Dawson's Creek - 523 - Swan Song

 Original air date: May 15, 2002

Ok, I am running on fumes at the moment and I think I'm going to admit defeat in that I won't get the wrap up done this year but I am going to finish off the fifth season before 2021 because...I don't know, reasons. Setting a goal for myself so it feels like I accomplished something? Sure, let's go with that. I keep wanting to wax poetic about this season and how much has changed but stop myself because that's for the wrap up and we've got one episode left to go so without further ado, let's get to it.

We open the episode with Dawson at the airport looking at the arrivals/departures board. He's chatting on the phone to Oliver about their big opportunity that they're both excited for. He spots Joey in the distance and she sees him too and smiles. At first, it seems like this is picking up from last episode and I thought she'd like come to the airport to see Dawson off and they're just doing the weird hypothetical banter about it having been five years since they saw each other like they do sometimes but then Joey gets a call from someone she first identifies as a boyfriend and then says is her fiancé. Then I panicked because I remembered that Joey does indeed have a serious boyfriend in the series finale and thought I'd somehow managed to put that in, especially when Dawson mentions he's in town because his mother got remarried but then I realized he said it like past tense and it hit me that this is obviously a dream but also, that's super neat that they revisited this stuff from his dream in the actual finale. It becomes clear to me that this is a dream when Joey just annihilates Dawson by telling him he's a sad pathetic loser for not getting over her because he had his chance and blew it. Dawson wakes up from my dream and his nightmare and we cut to commercial. I fucking love it.

Any day I get to use this gif is a very good day

When we come back, Audrey is still trying to convince Joey to come to LA with her but Joey seems to be working at the Capeside Yacht Club again. Audrey tries to tempt her with going to Fred Segal which Google tells me is a fancy clothing store on Sunset Boulevard. I am not a fashion person, sue me. Joey is committed though and Audrey relents asking Joey to promise not to completely revert to her bookish prude self from the beginning of the year. Pacey joins them and Audrey promptly leaves. Joey thinks Pacey should talk to her since she leaves tomorrow but he's tried and she refuses to talk to him. Joey asks why he's wearing a security outfit and Pacey reveals that he's Capeside Yacht Club's newest security guard so he's going to be working there the whole summer. Folks, you have absolutely no idea how excited young me got when I first saw this scene. Pacey had just been dumped by Audrey, Joey wasn't seeing anyone, now they're working together? I was so fucking sure that the end of this episode would see them maybe getting together or hinting at getting together next season and I was pumped. I'm here to tell you now, to brace yourselves for disappointment if you were like me and thought this meant the return of Pacephine.

Dawson is trying to get Lily to talk because he doesn't want to miss her first word. Gail tells him not to feel guilty at all and is very proud of him. She asks if he's said goodbye to Joey and when he says they're having dinner tonight, she asks if it's a date. It's not because Audrey is there and that he doesn't have anything to say anyway. Gail doesn't buy that for a second. 

Jen is saying goodbye to her radio audience when Jack comes up and shares the good news that he passed his classes, barely. With 4 Cs and a D. He's happy they can go to Costa Rico in peace. He asks her if she's sure she wants to go with him and miss out on her parents because he's worried she'll hold it against him in 10 years. Jen says she absolutely won't and so he gives her Moby Dick for the flight. Jen says she likes to chat but Jack likes to sleep so he got her the longest book he could find.

