myla84

Hi guys. I'd like to start a thread about Gretchen. I really love her character throughout season 4 and her relationships with Dawson and Pacey. I hope I'm not the only one.
So if you like her, feel free to come and post.


I don't know if I'm doing this right or even if I'm allowed to do it, so feel free to cancel it if there's any problem.

Jerry D

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here, but I really did love Gretchen, so I deided to post on this topic. I was very disappointed that at the end of Season Four, Dawson and Gretchen's wonderful relationship was made a casualty of Dawson's lingering feelings for Joey, and The Powers That Be's desire to resuscitate the love triangle that ended Season Three, although in all honesty, they really didn’t do that, as Dawson and Pacey weren’t fighting for Joey’s love at the end of Season Four like they were at the end of Season Three, and to me, the only person who really got hurt at the end of Season Four was Gretchen. My heart broke for Gretchen in key times in the final episodes of Season Four, like when Dawson mentioned Joey in “Mind Games,” and in “Eastern Standard Time,” and finally, when he mentioned that maybe Lily and Alexander would be climbing through each other’s windows in “Separation Anxiety.”

I was also disappointed that Dawson seemed so philosophical and almost dismissive about his breakup with Gretchen when he talked about her to Andie in “The Graduate,” and Dawson’s made no mention of Gretchen in his summer diaries. As someone who grew to love Dawson and Gretchen’s relationship, I found that to be disheartening, so the question I’d like to ask, despite all the attempts that The Powers That Be have made to dismiss Dawson and Gretchen’s relationship, is what effect do you think Dawson’s relationship with Gretchen had on Dawson?

I see Dawson’s relationship with Gretchen as being a very positive influence in his life, as Gretchen was a wonderfully supportive friend, a loving and affectionate girlfriend, and most importantly, Gretchen, unlike Joey, was there for Dawson just when he needed her the most, as initially, he came to doubt his ambition to be a filmmaker after all the trauma he had endured in his life over the last few years, and later, as he dealt with the death of someone who he had come to regard as a mentor, Mr. Brooks. In both of those times, in the episodes “Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang,” and in “Four Stories,” Gretchen said precisely the right thing to boost Dawson’s flagging spirit, and to help him put his heartbreak and loss in perspective, so I think that Dawson’s relationship with Gretchen had a very beneficial effect on his outlook on life, and it helped him get past the heartbreak he felt at Pacey and Joey’s hands, and the bitterness he felt observing someone whose life eerily resembled his own, and who died virtually alone, with only a “garage full of stuff” to mark his passing. Thanks to Gretchen, though, Dawson didn’t follow Mr. Brooks’ path, though, even though like Mr. Brooks, he “lost the girl,” but thanks to Gretchen, as she told him in “Four Stories,” he “picked himself up, he dusted himself off, and he took a chance,” and I think that Gretchen helped Dawson to grow up, and later, when Joey hurt Dawson yet again by lying to him about sleeping with Pacey, Dawson showed a new found maturity when he reacted to this news, and like he said, Joey underestimated him when she thought he would crumble when he found out that she had shared her first time with Pacey instead of him, and I think a lot of credit for Dawson’s maturity has to go to his relationship with Gretchen, and I’ll always love Gretchen and be grateful to Gretchen for the positive influence that she had on Dawson and his outlook on life. I think that Dawson’s relationship with Gretchen bolstered his self confidence, and it allowed him to take a chance on love again, and it also allowed him to put the pain he had experienced over the last few years in his life at that point in its proper perspective, so he could move forward in his life.

I loved Dawson and Gretchen as friends, and as a romantic couple, and they, and she, will always have a special place in my heart.

Myfirstlove

I loved Gretchen in season 4 and I love how she is very neutral in the whole pacey and joey relationship up until she starts dating dawson. I mean gretchen could have been dont talk to dawson cause you are dating my brother kind of thing but doesn't do that her character was really realistic and knew how much these three needed to be friends and how much dawson and joey needed to be friends. I hope that make sense to you guys.

I also felt bad for gretchen toward the end of her relationship with dawson because he was the first real boyfriend who treated her right, and she really needed that. So all in all I really liked gretchen and I had hoped that maybe she would be back for some episodes in future seasons or somehow be mentioned in the series final.

-Kelly-

I've changed the title for you guys

Great post, Jerry

Gretchen really didn't have a chance with Dawson, there's the Joey drama and other dramas, and also there was the age gap between them, Gale saw that

Touldengal

i liked Gretchen and her relationship with Pacey. To tell you the truth, i didn't care very much for her and Dawson's relationship. I didn't dislike her with him, but I was also never invested in their relationship.
I do, however, think that she should have come back as a part-time regular on the show and i agree with Jerry, i think that since their relationship was pretty significant, that it would have been cool for Dawson to have mentioned her some time during the series.

-Kelly-

I think the actress had to leave because Kevin W had "wasteland" up coming and she was in the show

But I did like Gretchen

andre silva

I Really Like Gretechen and The Actress Sacha Alexander , Its Too Because a Of Her That Season 4 is my favourite season!

Songofjoy

I too liked Gretchen, and Jerry ... your post was dead on!

cp1333

The sad part of Gretchen was that she was brought in only as a foil in the whole triangle. She was a great character and unlike Bessie she actually had good advice and was a good connection with most of the other characters.

myla84

That's what I like the most about her character. Even though she was older, she really was attracted by this group of young people and wanted to help them.

dawnygirl

I really liked gretchen. I thought she was so pretty.

Myfirstlove

Her character was very likable in season 4, I just feel bad for her towards the end of the season.

-Kelly-

I started watching season 4 last night I love how she and Pacey have their talks, and even at the kitchen table eating...cute comments btw them two

ipek

So happy to see this thread!!!

Gretchen was one of my favorite characters, if not favorite, character on the show. I just bought the Season 4 DVDs just because of her. I don't know why they didn't do more with her character, she had great relationships with everybody on the show. She was a good friend to Joey, she was a great sister to Pacey and she was a great girlfriend to Dawson. I really wanted to see her come back in the later seasons. Oh well.

-Kelly-

You are right, she was the best sister for Pacey and for anyone else too