Again With This: Beverly Hills, 90210

After the high emotion of "Promicide," couldn't we all use a little breather? (Also, let's be real: in a 23-episode season, you can't go straight from prom to commencement anyway.) Dawson is very slowly getting used to the idea of having lost Gretchen when Gale announces that she's leaving town, so he better try to get what closure he can in a hurry. Joey's moping around her Yacht Club shift when good old Mr. Kubelik from Worthington asks her to bring that charming boyfriend of hers to an imminent freshmen's mixer because Mr. Kubelik wants to introduce Pacey to the Dean of Admissions. Pacey, dying of shame, agrees to go, maybe even letting himself get as hopeful as Joey about what this invitation could mean. Jen comes home to a realtor showing Grams's house to prospective buyers, which is how she learns that Grams plans to use the proceeds to send Jen to college and live on what's left at an apparently not very nice retirement community. Jen immediately decides she's not going to go, so it falls to Jack to ta

We've dealt with everyone hearing back from colleges, and you know what that means: it's time for prom! Joey's going with Pacey, even though he seems to have lost interest in kissing or looking at her. Jen and Jack are supposed to go as friends, but Jen is pretty determined to set Jack up with Tobey. And Dawson's going with Gretchen, who can't help remembering that...she's already done all this. Everyone politely goes through the motions in the lead-up to the big event, saving their biggest meltdowns for when all their classmates can turn off the stereo and watch. You just have to turn UP your headphones (to a safe level, of course) and LISTEN as we tell you all about "Promicide"! JOIN THE AWT CLUB

It's tough to be pregnant on TV! If your supposed loved ones aren't making snarky comments about how big you got to GROW A HUMAN PERSON INSIDE YOU, you're the butt of the "joke" of at least one and maybe several bouts of false labor. Ha ha ha? But not really. Poor Gale. Anyway: the Leery baby is two weeks overdue and it's an issue. When he's not hovering around Gale, however, Dawson has time to hover around Gretchen. Does she want to have sex...now? What about......now? And what does it mean that she's suddenly got an interview for a job in Boston when HE is about to go to college in CALIFORNIA?! Pacey, meanwhile, is out of town, which seems to be making Joey antsy. Is she so codependent or horny that she can't amuse herself for a couple of days while he goes fishing with Doug, or is there, perhaps, another reason she needs to get hold of him rather urgently? HMMM. Jack, it turns out, has hung in with the tutoring program, and in the time he and Tobey have been offscreen, they have apparently forged a comfort

It's Ditch Day for the seniors of Capeside High, but the ones we're watching are hardly enjoying carefree time off from school. Jen gets Joey to come with her for an interview with an admissions guy at the University of New York. Joey is excited to see all the sights on her list during her first-ever trip to the city, but she can tell Jen isn't doing so well and abandons her plans to look after her. Sure enough, the admissions meeting is just a cover story for Jen's long-delayed reckoning with her father. After Gretchen tells Dawson about the spontaneous road trip she took on HER Ditch Day, Dawson spontaneously decides to copy her, basically. If he'd thought about it just a little longer, he might have remembered that he no longer has a spare tire. Pacey still has junior classes to make up that he can't miss, but soon decides he can afford a Ditch Half-Day with Drue, who takes him to his favorite bar that doesn't card. If this seems like a bad idea for a kid whose dad is the local sheriff, you're way ahead of

It's April, which means envelopes fat and thin are arriving in Capeside. Joey is jealous of the pile of acceptances Jack secured for himself and Jen, but doesn't need to be for long: she finds out she's been admitted to Worthington at the very same moment Dawson hears he's been rejected by NYU Film School. While Gretchen bucks Dawson up by reminding him that Mr. Brooks never went to film school, and that Dawson could be inspired by real life and use his inheritance to make movies, everyone else is celebrating the first Potter to get into college. That abruptly stops when Joey finds out her financial aid package will still require her or her family to kick in $15,000 a year, and in this world -- where a high school guidance counselor doesn't tell a student about APPEALING HER FINANCIAL AID, A THING YOU CAN DO -- that means Worthington is off the table completely. While Joey tries (not very hard) to keep this disappointment a secret, Jen is having a hard time articulating to Jack or Tom why she doesn't want to

