In this great country of ours, there are certain moments where people can be split into two categories: religious vs. atheist, pro-choice vs. pro-life, Joey/Dawson vs. Joey/Pacey. Now, anybody who knows anything knows that I am a fervent Joey/Dawson supporter – and it’s not just blind hope: there’s a method to my madness. In the winter of 1998, “Dawson’s Creek” premiered on the WB to ecstatic critical acclaim and great fanfare. Similar in age group to the preceding “Beverly Hills 90210,” “Dawson’s” was a kinder, gentler version of that teen soap, but a teen soap nonetheless. Filmed in the quaint town of Wilmington, North Carolina, “Dawson’s Creek” had the look and feel of a warm breakfast on a Sunday morning, and dialogue of a hyperactive linguist sent back to high school with a vast understanding of one’s personal feelings. By no means realistic in speech and action, “D.C.” simply felt real, which is more than most shows can claim.
No one will argue with the first season of “Dawson’s Creek” being about nothing more or less than the question of “Will Dawson kiss Joey?” The show’s creator/(executive producer for the first two seasons) Kevin Williamson said these exact words. Sure, there was the distraction of Jen/Dawson, and even Pacey made a brief attempt at kissing Joey in one episode, but everyone was rooting for Dawson and Joey to get together. I hope I’m not giving anything away by saying that Dawson and Joey kiss at the end of the first season.
On the audio commentary for “The Complete Second Season,” executive producer (for all six seasons) Paul Stupin explains that when the writers were discussing plans for season two, there were two camps: one wanted to explore Dawson and Joey’s relationship throughout the entire second season, and another wanted to break them up as soon as possible (which is what happened six episodes into the season). Stupin admits that this was not the right decision to make because it didn’t pay off on what had been built up throughout the whole first season (which granted was shorter at 13 episodes). He goes on to say that Joey’s reason for breaking up with Dawson (a need to “find herself”) was ludicrous, and they knew it but by that point it was too far along to turn around.
If you have never seen “Dawson’s Creek” and want to watch it in the future, I implore you to read no further. In the book “Billion Dollar Kiss” (I didn’t just read it for the “Creek” info, it’s about writing for TV… I swear) written by Jeff Stepakoff (former “Dawson’s Creek” writer/co-executive producer), Stepakoff explains that when Kevin Williamson left the show at the end of the second season, he had driven the show into the ground. I’m inferring from this that a major problem was splitting up Dawson and Joey so soon. The last episode of season two ends with Joey having a wire on her to bug a conversation for police – not exactly your typical high school scenario.
Long story short, the writers were scrambling to come up with good story lines for season three. They weren’t getting written fast enough in L.A. to send to Wilmington, and James Van Der Beek (Dawson) refused to act because the scripts weren’t good enough. There was a period, Stepakoff writes, where the production studio considered pulling the plug on the whole show. Then, one of the writers said during a meeting, “What if Pacey kisses Joey?” There was stunned silence. Great opposition followed, but it was agreed that the compelling drama by such an event would propel the series on for several seasons, as it did. Stepakoff writes that the show had gone on for two years without knowing what it was about, and now it had it’s center: the show was about who gets to kiss Joey Potter.
Now, this would seem like a fair fight. Dawson had the whole first season and about a ¼ of the second to lay down some groundwork. If Pacey’s beginning in season three then he only has a 50-50 shot at winning, right?
Except that’s not how things turned out. The writers decided to spend the first half of season three developing Pacey and Joey’s friendship, the second half making them romantic and crushing Dawson with this knowledge, and then all of season four expanding their relationship in the way the writer’s should have in season two for Dawson and Joey. To top things off, Joey loses her V-card to Pacey – and then lies to Dawson about it!
Alas, all hope is not lost. In a great episode that made this man cry (I’m not ashamed), season four ends with Dawson going away to film school in California, and he and Joey reminiscing about their time together on his bed. This scene ends with a kiss, mirroring the end of season one, dashing away the wasted Pacey-time in seasons three and four and bringing the show back to the glory of how it began. I called up my friend (a fellow Dawson/Joey supporter) that night and she agreed with me that things would be right again in the world of the “Creek.” I mean, the writers came to their sense…right?
Wrong. Season five inexplicably begins with a college writing assignment where Joey explains that her and Dawson were just two friends making a mistake – the kiss leads nowhere. Seasons five and six are spent mucking around with various side characters and random whoevers – Pacey and Joey smooching here and there, Dawson and Joey finally consummating their love in season six only to split the next episode, but everything is basically up in the air until the series finale: a two hour episode co-written by the show’s creator, Kevin Williamson.
Now, mind you, Kevin Williamson had not been involved with the show for the four years since he left at the end of season two. In the series finale commentary, he admits he didn’t even watch many of the episodes from the seasons he didn’t work on. There’s more you should know: off-screen everyone got along fine, but Katie Holmes (Joey) and Joshua Jackson (Pacey) actually dated in real life for a few years. Furthermore, Kevin Williamson got along splendidly with Katie Holmes – staying up late on the phone eating pints of ice cream with her, casting her in his directorial debut, “Killing Mrs. Tingle” (later renamed “Teaching Mrs. Tingle” after Columbine). When Williamson sat down to write the series finale, he promised that he would finally decide whom Joey chose – Dawson or Pacey. He added that the choice was obvious and always had been, or something ridiculous to that effect. When you take into account all of the various relationships as well Van Der Beek’s troubles with the writers, things weren’t looking good.
I understand that since Williamson dug a hole for the writers before leaving at the end of season two that he made it impossible for Joey and Pacey to not get together in season three – there was nowhere else for the show to go. That being said, he created the show with the intent of Dawson and Joey getting together. That’s what “Dawson’s Creek” was about. You can tell where this is going, of course. Pacey and Joey are shown living together at the end and in scenes leading up to that, Joey tells Dawson she’ll always love him (like a brother or something), but my point is simply that Pacey and Joey don’t get married, so who knows what could happen in the future? Dawson and Joey made sense all through season one, for parts of season two, at the end of season four and at the beginning of season six. Certainly, Pacey is a charming character, but to get to root of what the series is about – romance winning out over cynicism and movies being an inspiring force in life (for the first few season every episode began with Dawson watching a movie – usually with Joey, later with other characters), the only true way to end the series is with Dawson and Joey getting together.
And no, I don’t get out much.
