The opening scene is a continuation of the closing scene from last season: The exterior of Dawson's house, then it zooms in to show the two silhouettes kissing. They kiss a little more and when they break apart, Joey says "What was that?" very confused. Dawson replies, smiling, "A ... kiss." Joey is stunned, she says "You ... kissed me." in this voice full of shock and amazement and happiness. She's grinning right back at him, they get really close to kissing again, and he says something like "Now what?" as in, do they do it again, do they just stop, what's going on here? Joey's defense mechanisms go up instantly, she's afraid he's regretting it already, and she walks away and sits on the bed. They play this little cat-and-mouse game of "what do you want to do now, I don't know, what do you want to do now? I don't know" back and forth for a minute or two, then Joey says they should sleep on it. Dawson agrees, smiling, assuming she means she's sleeping over. She says, "Not together, Dawson! Me in my bed and you in your bed." He gets silly like a babbling idiot and goes "Of course, I knew that was what you meant, we'll talk about it in the morning, we'll wake up and it'll be like this never happened." (why he said that, I do NOT know, she looked so hurt) Joey says "Is that what you want, Dawson? To pretend this never happened? Fine then! Poof! It never happened." And she starts to walk towards the window and leave. He comes to his senses and runs after her, grabs her, and says "Joey! Don't you even THINK about climbing through that window." She grins at him, he grins back at her, they embrace, and the scene fades out.
Already, I was thrilled. I just think they're so adorable together! The opening credits have changed slightly ... the theme song is still Paula Cole's "I Don't Wanna Wait" but the little opening scenes are different, better in my opinion. More beach shots of the 4 of them, a lot of playing around, James piggybacking Katie, Michelle laughing at the camera, Josh falling in the sand. It's cute. James is still the first actor introduced, but Katie is next (she was last, last season, I guess this is due to her rise in popularity), then Michelle, then Josh. The new characters are NOT in the opening credits, I have been told on the Internet that they are going to be treated as "guest stars" all season, and just be eased into the cast bit by bit, which I think is good.
Okay, on with the show. The next scene cracked me up -- Dawson and Pacey are at a BEAUTY PARLOUR, getting their hair done (I guess that's how the writers incorporated the guys' new 'dos, very clever!), and are mulling over the infamous kiss. Pacey didn't sound jealous, mostly relieved and pleased. Although he did ask Dawson if Joey and he had had sex (I can't remember the exact way he phrased it, but it was funny). Dawson said no, disgustedly and went on to describe the kiss as "the most romantic, fourth of July, fireworks, falling in the sand, perfect kiss" he'd ever had, again with the goofy grin on his face.
Meanwhile, Bessie is goading Joey for details, Joey's perkier than usual and Bessie picks up on it right away. Joey spills, but not too much. Bessie inquires if there was more going on than just a kiss, and Joey gets very huffy and defensive. Then they have a talk where Bessie says the first kiss is always full of passion, and not thought out, it's just instinct, but how the second kiss is the real teller, because you have time to think about and plan it.
Pacey, at the beauty salon, decided to get his "tips frosted" for a whole new look. It seems that Dawson & Joey hooking up has inspired him to go on a self-improvement kick and he thinks he can conquer the world now (or at least the unsuspecting females of Capeside High). He has these mirrored sunglasses on, and is walking down the street when he sees his dad's patrol car, so for some inexplicable reason, he gets in and starts it up (he must have magic fingers or something, every car he gets into has no keys but he can start it up regardless in less than 3 seconds!). He starts to drive off down the road, when this girl in a Saab comes along and bumps fenders with him ... Andie, of course.
Andie gets out of the car and is totally apologetic and almost in tears because she thinks she's hit a cop car. Pacey, never one to shy away from this type of situation, realizes she's mistaken him for a cop (must be the mirrored sunglasses, cause he wasn't in uniform, how many cops do you know who wear stripey t-shirts and shorts?) and plays up the situation for all its worth. He even gets her licence and registration, which leads him to discover she's got a Rhode Island driver's licence and lives in a very nice area of town. She's still babbling and almost on the point of tears, because she thinks he's going to give her a ticket. He rubs it in and carries the joke along for a bit, then lets her off but tells her "Officer Pacey" is going to be keeping an eye on her. She's so grateful to be let off, she thanks him a thousand times and drives away.
Andie looks a lot like Jennifer Love Hewitt (Party of Five) but with blonde, shoulder-length hair. She has a nice smile, and is really tiny, the actress who plays her (Meredith Munroe) is at least a foot shorter than Josh Jackson. I kinda liked her character on the show, she didn't try too hard, she didn't overact, she seems hyper and neurotic and talks a mile a minute but she can be sarcastic, too. I think her and Pacey are going to be great together -- hopefully the Joey / Pacey fans will give it a rest now, because I have a feeling these two are going to have better chemistry than Joey & Pacey ever did. Joey's gone a bit soft now that she's finally gotten her man, she isn't so biting and caustic. Andie seems to have no problem taking that aspect of her personality over, though.
