about her in the past and I was not kind. Somewhere down the line, the writers decided to soften Joey a lot and I think it really improved her. Yes, snarky Joey can be great but not when it's directed at everybody. They were very smart to save her snark for people who deserved it, like her douchey boss. Sure her douchey boss didn't rape Andie but he was sure as hell skeevy and gross for even wanting to date her or Joey in the first place, considering these were high school girls and he was 20 at the youngest. Ew. I like that she stood up for things that mattered to her this season. She was the first to stick up for Principal Green and lead a whole movement to prevent him from being fired and when Jack couldn't go to prom she instantly didn't want to go either out of solidarity. I mean, it was probably a good excuse for her to not go with Dawson but who can blame her for that? After all, we saw what happened when she did go with Dawson.


There's another thing. My feelings for Joey flip flop so much over the course of this show but even from when I first watched to now it's changed. Season 3 Joey is probably my favourite Joey and I always thought it was because she was like an avatar I could sink into and pretend Pacey was in love with me...uhhhh I mean because she was relatable. She was relatable, in a lot of ways but watching her now, with an adult perspective and with my own similar experience under my belt, I understood her and her decisions a hell of a lot better. There was a time when I was mad at Joey at the end of season 3 when she refused to pick Pacey because damnit, he's right there and Dawson sucks but putting myself in her shoes, actually experiencing a decision a lot like she had to, I just wanted to give her all the hugs. She just wanted to have her friends and was terrified that choosing Pacey meant losing everything else around her and I can sympathize with that. Everything feels bigger and harder when you're in it and then you look back and the choice should have been so clear but it's really hard to see when you're just a scared kid who is thrust into a situation they never asked to be in. Imagine, finding someone who you click with so much and who you really want to be with and feeling the happiest you've been in a long time and then someone who you care about and think of as your friend essentially threatens your friendship over it? Sure, now you can be like "what a douchetacular friend, good riddance!" But people can have strange holds over you that you don't even realize and can make you feel guilty for things you shouldn't feel guilty about and suddenly the light frothy feelings sink like stones to the pit of your stomach and no matter what you choose someone gets hurt. The worst part? In real life, your Dawson is never going to give you the permission you are hoping for like he did for Joey. This is essentially even more wish-fulfillment for me because it's a lot easier to make your choice when the person holding you back actually realizes they are doing so and feels bad about it enough to set you free. That's something that not a lot of people get.


Wow, I rambled a lot. Basically, Joey is muchly improved this season and I found myself liking and relating to her more than I ever did before. Usually, I liked Jen a lot better. Unfortunately, the writers started to like her a lot too and that had a bad effect on her but that's in due time. Right here and now? Joey is pretty great.

Dawson "Love-Killer" Leery

And now we get to Dawson. Last season, I didn't really have much to say about him and that was almost true of this season too. Dawson as a character always seems to walk around haplessly and react as things happen to him. He never goes out and pursues things, he's always just...there. Dawson had this goal of being more spontaneous or kid like this season but he never seems to really do it because then he'd be "bad". So, what do the writers do? They bring Eve in to force him to do exciting things. That way, when bad things happen, it's her fault and not Dawson's. I don't know if the writers intended that to be the message but it's right the hell there and it sucks. I was glad when they wrote her out, even if it meant the weird dropped storyline where she might be Jen's half sister or something, it wouldn't have been worth it. Her only relevance to the writers was "bad girl" and her only job was to seduce Dawson. It didn't work because Dawson has no sex appeal. I'm sorry, he doesn't. James has grown up very nice but as Dawson, he's a void of charisma.


The next story they had Dawson embark on was his filmmaking career again. Something they always have him do at least once a season to more and more underwhelming results. This season his masterpiece is a Blaire Witch rip-off which rightly got panned. Did he persevere and better himself? No, he sulked off to his little room and had an identity crisis. I'm being too mean, aren't I? I'm sorry, I get it, he's a teen and his work got panned for the first...second time in his life and it's valid that it hurts but he pretty much just gives up on filmmaking rather than looking at or admitting that his idea was pretty underwhelming as anything other than a high school project.


