April 29, 2012

Dawson’s Creek 5.7, Text, Lies and Videotape: Blue I.V.

Posted in TV tagged , , , , , at 5:38 pm by Jenn

Hey, Karen, you know you're crazy for wanting Danny over Pacey, right?

Summary: Dawson and Jen are in downtown Boston, where he’s about to meet with the therapist he previously skipped out on seeing. Jen tells him therapy isn’t that bad. Dawson thinks he’ll feel weird talking to a stranger. Jen points out that she talks to strangers all the time on the radio (so apparently she’s been doing that).

Audrey has borrowed a video camera so she can film an audition tape for The Real World: Ibiza. She hasn’t decided who to be: “vamp, vixen, or all-out slut?” Joey’s getting ready for a meeting with Professor Wilder and the other students working on his estate project. She feels self-conscious because the other students are upperclassmen. Audrey thinks Wilder chose her for the project because she’s hot.

Danny works with Pacey on crepes for a big party at the restaurant the next night. Pacey listens while Danny and Karen chat, then asks if Danny’s wife will be at the party. Dawson meets his therapist, Dr. Rachel Weir, who quickly puts him at ease. She wonders whether his panic attacks are really the result of Mitch’s death.

Dawson admits that his life is completely different from how he thought it would be six months ago. He’s also not sure he wants to continue studying film. Dr. Weir tells him that the human brain isn’t set up to deal with trauma. If he’s lying to himself about his life, that’s okay. He just has to keep himself from believing those lies.

Wilder and his students discuss the letters written by Rose Lazar, the woman whose estate they’re dealing with. The letters are to someone named I.V., but no one knows who that is. Rose obviously cared about this person and was at her most honest when writing to him or her. Wilder asks the students to brainstorm ideas of who I.V. is.

Karen asks Pacey if he wants her to set him up with one of her friends. Pacey’s not in the mood for their usual banter and flirting now that he knows about Danny and Karen’s affair. He asks if Karen’s boyfriend’s coming to the party, noting that they’ve worked together for months and Pacey has never met him. He asks if the boyfriend ever takes her to a sailboat in the harbor.

Karen’s surprised that Pacey knows about the affair, since she didn’t know they were using his boat. She tells him it’s none of his business. Pacey disagrees, since he had to lie to Danny’s wife for Karen. Karen shoots back that in the real world, some people have to do things they don’t want to, and if Pacey isn’t mature enough to deal with it, he should stay out of it.

Back in Capeside, Gail asks Dawson about his therapy session, telling him that sooner or later, things will have to start going back to normal. He wonders what normal is. They meet with a lawyer about Mitch’s will, which he didn’t rewrite to include Lily after her birth. He suggests that Gail and Dawson look around the house for anything Mitch might have written down.

Wilder thinks Joey’s bored with the Lazar project, and she tells him she thinks the letters are boring. She’s in disagreement with a classmate who suspects they were to a secret lesbian lover. Joey says that if they were love letters, they wouldn’t be as honest as they are. People are more open with their friends. Wilder guesses that this means she doesn’t think people can be both friends and lovers. He helps Joey get to the idea that I.V. was a friend from Worthington.

Dawson searches the Leerys’ house, despite having told Gail that he was done. She’s starting to worry about his obsession. Also, she found an updated will, but Mitch never signed it. Joey goes to the Worthington library to look at Lazar’s yearbook, which her classmate, Cassandra, is already studying. She jokes that she’s only part of the project to be near Wilder.

Karen goes by Pacey’s boat and apologizes for putting him in the middle of her relationship with Danny, then being mean when he called her on it. Pacey reminds her of Danny. She excuses their affair by saying that Emily had left Danny when he and Karen first got together. He went back to Emily because he thought they could work things out. His optimism is the similarity she sees between Danny and Pacey.

Dr. Weir wants to see Dawson three times a week, which Jen thinks is a good idea, especially since it means she’ll get to see him more often, too. He tells her about the will and what Gail sees as a technicality that excludes Lily. Jen agrees that it was a mistake that Dawson shouldn’t read too much into. She’s worried that he’ll let Mitch’s error change him.

