Episode Eight - "Escape From New York"

Jen's ex-boyfriend from New York arrives in town.
He starts the day by nearly knocking Pacey down, looking for directions to the high school. He clearly wants to get back with Jen, but she explains that she's with Dawson now. She ditches school to spend the day with Billy before he travels back to New York.
Meanwhile, Joey is really tired after looking after her nephew. She discovers that they only thing that will put the baby to sleep is "The English Patient", which she hires from Pacey at the video shop. Pacey lets Joey know that he knows she is in love with Dawson, but Joey doesn't admit it.
Cliff invites Dawson and Jen to a party at his house. Dawson meets Jen after school, and she persuades Dawson to give Billy a room for the night, because he doesn't want to travel back to New York - Dawson reluctantly agrees. He immediately starts to hate Billy.
After Jen gives Billy a goodbye kiss, she heads off to the party. The party is in full swing. Dawson goes to get Joey a drink, meets Jen and disappears with her. Fortunately, a guy with long blond hair comes to Joey's rescue - getting her drunk in the process. Dawson and Jen meet up with Billy - who still hasn't left. He claims Jen's goodbye kiss was more of a kiss than a goodbye. Dawson gets angry, and Jen ends up leaving both of them standing there.
Pacey tries to stop Joey drinking so much, and ends up punching the guy in order to get him away from Joey. Dawson arrives back just in time for Joey to think it was he who saved her.
Dawson and Pacey take Joey back home. Pacey wakes up the baby, while Dawson lays Joey on the sofa. Drunk and half asleep, she kisses him. Meanwhile, Pacey acts out "The English Patient" to put Alexander to sleep. It works.
When Dawson and Pacey are rowing back, Dawson tells Pacey what happened with Joey. Pacey lets it out that Joey is madly in love with Dawson, but Dawson pushes it aside, saying he and Joey are just friends. When he gets back home, Dawson sees Billy about to leave. Billy warns him to take care of Jen, or he'll be back. Dawson goes to see Jen on the pier, where she tells him that she needs to be on her own, not in a relationship. Dawson gets annoyed, and leaves her.

My favourite quotes:

Pacey: Dawson, one of these days you are going to have to take a gigantic fact check, my friend. She didn't mistake you for anybody, okay? This girl is head-in-the-clouds one-hundred-percent ass-backwards in love with you, alright?

Pacey: You know, this town is the absolute embodiment of dull. Apart from the occasional sex scandal provided by yours truly, nothing happens here.

Pacey: Alright, Jo. Say goodbye to the nice serial rapist man.

This episode begins with Dawson upset about losing Jen. He tells Joey everything reminds him of here - and the video he puts on is of Jen walking to the pier (from the pilot).
Billy breaks into Jen's bedroom through the window, and lies on her bed. Jen's Grams finds him, and tells Jen she will call the police if he's not gone soon. Billy tells Jen he heard that she dropped Dawson, and might be looking for a replacement. When she tells him to get lost, he says she used to be fun. She tells him no, she was just weak and vulnerable.
Billy convinces Dawson that the easiest way to get over Jen is by going to a club with him. Dawson eventually agrees, and while he's turning in his Maths homework, he gets Pacey involved too.
Meanwhile, Joey accepts a lift to school with a guy called Warren Garry. By the time she talks to Jen, Warren has spread that Joey slept with him. When she tries to talk to him about it, he humiliates her infront of everyone. She decides to get revenge.
On the ferry, Pacey tells Dawson that Dawson just isn't the rebellious type. Dawson decides to prove he's not the innocent guy he is, and destroys a car belonging to two guys who are annoying everyone on the boat. Pacey moons them when their car doesn't go. When they get to the club, Billy tells Dawson to find himself a girl. Dawson decides it's too much work trying to play pool AND look for a girl, but changes his mind when he sees a woman who's T-shirt he likes.
Back at school, Joey and Jen hatch a plan to get Warren back. Joey meets Abby in the photocopy room, and slips it to her that she's pregnant with Warren's child, and that he says it's not his problem. Abby makes sure the whole school finds out, and Joey gets the revenge she deserves. However, Abby finds out from her friend that "Warren couldn't fertilise a garden", and that Joey is obviously lying. Jen and Joey have a laugh about it, and Joey turns down Warren's offer to make the rumour into truth.
Dawson and Nina, the woman, get along really well until Billy interrupts them. Billy is amazed when Nina takes Dawson outside. Outside Nina offers Dawson a bed to stay over in to make Billy and Pacey incredulous, but he turns her down, telling her he still really wants Jen back. They share a kiss, and she leaves. In the club, Dawson gets annoyed with Billy and Billy leaves Dawson and Pacey to find their own way back to Capeside. Dawson arrives home the next morning, to find Joey waiting for him. She asks him to tell her what happened, but he falls asleep.

