"You're life IS a hurricane....fasten your seatbelt,
it's gonna be a bumpy life" Joey Potter, "Blown Away"
Episode 5: "Blown Away"
(aired February 3)
The winds are picking up in Capeside because of a hurricane passing
through (hurricane Chris). Dawson and Joey are watching movies as usual and
trying to decide what to watch next. Just then the weather report informs
them that there has been a school cancellation in Capeside due to the
hurricane. They high-five, happy as all normal teens would be at such
news. But when the station changes back to his mom and Bob, it drags
Dawson back into his gloomy mood. He changes his mind and asks Joey to
head home, because he's not feeling up to watching any more movies. Joey
tries to get him to talk, but he turns her down, so she leaves.
Eberyone in Capeside is hurricane proofing their houses and shops. Inside
Dawson's house, his mother is on the phone with her boss, accusing them
of being sexist for not letting her cover the hurricane, just because she
isn't a man. Exasperated, she tells her husband about the whole incident.
He tells her he's glad that she'll be stuck here with him the whole
afternoon and they begin to kiss. Dawson walks in and interrupts them
informing them that he's finished securing the front of the house. Mr.
Leary leaves to go invite Jen and her grams over to wait out the storm.
When he leaves, Dawson starts to praise his father to his mother, trying
to get her to admit something. She agrees and tries to change the subject
by asking him if he had secured the front porch yet. Dawson replies by
saying,"I'll get right on it, got to get ready for hurricane Bob", trying
to make his point. His mother corrects him and Dawson leaves, his mother
distressed that Dawson seems to know what's going on.
At the beach, Pacey is helping his brother, Deputy Doug, with the hurricane
preparations for the city. As they talk, Pacey tries to antagonize Doug
with his constant insinuations that Doug is gay and he should just come
out of the closet with it already. Doug explains away all of Pacey's
accusations. At Joey's home, Bodie and Bessy are arguing about whether
or not their child will be circumsised. Joey informs them that their
trivial argument won't mean a thing if they get blown away in the hurricane.
They agree, and decide to go to Dawson's house to wait out the storm.
While helping his brother, Pacey sees Tamara at home and offers to help her
with her house. Doug starts flirting with Tamara and Pacey becomes
extremely jealous. Because of the progression of the storm, Pacey and
Doug stay with Tamara at her house to keep her company. They both try
to win Tamara's affections, even to the point where Pacey tells Tamara that
Doug is gay (while he's off checking some other part of the house). When
Doug asks Tamara out on a romantic date, she lets him know that he doesn't
have to lie to her and that she knows that he's gay. Convinced that Pacey
had something to do with it, Doug pulls out his gun, points it at Pacey's
head and demands that he tell her it's not true. Tamara, frightened, tries
to say that it wasn't Pacey, she just knows because she's lived around
so many gay people back in her old neighborhood in New York. Doug dismisses
her pleas and continues to insist. Finally Pacey tells her it's not true
and Doug puts the gun away. He goes back to their game of monopoly as if
nothing had ever happened.
Jen and her grandmother decide to ride out the storm at Dawson's house, but
not without a lot of complaining from grams that she can take care of
herself and that God has control of her life whether she is at her house
or with them. Jen finds Dawson and confronts him about his cold behaviour
towards him. He claims it's just that he's preoccupied. Not satisfied
with that answer, she goes into the house. Inside, Jen's grandmother
is obviously judgmental about Bessy and her boyfriend, why they don't know.
They question her if it's because he's black, or because they are unmarried
and about to have a child together. She replies that she doesn't frown
down on either of those things, just children having children. Sternly,
Bessy replies that no matter what color her child is, it will be loved.
On the steps, Dawson comes across his mother talking to Bob and blowing him
kisses and such. This time he confronts her. He lets her know that he
knows what she's doing and how much he disapproves of it all. As Dawson
tries to walk away, she stops him saying that they need to talk. As she
stumbles for words to redeem herself, Dawson reminds her that he's not the
one she should be talking to, but his father, her husband. He storms off.
In his room, Jen is waiting. He starts to vent about his parents perfect
life on the outside, but how his mother just decided his dad isn't enough
and finds someone else to be with and how he just can't understand why.