At Leery's Fresh Fish, (that name will never not gross me out and I don't even know why it grosses me out), Dawson, Joey, and Audrey are done eating and walk out. Audrey says she wants to stock up on some CDs for the flight but also because she knows they're going to want to talk in private. She scurries off to leave these two alone. Dawson asks Joey to promise him that she'll never marry a lawyer and Joey jokes that she might date one that uses his powers for good, like saving children or the environment and oops, in the dream, Joey was engaged to an environmental lawyer so Dawson quickly changes the subject. Joey comments on how saying goodbye last year felt epic and dramatic like they were never going to see each other again but then he showed up at her door three months later. Joey asks if he regrets it but he doesn't and she confirms that she doesn't as well. Joey asks why he came to Florida but Dawson doesn't think she wants to hear it but he relents and says that he went to tell her he loved her. Joey asks why he didn't say something and he says that when he got there, she was with someone else and he didn't think it was fair to mess up her life because he finally saw the light. He reveals that seeing her present to Lily made him see how amazing she is and that he hates it when she's not around. Joey is worried that Dawson uses her like a safety blanket, something to run to when the world gets scary and I know that the writers are just trying to make her nervous and intend for us to not see this as true but 100% they both absolutely use each other this way. Joey had a chance to go to Paris and she instead chose to stay with Dawson. She would have only been gone for a few months, I think four? And they acted like it was this huge deal and that she would be gone forever. Then Dawson gets his dream of going to film school in LA and bails at the first sign of difficulty to go back to Joey. These two aren't good for each other. Dawson leans in to kiss her but she turns her head away and says she can't do this and runs off.

REJECTED!

Outside the Potter B&B, Dawson pulls up and puts a letter into the mailbox. Audrey and Joey come out with all of Audrey's things and they say their goodbyes. Audrey tells Joey that this was the best year of her life and Joey agrees. I really like them as friends and I hate that they ruined it by pairing Audrey with Pacey. This episode felt like it was fixing a lot of the things it had messed up in the last few episodes. Joey is rejecting Dawson, Pacey is working with Joey all summer, Jen and Jack are friends again, Audrey and Pacey are done. It just feels like everything is getting back to a good place and I'm worried that the rug is going to be pulled and I'll be mad again. 

Pacey is walking along the docks and comes across a boat that is playing loud music. He calls to them to turn it down a bit and we find out that the occupant is none other than Danny Brecher, his old boss/mentor. Pacey is understandably not as excited to see him as he is to see Pacey. A woman comes out of the boat that is not his wife and Brecher gets her name wrong much like Pacey did to Gina/Rina. Somewhere along the way, the writers lost sight of the fact that Pacey is not a fuck up, everyone around him just puts him in that box and it's unfair. They are now just trying to make us see Pacey as an actual fuck up what with comparing him to an unfaithful douchebag and having him pseudo cheat on Audrey with his boss. I don't want to say cheat because she was sexually harassing him but on the other hand, he wasn't really trying to put a stop to it and it's confusing because he seemed to both want Alex and not want Alex. My point is, this is not Pacey's character. He is not a cheater, he is a hopeless romantic. Even with Tamara, a relationship I hated to my very core, he had delusions of them ending up together, he was smitten. He wasn't using her, Tamara was using him. He cared about Jen too even though they were only trying to do a friends with benefits thing and he had two extremely committed relationships with Andie and Joey respectively. He is monogamous as shit. I don't get this rebranding at all. Anyway, Brecher asks for a hug and then runs back to his new girlfriend and I'm just pissed at the treatment they're giving Pacey.

On the plus side, Pacey looks good in a uniform
(but ACAB)

Jack and Jen are bolting through the airport Home Alone style because they think they're late and going to miss their flight but oops, their flight is delayed. They also spot Audrey and Dawson there who are also waiting for their flight. They sit together in silence when Jack sees Eric coming towards them. Jen sees as well and ushers the others to get food, telling Jack to stay behind. 

Jack asks Eric what he's doing here and it turns out he's already been out to his parents and just got back. He wanted to tell them about being gay but chickened out so he's going to hang around Boston for the summer. Jack tells him he's going to Costa Rico with Jen and Eric looks a little disappointed. It's clear he's got a thing for Jack. He asks if Jack wants company but Jack can't read the room and tells him his friends are waiting for him so they part ways instead.

Joey comes out of the B&B just as Bessie gets home with groceries. Joey is anxious to take the truck because she's late for work and dramas about how she shouldn't delay the inevitable because she's doomed to work the service industry for the rest of her life or something. Bessie mocks her for being a drama queen because for real, why is she acting like she's doomed to this life? She literally got into the best college in Boston, in this show's universe anyway. It's not like she's not going back. Bessie asks if she got the mail but she didn't and doesn't want to grab it because she has to get to work. Oops, Dawson's letter is sitting in there unopened. 

