We did it, folks! We finished off the penultimate season of Dawson's Creek and we have nowhere to go but down. Wheee!! All joking aside, I really did, legitimately and unironically, enjoy the beginning of this season quite a bit. The story was engaging, the drama fun, the new setting felt refreshing, it was all a very nice change of pace from season 4 which was actually pretty depressing most of the time. Funny that I consider season 4 more depressing than the season that basically starts with the death of a main parental figure but that parental figure is Mitch who sucks just about as much as Dawson so...meh.
As per usual, I'm going to break the season down by character arcs to see how each character progressed over the season. For all the interest I had in the beginning of the season though, I really can't say there was much developed though so let's dive in and find out.
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| Audrey Liddell |
We are going to start with the newest addition to the cast, Audrey. There isn't a lot to say about her because she's so fresh, she isn't even included in the cast photos and credits this season. I have a soft spot for Audrey because she's played by Busy Philips who was Kim Kelly on Freaks and Geeks. Freaks and Geeks was my show, I identified with it so hard and was gutted that it ended but when I picked back up with Dawson's Creek, suddenly there she was and I got to have a little piece of Freaks and Geeks back. She starts out a little bit Kim Kelly like too, she's very outgoing, a bit wild and carefree and likes to kiss boys. She's less rough around the edges though so she's quite a bit more charming as Audrey. Near the beginning, it felt almost as if she were being written to be the "awful" roommate from hell but it was refreshing when they turned that trope on its head and made her and Joey grow closer. The slut shaming stopped and she became more like Joey's best friend and I dare say, Joey needed more female friends. I've been screaming that since the first season, so it was nice to finally not only have Joey have Jen as a close friend but Audrey as well. Then the second half of the season dropped and I mean, they were still friends but they started trying to pair Audrey off with Pacey and I just wasn't feeling it.
Look, Audrey is great. She's fun, smarter than you think she is, and entertainingly snarky. She was Joey's friend first and foremost and I hate that they ruined the dynamic by having her get with Pacey. Sure, they wrote Joey being completely unbothered by it but that only added to the confusion. Joey really isn't going to be bothered that her true love, her first sexual partner, the boy who shattered her heart has moved on to her college roommate? She has no feelings about that? She just wants them happy? I don't buy it. But not only this, Audrey isn't that great of a partner? I think that they were going for her being not great at commitment but learning how but it just felt like her and Pacey being together was pretty toxic. They lied to each other, put Joey in an unsafe situation to get their rocks off, cheated on each other because they were unsure where their relationship stood. I could go on but I'm just going to say this, Audrey started out great and kind of fell flat at the end. She deserved better and the singing arc really should have been hers.
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| Jack McPhee |
Jack was another big nothing this season and that's a damn shame because Kerr Smith is a pretty good actor. Not the best but he's better than what they gave him to work with this season which was pretty much half baked nothing. We start the season with him in a frat house where he starts acting douchier than Dawson and you think the arc will be him realizing that the frat is changing him for the worse but they never quite go that way. Instead the writers seem to flip the narrative and make it like the frat bros are terrible friends when it's Jack who's acting like a dick. Don't get me wrong, the frat bros suck but Jack was acting out of line, expecting them to be cool with him flunking out. Then we move onto exploring how the frat actually deals with his sexuality, which again would be interesting but they kind of drop the ball here too. Where he threatens to move out and suddenly Eric is cool with him and they become friends. Then they push it further and make Eric question his sexuality only to get Jack kicked out. All this to say that Jack was defined a lot more by the characters around him than he was defined by himself. None of his trauma's got sorted out or explored. The writers kept teasing us with something more interesting, the heartbreaking scene of him begging for a reset button springs to mind but then they kind of shoved that aside to become only about studying for one calculus test and like....I really wanted to explore his existential dread of fucking his entire life up from his choice to break up with Tobey. That was something set up in the early episodes and I think should have been explored with a lot more depth and nuance. Like, I think they wanted to say that he got swept up in being in a bigger city with more choice but ended up with less choice because of his poor decisions or realizing he threw away good things because he thought he had to completely change his life to grow up but alas, we get him disappearing for episodes on end.
