I started to post this on the P/J thread, but my post was already too long, and I figured it would fit better on this one anyway.
So, I'm currently up to the last five episodes of season 2, and I've been noticing so many things. I wish I'd taken notes, there are so many instances of foreshadowing that really lets me know that this story totally wrote itself, because the signs all point to Pacey and Joey but a P/J pairing wasn't even thought of at the time. But anyway, another thing I noticed was about Dawson and Joey. Like season 3, in season 2 Joey was conflicted because she wanted to be Dawson's
friend again. When she first broke up with him Dawson kept picking at her and picking at her, and after Jack realized he was gay I think she just fell back to Dawson because her confidence finally crumbled. Realizing that Joey truly just wanted to be his friend all that time, I began to see just how creepy Dawson was. It's funny because I've also been reading the recaps on TWOP, and in the recap of the series finale Sars wrote:
Quote:
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When Joey is dancing with Pacey, he's telling her how much fun she is and making jokes (however lame), whereas Dawson's being all intense and needy (with the pointing out that she left early) and creepy ("I like that I still make you nervous"? Okay, Paul Bernardo). Pacey's natural behaviour is to make Joey comfortable. Dawson's natural behaviour is to make Joey anxious. Pacey is fun. Dawson is a drip.
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Season 2 is filled with examples of that creepiness! It's like, dude, she needs space, leave her alone! But virtually every single time they were by themselves, which almost always happened by Dawson's design, Dawson brought up their lack of a relationship and how badly he felt about it. And by not allowing her the space she needed to find herself, Joey couldn't escape from him, so she just allowed herself to fall back into being who he wanted her to be. Even when he got drunk on his 16th birthday and Joey was explaining to him (again!) that their break-up had nothing to do with him and everything to do with her need to get to know herself outside of him and his influence, he told Joey to "hurry up because, God, I love you." Unbelievable! 'Cut short the process of exploring your Self because I want to be with you again because it's all about me.' He can be so insufferable. Then in season 2 after she rightly told him off after he gave her the ultimatum about her father, and then strangely felt bad about it and missed him over the summer and lost her mind again and offered herself to him, she only wanted his friendship. Dawson just could not believe that she wasn't still that fifteen-year-old who thought she was in love with him until she realized that making out with him wouldn't change anything about how he related to her. Jerk.
