The 2011 Summer Re-Watch: Dawson's Creek "Detention" Review

TheWB

Dawson's Creek's seventh episode, "Detention," is notable for one very important reason--it reveals that the principal characters of the show (Dawson, Joey, Pacey and Jen) dislike one another way more than they like one another. Sure, the episode ties the conflicts of the 44 minutes into a nice bow but the characters harbor resentments toward one another until the very last episode of the series. "Detention" is basically a reversal of The Breakfast Club story. In John Hughes' classic, five different characters spend a day together in detention. The characters hate one another but they become friends just in time for the credits to roll. Dawson, Joey, Pacey and Jen begin the episode as friends and romantic partners until Abby Morgan disrupts friendships and romances equally. The characters will leave detention with hate in their hearts and enough passive-aggression to last six seasons.

The teenagers wind up in Saturday detention for various reasons--Dawson threw a basketball at Pacey's face (more on that later), Jen said "bitch" in class, Joey stood up for herself by beating up a jock who borderline sexually harassed her and Pacey masturbated in the school locker room (I shit you not). Abby Morgan, the resident antagonist of Capeside, earned Saturday detention because of tardiness (she earlier lies about engaging in an orgy while high on ecstacy). The Capeside library's small. Truths will emerge and feelings will be hurt. The day begins innocently enough as the teenagers sit around and engage in small-talk. Pacey and Dawson exchange passive-aggressive comments following their ill-fated one-on-one basketball game that resulted in Pacey's broken nose via basketball. Joey passively insults Jen's character. Abby notices how much these folk dislike one another and decides to play a game with them--a game called "Truth or Dare."

During the game of "Truth or Dare," Jen and Pacey kiss as do Joey and Dawson. Joey balks when she's asked which boy she's in love with. Pacey balks when asked how he got detention. Jen wonders aloud why Joey insists on making catty comments and thrwarting any attempt of Jen's to become her friend. Joey returns to her shell, uncomfortable with the confrontation (as are the majority of Creek characters). The game ends when Dawson's all too willing and eager to criticize his best friend in brutal fashion. The game highlights two glaring truths to the characters--Dawson and Jen have zero sexual chemistry and Joey and Dawson have tremendous sexual chemistry.

The kiss between Jen and Pacey affects Dawson because Pacey's represents everything Dawson lacks in sexual experience. Pacey just completed an affair with his teacher while Jen barely touches Dawson. When Joey asks Jen if she lusts for Dawson, Jen tries to avoid answering until she lies, which then leads to a conversation between she and Dawson about how she doesn't want him. The self-involved one's angst comes from sexual frustration and jealousy equally. His fears are relieved when Pacey reveals his embarrassing story of masturbation and Jen swears that she does, in fact, want him sexually--this marks the first time Dawson's friends cave to quiet his rage and it won't be the last because Dawson will behave more horribly throughout the series and his friends always forgive him

The kiss between Joey and Dawson alerts everyone (but Dawson) of Joey's feelings towards her best friend. She kisses him tenderly yet passionately and she touches his face as if he'll disappear, as if she were dreaming the kiss instead of living it. Abby helps enlighten Jen about the truth of Joey's feelings--that truth explains why Joey's dismissive and rude to Lindley--and Jen tries to talk with Joey about them but Joey dismisses her and hates her for being so nice. Joey breaks down in the library, during the fourth act, following Dawson's reconciliation with Pacey and Jen. She wonders when everything centered around sex. She admits that she has these feelings that she can't verbalize because they threaten to destroy the thing most precious to her (Dawson, the fool, is none the wiser despite the anvils the size of Argentina the girl's dropping). The four friends, and Abby, sit in silence when Mrs. Tringle frees them from Saturday detention. Unlike The Breakfast Club, they leave far less friends than were before detention (even though the series insists on portraying them as friends for many years after).

"Detention" is my favorite episode of the first season because of its central focus on the teenagers, for one day, in detention. I always enjoyed the truth or dare game because of the nonsense it created, and the basketball-to-the-face never fails to amuse me. The episode stands out because its the first to really build the relationships and conflicts between the characters. The previous six episodes barely had any scenes with Pacey and the others, and the scenes with the two girls and Dawson were all about Dawson's pursuit of Jen. Now, the characters finally hung for an entire episode and the audience understands the dynamic and conflicts between characters.

Some other thoughts:

-Dawson throwing the basketball at Pacey's face is considerably nicer than some other things he'll do to his "best friend" later in the series. His resentment towards Pacey remains the same, and becomes much more intense when Pacey and Joey become a couple. Dawson always uses his class superiority over his best friend when they argue (it's in his back pocket). In season three, Dawson tries to murder Pacey during a boat race. There are many issues surrounding the Pacey-Dawson feud that I'd love to write about but I'm writing about season one.

-Poor Mrs. Tringle's trapped monitoring Saturday detention every weekend from 9-5. Kevin Williamson had an english teacher, Mrs. Tingle, who told him that he'd never be a writer because he couldn't write. Williamson based the Tingle character in Teaching Mrs. Tingle on her (in fact his first screenplay is Teaching Mrs. Tingle except its original title is Killing Mrs. Tingle). It's no coincidence Mrs. Tringle of Capeside's trapped in Saturday detention every weekend.

-Mike White wrote the episode. Yes, the same Mike White who wrote for Freaks and Geeks, wrote The Good Girl and School of Rock. Allen Arkush directed the episode. Yes, the same Allen Arkush who directed Caddyshack II.

UP NEXT: "Boyfriend"--Jen's old boyfriend from New York visits Capeside, and Dawson feels the heat. Joey goes to a beach party. The Leerys try to rebuild their marriage.

THE YOUTUBE CLIP OF THE WEEK