Anyway, "His Leading Lady" brings the Joey-Dawson baggage to the forefront. The writers stayed away from Joey and Dawson for a decent stretch of season two. The lack of drama between them was a relief. I enjoyed the digressions with Dawson and Jen and Joey and Jack. I knew it wouldn't last, having seen the season before. I knew the nonsense needed to return. I also knew that the joy I experienced watching Rachel Leigh Cook would be hindered by the drama between Dawson and Joey. Dawson's Creek never treats conflict easily. None of the characters would ever calmly approach another character and discuss, in a reasonable manner, his or her issue with the other character. There needed to be dramatic flair, wild gesticulations, pained expressions on the face, like one's behavior caused physical pain. Dawson and Joey needed a movie about their romance to finally deal with their post-breakup existence. A movie shoot! Actors and actresses, an entire crew, a revised script, and a day's worth of filming to wake the characters up to the fact they can't be friends like they used to be.
Dawson's mental energy is astounding. As a self-absorbed and angsty teenager, I couldn't even consider writing an entire script, hiring an outstanding looking girl, and reenacting a relationship gone wrong in front of the girl who broke my heart just to make her feel lousy about what she did to me. Dawson's intentions aren't directly mean-spirited. Dawson argues that his intent is catharsis through autobiographical storytelling. Joey feels increasingly uncomfortable with each passing scene, though, because the dialogue is literally lifted from real-life; it's like Dawson used a tape-recorder during their most intimate moments in case he needed to turn her into fiction. Dawson invites her to the set, too, aware of what she's going to see, hoping the experience of watching evokes feelings of regret or longing, wanting her to fall into his arms with kisses and an apology. Dawson swore he let her go in the teaser, which is why Joey came, because he let her go. Of course, Joey felt sad about the idea that he let her go, because the two are insufferable together.
Dawson's new leading lady is Devon, portrayed by the outstanding looking Rachel Leigh Cook, who nails down what Dawson's aim is without even knowing he has an aim. They lock eyes during Joey's art class when she's naked and being painted. Devon talks about Dawson's latent desire to be watching someone watching you. The whole damn movie allows for Dawson to be watched by Joey as he watches their romance acted out by talented youth and blah blah. Devon's an annoyingly stereotypical drama major, with unnecessary and invasive opinions about people's personal lives, but I'd still marry her if she wanted to marry me. Devon tries to become Joey, which makes Joey uncomfortable; Chris Wolf, the Dawson/Wade of the film, wants to be Chris Wolf and take both girls to bed at the same time, which causes Dawson to rub his hands through his hair in exasperation. In a way, it's similar to what I wrote about on Thursday in the Everwood post, about James Joyce's ability to mirror his country and countrymen in his literature. Joey's looking at herself through Devon's Sammy. Dawson wrote the script to give Joey a good look at how he saw their relationship. George Bernard Shaw said, about Joyce's Ulysses, that it's pointless to break the mirror when the mirror's not the problem. For Dawson's Creek, and Joey, this means: yell at Dawson.
"His Leading Lady" pointed the way to this yelling match between Joey and Dawson from the teaser, right? Take away the movie, the characters not understanding their fictional characters so that Dawson can clarify the characters as well as his own feelings about Joey, and what's left is how Dawson feels about Joey. Guess what? He hasn't let her go. Dawson describes the pain of losing Joey as agonizing, the most intense pain anyone will ever feel in their lives, and explains how there isn't a cure for such pain. Dawson explains Joey to Devon, and in doing so, clarifies his feelings for his soul mate. Joey freaks out at Dawson in private after another run-in with Devon, and Dawson yells about how he hasn't let go because he doesn't want to let go, for if he lets go he has nothing, so he'll cling desperately to the one thing he does have: fictional Joey and fictional Dawson, together.
As per usual, Dawson and Joey make amends; he needs his leading lady, after all. Devon's only an actress, but Joey's the leading lady of his life, his muse, his soul mate. It's worth noting Dawson's effort to not be a dick towards Joey. I spent a large chunk so far throwing stones at the character, but he welcomes Jack on his set after last week's reconciliation on the boat. The movie shoot closes down for the night. Joey and Dawson reconcile. Jack and Joey offer to stay and help clean up, but Dawson tells them to run along and fun. Moments prior, Devon and Chris asked him if he wanted to join them for a bite, but Dawson declines, even though Devon's clearly coming onto him. The tableau of Dawson, alone, on a film set is supposed to be the lasting image of "His Leading Lady." Everyone's paired off except for him; he has his movie, and he'll cling to it desperately.
Other Thoughts:
-Pacey and Andie nearly broke up because of Andie's secret use of Xanax. Dawson gave his best friend horrible advice about the situation. Pacey wisely ignored Dawson and told Andie he wouldn't go away just because she wanted to push him away. The "Andie-is-unstable-and-needs-prescription-medication" still has a long way to go. I think Pacey's reaction to the medicine is problematic, and I might elaborate on this in a few weeks.
-Jen met a man named Ty who is a devout Christian. Grams introduced him to her. When she goes out with Ty after the movie, she's surprised it's to bible study. What did she expect? He's a friend of Grams! He's not going to be chasing the dragon while playing NHL 94 constantly. Stories become much better for Jen when the writers realized she'll be Jack's best friend. This Ty storyline sucks.
-Rachel Leigh Cook deserves her own dash. The actress charmed a young Chris in the movie She's All That. During elementary school, I took to thinking of my own romantic comedies in which dashing male characters won the heart of a Rachel Leigh Cook character. I then discovered the band New Found Glory in 2001. The "Dressed to Kill" video had an enormous effect on me. The music was amazing, unlike the nu-metal junk I'd been listening to for two years; they were having fun in the video; Rachel Leigh Cook starred as the attractive girl who the pop-punk dude wants. I became a fan of NFG for life. Cook embraced an identity of 'down-to-earth-pop-punk-girl' who all the teenagers wanted to woo. She starred in Josie and the Pussycats. But she also co-starred in Texas Rangers, which also featured James Van Der Beek, and I caught a glimpse of her in the final scenes of the movie and wanted to take her to a dinner my wallet would regret immediately afterwards. I don't remember how long she stays around the Creek for. I know I'll miss her presence terribly. I'm going to watch her in TNT's new drama Perception, though.
-Dawson couldn't call Capeside Capeside in his movie. Instead, the town is called Creekside. It's great that the show pushed Dawson as a terrific director destined for greatness, but they shouldn't have made him a writer, too. One would think a room full of talented writers could write a convincing writer character, but Creekside confirms what a fictional hack Dawson is.
-Shelley Meals & Darin Goldberg wrote the episode. David Semel directed it.
UP NEXT: "To Be or Not to Be..." & "...That is the Question"--Jack reads a poem and everything changes for him. Watch it on YouTube or Netflix or Streampix.
THE YOUTUBE CLIP OF THE WEEK
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