Summary: Joey and Dawson watch From Here to Eternity, and he tells her he wants to have that making-out-on-the-beach moment with Jen, even though they haven’t even had one kiss yet. Joey tells him he once again wants his life to be a movie, but the reality of a seemingly romantic scene like that one is that you just end up with sand in annoying places. Dawson decides his movie is the perfect pretense to spend time alone with Jen, and he’ll shoot a special scene in some ruins to set the mood.
Surprisingly, it’s Joey’s love life that heats up first: She has a little bit of a love connection with a rich visitor named Anderson while she’s working at the Ice House (which I guess Bessie and Bodie own? I’m not sure), then encounters him later on his sailboat. He thinks she’s also a rich visitor, and she decides to play along, telling him her name is Deborah Kerr…er, Carson. They go sailing and end up on an island, where they almost have that making-out-in-the-sand moment, before Joey stops it.
Anderson winds up at the Ice House again, and Joey has to pretend she’s hanging out with Dawson and Jen instead of working. Jen covers for her nicely, while Dawson thinks she’s crazy. Bessie almost busts Joey, but Bodie plays along, because he is awesome. Joey debates coming clean to Anderson, who’s not in town for long, but ultimately tells him she’s going back to New York. After they say goodbye – and she gets her first kiss – Joey realizes she made a mistake by mentioning a restaurant in New York that’s been closed for a year, so she might not have gotten away clean after all.
Dawson manages to get a crappy job on the set of the football movie his film class is making, because a crappy job on a movie set is better than nothing, I guess. Jen is there, since Cliff got her a role as a cheerleader, and she claims she accepted it to be closer to Dawson. The movie has a lot of problems that Dawson wants to fix, but annoying Nellie, a producer, won’t let him. Cliff finally tells her to at least listen to Dawson, and he comes up with a way to shoot a certain scene that no one else thought of.
Pacey’s failing English (all of his classes, actually), so he asks Tamara to tutor him. That is not a euphemism. Well, not yet, anyway. They spend some time discussing Ethan Frome, and Tamara’s so impressed by how well Pacey grasps it that she doesn’t have a good-enough reward for his hard work. He asks for sex, so she calls his bluff, offering to do it right on her desk. He admits he’s a virgin and she tells him he needs to find a girl his own age. Later, Pacey finds Tamara flirting with Mr. Gold, Dawson’s film teacher, and she apparently realizes that she doesn’t want someone her own age either.
Dawson takes Jen to the ruins to shoot their scene, and things turn romantic. As they’re starting to kiss, she realizes that the camera is on and stops it. They hear people coming and hide. For some reason, this strikes them both as romantic, despite all the cobwebs around them, and they make out. Also making out, and then some: Pacey and Tamara, who have come to the ruins to further their relationship. And that’s how Pacey lost his V card.
Thoughts: “Written by Rob Thomas”?? Really? Maybe that’s why Pacey and Joey’s dialogue with each other was so good.
I thought Dawson was only allowed to hang out in the film class if he didn’t talk. By the way, can we make that a condition for other situations?
I’ve now watched two TV shows this week with Scott Foley and references to From Here to Eternity: this and Grey’s Anatomy.
Joey’s a pretty good liar: She researched a school to say she attends, then gets Anderson to stop asking for details about her father’s company by saying they manufacture tampons.
I’d like to know if the film class’ football movie is more or less lame than Varsity Blues, but I’m not willing to do the research necessary to find out.
'90s Flashback 
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