In school next, we see Joey in the hall thanking her teacher for the opportunity but declining to go to France. Dawson comes over, and you can tell he wants to kiss her, and she wants to kiss him, but they're both a little awkward and don't quite know what to do. She tells him she isn't going to France and he hugs her and picks her up, they still have their arms wrapped around each other, she tells him she is staying for a number of reasons, including "this guy" she met, and she says if he's nice, she'll introduce Dawson to him, smiling. He leans over and whispers in her ear "He's a lucky guy." He almost kisses her again, and makes some comment about being aroused (where the hell did he get all this assertiveness and forwardness from all of a sudden?) but she gets all antsy and walks away, down the hall.
Dawson chases after her and asks what's wrong, she expresses a little doubt about how they were platonic for so long, and now they're all gropey and that it seems to be a little too much too soon. He says that he wants to take her out on a date, she says (in what I thought was one of the funniest lines in the episode) "Can't tonight, I'm going to stay in and watch TV, I hear Luke Perry's back on 90210." Cute. So he says he is going to take her to the Rialto on Saturday, because they are tearing it down. She smiles and says "Are you sure you'll still be ... aroused ... on Saturday?" And he says he can almost guarantee it. (Not a mental image I particularly wanted, but anyway ...)
They almost kiss again, and then Jen walks up and announces her grandfather died yesterday. She looked really odd, she announced it with this smile on her face, she looked positively moronic. I guess it was her way of expressing grief, but she looked like she was on drugs! So she tells them she's going to ditch school, and walks off. Joey tells Dawson go and talk to her, which he does, leaving Joey in the hall.
Further down the hall, Andie sees "Officer Pacey" telling a couple of guys (who are these people anyway? Everyone knows Pacey doesn't have any friends!!) about what he did to her with the whole police thing. She storms over and tells him he can get in a lot of trouble for impersonating a police officer and how she has a good mind to go to the police right now, he laughs and says that should be interesting seeing as how his father's the sheriff. They banter back and forth for a minute, then Kristy, the head cheerleader walks past and says hi to Andie. Pacey says hi to her, she ignores him. Pacey asks Andie how she knows Kristy, and Andie replies that SOME people make an effort to make a newcomer feel welcome. Then she says she will arrange an introduction to Kristy for Pacey.
So, in front of the school, Andie goes up to Kristy and says something, then goes over to Pacey and tells him to go for it. He goes over and asks her out, to his surprise, she says yes. While Pacey is waiting for Andie to talk to Kristy, he makes up this stupid limerick, it's so funny: "There once was a girl called Kristy, Thinking about her nude makes me misty, (I can't remember the next 2 lines -- sorry!) ... by the end of the night she'll have kissed me!" You had to hear the way he said it, it was hilarious.
Anyway, Dawson goes and talks to Jen, who is in her back garden, moping. He gives her a hug and tries to be a friend, he tells her to get out and do things, because it's a beautiful day (okay, the boy is seriously in love when he starts speaking like that!) and she shouldn't sit around. Jen makes some comment about Dawson and her getting back together, he tells her that he and Joey have something going on now. She doesn't take this too well. He gives her a hug and tells her to cheer up, she won't let go of him, he has to break away from her.
Joey, meanwhile, is getting ready for her date and doesn't know what to wear, how to do her hair ... she even puts on a little make up. Bessie waits with her on the dock, and asks if she's okay. Joey says she's fine, she just thinks her new relationship is a little weird. Bessie asks if the kiss was weird. Joey says no, the kiss felt pretty right, but it's everything else that takes a little getting used to. Just then Dawson pulls up in a speedboat (Okay, I thought that was really cheesy, where the hell did that come from all of a sudden?) and gets out, he picks a wildflower for her, and gives it to her, they're both grinning like idiots. It was too cute.
Joey makes some crack about how the date will be okay because at least they won't have to wonder if they're going to kiss at the end of the night, and how they can just move along to the next stage and "hump like porn stars" because they've already got the kissing thing out of the way. Dawson says "I have absolutely no problem with that" (yep, I can see it now, these two can kiss their virginity goodbye by the end of the season, mark my words) and Joey says she knows a really cheap motel just up the road ... (maybe the same one they stayed in when they visited her dad? Ya never know ... and what's with two 15-year-olds actually getting a hotel room in that episode, anyway? Okay, I know ... different episode, different season. Right, right. On with the program ...) After the porn star crack, they both start laughing. Then Dawson says he wants to start off very slowly, with something that isn't in the "Penthouse Forum" -- he says "I would really like to ... hold your hand." So, they entwine hands and head out to the movie theater.
