This entire two-part deal was supposed to be all about Jack coming out, but much like last week, “…That Is the Question” ends up getting hijacked by another character. Pacey is still on his crusade against tyrannical English teacher Mr. Peterson, but that story—as well as Jack’s—takes a back seat to the internal struggles of Joey Potter. It’s not that the episode doesn’t try, as it actually gives Kerr Smith a couple of spotlight moments, but the drama can’t help but be enveloped by Capeside’s number one ingenue.
But let’s talk about Jack first. He’s still dodging the rumor that he is gay, but he’s got Joey by his side. They joke about what it might take to make the chatter dissipate, even going as far to suggest having sex in the middle of the high school quad. He’s in a steady state of denial, and even though he insisted to Joey that he wasn’t gay at the end of the previous episode, Joey still has her doubts. Jack’s state of denial is interrupted by the arrival of his father, who is back in town because Mr. Milo called to let him know everything that was going on. We already know Mr. McPhee is a bad dad because he abandoned his family in favor of whatever it is he does for a living (something to do with the business of business, of course), but he really flexes his awful parenting in this hour. At dinner, while Andie brags about her mom’s improved state and her making the honor roll, Jack broods and ultimately dodges the question when his dad asks him if he’s gay. “Would you care?” Jack asks. “This family has enough problems,” says Bad Dad. “So it would be a problem?”
Now is the time to talk about Smith, who does a decent enough job in this episode but never quite hits the level of transcendence that is necessary to make a story like this work. When the time comes for him to really flex during his tearful stand-off with his old man, he seems more like a guy who is performing internal anguish than a kid actually experiencing said struggle. I have no idea how much Jack’s story mirrors the biographies of either writers Kevin Williamson or Greg Berlanti, but whatever insight they might have been able to lend Smith must have got lost in translation. What should be a glorious breakthrough moment for a character just kind of sits there, and its especially frustrating because so many of our other TV friends get big victories on the back of Jack’s struggle. In fact, while this scene is going down, Jen and Ty are across town arguing about whether or not hom*osexuality is a choice (Ty believes that it is, and that those choices will condemn Jack because being gay is frowned upon in the Bible). The conversation began at the jazz club but ends in Grams’ kitchen, where she surprisingly stands up to Ty and his Bible-based bullying. She preaches love and tolerance and reminds Ty that judgment is up to God and God alone, and what Jack needs is compassion in the face of his fear. It’s a great Grams promo and finally breaks that character out of the Christian scold mold and makes her feel more like a person. (Grams also becomes a super-important surrogate parent in Jack’s life, so it’s neat that those seeds are already being planted now.)
Pacey also gets a Jack-adjacent victory. After his suspension ends, he returns to class only for Mr. Peterson to get right back on the horse and belittle him. Pacey still doesn’t want to take this lying down, but this time rather than spit in a teacher’s face, he uses the power of the pen: We see him researching the teaching guidelines and ethical boundaries set up by the county, and later he presents a report to the principal that features a breakdown of all of Peterson’s behavior and testimonials from 20 other students. The next day, Pacey arrives to find a note saying Peterson is out and that the class should report to study hall, but he also finds Peterson in a room by himself packing up a box. Rather than suffer the indignity of going in front of the board of education, Peterson quit (he was apparently planning on retiring anyway). Pacey attempts to apologize, but Peterson notes that this is the only admirable thing that Pacey has ever done, and he shouldn’t ruin it with an apology. Plus, Jack finally thanks him for standing up for him and Andie says she’s sorry for not backing him up. Everything is coming up Pacey!