Speaking of Dawson, he is in an airport convenience store when he bumps into Grams. She is sneaking off for a little getaway of her own to Las Vegas with Mr. Clifton Smalls. My immediate thought is that Grams is going to do a Vegas wedding and I wish so hard I could see that trip. This is cemented when she tells Dawson not to tell Jen. Dawson says goodbye and thanks Grams for everything she did for him and she thanks him for making Jen so happy. He tells her she could say goodbye as the gang is just around the corner but Grams doesn't want Jen to think she's doing one last grand gesture to get her to change her mind. Dawson asks about what and Grams says her parents but we cut to commercial because we don't need to be filled in, only Dawson does.

Bessie stops by the Yacht Club and Joey freaks out until she's assured it's not an emergency. Joey apologizes for being short with her earlier and Bessie brushes it aside because she understands and says it's not the same here without her. She also says she's changed so much and shows her a passport to show that she's even changed physically. Joey is stunned but Bessie reminds her and us that she was going to go to France and got the paperwork. Joey never sent it in but Bessie did. Passports do last for 5 years but it's weird that she'd only show Joey this now. This and other call backs to the first season make this feel like a series finale. I think this show was definitely in danger of being cancelled because high school shows always drop off in watchers once they go to college. Bessie clarifies that if Joey came back because she thought they needed her to, they don't which seems to be encouragement for Joey to travel. She then gives Joey the letter from Dawson. 

Dawson and Jen are talking about her parents. Dawson is pushing her to go and fix her relationship with them and I know this is framed as him doing the right thing but I kind of hate it? This is Jen's thing to figure out and if she's not ready, she shouldn't be made to feel guilty about it. Her parents fucked her up and they might be trying to fix things but they are not owed her forgiveness just because they demand it. I don't like this narrative but I get that it seems like they want to tie up all loose ends. Jen is not so sure she wants to but Dawson asks her to just lie and say she'll think about it so she says she'll think about it.

Jen and Jack are now talking and he's having second thoughts about sending Eric away. He feels bad and wants to help him through his hesitation to come out. Jen agrees that he should and he asks her to come with him but she refuses because she thinks she needs to help herself. So, I guess she's going to see her parents this summer but I wish it wasn't framed in a way that made it seem like Jen was in the wrong to be cautious about opening up to her parents again. Her parents fucked up something fierce. 

Dawson bumps into the weird film director from the very first episode of this season who fired him for spilling coffee because this airport is magical and everyone is there at the same time, I guess. He asks if he crapped all over Dawson's Hollywood dreams and Dawson retorts that the film critics crapped harder on the stupid movie he was making. The guy is impressed that Dawson still has balls and says that his speech kept him up a few nights and then invites Dawson to look him up when he gets to LA. 

Pacey walks up to Joey at the Yacht Club. She's reading the letter that Dawson wrote to her and they start talking. Joey is in awe of how adult Pacey acts and is jealous of his ability to always look forward. She then dresses him down by saying he's pig headed and needs more self-esteem to which he agrees. They talk about Audrey and how much he misses her while acknowledging that it's a weird conversation for last year's class couple to have. It is, so instead, forget Audrey and kiss!!! Instead of listening to me, Joey suggests they go to the airport to confess their feelings to the wrong people.

You love each other, we all know it!

Joey and Pacey arrive at the airport, it's good that the flights were delayed otherwise this all would be extremely pointless. She offers to buy the tickets if Pacey can find a way to stall for time or something but Pacey wants to try a different way. So, Joey is off to buy her ticket.

Jen is trying to buy a plane ticket for New York but there are only first class tickets available so Jen relents and spends way too much money. I'm happy for her though, if this is what she wants. This little interlude is also to set up a little joke later. She takes her ticket and then sees Joey standing in line. They chat about the fact that Jen is now going to New York and she thanks Dawson for that. This leads Jen to assume Joey is here for Dawson and then she apologizes to Joey for everything this year but I really don't think Jen's the one that owes the apology. Like, she fell for Dawson, why is that bad? Joey intentionally went after a guy that shattered Jen's self-esteem and heart just to get revenge for getting between her and Dawson but like, Dawson rejected Joey. Let's not forget that he shut that down and went for Jen. But Joey is perfect and doesn't need to apologize but she at least makes it clear that Jen doesn't need to either and asks for a hug. Then Jen says she loves Joey and Joey says it back and I'm sure this sent the Jen/Joey shippers hearts aflutter. 