The only arc of his I liked was his interest in Nikki Wood. I liked their dynamic, I like that she gave him a run for his money and was actually good but I dislike the way they just dropped it. Nikki was a good character, unlike Eve and I was sorry to see her be shoved into the realm of forgotten side characters with Cliff, Nelly and Belinda. What I would've liked to have seen was him working on one of her movie shoots and starting to learn some stuff rather than him just thinking he rules all the time. Alas, we had to get rid of her to maximize the ultimate drama: The Pacey/Joey/Dawson love triangle.


Oh, the love triangle. I don't think it's any secret if you've been reading my blog or my previous one for any length of time that I detest Dawson Leery to, again, an uncomfortable degree for a fictional character. In Pokémon Let's Go (yes I play Pokémon, shut up!) I named my rival Dawson Leery, just so I could beat him. I don't care that they pretend your rival is your friend now, he's a rival to me and he sucks. Anyway, my point is that another reason season 3 is my favourite is because the writers seemed to agree with me that Dawson sucked. So much so that he ended up the villain of his own show. Imagine that. Just imagine being a Dawson fan, if such a thing exists, and watching this show for three seasons and then suddenly your favourite has become the villain, the obstacle keeping the main love interests apart, pulling gross manipulation tactics on his friend, pretending to be her friend so that he could wear her down and make her love him again. It's fucking impressive to pull a stunt like that on your audience especially since, at that time I know for a fact there were a lot of Dawson fans, at least in my school. Most of the people I talked to were pissed at this whole scenario and couldn't believe Joey wanted to be with Pacey over her *gag* soul mate. They didn't believe me and then, The Longest Day hit and suddenly, people turned on Dawson hard. He had some people rooting for him, sure. Holding out hope that he was just angry and hurt and lashing out but then The Anti-Prom hit and it was like no...no he's the bad guy. He's the douche in every teen rom com that treats the girl like garbage until she finally realizes she has a true knight in shining armour in the goofy oddball guy. Yeah, Dawson is Biff Tannen in Back to the Future. He is Steff in Pretty in Pink. He is motherflipping Paul Walker in She's All That (yeah, I can't be bothered to remember that character's name, sorry.) My point is, he's the jerk that the girl does not end up with because she either knows better or found a way better guy. In this case, I like to think Joey realized both but then again she still wants to be friends with him for some damn reason next season so what do I know.


My point is that while Joey evolved into a better character, Dawson devolved dramatically. To the point that I wonder if the writers decided to intentionally tank his character as some jab at Kevin Willaimson but that's just my speculation. I got really curious though so I looked up Kevin Williamson and I found this really interesting answer about Josh and Katie's chemistry WICH JUST GIVES ME EVEN MORE VINDICATION I CAN'T EVEN!



KW: During season one's "Science Project." Joey and Pacey were paired to do the science project and they had to go and collect samples. They got wet and had to take their clothes off in the truck and there was that very uncomfortable moment where you could just see how she peeked at him and he peeked at her. They were so nervous with each other. They had instant chemistry. [Laughs.] We all saw that and we were like, "OK, uh, [do we pair them up in] season three? Season two?!" The show was about the soul mate question of Dawson and Joey. We saw that chemistry between Katie and Josh and decided it would be the thing that breaks up Dawson and Joey and that it would come between Dawson and Pacey's friendship. We wanted to be very careful not to sacrifice our characters. If the audience had turned against Joey or Pacey, I would have died. We had to be careful about when we did it.



Uh, yeah, who has two thumbs and was right about their chemistry all along?? THIS GIRL! Also, note how he's worried about people turning against Joey and Pacey. No one gives a crap about Dawson, not even the man who inspired him. That's amazing. But another enlightening thing I didn't know was that Kevin is gay, so in a way, he's more like the Jack character which makes me like him more and makes a hell of a lot of sense that Jack was written so well at the time. Also, can I just share another quote I love from this article? Here's what Kevin had to say on storylines he didn't like:



KW: I didn't like the ones I wasn't a part of! [Laughs.] I don't want to dismiss anyone's work but if we're being blatantly honest I wasn't a big fan of Eve (Brittany Daniel) in season three. And I wasn't thrilled with the way Andie left the show because I really loved that character when she first came on. And by the time she left, everyone hated her. I didn't think the audience needed to turn against her the way they did. That's why I wanted to bring her back for the series finale and we did — we just ran long and had to cut it.