The little ending with Eric? I said it was nice to see Jack happy but thinking on it again...I don't really like that he ended up with a guy who first refused to room with him for fear of catching the gay, then came onto him only to say that Jack tried to kiss him when he got rejected. That feels a bit messed up. Like, I get it, he helped him with the studying but it still feels weird for him to be a viable partner or friend for Jack. If this was his ending storyline I'd be pissed but we do continue...to a potentially worse ending for Jack. Oof, he really gets mishandled on this show but I'll save that for the season 6 ender. For now, Jack mostly remained the same this season.
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| Jen Lindley |
Jen started out this year in a very naïve and vulnerable state. The first time she let her guard down, she fell for Charlie who was just using her for sex. Then she fell for Dawson which I normally would have hated but something about the way it was written and the way they interacted, really sold me on them as a couple this season. It felt earned and it felt right this time. It's a damn shame they quickly wrote Jen doubting the relationship until she ultimately broke things off with him. She faded into the back a bit after that too and it's such a shame. I liked her radio gig and her music interests this season and wish they'd developed it more because without the actual music in the episodes, it's really hard to tell that it was a big part of her character this season. Her taste in music is good but if you're watching for the first time on Netflix or other streaming platforms, or hell even on DVD, you wouldn't know it because they were too cheap to license the music for the show. It sucks.
I also find it odd that they seemed to really build up Oliver liking Jen and it seemed like when she looked at him she liked him too but then they just drop him and pretend nothing happened. They never revisit that. It's odd. I'm not sure I would have wanted that but it felt weird for them to drop it and not only did they drop that for her, they really didn't let her have much of a say in the whole Joey and Charlie debacle either and that feels super unfair. The writers seemed to want us to forget about how badly he treated Jen but I didn't. I won't and I refuse to buy into their hatred of her character. I mean, I assume the writers hate Jen because of the way they write about her. As shit and as depressing as Jen's storylines get, you can always rest assured that Michelle Williams is going to knock it out of the park so maybe they just liked watching her get emotional because she was so good at it? Still, they can bite me because Jen deserves better.
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| Pacey Witter |
Speaking of deserving better and being shoved to the background this season, Pacey definitely got shafted as well. He actually started with a pretty interesting premise. I liked the drama of him being back but not being ready to see Joey but then they kind of just ended that conflict without addressing the weight behind a feeling like that. Then they ignored the ongoing chemistry between Joey and Pacey to push him with Karen, a woman who for some bizarre reason, didn't want to date him? It didn't make sense and it quickly took over the arguably more interesting subplot of Pacey becoming a chef and having a mentor. I actually would've liked that dynamic a lot more than another pairing for Pacey. I get that they wanted some more drama but poor Pacey keeps falling for women who love other men more than him and it's upsetting. He deserves better.
He especially deserves better than every single character treating him like he's nothing. First, you have Melanie who saw him as a dumb but hot fling and basically telling him that's all he is to her, then we have his friends assuming he's some sort of loser lothario because he had a single one night stand with someone. On top of that the writers seemed to be pushing this idea that Danny and Pacey were exactly alike and excuse you, no. Pacey is not a cheater. Pacey is not a lothario. He enjoys sex sure but the evidence the show actually presents us is that Pacey is a hopeless romantic who dotes over his girlfriends and is extremely monogamous. As if the writers really wanted us to believe and push the lose morals they think Pacey has on us, they have him pseudo cheat on Audrey in a confusing scenario where he was maybe getting sexually harassed but also kind of liked it and lied to Audrey so she dumped him and then he tried to have sex with Alex but she stopped it so...like what was that? Were we supposed to believe Pacey was used and harassed or a cheater? Because the show seemed to treat it as both and I just can't even take anything in that story seriously. Sherilyn Fenn deserved better too.
