The Importance of Not Being Too Earnest:
Written by: Anna Fricke
Directed by: Joanna Kerns
Original airdate: October 9, 2002
Synopsis:
Joey, distraught after her and Dawson’s fight, spends all night writing him an email. When she is finally ready to send it, she accidentally clicks on the all campus email address, sending it to every single person at the college. She awakens in the morning to find hundreds of responses to her and is shocked to see her mistake. Later when she gets to Professor Hetson’s class late, he uses her email to embarrass her yet again in front of the other students. Later at work, Joey has to contend with several patrons gossiping about her email until she tells them off before Emma rushes her away.
Pacey arrives at work and is reprimanded by Rinaldi for showing at 9, his assigned start time, instead of coming in early like some of the other trainees. He gives Pacey a collection of files of the hardest clients to sell stocks to and sets him at it. Pacey fails pretty badly, and Rinaldi talks to him about not trying to be the relatable plucky blue collar kid from southie who is trying to get a date on Friday night and to instead try to be who these guys want to be, the judgemental, racist, sexist, stereotype alpha male. Rinaldi warns him about his next file, Mr Topper, who is notoriously rich and notoriously stingy with his money, before taking Pacey out for a drive and a chat.
Audrey meanwhile is blowing off her actual classes to hang out with Jen and Jack at theirs, attending their pop culture class. Jen makes fun of Jack as he shushes them, and explains to Audrey that this is Scholarly Jack who is completely different from fun time Jack. Professor Freeman begins his class and lets them all know about a movie playing downtown that they should attend for the lesson. As Jack, Jen, and Audrey head downtown, Jack approaches Freeman waiting outside and when Freeman doesn’t recognize him, he introduces himself and heads inside.
Back at Hell’s Kitchen, Professor Hetson, a regular there, shows up and Joey has to serve him. The two get into a battle of words with Hetson telling her that all writers have to learn to accept being humiliated at times, and Joey counters with the idea that she wanted to be in his class in order to actually learn something from him. He says that her heartfelt rant was a good example for his lesson and that she should chalk this experience up to a victory, and if she is planning to stay in his class, to start proving that it’s worth it.
Rinaldi comments on Pacey’s messy car and upon getting to their destination, shows Pacey the car he just bought: an expensive top of the line Z8. Rinaldi tells Pacey that his car says that he is actually a man child, too weak for a real car, surrounded by things that are good but not good enough, that he doesn’t want to actually grow up and instead borrows his suits and lets his facial hair run amok. Upon returning to the office, Pacey takes the advice from Rinaldi to heart and manages to close a deal with Topper. He tells Rinaldi who is impressed, but then later takes credit for the sale, resulting in people fawning over Rinaldi’s talent. Pacey confronts him later about it, and Rinaldi brushes him off, saying that his getting the sale was a fluke, and that those types of deals aren’t handed off to the little guys like him, especially given that Pacey hasn’t taken his series 7 exam yet. Rinaldi says it bodes well for his future as a broker, but right now it means nothing. He tells Pacey that he can walk away if he wants to, as that is what he is used to doing, but this is what Rinaldi does and he is good at it. Before he leaves he tells Pacey that the same thing happened to him when he first started, before walking out the door.
After the movie downtown, Jack talks with Freeman after he is introduced to Jen and Audrey. The girls walk away to grab their car while Jack tells Freeman that he really enjoys his class and it has made him really care about school again and is thinking about trying to declare a major in his field and wonders how he can get more involved. Freeman asks if Jack is referring to school or himself. Jack is embarrassed but Freeman brushes it off saying that if Jack is that interested, it’ll show in his work.
Back at Hell’s Kitchen, Joey has to get orders for drinks and asks Eddie to fill them. He makes a comment about Joey not being able to pour the drinks herself and two start to spar verbally as she lets loose her frustrations on him. Eddie states that he didn’t even see the email because he has a life of his own to live and contrary to her popular belief, everything doesn’t revolve around her. Pacey arrives to hang out and asks Audrey to step outside to chat and he tells her what happened, to which she is adamant he do something about or quit, that the world is such a crappy place, they should just relax and enjoy their time at college. Pacey says that sooner or later you run out of places to hide and that he is trying to make something for himself, whether it’s easy or not, that he needs respect from out there in the world. He asks if they can go home to sleep, but not too much sleep to be sure, as he hints to Audrey they’ll have some time for a little “something something” first.
After her shift and the bar is empty, Eddie gives Joey her share of the tips and they begin talking as he asks if he missed anything in class. The song that she and Dawson danced to comes on the jukebox and they both agree they hate the song and change it.
Jack confides in Emma about what happened with his Professor and she reasons that maybe he was flattered. Jack brushes the idea off and tries some of her protein shake which turns out to be disgusting and the two begin chasing each other around the apartment.
The next day, Joey shows up to Hetson’s class, late, again, and this time is made fun of by the Professor again, but this time she retorts back, giving him a taste of his own medicine. While the class watches, Hetson smiles and begins his lesson.