My favourite quotes:

Abby: Let's just say that Warren has a soft spot for the ladies in a very unfortunate area.

Dawson is still upset about his break-up with Jen. Joey tells him he has to get over it - and there's going to be the inevitable conversation between Dawson and Jen abobut them remaining friends. Dawson doesn't have a reply.
Gail gets a phone call from a guy at work, who turns out to Bob. Mitch is annoyed that he had the gall to phone his house. At school, Jen asks Dawson if they can still be friends, and to prove how over her he is, Dawson suggests a double date between Jen and Cliff and he and his new girlfriend. Jen agrees - and Dawson has to find a girlfriend quickly!
Pacey gets his Biology mid-term back, and realises he's failed. His teacher says he can make it up with an extra credit assignment, which Pacey is all for until his lab partner turns out to be Joey. Dawson asks MaryBeth, a girl who seems to have a crush on him, to the carnival for the double date. She agrees.
Saturday arrives. Pacey and Joey go into school to check on the snail project - and find they're all dead. Thanks to Pacey. It appears he tried to create a snail-menage-a-trois with their snails and a carnivore snail. He agrees to take Joey to find more.
Dawson and MaryBeth meet at the carnival. When she finds out they're on a double date with Dawson's ex-girlfriend, she gets upset. To prevent her from leaving, Dawson tells her that he's doing Jen a favour because she doesn't want to be alone with Cliff on their first date. Meanwhile, Pacey and Joey are looking for snails. He asks her what mark she got in her midterm for her to be stuck hunting for snails with Pacey, but she tells him to forget about it. When the boat starts floating downstream because Pacey forgets to tie it up, they have to swim back to shore. At the truck, Pacey tells her to change into a blanket which she is not pleased about. When he starts up the car he watches her getting changed in the wing mirror.
Back at the carnival, MaryBeth discovers Dawson lied to her, and is really embarassed about it. She realises Dawson is still in love with Jen, and because she has a crush on Cliff, they devise a plan together. On the ferris wheel, Dawson and Jen sit together. They start talking about their relationship, and Jen says she thinks she should withdraw her offer to remain friends with him. Dawson asks her why she is dating Cliff when one of the main reasons she broke up with Dawson was because she wanted to be alone. Jen doesn't have a reply.
Pacey drives Joey home, and borrows some of Bodie's dry clothes. He asks her again what mark she got in the mid-term, and she tells him it was 98%. Pacey is confused - until she tells him that she has to get out of Capeside before she explodes, and the only way to do that is to egt the grades that will allow her a full scholarship. Pacey lets her know that he believes she can do it. They turn up at the carnival, and Pacey tells Dawson he wants to speak to him alone. He tells him that he has a crush on Joey, and asks his permission to kiss her. After a "momentary lapse" Dawson gives him the all clear.
When Pacey drives Joey back home again, he tries to kiss her, but she rejects him. Pacey realises that if she'd kissed him she'd have been thinking of Dawson anyway. Back at the video shop, Dawson runs in to tell Pacey he doesn't want him to kiss Joey after all. Pacey tells him he's too late - and that he and Joey are going up to a bed and breakfast at the weekend. Dawson realises he's lying, and Pacey confronts Dawson about which girl he really wants - Jen or Joey.

My favourite quotes:

Joey: So, let me get this straight. You tried to create some sort of a "snail menage-a-trois"?!
Pacey: Well, it sounds stupid when you say it out loud...

Dr. Rand: You know what I did first thing after I finished grading your exam?
Pacey: Stopped laughing?

