Dawson's Creek 2.1, The Kiss: Starting Over

May 4, 2011

Dawson’s Creek 2.1, The Kiss: Starting Over

We should probably get used to this

Summary: Picking up right where we left off, Dawson and Joey are all, “Holy crap, we kissed! Now what?” And neither of them has an answer, so Joey goes home. The next morning, Joey tells Bessie about the kiss while Dawson talks it over with Pacey. No one’s sure what Joey will do about her opportunity to spend the semester in France.

Pacey gets his tips frosted, and the dye must have gone to his brain, because then he hops in his dad’s cruiser, tries to go after a girl named Kristy, and gets hit by another car. It’s driven by Andie McPhee, who’s new in town and believes he’s really a cop. Pacey pretends he’s going to arrest her, then lets her off the hook.

When Dawson and Joey reunite at school, they’re all, “WANT MORE KISSES,” but then she admits that she might have made a huge mistake: She’s turned down the France trip. Jen shows up and announces that her grandfather died the night before. Then she heads home, where she finds Grams sorting through her late husband’s clothes, planning to give them away. Jen thinks she’s moving too fast, but Grams admits that she’s been praying for her husband’s “release,” since, thanks to his stroke, he’s been gone for years.

Andie shows up at Capeside High and threatens to turn Pacey in for impersonating an officer. She’s also already met Kristy and tells Pacey she’ll never go him, then offers to try to set them up. Pacey is dumb enough to think Andie actually cares about his happiness, I guess. But when he asks Kristy out, she says yes. Dawson stops by to see Jen, and she clearly wants more than just friendly comfort from him, but he’s on his way to have his first date with Joey. Joey tells Bessie that she’s worried because she and Dawson haven’t kissed since that first smooch. Bessie tells her that the second one will be better than the first because it’ll be real.

The lovebirds meet for their first date, which starts with them…holding hands. (Whoa, slow down, there, kids!) While they go see The Last Picture Show, Pacey waits around for Kristy, who it looks like isn’t going to show. Jen interrupts Dawson and Joey’s date, which she didn’t know was an official date. When she figures it out, she leaves and beats herself up for losing Dawson, then asks him not to have sex with Joey right away. When Dawson goes back into the theater, Joey’s gone.

Kristy finally shows up and tells Pacey that she has a boyfriend but didn’t want to break Pacey’s heart. Especially since he has a stripe on it that could strangle it at any moment, killing him. Andie told her that Pacey doesn’t want to be treated any differently because of his horrible, life-threatening condition. Jen runs into Grams at the theater and laments that she has no friends except Grams, who doesn’t really seem to like her. Grams tells her about going to the movies with her husband and explains that she came tonight to be near him. Pacey finds Andie at a market and tells her he dyed his hair and asked Kristy out because he wanted to have a new start. Andie tells him his hair looks horrible (yay, Andie!) and even gives him some dyeing pointers.

Dawson tracks Joey down and promises that he’s over Jen. She assures him that it’s fine, then tells him she didn’t go to France because she wants him so badly. She knows that she could have started over in France, but “it seemed liked the easy way out.” She thought that staying in Capeside would make her stronger. Joey thinks that their friendship was complicated, but whatever relationship they wind up with will probably be even more complicated. Dawson tells her it doesn’t have to be bad, then pretends to take her on a tour of France. They kiss again and talk about the Rialto, which is going to be torn down and rebuilt. Dawson says the new version could be even better than the old. (Get the metaphor? Do you really?)

In Grown-Up World, Mitch goes to see a divorce lawyer and Gail finds out about it. He tells her he’s not sure he can stay with a woman he both loves and hates. He just wants to know his options. She replies that he can either put everything he has into their relationship or write a check to his lawyer.

Thoughts: Nice creative title, there, writers. You realize you called another episode “Kiss,” right?

WHO LET JOSHUA JACKSON DO THAT TO HIS HAIR?? I feel like he lost a bet.

I always liked Andie, so I was looking forward to her first episode. Which I thought was the next one, so this was a nice surprise.

Kristy is played by Ali Larter, and strangely, I can buy her as a teeanger here, even though I didn’t in the only other thing I’ve ever seen her play a teenager in, Final Destination. Maybe it’s the blond hair.

Joey wears a little camisole to school. Remember when you could wear camisoles and no one would complain that you were revealing too much?

Did the show’s hairstylist get fired between the seasons? Everyone’s hair looks awful. Gail looks especially horrible, but maybe that’s, like, her version of wearing a scarlet A.

I’m just glad Joey didn’t really, 100 percent stay in Capeside because of a boy.

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