We're firmly in the last third of the episodes set in our cast's senior year of high school, which means it's time to reveal the winners of the senior poll. Somehow, Drue has weaseled his way into a position of moderate authority on the yearbook staff, apparently just to rig it so that the Class Couple is Joey...and Dawson?! Joey then has to downshift from acting like she doesn't care but is worried that Dawson will be upset (he's not) to finding out that Pacey's asking Gretchen to give him the house for the whole night accidentally tipped her that he and Joey are now Doing Sex, meaning Joey has to make sure Gretchen's not going to blab to Dawson. Gretchen and Dawson COULD be having their own perfectly nice night maybe doing sex themselves in his parents' empty house, but instead he has to go on and on about how great he thinks it is that when he asked Joey if she and Pacey are boning, she said no, and Gretchen simply has no poker face and just has to flee into the night rather than break Pacey's confidence.

After the events of the last episode, someone evidently decided the viewer needed to zoom in on various small groups of characters for some very intimate time. When Drue tricks Mr. Kasdan into leaving Joey and Pacey at the lodge, they discuss their night together, but Pacey's compliment-fishing puts Joey off. After Mr. Brooks's poorly attended offscreen funeral, Gretchen and Grams have to tag-team their efforts to keep Dawson from falling into despondency over the likelihood that his end will be the same as his friend's. Ordered into therapy after getting caught on the ski trip with liquor bottles, Jen puts on her brattiest manner to meet Dr. Tom Frost (Rob Nagle). And a chance run-in outside a showing of His Girl Friday sets up what could be the next big crisis in Joey and Dawson's friendship. We've got many words to say about "Four Stories"! JOIN THE AWT CLUB

That senior ski trip Joey debased herself for in the previous episode: it's here! Pacey's trying to be breezy about it, given the uncomfortable sex conversation he and Joey had about it last week, but Joey's making that difficult. Sharing a hotel room with a longtime boyfriend who loves you and wants to have undoubtedly very gentle sex with you? Joey, some people have real problems. Like, for instance, Jen, who can't stop slipping on ice and injuring herself, requiring herroommate Jack to look after her. The close quarters and liberated mini-bar lead them to some unexpected places. Back in Capeside, Mr. Brooks -- having ODed on his hoarded pills -- is in a coma. His doctor (Tony "Buster Bluth" Hale!) has to be the one to tell him the content of the "lawyer talk" on the paperwork Dawson signed in the last episode: Dawson is Mr. Brooks's health care proxy, so how long the hospital staff keeps Mr. Brooks technically alive is up to Dawson. He seeks counsel from everyone he knows, but it's one surprise visitor who

Dawson is wrapping up his work on the A.I. Brooks documentary just as A.I. Brooks is wrapping up his affairs on earth, furtively hiding pills and getting Dawson to sign paperwork without giving him time to read it. Dawson might not have taken the time anyway, since he's focused on a big milestone with Gretchen: meeting her friends. Going out to a show with a couple of Gretchen's college friends throws their age difference into stark relief, as does Gretchen talking about him like he's less of a boyfriend and more of a boyfriend-shaped body pillow. Meanwhile, Joey is trying to barter a couple of precious weekend nights off work at the Yacht Club by making Drue's date with Anna, daughter to the Club board president, a double. Mrs. Valentine makes it clear she'll only grant the time off if Drue's date Anna has a great time, so both Joey and Pacey have to run interference to draw attention away from Drue's stank attitude. Tobey tries to take Jen's advice by being friends with Jack, suggesting that Jack join him t

Turning 18 puts a person through changes. For example, Pacey's decided HIS 18th birthday should be at a completely different time of year than his 16th. But never mind! He complains to Joey that his birthday is cursed, so all he wants to do this year is chill out at home with her, and she promises they will, and we all know that means she's implicated in his surprise party. The event -- to be held at the Witter family home -- coincides with what was to have been Gretchen and Dawson's first date, and Gretchen may be a little too eager to bag that plan in favor of her family obligation; she also makes it clear that although she's bringing him to the party, she doesn't want Joey or Pacey or anyone in her family to know she and Dawson are dating, if they even are, which Dawson obviously takes as a slight. While the birthday boy doesn't die of an accidental gunshot as happened at Scott Scanlon's birthday party, this one is...almost as bad. And Joey doesn't help by trying to ignore Pacey's dark mood and unhelpfully