Audrey shows Joey some possible clips for her audition video, including one where she talks about having to forgive her mother before she can become the person she needs to be. She thinks she’s turning into her mother in some ways, and though she might not like her, she knows who that person is. If Audrey tried to change, she wouldn’t know who she might be. Joey has an epiphany and praises Audrey for being herself and not being afraid to look bad.

As the restaurant staff prepares for the party, Danny dances playfully with Karen, stopping suddenly when Pacey lets him know that Emily’s there. She’s oblivious and takes Danny away to dance for real. Pacey asks how Karen is, and she lies that she’s fine; what does he care anyway? He tells her he wants to be her friend – obviously she doesn’t have any or they would have told her that her affair is a horrible idea. Karen already knows Danny won’t leave Emily for her.

Dawson tells Dr. Weir that he’s mad about Mitch’s will but won’t allow himself to be. She points out that Mitch was mad at him. He wanted Dawson to go back to California, but that could have been because of his own expectations and reasons. Dawson feels angry about the last night he and Mitch talked, and Dr. Weir tells him it’s okay for him to feel that way. He just needs to decide what to do with his own life. Dr. Weir thinks he already knows what’s right for him.

Pacey spots Karen moping at the party and tries to cheer her up. She asks if he’s ever wanted to be someone else. (Yes, he’d like to be Harrison Ford in Raiders of the Lost Ark.) They pretend to be other people, then dance. Karen loses her cool and announces that she wants to talk to Danny, but Pacey won’t let her, asking what she would say anyway.

Wilder and his students meet again, and Cassandra says she thinks the letters were to another writer, since Lazar talks about writing so much. Joey shares her theories that Lazar wrote the letters to herself as a sort of journal. She was the only person she felt comfortable sharing her fears and insecurities with. Wilder and the other students agree. After the other students leave, Wilder and Joey talk about Kafka and his fiancée, Felice, who had a “will they/won’t they” relationship (as Wilder describes it). “Ultimately, nothing happened,” he foreshadows.

Joey asks if Wilder really thinks she’s right about I.V. being Lazar. He says that as a freshman, her mind is more open than the other students’. Joey’s slowing down to learn rather than racing to keep up and pretending to know things she doesn’t. If you’re comfortable not knowing, you can learn anything. Joey admits that she felt insecure for a while. She thanks Wilder for picking her for the project, and he thanks her for sticking with it.

Dawson gets in his car to head back to Capeside and hears Jen play a song for him. Joey tells Audrey that she figured out the mystery of the letters from Audrey’s tape. Audrey thinks something happened between Joey and Wilder after the others left. Joey claims not to care that she impressed Wilder or that he thinks she’s special.

Pacey visits Karen at her house, bringing food from the party. She thanks him for all of the advice he’s tried to give her. She’s upset that Danny was all loving with Emily, as if Karen wasn’t even there. She knows she needs to end the relationship. Pacey tells her to change her dating pattern, and she asks if that means the two of them should get together. Just then, Danny leaves a message on her answering machine apologizing for putting her in the middle of his complicated life. Pacey leaves.

Back at home, Dawson gets a letter informing him that he won a film festival in New Hampshire, even though he never entered one. Gail tells him that Mitch entered him. Dawson announces that he’s not going back to USC, and his mother says that fine – she doesn’t want him to do something he doesn’t want to because he feels an obligation to Mitch. She assures him that Mitch always knew the decision was up to Dawson. They start sharing memories about Mitch and admit how much they miss him.

Thoughts: In the Strange But True category: Dr. Weir is played by Pauley Perrette from NCIS.

Audrey to Joey: “How come your film geek looks like Tom Cruise?” Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Also, if Audrey thinks that’s what Dawson looks like, she needs glasses.

Danny’s not that awesome. How did he get two women?

I’d rather watch the rest of Audrey’s tape than anything involving Joey and Wilder.

Joey says “Derrida” and I have ‘Nam-like flashbacks to my college lit-theory course. I have to go lie down now.

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