Dawson's dad, meanwhile, has seen a divorce lawyer behind his mother's back. Gail tries to have sex with him one morning, and he brushes her off. Then she's late coming home and truthfully tells him it was because a meeting ran late and there was traffic. He tells her to relax, he heard about the traffic jam on the highway. Later on, she discovers the card from the divorce attorney and confronts him. He says he just wanted to consider his options. She tells him he has two options -- he can either stay and give her a legitimate second chance, or their marriage can become a statistic. He says he doesn't know which one he wants to do, and that he doesn't know if he can stay married to a woman he loves and hates in equal measure.
At the Rialto, Jen's grandmother is sitting alone, and Joey and Dawson sit together. They're grinning at each other again, mustering up the courage to kiss, when suddenly, the lights go down. So they just hold hands, instead. All of a sudden, Jen walks in and sits down beside them. Joey is NOT impressed, Dawson asks Jen what she's doing there, she says she's following his advice (to get out of the house). Dawson turns to Joey and says he didn't mean it like that, or something, then Jen gets upset and says she's intruded, she isn't welcome and she leaves. Dawson turns to Joey, tells her he'll be right back, and goes out after her.
Pacey, meanwhile is waiting and waiting for Kristy to show up, singing his limerick over and over again. She finally shows up and tells him she can't stay, she just thinks it's really brave of him to ask her out considering his "condition." What condition, he asks. You know, your heart stripe, she tells him. Right, he replies, clearly confused. She tells him she has a boyfriend, and this is their 5 week anniversary, but that she admires him a lot as a person. Then she leaves. Pacey begins to realize what Andie has done, and he is clearly pissed.
Back at the movies, Dawson finds Jen in the lobby and they have a discussion. Jen tells Dawson how much her life sucks, how hard it is for her to deal with her grandfather and also Dawson & Joey and that if she sees them together, she won't be able to handle it. Then she asks Dawson if she was just a distraction for him so he could figure out who he really was in love with all along. He says no, that the two of them had a lot of fun together. She asks him quite bluntly if he's nailed Joey yet (not using those words, I can't remember how she phrased it), he vehemently says "NO!" He feeds her all these things she doesn't want to hear, how he wants to be her friend, how she just needs time, how it'll be okay and she just flips out and tells him he may as well get her a razor blade right now (I was like, Here, Jen! I've got a whole packet!!), and he says "Don't even joke about that." She counters that her whole life is a joke.
Pacey goes into a drugstore and picks up hairdye. He's contemplating going brunet again, because the whole makeover thing obviously didn't work out the way he wanted. Andie is there, he starts ranting about what she did with Kristy, she considers it payback for what he did with the cop car. She tells him he should dye his hair back because it looks awful the way it is. They exchange a few sarcastic remarks and she saunters off. He watches her go, and this look crosses his face, the same look as when he was watching Joey change in the rear view mirror in "Modern Romance." There's definite interest there, all that arguing has charged the atmosphere with sexual tension, at least on his part.
Dawson goes back inside the theatre, to find only the flower he picked for Joey on the seat where she should be. He looks high and low all over town for her and finally finds her at the park.
Meanwhile, the movie is over, and Jen is sitting in the back by herself. Her grandmother spots her as she is leaving, and they come over and have a heart-to-heart. Jen says Grams is probably her best friend now, and if that's the case, she feels really sorry for Grams. Grams hugs her and they bond.
At the park, Dawson tells Joey yet again that there is nothing going on between him and Jen. Joey believes him, but she's still upset about herself and Dawson. She says if things were complicated when they were just friends, they are going to be even more complicated now. He disagrees, saying that things between them are totally simple now, and that everything has finally fallen into place, smooth sailing from here on in. She tells him that the reason she didn't go to France wasn't JUST because of him, it also had a lot to do with facing her own problems. She says that in France she could be a whole new person, not Joey the waitress, Joey the daughter of a convict, Joey half of the "will they or won't they couple of the century" (another sly dig by the show's writers ... I love this stuff!) but that she'd just be running away from it all, and that it would have been the easy way out. To stay and face her fears and her problems is harder, but that's what she feels she has to do in order to get past them.
Dawson tells her that even though she didn't go to France, there's still a lot of the Francophone experience to be had in Capeside. He pretends the pond is the River Seine, and that they are walking along the Champs d'Elysees. And he points out, though Capeside has no Eiffel Tower, they do have a swing set, as they both climb on the swings (separately -- in the commercials/promos, we were led to believe she climbed on his lap and they swung together, not the case). She says what other French things are there in town? He says "French fries" and moves closer to her face with that loony smile again. She replies "French toast" with an equally silly grin and moves closer to him. Put 2 and 2 together and you know what's coming next ... that long-awaited second kiss.
They go at it while this really awful song plays in the background (very distracting for me, anyway) and when they break away, she smiles and whispers "French kiss" (oddly enough, the name of my fan fic! Which also had the two of them trying but unable to kiss each other until the very end, but enough with the shameless self plug!). She whispers "the second kiss, the planned one" with this dreamy smile. He smiles back and says something to the effect of it putting him in the mood for a third one, and leans in to kiss her again.
Fade to black ...