You've nailed it
I can't bear Season 4 Pacey. His glow from Seasons 1 and 2 was just gone. The insecurities and whines just flooded through, right from the first scene.
I absolutely hate this quote, which is clearly Pacey referring to Andie ~
You throw in the occasional downward spiral of a dear friend
WTF???
He literally makes a mockery of the illness she had, which is disgraceful. He shared that with Andie more than anyone did, and he just uses it here to make a joke of everything waiting for them back home. Terrible writing.
Honestly, PROMICIDE was just a culmination of everything that had come during the season. P/J fans act as if it was out of character, but it wasn't. His anger towards her in that episode had been bubbling beneath the surface since they got together.
I couldn't tell if it was guilt towards how they had shut Dawson and Andie out, sadness over how much everything had changed, or just plain realization on Pacey's part that he and Joey were not the fantasy relationship he had hoped it would be.
Honestly, his dialogue on the Prom boat is so depressing that I don't understand how anyone would root for P/J to stay together after that. He addresses the fact that he feels worthless with her, then in the next episode, he takes it all back
You can't just ignore your problems. THAT is Pacey's problem - he tried to ignore the real world when he was with Joey.
Maybe I wouldn't mind so much, if people didn't act as if Dawson treated Joey worse than anybody else did.