This even made my heart flutter.
Team anyone for Joey but Dawson

Audrey and Dawson are waiting to board their flight when she's called to a courtesy phone. She tells Dawson not to get on the flight without her and then picks up the phone. It's Pacey and he apologizes and asks if she'll come down to talk. She thinks that's lazy behaviour and hangs up which is fair. Pacey hangs up and rushes to the security office. He begs to use the intercom and the guy tells him to buy a ticket and stop her at the gate like a good rom com boyfriend. Pacey doesn't have the money for a ticket though and the security guard asks him how much he does have so Pacey bribes the guy to use the intercom. He makes this long speech that honestly does nothing for me but it's nice. Pacey a class act, except that he bizarrely ends the romantic plea with "free the West Memphis Three" which was a really big case in the 90s.  I've added a link to the Wikipedia article, if you want to read up on it. I dig that Pacey is progressive as fuck. 

Joey gets up to the ticket booth and asks for a ticket but the guy's like, you need to tell me where. She wants the cheapest place and asks for Milwaukee but the clerk tells her that's boring. Joey changes her mind and says Paris which the clerk is much more pleased with and says there's a special. Joey just wants the damn ticket.

Audrey meets Pacey outside and asks him what's to happen next. He tells her that they're driving to California so she asks what will happen if some older broad hits on him. Pacey says he'll kick her to the curb which seems to satisfy Audrey but like, that feels like a hollow reading of what happened. He willingly inserted himself into the life of a woman who was clearly hitting on him and taking advantage of the boss/employee dynamic after having just made a commitment with Audrey to be boyfriend and girlfriend. I'd say trust is the issue here and whether or not he's truly into it with Audrey but whatever. She tells him he's lucky that she kind of loves him and when he makes a stink about the kind of part, she says that it's a long way to California and they can work on it.

Joey finds Dawson and she takes him to task for telling her goodbye. She rejected his kiss because she was scared of going backwards but she realizes that he's a big part of her life and he makes it better, not worse. I don't agree but this is Joey's moment. He asks her to come with him but she can't and won't because California is his dream and not hers. If they mean something to each other then they'll be fine and she kisses him. He doesn't want to get on the plane now but she insists he will and will make lots of movies. His life awaits and he tells her that hers does too before getting on the plane.

Jen is in first class when the director sits down in the seat next to her. You see, the comment about her having to sit in first class was to explain how she'd end up sitting next to a big wig director for a weird exchange where he tries to hit on her and then she says that his movie sucked. I don't know that it was worth it but it certainly happened.

We get a quiet scene of Jack and Eric chatting and laughing in a coffee shop. I think this is supposed to hint at a happy relationship between them. Then we cut to Gail carrying Lily upstairs. When she passes a picture of Mitch, Lily says "dada" and I'll admit I got a bit emotional. That was a nice touch and a nice send off for Mitch. He will always be her dad, even if she can't know him. Then we cut to Pacey and Audrey laughing together as they drive to California. Dawson is on the plane next to a nervous girl. He tells her that everything is going to be ok and he sits back, looking like he really does believe what he's saying.

We end off Joey's Creek on Joey returning her plane ticket. The clerk thinks it's a shame since Paris is supposed to be lovely in the Spring. Joey says she's heard that and gets an idea smirk before smiling as the camera fades to black. 

Makes sense that we end the entire season on Joey
It's her Creek now.

So, we did it. We made it to the end of season 5 before the end of 2021 and it sure was a ride. I really do think that the show thought they were ending after this season because everything is tied up way too neatly here, plus we get Joey finally getting to go to Paris. It's a nice send off, actually even if I disagree with Pacey getting back together with Audrey. If you're a Dawson and Joey shipper, you can easily pretend this is the last episode of the series because season 6 is not that great from what I remember and is only saved by the two part finale but that's because I'm a diehard Pacephine shipper. I was there from day one. But anyway, I have a lot to get through before that payoff so I'll see you all in the New Year with the wrap up and the start of season 6. Here's to a happy 2022!