Elsewhere, Dawson, assistant to Todd the director, tries to write an email to Joey, much as she wrote to him, but as his boss yells out to him yet again, he deletes the email and puts it away as he rushes off to attend to the new task at hand.
Dawson’s Trivia:
Director Joanna Kerns is probably better known as an actor, and her most notable role was Maggie Malone Seaver in the series Growing Pains. Her first acting gig was back in 1975, where she played “citizen” in the TV movie musical It’s a Bird… It’s a Plane… It’s Superman. Since then she worked regularly on many hit TV shows and TV movies, crossing into directing in 1992 during her run on Growing Pains, allowing her to both act and direct regularly from then on. She had a few other notable film roles, including supporting parts in James Mangold’s Girl Interrupted, and Judd Apatow’s Knocked Up.
Drew Seely played “Male,” presumably the one in the bar? Drew is perhaps best known but also NOT best known for the role of Troy Bolton in High School Musical. As everyone knows, Zac Efron played Troy Bolton. He did not, however, sing any of his songs. The voice was Andrew Seely. He was a lead in Dave Barry’s Complete Guide To Guys (with Alex Hyde White, John Cleese, and Lochlyn Munro), Christopher Brennan Saves the World (a 17 year old gives advice in his job at a drive thru), Another Cinderella Story (a Disney film with Selena Gomez), a musical called I Kissed a Vampire (about falling in love when you’re transforming into a vampire. Also, the official website is now a shopping/beauty/social news site), a very short lived series called Glory Daze (college living in Wisconsin in the 80’s), and Christmas Movie Magic (Alli is a writer who learns the mysterious origins of a classic Christmas movie). He also apparently played himself in a Hanson video called Get The Girl Back. Currently he has a project called Back to 1 in post production, but no plot details or other actors are listed yet.
Johnny Alonso was Co Worker #2. He has 90 credits to his name, 10 are in pre/filming/post production right now with him as the lead. Gotham is probably his most well known credit, where he played a bass player in Oswald Cobblepot’s bar. He has some series credits as a guest star (like One Tree Hill), but he has a ton of never before heard of movies where he is a lead or in the top five of the cast members. He is also a talented guitarist, bass player, drummer, and singer.
Nick Gomez was Co Worker #4. He has 85 credits to his name. A lot of his recent roles do have him as lead, but the cast list is also very small (5 or 6 at most), which leads me to believe they may be shorts even if they aren’t labeled as such. One bigger cast movie where he is a lead is The Step Daddy where he plays a detective (no plot given). He was a lead in Snatchers (after status-obsessed teen Sara has sex for the first time, she wakes up the next day nine months pregnant-with an alien), which is also a series and a movie. He was a guest actor in Bosch, Longmire, The Red Road, and a lead in the series Wendy (after the disappearance of her young brothers, Michael and John, Wendy starts dreaming of a boy). More recently played a drunk in Jumanji The Next Level.
The DVD menu lists the wrong title for this episode:
Joey’s email list including Dawson’s Worthington email for some reason... Also the crew are all given Worthington emails:
Instant Karma!:
Written by: Maggie Friedman
Directed by: Robert McNeill
Original airdate: October 16, 2002
Synopsis:
On set, Dawson informs Todd that their lead actress Natasha, who is a bit of a diva, isn’t there yet, but that Phil the PA is already off to pick her up. Todd however reveals that he fired Phil for a ridiculous reason earlier, meaning that Dawson needs to rush and retrieve the actress ASAP. When he arrives at the airport, the visibly annoyed actress waiting on the curb begrudgingly gets into his car and they set off for the set. Along the way, Natasha starts drinking from the airplane mini bottles of liquor, and tells Dawson to stop at a flower shop so she can pick up some lilies for Todd.
Meanwhile at Hell’s Kitchen, Eddie asks Joey what she thinks about the book she is trying to finish reading for class, and she admits that it’s terrible. Eddie takes issue with her opinion but tries to get her to reveal why she seems so angry, which leads them to verbally sparring yet again, before he has to take a phone call.
Audrey calls Pacey who is still at work and tries to get him to come home and join her for a huge party she is going to with Jen and Jack, but Pacey tells her he really has to stay and study for his series 7 exams. Audrey relents, with the promise of sexual debauchery tomorrow. However, on his way out of the office, Rinaldi sees Pacey and ropes him into joining him and a group of other brokers for a night on the town, telling Pacey that this is how he can get in good with his bosses, leaving Pacey to go along. They end up bar hopping until they bump into Audrey, Jen and Jack, doing the same as they search for a specific house party. Audrey is incensed that Pacey would lie about studying and storms off, leaving Pacey heartbroken.
Back on set, Natasha asks Dawson how the girl is that he dumped her for, and Dawson apologizes for how he ended things with her. She is less than receptive to his apology, telling him to go to Hell, as she readies for her scene. Her drunkenness however causes her to constantly make mistakes while shooting, until Todd realizes what the situation is.
