Again With This: Dawson's, Melrose, 90210

Having apparently exhausted his usefulness at home, Gale sends him to Worthington to hang out with Joey for a couple of days. Given Dawson's lack of interest in her when she was home for the funeral, she is nervous as hell about how the visit's going to go. Once he gets there, he doesn't seem especially psyched to watch a movie on her tiny TV even before they get to a scene that too closely mirror...

Mitch is dead, and everyone's stopped their lives to deal with it. All the Boston students, plus Grams and Pacey, come back for the funeral. (Evidently all Pacey's relatives -- including Gretchen, who lives less than a half-day's drive away -- had better things to do.) Jen doesn't know how to help Dawson, and says so to him. Joey thinks she does, and gets rebuffed. Dawson himself is handling as mu...

It turns out Danny's restaurant is quite a hot spot, which is how a scenester like Joey (sarcasm) happens to be there on one of Pacey's first nights working there. Jen readily confesses everything she knows about his time in Boston, including that THIS chance glimpse really did happen by chance, since Jen didn't know he worked there. Once Joey has heard that Pacey asked Jen not to tell Joey he was...

We’re off this week but we bring you two Again With Again With This episodes from the club vault. AWAWT 172: Let's Watch Linda Gray AND Donna Mills In  Ladies Of The '80s: A Divas Christmas ! Life imitates art -- or maybe Lifetime imitates soaps -- as a bunch of daytime divas from an earlier age reunite for a special episode of their old show, and help a couple of young people out of their own way...

Dawson having shown up in Boston as none of us particularly wanted him to, he's had a delightful weekend (offscreen) with Joey. That all changes on his last day when he finally thinks to call his USC dorm room for the one and only message on his answering machine: the one Joey left, while drunk at a frat party, telling him that SHE. Is OVER. HIM. Or something like that. Suddenly, Dawson is incense...

Joey is working hard to deserve her spot at Worthington -- not just studying but grade-grubbing, particularly with her creative writing instructor Professor Wilder (Ken Marino!), and getting a reputation as an enemy of fun with her free-spirited roommate Audrey (Busy Philipps!). Over at Boston Bay College, Jack is trying to stay faithful in his long-distance relationship with Tobey while trying to...

Dawson, naturally, got into the USC summer program, so we join him on his last day in Capeside. It's hard! His father is being very bossy about what kind of laptop Dawson should get and with whom he should be spending his last dinner before college. His ex-girlfriends Jen and Joey keep bringing up stuff they talked about three seasons ago. His absent best friend Pacey is phoning from "paradise" to...

We’re off this week but we bring you two Again With Again With This episodes from the club vault. AWAWT 217: Let's Watch Emma Caulfield Ford In A Thanksgiving Episode Of Buffy The Vampire Slayer! When Joyce goes out of town for Thanksgiving, Buffy (the character) decides to put on a Thanksgiving dinner, and Buffy (the show) stays on theme not just by making the monster of the week the ghost of a C...

What comes after the episode after the prom? Graduation, of course! Joey is stressed about the speech she'll have to give as winner of the Pinnacle Award; it's a good thing Bessie had a premortem letter from their poor dead mom to hand off and inspire her. Pacey is stressed about passing enough exams to graduate with his friends, and while he's not as big a monster about it as David Silver was whe...

After the high emotion of "Promicide," couldn't we all use a little breather? (Also, let's be real: in a 23-episode season, you can't go straight from prom to commencement anyway.) Dawson is very slowly getting used to the idea of having lost Gretchen when Gale announces that she's leaving town, so he better try to get what closure he can in a hurry. Joey's moping around her Yacht Club shift when...

We've dealt with everyone hearing back from colleges, and you know what that means: it's time for prom! Joey's going with Pacey, even though he seems to have lost interest in kissing or looking at her. Jen and Jack are supposed to go as friends, but Jen is pretty determined to set Jack up with Tobey. And Dawson's going with Gretchen, who can't help remembering that...she's already done all this. E...

It's tough to be pregnant on TV! If your supposed loved ones aren't making snarky comments about how big you got to GROW A HUMAN PERSON INSIDE YOU, you're the butt of the "joke" of at least one and maybe several bouts of false labor. Ha ha ha? But not really. Poor Gale. Anyway: the Leery baby is two weeks overdue and it's an issue. When he's not hovering around Gale, however, Dawson has time to ho...