Joey: Pacey, I told you - palomino snails are single-sex, they don't need another organism to reproduce!
Pacey: Well, I might have remembered that if I actually listen when you talk to me.

Joey: Wait a second, you're taking romantic advice from a guy who spent his evening trying to get three snails to sleep together?

This episode was not shown on terestrial TV in the UK.

This episode begins in Dawson's room (as usual) with Dawson and Joey watching "I Know What You Did Last Summer". Joey is obviously scared out of her wits, and switches the video off, telling Dawson that the real world is scary enough. This is confirmed by the news program on the TV telling about the "Lady Killer", a serial killer who seems to be making his way towards Capeside. Dawson scares Joey further by disappearing, and reappearing from under the bed wearing a scary mask.
Apparently, Dawson has a tradition of scaring everyone on Friday the Thirteenth, the next day. Pacey gets a ghoul in his locker, and Joey gets a snake in her bag. Jen starts to feel left out when no pranks are played on her, and Dawson tells her that he didn't do anything to her because he thought she wouldn't be up for it. Jen slowly starts to feel distanced from the group, especially as she can't attend the séance at Dawson's because she is going on a date with Cliff.
Meanwhile, Cliff goes to Dawson for advice on where to take Jen for their first date. Dawson and Cliff start to hatch a plan - Dawson tells him he should do something unexpected to win Jen's affection.
At home, Jen gets a phone call. The voice at the other end is imitating the voice in "Scream", and, of course, Jen thinks it's a prank and plays along with the caller, whom she assumes to be Dawson. However, the caller takes it too far, and Jen becomes really scared, taking a knife from the kitchen up the stairs. She hears someone at the door - but it is only her Grandmother. Her ordeal appears to be over.
Dawson, Pacey and Joey take a trip to the local store to get food for the séance. Joey has to stay in the car, because Pacey decides it's kind of dangerous to stop the engine, considering he hotwired it in the first place. While alone in the car, Joey gets approached by a guy looking for directions. He starts asking her more personal questions until Dawson reappears and he leaves. Meanwhile, Pacey meets a woman named Ursula, who has a fight with her boyfriend, and he invites her to the séance. They make a quick getaway when her boyfriend tries to get in the car.
Back at Jen's, Cliff arrives to pick her up for their date. Grams is waiting for him, and takes an immediate liking to him, seeing him as the perfect boyfriend for Jen. Jen finds it a little weird when Cliff tells her he's taking her to her ex-boyfriend's séance, but goes along with it anyway. At Dawson's, everyone is soon assembled around a table. They tell scary stories to start the séance off, and Ursula freaks them out with her story about a woman who is picked up by a couple of teenagers, and who carries a knife in her bag. It is scarily similar to her own story, and the group begin to wonder if she is the "Lady Killer". At the peak of her story, the fuses blow and the lights go out and the phone lines go dead, which freaks them out even more. Despite the fact that he swears it wasn't planned, Dawson eventually admits that it was, but when he and Ursula check the fuse box outside he gets worried that they should have come back on by now. He talks to Ursula about his ex-girlfriend, who she presumes is Joey, and when he tells her it's Jen she says his problem is that he's been dating the wrong girl. Meanwhile, everyone else is making sure all the windows and doors are closed, and Joey confronts Pacey about his "bizarre mother complex". When Dawson reenters the house, everyone is there except Joey. He goes looking for her, and opens a closet - where Joey's bloody and apparently dead body falls out. He looks up in horror to see someone with a mask, black cloak and long knife.... who turns out to be Jen. But Dawson thinks they have gone too far, and the look on his face shows that a) he has fallen for the prank and b) he cares more about Joey than he admits. But who made that phone call to Jen?
While Pacey and Ursula are outside, they hear a rustling in the bushes. Realising it is Ursula's boyfriend, there is a mad scramble to secure all the doors and windows. Eddie, her boyfriend, breaks windows and bangs on doors searching for a point of entry. It appears everything is okay - until they realise Dawson's window with the ladder up to it is always open - and Eddie is in the house.
They start searching for him, and he jumps out at Pacey, who took Eddie's girlfriend away. A frying-pan wielding Joey saves Pacey, but Ursula refuses to let them beat Eddie up. She carries him out of the door, and leaves the group staring in amazement. But there's still one question - who made the phonecall to Jen?
Cliff escorts Jen home, and on the way he tells her it was him who phoned her. He seems to think it was a great idea - because Dawson got it into Cliff's head that Jen liked to be petrified, which is clearly untrue. They share a kiss, which is interrupted by Grams - who, surprisingly, urges them to continue. However, Jen is not as keen on Cliff as her Grandmother is, and tells him she's not really looking for a boyfriend at that moment. Inside, Grams tells Jen that she thinks Cliff is the perfect guy - to which Jen replies that Grams can have him. She gets a letter - which turns out to be a final prank from Dawson. Maybe she's included in the group after all.
Back at Dawson's, Dawson and Joey are in his room debating the night. Joey tells him she saw the look on his face when he thought she'd been killed, and that for a moment she thought he might actually be sad if she died. Dawson tells her, to her amazement, that he would be inconsolable if she died. They get into bed, and put on the TV news. The breaking news is the capture of the "Lady Killer". When his face is shown, Dawson and Joey look at each other in horror - because it is the same guy who asked Joey for directions at the store.