So, we end up with Pacey basically down in the dumps. No job, no home, back in Capeside and working as a security guard. It's like he ended up right back where he started at the end of season 4 but before he even got that boat travelling offer. He's just stuck and I hate that for him. He seemed to be thriving in Boston, he'd found a passion for cooking and I really liked that because it was something he took an interest in outside of another person. He really needed to come into his own as not someone's romantic partner or hero and the fact that they just kept pushing him into that storyline is sad because of course, the thing that he's pushed to do at the end of the season is go after Audrey and the thing is, I never bought that he was that into Audrey to begin with. Sure, they flirted a bit and he seemed to enjoy sex with her but I never got the feeling he was super into her. I mean, even in his grand speech he says that he could probably live without her but he just didn't want to but that's just not that grand a feeling? It feels more safe than a proclamation of love. Also, is he just going to be mooching off of Audrey for the whole summer? I think he kind of has to, otherwise how will he survive? It was a really lackluster season for Pacey and that's heartbreaking because he's my favourite and Josh is a talented actor but this season wasted him. It gave him nothing to work with, pushed him in the back and just had him be put down all season. I want to say things could get better for him but oh man, they do not. Next season is going to be a doozy for him.
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| Dawson Leery |
Dawson started out his usual Dawson self. I hated him. He went off to LA to pursue his dream and he bailed at the first sign of trouble. Not only did he bail, he used Joey as an excuse and when things went awry, he was quick to blame her for it all. Did he have to apologize? Not really and that's aggravating. I thought I was going to detest him all season but then, he started hanging out with Jen more and I actually started liking him. It was super bizarre because I am an unabashed Dawson hater. He's terrible and I can't wash away all the crap that he's done over the course of this show but damn it, when he and Jen got together, they were charming. Dawson also seemed to soften, not shaming Jen for who she was, her past actions, or if she freaked out about getting close to him. He instead was patient and kind and understanding and my god, it felt like he was learning and growing and becoming a better character. Then Jen broke up him and he reverted right back to where he was at the beginning of the season, pining over Joey while completely torching his life and hers to do so.
The weird thing is, the show even acknowledges this issue but they refuse to see how toxic it is. Dawson kept Joey from going to France, Joey kept him from really giving film school a chance, Dawson tanked an important agent meeting to declare his love for Joey. It's not good. They have these amazing dreams and they repeatedly hold each other back. I do think that they tried to rectify this by having Joey essentially choose Dawson at the end of this season but also send him on his way to make movies but it feels too little too late. I hate their relationship, I hate that they pitted Joey and Jen against each other again this season only for both boys to eventually choose Joey in the end as the "superior" mate for them, I hate Dawson. He's just so bland. I can't even say that he really progressed this season because he didn't. He got better in his relationship with Jen but he makes the same dumb mistakes once they're not together and his movie sucked. I know in my bones it sucked just based on the little information we had of it and I hate that they try to make it seem like Dawson revolutionized the movie by having a happy ending but the guy still showed up with a gun with the intention to shoot the girl so no, that ain't no happy ending and Dawson still sucks. Anyway, this isn't even his creek or his story anymore so let's move onto the new main character, shall we.
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| Joey Potter |
You thought I missed her, didn't you? Nope. I have ended all of my season recaps on Dawson because he is the focus of the show...well, was. This season the focus shifted and Joey has edged him out as the main character so she now has the final spot in the list. Why do I think she's the main character? Easy. The main focus is on her college experience. I don't think we ever really got to see Jen and Jack's school, save for his frat house but Joey's college and her teacher are a big focus this season. Joey gets a new friend and roommate this season who is a main fixture in the show for the whole season, not just a few guest spots. Every added thing revolves around Joey and her live at Worthington. We know a lot of Joey's inner struggles both with feeling academically inferior to the other students, while still getting a coveted spot on a literary team that's usually reserved for non-freshmen, and her struggle to break free from her old life. She goes from studious kill-joy to singing with a band this season as well as from likable protag to everyone around her treating her like she can do no wrong, even though she acts terribly.
