TEXT: Series Finale (Part 1 of 2) [Scene: A set dressed up like Dawson's Bedroom. Actors playing Colby and Sam are acting out a scene from Dawson's New TV show <unk>The Creek.<unk>] Colby: Feelings and emotions have an inexplicable way of manifesting themselves in subconscious and not always se-aware behavior. Sam: Verbal deconstruction of teen angst is really outdated, Colby. There's nothing going on between me and Petey. He's just a friend. Your best friend, I might add. I have no subconscious subliminal intentions towards him. Colby: Just a friend, huh? Sam: Yes. That's all. Period. End of sentence, dissertation, and postmodern diatribe. Now can we go to sleep? Colby: So, is Petey a friend the same way you and I are just friends? Sam: Yeah... of course. Colby: That's what I was afraid of. [They lie back down on the bed together, and lie together awkwardly. The camera pulls back from the TV and we see that Joey was watching the show on the couch with a tear in her eye. Another man comes over to her.] Christopher: Thank god that's over. Joey: Tread lightly, book boy. Christopher: Watch this. This'll be fun. [He grabs the remote and turns off the TV] Joey: Hey! Christopher: Ahh... back to intelligent life as we know it. Yeah, you know that show? It's like bad airplane food. You know, the teen hyperbole, it's hard on the stomach. And the writers must sit around with a thesaurus just seeking out 4-syllable ways to abuse the English language. Joey: Well, I only watch it to torture you. Christopher: Yeah? Well, it works. I mean, who talks like that Colby guy? He's like some mutant English professor, psychotherapist freak. Joey: We can't all be brilliant literary snobs like yourself. You should read some of the crap I have to edit. Christopher: You edit my stuff. Joey: [Whispering] Except your stuff. [They begin kissing
SUMMARY:
Five years have passed and everyone is reunited in Capeside for a special wedding. Dawson has been living in Los Angeles producing his autobiographical television series The Creek and has never forgotten the love of his life, Joey. She is now a successful book editor living in New York City with her boyfriend, Chris, but comes home to realize she still loves her childhood sweethearts. Pacey is the owner of the new Ice House and still carries a torch for Joey, Jen is a single mom living with Grams in New York and managing an art gallery in SoHo, and Jack is a teacher at Capeside High and has fallen in love with Doug who is now the Sheriff of Capeside. Together all the secrets come out as tragedy and love becomes clear. With Jen in the hospital dying from a terminal heart condition, the gang tries not to be too sad about it. Dawson helps Jen make a video for her daughter, asking her to never stop loving and dreaming. Jen also asks Joey as her last wish to end the chasing and running and to finally pick between Pacey and Dawson. Joey tells Jen that she has always known who she is supposed to be with. Jack tells Jen that she's his soul mate and asks to raise baby Amy for her. Jen passes away and while mourning the death of their close friend, the gang has to move on. Doug tells Jack he's willing to spend his life with him and wants to help raise Amy. Joey breaks up with Chris over the phone while she tries to decide whom she will choose: Dawson or Pacey. After Jen's funeral, Pacey privately tells Joey that she's "off the hook"; despite his endless love for her, he can't hold her back any more despite them growing up together and relating to each other over their unhappy childhood and adolescence; Joey dealing with her mother's death from cancer and her father's imprisonment for drug trafficking, plus Pacey dealing with his outrageously immature and neglectful parents. But as much as Joey wanted, all her life, was to leave Capeside and travel the world, Pacey seems forever destined to be stuck there just like his alcoholic loser father and grandfather, etc. Before returning to New York, Joey sits with Dawson and confesses that even though they may never be together, he and she are soul mates and nothing should ever change that, but, in the end, she decides it is Pacey she wants to be with. In the final moments of the series, Dawson answers a phone call from Pacey and Joey who have just watched an episode of The Creek. Dawson tells them that he's meeting someone tomorrow and Pacey and Joey figure out it is Steven Spielberg, Dawson's idol. The episode ends when the camera lingers on a picture on Dawson's desk of him and his friends before cutting to a scene of them all walking down the beach from season one. In 2011, the whole two-part finale was ranked #16 on the TV Guide Network special, TV's Most Unforgettable Finales.[2]