Meanwhile, Katie Holmes is out here just owning this episode. With her dinner plans with Jack canceled thanks to Bad Dad’s arrival, Joey tags along with Dawson, Jen, and Ty to the absurd jazz club the latter two visited in last week’s episode. (Not only is Ty a patron, but he also gets called on stage to play jazz piano. Sure!) She has two great scenes opposite Dawson. In the midst of a slow dance at the club, Joey asks Dawson if he thinks Jack is gay. He does, but admits that Joey would know him better than he would at this point. Joey agrees, but also notes that he can’t read Jack as well as she can read Dawson. “I can’t read his eyes the way I can yours,” she tells him. Dawson, who is aggressively giving off I-wanna-get-back-together vibes, asks “So what am I saying right now?” Joey, ever the diplomat, lets him down easy and talks about how comfortable this all feels because they’re such good friends. Dawson wants her back, but he also acknowledges that it’s nice they’re not so alienated from one another anymore. It’s a beautiful sequence that benefits from the fact that we’ve lived with these characters for so long and we know what makes them tick.
Later, Dawson walks Joey home and she wants to know if she can ask a very direct question. “Dawson, am I sexual?” No, she’s not quoting the Backstreet Boys. Rather, she’s worried that her virginity and her sometimes tomboyish nature made her a “safe” choice for Jack, that their whole relationship was a charade made possible by the lack of actual sex. It’s a testament to James Van Der Beek’s ability that the lines Dawson is given in the response don’t come off as skin-crawlingly creepy: He insists Joey is incredibly sexy, and that sexiness comes across in all aspects of her personality, and that Dawson has witnessed her “blossoming.” YIKES. Good thing Van Der Beek is so good at it.
Even the final scene between Jack and Joey, where Jack finally tells her he is gay, is sort of Joey’s show. She plotted out a romantic creekside dinner for the two of them (on Dawson’s suggestion!) but Jack drops the hammer right away, letting her know he just sent away his Bad Dad and told him that he was gay. But Jack waffles a bit when Joey confronts him about it. “So you are gay? You’re not? Part gay?” she asks, struggling with how to come to terms with the reality of it. Jack admits he knows how much this could hurt her, and that she means so much to him and doesn’t want to lose her. She thanks him for his honesty. “Thank you for being you,” he replies. All the while, Holmes’ face is processing all of this in real time, and it’s a wonder to behold. She ends up retreating to the one place she still feels at home: across the creek, up the ladder and into Dawson’s arms, where she weeps as the episode fades out.
Also:
-You would think being shot down by Grams would put an end to Ty’s courtship of Jen, but he somehow sticks around a little longer! It’s baffling.
-Pacey spent his suspension living on Dawson’s floor so as to avoid the torture at the hands of his father (last seen passed out drunk in “Uncharted Waters”). For inspiration, Pacey has been repeatedly re-watching Jerry Maguire, because he’s inspired by the title character’s righteous moral center. Though it was a huge critical and commercial success, I find Jerry Maguire to be one of the least watchable movies of the ‘90s and the beginning of the end for Cameron Crowe. Come at me.
-I don’t know what it is, but I really missed “I Don’t Want to Wait” this week, so I watched the song’s music video on YouTube. What a ridiculous video!
-Speaking of music, this episode originally featured three separate songs by alt-pop never-weres the Din Pedals, who I know primarily from their presence on the soundtrack to I Know What You Did Last Summer. “Waterfall” is a jam but I can’t speak for the rest of their self-titled debut because I’ve never heard it (though the singer for the band later formed a group called Paloalto, whose 2000 debut is a pretty good American Radiohead simulacra).
-The closing song from this episode is actually preserved from the original broadcast. It’s a tune called “Wait for the Way” by Beth Nielson Chapman, who was an absolute Creek staple (her music appeared in six different episodes)
-At the jazz club, both Joey and Dawson beg off the martinis Ty orders them (they order co*kes instead). But in the next episode, Dawson is very comfortable drinking in a blues club. Foreshadowing!
-While Ty is on stage playing jazz piano (sure!), Dawson good-naturedly notes that out on the town sitting in between two girls who dumped him. It’s a sweet moment and a reminder of how far we’ve deviated from the core love triangle of season one.