It's Ditch Day for the seniors of Capeside High, but the ones we're watching are hardly enjoying carefree time off from school. Jen gets Joey to come with her for an interview with an admissions guy at the University of New York. Joey is excited to see all the sights on her list during her first-ever trip to the city, but she can tell Jen isn't doing so well and abandons her plans to look after he...

It's April, which means envelopes fat and thin are arriving in Capeside. Joey is jealous of the pile of acceptances Jack secured for himself and Jen, but doesn't need to be for long: she finds out she's been admitted to Worthington at the very same moment Dawson hears he's been rejected by NYU Film School. While Gretchen bucks Dawson up by reminding him that Mr. Brooks never went to film school, a...

We're firmly in the last third of the episodes set in our cast's senior year of high school, which means it's time to reveal the winners of the senior poll. Somehow, Drue has weaseled his way into a position of moderate authority on the yearbook staff, apparently just to rig it so that the Class Couple is Joey...and Dawson?! Joey then has to downshift from acting like she doesn't care but is worri...

After the events of the last episode, someone evidently decided the viewer needed to zoom in on various small groups of characters for some very intimate time. When Drue tricks Mr. Kasdan into leaving Joey and Pacey at the lodge, they discuss their night together, but Pacey's compliment-fishing puts Joey off. After Mr. Brooks's poorly attended offscreen funeral, Gretchen and Grams have to tag-team...

That senior ski trip Joey debased herself for in the previous episode: it's here! Pacey's trying to be breezy about it, given the uncomfortable sex conversation he and Joey had about it last week, but Joey's making that difficult. Sharing a hotel room with a longtime boyfriend who loves you and wants to have undoubtedly very gentle sex with you? Joey, some people have real problems. Like, for inst...

Dawson is wrapping up his work on the A.I. Brooks documentary just as A.I. Brooks is wrapping up his affairs on earth, furtively hiding pills and getting Dawson to sign paperwork without giving him time to read it. Dawson might not have taken the time anyway, since he's focused on a big milestone with Gretchen: meeting her friends. Going out to a show with a couple of Gretchen's college friends th...

Turning 18 puts a person through changes. For example, Pacey's decided HIS 18th birthday should be at a completely different time of year than his 16th. But never mind! He complains to Joey that his birthday is cursed, so all he wants to do this year is chill out at home with her, and she promises they will, and we all know that means she's implicated in his surprise party. The event -- to be held...

We’re off this week but we bring you two Again With Again With This episodes chock full of drawl. AWAWT 226: Let's Watch James Van Der Beek And Ali Larter In  Varsity Blues ! In a small Texas town, high school football is everything . But when a golden Florida State-bound quarterback (Paul Walker) suffers a career-ending injury, can his Vonnegut-reading understudy (James Van Der Beek) save the sea...

Dawson decides to be the change he wants to see in the world, telling Pacey directly that he like -likes Gretchen before anything really happens between them. Predictably, Pacey's not about it, which is why the timing is perfect for him to accompany her to her college town to pick up the car she left there: Pacey knows this will necessitate interaction between Gretchen and her ex-boyfriend Nick (C...

Everyone is abuzz about the big kiss at the party in the previous episode. What did it mean? Was it strictly mistletoe-related, or should everyone be monitoring Dawson and Gretchen for couple-iness? Joey is clearly preoccupied yet also unable to talk about it like an adult, biting Pacey's head off when he tries to bring it up and finally kicking him out because he's...being too nice and offering t...

It's Christmastime, but don't get too excited for the merriment yet: college application stress looms over (nearly) everyone. Not Joey, of course, who's invited to a Yacht Club dinner for prospective students of Worthington University. She spends so much effort convincing Pacey to go that she completely forgets how much she clenches up any time she's near a cloth napkin or multi-fork table setting...

When Principal Peskin (Harry Shearer!) sees at the same time as most of his students that his little sailboat AND dog have been relocated into the indoor pool at Capeside High, he has GOT to find out who's behind the prank. When he narrows the suspects down to our three opening-credits boys, he and Mitch tag-team their interrogation of what they were each doing the previous day. We hear all about...

In the wake of Andie's supposedly nearly fatal drug interaction at the rave, the Capeside friend group is in tatters. Even though Andie has been very clear in stating that Jen is not to blame for what happened, neither Jack nor Pacey can forgive her. When Jen won't oblige Drue by forsaking hope of making up with them and running to him instead, he schemes to FORCE her to spend time with him by con...