The practice of mudslinging is near and dear to the hearts of our politicians. Pacey learns about mudslinging and scandal in his helpful political election book he picked up when Andie told him he'd be her campaign manager. In a high school setting, mudslinging is frowned upon, because it's an unnecessary tactic. High school political offices are fairly meaningless, but they look good on college resumes. Andie's obsessed with being a good, attractive student for colleges to woo when the time comes to deal with college applications. Andie, actually, is obsessed with image, period. She's careful to present a confident image to others, one in which says she's organized, in control of herself, happy, part of a great family, etc. Political enemies attack the image. Sometimes it's chipping away the image piece by piece; other times it's throwing the image off a cliff and then seeing what's left of it. Pacey had the wrong impression of Andie in the early part of the season because she projected such an impression to people. Jack told Pacey that the McPhee family is crumbling by the day. The information seemed confined to these three characters, but Capeside's a small town. People like Abby Morgan will find the dirt if they look hard enough.
Abby and Kenny oppose Andie in the election race. Kenny's the geeky student from "Full Moon Rising." Abby's running mate is the handsome Chris Wolf, who you'll remember had sex with Jen two episodes ago; but now Jen's out of his life after Dawson's heroic words of encouragement last week. Abby and Chris are the two antagonists now. Abby wants to be school president just because she doesn't want anyone else to be school president. Chris's motivations elude me several hours after I watched the episode. Abby's like a shark in the water. Williamson and his writers seemed determined to create the ultimate teenage melodrama bitch character. Abby's not a believable villain; her cruelty doesn't track real well; she's more or elss cruel because the show needed someone to be cruel to the Capeside four, someone for them to unite against. Joey runs alongside Andie after Abby insults the Potter workplace and the Potter family.
The election is a matter of character in that it's about the Andie character and it's about one's character or quality or decency. Abby lacks character, so she attacks Andie and Joey's family problems. Joey's strong and independent. She's tough; she doesn't break down easily. Abby's remarks don't bother her. Andie's different, though. The image she presents to the world is false. Her brother's death and the subsequent breakdown of her parents' marriage affected her deeply, to the point that she needed pills. Jack's been able to weather the storm, for lack of a better cliché. Andie might identify herself as weak or fragile for needing the pills to not be so sad, but she's neither weak nor fragile. Abby's bit of truth to the entire school essentially destroys Andie; it's definitely like tossing Andie over a cliff and then seeing what's left of her. She drops out of the race and cries every minute. Pacey can barely reach her. Jack can't reach her. Abby's remorseless, i.e. she doesn't apologize.
I promised the readers that the Andie storyline would become a Lifetime Movie of the Week. Andie's now entered into the Lifetime movie storyline. The scene in which she tearfully talks to Pacey and takes her medicine isn't a picture of stability, despite the pills. The mirror she looks into is significant because she keeps looking at it, and she's going to see someone very, very soon looking back at her through the mirror. Jack briefly lost his cool during "The Election" after Joey kept bothering him about opening up about his past. Jack tried to be the nice guy and change the topic each time. Eventually, he had enough and lashed out at Joey. Jack's been a guy who's burdened himself with the well-being of the family, which means he closes himself off to others. Joey apologizes to him by holding his hand and showing him how easy it is to let someone in and be there for him. She remembered how Dawson just sat with her after her mother died and then he grabbed her hand when she really needed it. Trust can be built easily. Andie needs to trust in the people who love her to do right by her.
Dawson Leery also needs a shoulder to cry on and a hand to hold by the end of "The Election." Before that, Jen decides to teach Dawson how to act like a proper teenager. His latest script is 'fluff.' The story is about teenagers in love but Dawson doesn't say anything about teenagers in love. Jen thinks he's out of touch. Dawson thinks he's mature of his age. Jen's right. Dawson's wrong. Dawson makes a point, though, that I've made, which is, for all the hyper-awareness of the teenagers, their emotions are on par with the typical teenager. Dawson feels conflicted when he realizes this truth because he thinks like a middle-aged TV writer of Dawson's Creek but posseses all of the emotions of a fifteen year old boy. Dawson doesn't know how to act, so he decides to follow Jen's advice to engage in rebellious teenage behavior, which ends in skinny-dipping and a failure to get sexy with Jen.
The Dawson-Jen story works in one area and doesn't work in the other. The Dawson-as-TV-writer-as-teenage-boy thing that needed to be resolved with old fashioned teenage hijinks is a bad story. I love how Dawson and Jen's friendship evolves, though. Jen's the coolest character when she's a platonic friend to all of the males. I enjoyed their scenes of hanging out. Dawson cries on her shoulder after he finds out about his parents' impending divorce, which sort of completes their transition from potential lovers to platonic friends. (I write this knowing what happens in the next two episodes, but maybe people reading don't know what happens in the next two episodes.)
Everyone's hurting in some way by the end of "The Election." Kenny wins. Abby's revealed to be a nasty bitch to the entire student body after Pacey turns on the P.A. when asking her questions about why she wanted to run. The bad girl gets comeuppance; however, for Andie, the damage done can't be wiped away and forgotten about. The sadness will continue.
Other Thoughts:
-Dawson saw his parents begin the act of intercourse, which made him think they were getting back together. Such assumption made the blow of the divorce more foreceful.
-Dawson's finished script is the first sign we have of the process for the next film. Dawson thinks he wrote a brilliant script, but I think he revises it before the movie actually shoots.
-Abby and Chris' friendship came out of nowhere. Abby admits she'd screw Chris over, but Chris doesn't stop hanging out with her. Of course, Chris would sleep with any girl he could, so I doubt the character cares about Abby's intentions.
-Darin Golbderg & Shelley Meals wrote the episode. Patrick Norris directed it.
UP NEXT: "High Risk Behavior" & "Sex, She Wrote"--The next two episodes are part of two-parter, which means I want to write about both in one single post. Watch the episode on Netflix or Streampix or YouTube.
THE YOUTUBE CLIP OF THE WEEK
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