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523 - Swan Song



Welcome to our episode on airport change fees! Just kidding – kind of.

From Charles: "I just want to take a second to address some of the plot holes: Why did Bessie bring Joey her passport? Where are these kids getting all this money?? If Dawson is staying with Audrey, what’s he doing while she and Pacey are driving across the U.S.??? Is Pacey staying with Audrey too???? Why are international and domestic flights leaving from the same terminal?????"

So here we are, at the end of the season – and we tried to save a lot of our overall season thoughts for next week's Study Hall, but it was unavoidable entirely this time around. Do you all think this season finale would've been more impactful if the season as a whole had been better?

From Traci: "One thing I was trying to say during the episode that I don't think I articulated really well... I talked a bit this week about how I hate when shows introduce a character or a facet of a character in order to break up a popular couple and keep them apart just to quell angry fans. One of the clearest examples that comes to mind is Phoebe and David from Friends. In every interaction, they were perfect for each other and when they sent David off to Minsk, it made sense because Hank Azaria was obviously not going to be a series regular at the time. But I hated that they brought him back in season 9 just so Phoebe could officially close the door. There were so many 'great loves' of all of the characters lives that could have come back and changed the present for them at any moment, so it felt cheap to bring back David just so that Phoebe could not only slam a door in his face, but lock it and build a brick wall. Of all the obstacles to present Phoebe and Mike with to get to eternal happiness, why use David to represent that??

This is also something, I think, Jane the Virgin could've been in danger with had they not developed Jane and Petra's friendship deeper, but at first when they introduced Petra's relationship with JR and her exploration into bisexuality, I was worried they were using that to basically tell fans, 'No, Raf and Petra will never be together so that won't be an obstacle anymore for Jane,' as if two people of opposite genders will always be locked into a 'will they, won't they' battle. (Obviously, I'm not saying bisexuality isn't real, but I hate seeing it used as a plot device to wipe parts of the slate clean because writers don't know how else to write their way out of certain storylines.)"

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Comments

  1. I’m so OVER Joey and Dawson’s pointless last minute reunions that are all talk and 0 action. If you really want to be together, be together. They just like the idea of each other. All they do is have awkward stilted conversations about their relationship instead of having an actual relationship. YES to Traci’s point that there was no build up! Couldn’t agree more. Joey and Pacey had more chemistry in the 5 minutes of screen time they had.

    Don’t care for Pacey and Audrey, very forced. Annoyed that Jen and Jack didn’t go on holiday together. Worst series finale ever even worse than the shit show that is Coda.

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  2. I am tired of the will they or won't they of Dawson and joey the writers have to know at some point you have to pull the trigger also i do like the little continuity of joey telling pacey back in 4x02 that Dawson could never inspire her to run away with him for the summer and she ended up being right @ traci i can't believe you brought up Jane the virgin because this past season they did Michael dirty

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    1. Ooh that's such a good point re: Joey not being inspired by Dawson - that was such a key element of her relationship with Pacey. It breaks my heart that they attempted to completely abolish their relationship this season, just to try and force Joey and Dawson back together.

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    2. Totally forgot about that moment of Joey saying Dawson couldn't inspire her to run away with him for the summer - definitely right!!

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  3. Thank god season 5 is over! I only ever go back to it for the extremely limited P/J highlights, which are the best parts of the season for me:

    The dinner party episode (510), especially their scene at the end, but I also love one tiny moment at the start when Pacey asks Audrey for the onions and she admits she hasn't chopped them, and Pacey looks exasperated and Joey just hands Pacey the onions which she has already chopped, and he takes them and smiles at her and my little shipper heart flutters. (Us P/J fans have gotta take what we can get in season 5.)

    The reunion on the boat in 503. There is so much love and respect and chemistry in that scene, and his face when he first sees her....swoon.

    Honourable mentions: The 'Other Joey' scene at the pool table in 511 where Pacey encourages her to cut loose (and she does, although she sadly doesn't turn into Drunk Joey, who is the best of all possible Joeys). It’s the only part of that episode that I actually like, because again their chemistry is intense. Whoever did the blocking for that scene, and let Pacey reach around her to get the pool ball out of the pocket (not a euphemism!), ending up with the two of them so close they could have kissed, probably got a talking to from the writers, who were determined to quell the P/J relationship. After that, their one-on-one interactions were limited (and only revolved around his relationship with Audrey) until the season finale.

    And as much as I love their little conversation on the dock in this episode, the fact that the advice he gives her is so contradictory to what she ends up doing - they both say they’ve grown up and then she goes running back to Dawson??

    JJ somehow sells that whole speech to Audrey, but it didn’t work for me as a grand gesture because it was something that anyone could have done. Pacey’s best romantic gestures (e.g. buying Joey a wall) were specific to the woman he loved - he did that for HER, not for their relationship. Also, I love you Pace, but threatening to drive across country and stalk a girl is not romantic. (What is it with the stalking fetish that the writers on this show seem to have?)

    This comment I found on a message board (from back in 2004) still rings true:
    But thats why the writers made it so difficult to understand in the last two seasons because they turned natural human emotion and reaction upside down to the point where none of us could really relate because none of the characters seemed to react in a way that most people would react, so we were all sort of stuck thinking "Well how can that be?".

    Congrats on making it through season 5 - now roll on season 6!

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