My favourite quotes:

Dawson: No, I've been scaring Joey all night.
Ursula: Yeah, the brunette.
Dawson: She's not my ex-girlfriend, Jen is.
Ursula: Oh, well that's your problem, you're dating the wrong girl.

A beauty pageant is about to be launched in Capeside.
It causes different rections from everyone - Dawson is videoing it for his mother's news company, Joey is totally agaisnt it, and Jen admits her mother entered her into a whole lot of beauty contests when she was too young to protest. Dawson tries to get Jen to enter the contest, telling her the prize is $5000, but Jen is not up for the idea at all. However, she manages to persuade Joey to enter it - because although Joey thinks she has no chance, the possibility of winning $5000 is just too good an option to turn down.
In the hall, an upset Pacey tells Dawson that his father thinks of him as a loser, and shows him an advert for a room at $250 a month. He asks Dawson if he needs an assistant for the Miss Windjammer pageant, but Dawson tells him to forget it, he's not even getting paid - infact, the only one that is is Miss Windjammer herself. This sparks an idea in Pacey...
At the signing up, Joey and Jen bump into Dawson. It appears Pacey is arguing with a woman about how there's nothing in the rulebook about a guy entering. Dawson finds it hillarious that Joey is entering, until he realises she is serious - but by then it's too late, he's already hurt Joey's feelings.

My favourite quotes:

Joey: It's a blue-blooded tradition that celebrates the grand achievment of being born rich. A culmination of which is an assinine formal dinner held at the yacht club where some young vile who's daddy owns the bank is crowned Miss Windjammer. It's the most archaic display of ageism, racism, and sexism known to man.
Pacey: Do they have a swimsuit competition?

Pacey: You make one joke about coming out of the closet, I swear...
Dawson: (laughing) I can't, man, it's too obvious.

Jen: (giving Joey a tub of vaseline) Here, put this on your teeth.
Joey: What for?!
Jen: Trust me, okay - it stops your lips sticking to your teeth when you smile.
Joey: Wait, I have to smile?! No-one said I had to smile!

Joey: Guys look at you and think "Wow, what a babe", and then they look at me and think "Mmm, gee, she's really tall".

Pacey (in a Scttish accent): Well, I'm not William Wallace - but I am Pacey Witter.
Dawson (shouting off stage): Pacey Witter is seven feet tall!
Pacey (in a Scottish accent): So they say. So they say. And they say that this Pacey Witter is a dangerous man, who slaughters Capeside residents by the dozens with jokes and buffoonery. And if he were here, he would destroy those who would judge him with sparks from his eyes and wit from his ass. Well, I am Pacey Witter, but who of you are in the position to judge me? Is it you sir? And what sort of human being tolerates being judged? Well, judgement stops today, because that which scorns me deems to own me. And I am willing to trade the trappings of my dysfunctional life for one chance, just one chance, to stand in front of my fellow countrymen and tell them that you may take my life, but you'll never take my freedom! Thankyou and good night.