Eddie and Joey load up a truck with food for the phone order that came in earlier, and he tells Joey that he believes she hates the book she was reading because it makes her nervous because it’s about people who don’t follow the dominant path and live on their impulses. They argue back and forth again while Joey tries to reason that she does follow her impulses, rather than playing it safe, telling him about how she bought a ticket to Paris. However since she didn’t actually go, her argument falls flat. He tells her to go on the order run with him because she isn’t trained yet to stay behind and take care of the bar.
Meanwhile, the house party having been found finally, Audrey proceeds to get herself smashed, while Jen watches. They both end up talking with some guys, but with Audrey so far gone, and having thrown her phone into a beer so she won’t have to take any more calls from Pacey, she allows the guy to lead her upstairs to a bedroom. Jen tries to intercept them but is blocked by the guy she was talking with. CJ shows up to help her, pushing the guy aside and the two rush in to save Audrey from being assaulted and raped.
Joey and Eddie arrive at their food delivery destination: the set of Dawson’s movie. She runs into Dawson and approaches him since he is the person on set who is responsible for paying. Natasha realizes who Joey is and chews Dawson out for bringing her there. She storms off but later Todd goes to Dawson, revealing that Natasha has refused to come back to work until Dawson is gone. With little choice left, Todd fires Dawson.
Jack is surprised to see Professor Freeman show up at the house party and they decide to get a beer together. He reveals that he met his wife at a party like this and that he just found out that she has gotten pregnant. They hang out for a while but eventually Freeman offers Jack a ride home. Arriving at Jack’s apartment, Freeman wonders aloud about his life, and how much things have changed, becoming very real suddenly. The professor admits that he was hoping to run into Jack at the party, something that surprises the young man and makes him feel uncomfortable all of a sudden as he quickly exits the professor’s car to enter his apartment.
Pacey continues to try and get in touch with Audrey to no avail. Rich tries to get his mind off of her and makes up a story about a time when he messed up with a romance in his life, but Pacey sees through it. Rinaldi says they both need time to cool off and to let it go for now.
Jen gets Audrey home and plans to stay with her but Audrey tells her to leave. Jen talks with CJ outside and confides in him that she has had experiences similar to Audrey’s. CJ doesn’t judge her and comments on how those experiences have helped her become a more compassionate person, telling her that she just needs to start believing it herself.
Joey and Dawson talk and he asks her if it would have worked out between them if things had been different but Joey says that things between them never are different and leaves. As Dawson prepares to leave the set, Natasha stops him and tells him that she was devastated when he broke up with her and lashed out earlier because she was drunk. After seeing Joey with him, she realized how badly she hurt him and talked to Todd in order to get him his job back.
Back at Hell’s Kitchen, Eddie asks about Dawson but Joey doesn’t offer much up which prompts him to ask her why she hates the book she was reading, with her telling him it meanders and is misogynistic. He answers that while that’s true, it is about people who aren’t afraid and take chances, and that he’s always wanted to be one of those people. Joey kisses him, explaining it was an impulse, but Eddie counters that it wasn’t, that it was an act of revenge on Dawson, her attempt to get over him. He tells her she is going to have to deal with those feelings by herself. He offers her a ride home while Joey thinks on his words.
Dawson’s Trivia:
Bianca Kajlich played Natasha. One of her biggest hits was as a lead in the series UnDateable (a womanizer helps his sister, his bar-owning roomie, and his three friends with much-needed dating advice). She has a connection to Eddie, because she starred in Rules of Engagement with him. Before that (and right after Dawson’s) she was in a one season show called Rock Me Baby as a lead (fun, irreverent look at relationships and parenthood as seen through the eyes of Jimmy, a hip, flagrant shock jock and new father). She did have some brief stints in other shows such as Boston Public, Bosch, and Legacies. You also might have seen her in Halloween: Resurrection where she was one of the main cast members (head into the Rewatch back catalog to hear that discussion).
Rich mentions a strip club in Waltham. Waltham is 10.6 miles from Boston, in Middlesex County.
Essential Playlist:
Classic Creek Critiques:
-Raz- says: I hate Joey’s teacher. He is so full of it. I hope he gets stung by bees.
DominicanIndian says: he is a bitch.
*
Cam wonders: Why is it that Dawson/James is not on the show as much?
Also, I heard a "rumor" that he was sick? Does anyone have any info to
back this rumor up?
tachyon says: Movie commitments. Not sure which movie though. [regarding sickness] Not true as far as I know.
UBQ answers: Not only that, but the producers turned this show into "Joey's Creek" a long time ago.
Terri S fawns: It's sad but on Wed show I didn't' even realize he wasn't on it until the end when they showed him. My reaction was "Oh yeah, Dawson wasn't around today" lol I was too wrapped up on Pacey's hair.
Sheri Bossalina says: James' movie is "The Rules of Attraction". It opened this weekend