We’re off this week but we bring you two Again With Again With This episodes chock full of drawl. AWAWT 226: Let's Watch James Van Der Beek And Ali Larter In Varsity Blues! In a small Texas town, high school football is everything. But when a golden Florida State-bound quarterback (Paul Walker) suffers a career-ending injury, can his Vonnegut-reading understudy (James Van Der Beek) save the season?! Also features Ali Larter and an unorthodox use of whipped cream. AWAWT 230: Let’s Watch Luke Perry And Linden Ashby In 8 Seconds! It seemed like every single interview with Luke Perry in the early ’90s talked about 8 Seconds, the bio-pic about rodeo star Lane Frost starring Perry and directed by Rocky helmer John G. Avildsen. But is all the ancillary intel around the movie more interesting than the movie itself? Shirtless Dylan, a lesser Baldwin, Shelley Tambo from Northern Exposure, Melrose‘s boring-est leading man, and an almost famous “buckle bunny” are all part of the conversation, so throw on some turquoi

Dawson decides to be the change he wants to see in the world, telling Pacey directly that he like-likes Gretchen before anything really happens between them. Predictably, Pacey's not about it, which is why the timing is perfect for him to accompany her to her college town to pick up the car she left there: Pacey knows this will necessitate interaction between Gretchen and her ex-boyfriend Nick (Christian Kane, later of Angel and Leverage!), so Pacey can totally manipulate them into getting back together rather than have Gretchen get closer to Dawson! In theory! While Gretchen is out of his immediate vicinity, Dawson has awareness of other people -- specifically, Grams and Mr. Brooks, who have evidently gotten closer since Mr. Brooks's failed overtures at the Christmas party. What is Dawson's duty to Grams, knowing that Mr. Brooks is ill? Elsewhere in Capeside, Drue is very much not looking forward to a visit with his father, so it's just as well that he happens to shut them into a Yacht Club storage closet, t

Everyone is abuzz about the big kiss at the party in the previous episode. What did it mean? Was it strictly mistletoe-related, or should everyone be monitoring Dawson and Gretchen for couple-iness? Joey is clearly preoccupied yet also unable to talk about it like an adult, biting Pacey's head off when he tries to bring it up and finally kicking him out because he's...being too nice and offering to take household responsibilities off her hands (like the care of Alexander while Bessie and Bodie are out of town). Joey's martyr complex has the worst possible consequence: she beefs an English test! OH NO!!!!! Meanwhile, when Dawson himself isn't dodging questions about the kiss and insisting that he and Gretchen are just friends, he's doing what everyone has been dying for: making another movie! He's excited to learn more about Mr. Brooks for his documentary project, but a little concerned that Mr. Brooks seems to be losing his grasp on movie trivia. Is Mr. Brooks...okay? In another silo, Jen gets an extremely re

It's Christmastime, but don't get too excited for the merriment yet: college application stress looms over (nearly) everyone. Not Joey, of course, who's invited to a Yacht Club dinner for prospective students of Worthington University. She spends so much effort convincing Pacey to go that she completely forgets how much she clenches up any time she's near a cloth napkin or multi-fork table setting, and recedes into the background as Pacey charms the alumni rep. As for everyone else: Dawson watches Mr. Brooks's last movie, Turn Away, My Sweet and is blown away (my sweet) -- so much so, perhaps, that when he has to write his essay for his application to USC film school, he's only able to write around the prompt question of why he wants to be a filmmaker. Jack finishes all his applications and is concerned about the very vague answers Jen's giving about hers -- and about the silent treatment Grams is STILL giving her after the rave fiasco. Gretchen learns that the Leery Christmas parties she loved have a kid hav

When Principal Peskin (Harry Shearer!) sees at the same time as most of his students that his little sailboat AND dog have been relocated into the indoor pool at Capeside High, he has GOT to find out who's behind the prank. When he narrows the suspects down to our three opening-credits boys, he and Mitch tag-team their interrogation of what they were each doing the previous day. We hear all about Pacey's ride-along with Doug; Dawson's discovery that Mr. Brooks also spent high school dreaming of a career directing films; and Jack replacing Andie with Jen for soccer duty, just in time for some of the gay-tolerant dads who DIDN'T pull their kids off the team to reveal that their support is conditional on Jack doing what they want with player assignments. Lurking at various points in everyone's stories is...Drue? Well, that's curious! We suspect you'll enjoy our episode on "The Unusual Suspects"! JOIN THE AWT CLUB