He's completely not wrong and I love that he hated Eve as much as well, I think everyone did. And I want to echo his dislike of how Andie was handled. She was a great character and deserved better than what the writers did to her. I personally think she could have easily still fit in but I guess they wanted to cycle in some new blood. But...did you notice that he didn't bring up how Dawson became the villain? I mean, I'm just saying, he had a prime opportunity to disavow and chose not to because Dawson sucks! Nah, he's apparently a Dawson/Joey forever guy even though he wrote the series finale and conceded that Joey and Pacey felt more right. Kevin liked Dawson just fine, he liked all of his characters and I can't blame him, they're all a part of him after all.


That concludes season 3 of Dawson's Creek. As much as Eve dragged down the beginning of this season I really think this was the strongest the show has ever been. More of the episodes stood out to me and it honestly delivered the greatest drama from a teen show with Pacey/Joey/Dawson. I do hate that they destroyed Andie to do it but in the end, I got this:


And I will always love it

Next up is season 4 and I've got to say...asides from a couple episodes, I'm not super stoked. I remember season 4 being a bit of a drab slog to get through but get through it we shall because the college years are after and they are something else. Stay tuned.

Comments

  1. TAKE THAT, SCOFFERS.

    Also I am dying at "If the audience had turned against Joey or Pacey, I would have died. We had to be careful about when we did it," while not giving two shits if the audience turned against resident villain Dawson Leery.

    Great season summary!

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    Replies
    1. I seriously want to rub that interview in the faces of every person that treated me like I was crazy that I shipped Pacey and Joey after Double Date but I imagine it would end up a lot like June trying to get her friends to help her convince James to do a DC reboot and they were all like "uhh, you still care about that?" YES I DO BECAUSE I WAS RIGHT AND YOU WERE WRONG!!!

      And yes, I love that he was so worried about people turning on Pacey and Joey that they may have inadvertently leaned too hard and ruined Dawson without actually realizing it? That makes it funnier to me. I like his reasoning that there are different kinds of loves and that Dawson and Joey are kind of together because they remain soul mates as friends because your friend can be your soul mate. It's just that Dawson sucks and is a terrible friend and I don't think any of the writers, Kevin included see that.

      Take Dawson's relationship with his supposed best friend, Pacey. He's constantly shitting on Pacey to prop himself up. I really think he views Pacey more as a rival than a friend or at least a competitor and one that Dawson needs to win against in order to reaffirm his awesomeness. It's why he gets so unrelentlessly angry that Pacey could outshine him in any way. Like doing well on the PSATs (so he assumes that Pacey must have stolen the test as it's the only way he could do well in Dawson's eyes) or when Pacey was getting attention from girls and he was scared Jen would like him better and he hurled a basketball at his face. The stuff he said to Pacey when he found out Joey and him liked each other, was really gross and not things you should be thinking of your friend. Like he accused Pacey of using Joey for sex...since when does Pacey do that? His teacher abused him and he and Jen agreed to use each other mutually and never went through with it. Other than that, Pacey was in an extremely committed and loving relationship with Andie. I'm rambling aren't I? I have a lot of feels about this season and this dynamic between Dawson and Pacey. Just, Dawson sucks and is a terrible friend.

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    2. That's a really good point, about how he viewed Pacey, how his main need for Pacey was to make him feel better about himself. And it's interesting, because that's often how media portrays female relationships, as inherently competitive and resentful. And while it's true that I've been stuck in situations like that with friends before, where I realized they only wanted me around to feel better about themselves, I also know that I did an all female R&G and that rehearsal room was THE MOST supportive and complimentary environment ever.

      tl;dr Dawson is a shit. You are an awesome.

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