He continues to rant about why people don't stay together anymore and tries
to come up with a reason for this problem. As he's talking, Jen tells him
that his mother is a good woman. Dawson, in anger, replies that she would
defend her. Jen demands an explanation of what he means by that statement,
because it seems that he's throwing back in her face all the men she's slept
with. Angrily she informs Dawson that not everyone is perfect and some
people live in reality. With that she leaves. Exasperated, Dawson falls
back on his bed when suddenly he hears a sneeze coming from his closet.
He opens the door, upset to find Joey there. Joey tries to get him to
think about the past trying to cheer him up. Dawson tells her that they
aren't kids anymore and that they can't act like kids anymore. Joey tries
to talk to him, letting him know that she understands what he's going
through (since her father cheated on her mother). Dawson asks her to leave
before he says something that he'll regret. Angered by this, Joey reminds
him that instead of wondering why his mother would do all these terrible
things, he should be thankful he has a mother (her mother died of cancer
recently). She walks out of the room before he can say anything.
Mrs. Leary finds Joey sitting on the stairs, and tells her that she
is going to end the relationship and tell Dawson's father. She finds
Dawson and his father in the study and she tells them that they need to
talk. She begins babbling about her life and her aspirations and how
the biggest one, being a popular news journalist, hasn't come true. Mr.
Leary tells her to get to the point, and she tells him flat out that she's
been sleeping with another man for the past 2 months. Just then the power
goes out. Mr. Leary starts avoiding the issue and tries to find candles
and lanterns and other such items. In his anger he knocks over a table and
Mrs. Leary begins to cry. He tells her sternly to not cry, that she
doesn't get to cry and he storms out.
Jen finds Joey out front on the porch, watching Mr. Leary in his car. They
start talking about Dawson and his ego and even about more personal
information, joking back and forth with each other. Joey tells Jen that
Dawson was wrong for spewing his anger at his mom at her. Inside, Dawson
is trying to clean up the mess his father had made when he turned over the
table, when Jen's grandmother walks in. She offers Dawson some advice
on forgiveness, and how sometimes the turmoil in poeple's lives can bring
them wonderful things (like rain brings rainbows...yadda yadda yadda). She
suggests that from what she's seen of his life so far, he better buy
himself a good umbrella.
Outside, Mrs. Leary joins her husband in the car. He asks her if the man is
Bob. She doesn't answer, so he takes it as a yes. He starts talking about
the day he first met her, and how that moment he knew that he loved her. He
had made the decision to love her that quickly. But, he tells her that
he's taking it back,and that know he chooses to hate her. As she cries, he
yells at her to get out of the car. She gets out, and he speeds away,
leaving her standing there, crying, in the rain.
When the storm breaks, Tamara thanks Doug and Pacey for staying with
her. Doug apologizes to Tamara for the gun play and asks if she would
still like to go out with him. She turns him down and tells him that she
can't because she's seeing someone, which makes Pacey very happy. Doug
leaves but Pacey hangs back to talk to Tamara. She tells him once again
that they have to end this relationship. He asks her what she would
do right at that moment if she could do any one thing. She pulls
him into her house to show him.
At Dawson's he runs into Jen as she's leaving and tries to apologize.
Jen stops him and makes him listen to her. She tells him about how she
lost her virginity. She also tells him about her alcohol abuse and
promiscuity and how she regrets that it all happened. She can't change
what happened but she knows that that isn't her, and neither is Dawson's
idealized perception of her. She hasn't figured out who she is yet, but
she'd like Dawson to be a part of her new life. Dawson tells her he'd
love to be a part of her life, only if she'll forgive him for being such a
jerk. They hug and Jen accepts him back. Outside, Dawson's father returns
and sits out in front of the porch while his wife sits inside the porch.
He asks her why she had the affair. She tells him that he's not going to
like the answer, but the reason was that she had everything in her life, and
that she wanted for nothing. She just wanted to want again. But now
she wants back everything that she lost. She apologizes, but he hushes her
and they just sit there...not talking.
Upstairs, Dawson finds Joey in his room. He apologizes for being insensitive
and wants to make things up to her. Of course Joey apologizes back for
throwing her mother's death back at him. He sits beside her and tells Joey
that he doesn't know what he'd do if he lost his mother. Joey talks about
how people make mistakes, but that once their gone, you can't remember
any mistakes they make. He asks Joey what he could do to be a good friend
and Joey asks if they can put their growing up on hold. Dawson takes
her hand and leads her into his closet where they laugh as they reinnact
scenes from 'Jaws' like they used to when they were younger...