In the wake of Andie's supposedly nearly fatal drug interaction at the rave, the Capeside friend group is in tatters. Even though Andie has been very clear in stating that Jen is not to blame for what happened, neither Jack nor Pacey can forgive her. When Jen won't oblige Drue by forsaking hope of making up with them and running to him instead, he schemes to FORCE her to spend time with him by confessing to his part in the drug handoff and getting them both sentenced to community service together. Meanwhile, Joseph has a wild suggestion for Andie: since she's already earned enough credits to leave high school right now, maybe she just...should? And go live with an aunt in Florence until it's time for commencement? Andie doesn't feel great about leaving when everyone is in a big fight, and feels even worse when Jack gives her the guilts about it. Speaking of guilt: the last piece of Joey's application to Williams College is a peer recommendation from the person who knows her best. Naturally, this becomes a who

People have a lot to celebrate at the top of this episode. Andie finds out she got into Harvard! Dawson's parents decide to be parents...some more! What great timing: there's a rave for everyone to go dance their faces off! After Drue's spamming finally convinces Jen to go, she digs her un-birthday ecstasy out of her dresser just in time for Andie to see her with it. Jen's description of the drug experience is a little too exuberant -- particularly given that Andie's already disappointed that her antidepressants have flattened her highs along with the lows so that her academic achievement doesn't feel like anything at all -- and before you know it, Andie has snuck one of Jen's tabs. Dawson tags along with Pacey, Joey, and Gretchen, and in the car ride over Joey can't help noticing how flirty they seem and asks Gretchen if Dawson might think things are going anywhere with her. Gretchen laughs off the idea, but can't help returning to it. Crank up the Burkittsville 3: it's our episode on "Great Xpectations"! J

Remember a couple of episodes ago when Mitch had a cold and Gale had a stomach bug? Well, he's all better but she just can't shake it...because it's not a stomach bug, actually. When the home test turns pink, Mitch is unreservedly excited about it, but Gale's not sure adding a baby to their mountain of new-restaurant debt and the college tuition they're about to have to pay for the crappy kid they already have -- and the fact that the crappy kid they already have is already moping around jealous of the baby that isn't even here yet probably doesn't help. Dawson seeks advice from Gretchen, who already had to nudge the Leery men toward the obvious conclusion with regard to Gale's symptoms, and gets a lot more than he expected. Joey has noticed that Pacey keeps cutting off their makeout sessions when she would be fine continuing, and confides in Jen that she thinks he's getting frustrated that she's still not ready for sex. Jen is a very good friend who gives her very good advice about being prepared for sex whe

Ms. Watson, the new guidance counselor, is meeting with all the seniors about, what else, their college plans. Andie, of course, has gone the early action route, so her schedule is clear to start harassing Jack about his plans -- which were already pretty vague even before he took a bad jump at football practice and dislocated his shoulder. Joey is confident about the prestigious schools she's looking at until Ms. Watson tells her that ranking fourth in her class is no guarantee of anything and a full scholarship anywhere is probably an impossible dream. Dawson is annoyed that everyone expects him to go to film school when there's so much more to him! Maybe! Pacey isn't even bothering to think about it. Jen is mainly focused on getting Drue to leave her alone, which isn't going to happen any time soon: he's told everyone it's her birthday and is throwing a rager in her honor. Yay, Drunk Joey's back! Your present just got better because we've brought you an episode on "Future Tense"! JOIN THE AWT CLUB

We’re off this week but we bring you two Again With Again With This episodes full of first daughters. AWAWT 190: Let's Watch Monica Keena And Doug Savant In First Daughter (1999)! 1999's TBS "action" movie First Daughter has a lot of hilariously fake stunts and log-like acting from Mariel Hemingway and Dominic Purcell (with hair!) -- but Monica Keena and Doug Savant bring more dimension and ease to their performances than we probably had the right to expect. Listen now for more on late-nineties tech and unrealistically outdoorsy teens! AWAWT 191: Let's Watch Katie Holmes And Melissa Rivers In First Daughter (2004)! Dawson's Creek girls STAY playing presidents' defiant daughters: just one week after we considered Monica Keena in the role in 1999's First Daughter, Katie Holmes and Buffy The Vampire Slayer star Marc Blucas bring us their romcom take on what it's like to be a teen girl with a father who's running the free world. Put a pin in any thorny questions you may have about anyone's domestic policies a