I knew I started to dislike Joey in the college years but I thought it was more gradual. Instead, it was like I was struck in the face with a brick wall. I know the exact moment I turned on Joey Potter and it was absolutely when she condescendingly says to Dawson in the episode Guerilla Filmmaking, "Did it ever occur to you, Dawson Leery, that maybe I'm the sign you're waiting for?" and I'm not even joking here. This is the line that turned me on her. Sure, I was soured a bit when she dumps the cute dorky guy in favour of having an affair with her dorky professor but this line, the way she delivers it, makes me see red. It's like she thinks the world of herself and I get that the line is supposed to be tongue in cheek and slightly jokey but I hate it. I hate it with every fiber of my being and I know that it's right here where things take a sharp downward turn for me with Joey Potter and it only stands to reason that she must be the new main character because if this show is good at anything, it's giving you main characters that you can't stand.
Joey forgives Dawson at the drop of a hat for blaming her for his father's death. She forgives him for dating Jen but she hates Jen so much for dating Dawson that she goes out of her way to pursue the guy that used Jen for sex AND SHE DIDN'T EVEN LIKE HIM. We're supposed to be on board with Joey but I hated her for this and I don't think it's even close to the same thing because you cannot help who you fall for but you absolutely can help not going after a guy who fucked over your supposed friend just to get back at her for supposedly stealing a guy who rejected you in the first place. Why were we expected to still like Joey after this? Why did they think this would fly? Why did they think we'd want her to like a guy like that in the first place? Joey not liking him that much in return only makes her look worse too so if they thought that would fix things, they were dead wrong. I reaalize that I'm ranting right now but I'm so pissed at where her character ended up and in a completely different way to Pacey. Pacey got the shaft as a character, Joey is getting propped up at every turn despite acting horribly. Joey is being pushed on us while acting like a brat. I don't want to follow her. I want more stuff with Jen and Pacey and Jack but they get sidelined so we can watch a nauseating self insert fanfic about how the bad boy who breaks girls hearts will never do that to Joey because she's too special. GAG ME.
In season 3 I gave Joey the Most Improved Character Award but this season, while I bump her up to the main character because she arguably is, she is awarded the Dawson Leery Achievement of being the worst character on your own show.
It's so disappointing that this season ended up the way it did. It started with so much promise but the second half of the season completely drags everything down. It undoes any of the interesting plots the first half set up, and unleashes scattered, uninteresting or straight up bizarre plots. Who would have guessed that an evil new boss would come in at the last second to break up an uninteresting couple and torch Pacey's restaurant arc? Who would have guessed that Charlie would return but be propped up as a great guy only to be dumped by Joey? Who would've guessed that Dawson would go back to being unlike- ok you know what, that one I'll give this season. We all expected Dawson to return to his usual self, I was more surprised he was any good at all this season.
We only have one season left to go and I almost can't believe it. It seemed like I would never finish this show what with all the breaks and craziness in my life and here I am finally at the final season of this show that was a strangely huge part of my life. I'm not going to wax poetic about the show just yet, let's save some of that for the end. Instead, I'm going to get you guys ready for the craziness of next season. From my memory, there is a Jack Osborne cameo, there is a Freaks and Geeks reunion of sorts with one cast member guest starring, there is a No Doubt concert probably with all their songs gutted from the episode, Audrey goes on a bender and sings a screeching punk rendition of California Dreamin...unless that is also gutted, Pacey becomes a wolf of wall street type, and what else, oh yeah a Supernatural brother appears. You'll have to stay tuned for all that craziness because there's even more than that in the final season of Dawson's Creek. See you then.
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