Dawson's Creek : Series Finale

It jumps five years into the future, humorously enough bringing the actors who played these teens for so long a little bit closer to their actual ages. We get to see how everybody turned out, where life took them after high school and college.

The emphasis on Dawson, of course, is in his Hollywood career, and, of course, he is a big success in the industry. This was always his story, since the first episode of the series, so it was nice to see it come full circle for him.

Joey Potter's story, however, always seemed to be with her romantic love life as it related to her childhood insecurities, and she also ends up in a great place. Finally secure with who she is and grown up enough to get what she wants, which turns out, happily enough, to be that charming romantic hero Pacey that made us all swoon (and also made us wonder what was wrong with that girl for so long not to see it).

The show may have started about her purely innocent childhood crush on her best friend and neighbor Dawson, but thankfully - in this show that was supposed to be about growing up - they actually let the character grow up and change. There are many diehard Dawson and Joey fans out there who may feel slighted, but the truth of the matter is that more time was devoted to the romance of Pacey and Joey on this show than it ever was with her and Dawson. Season three was completely about them falling in love in a wonderfully romantic way, and almost the entire season four was devoted to their relationship. Even in season six the sparks were temporarily rekindled between Pacey and Joey, and both admitted the other had always been still in the back of their minds somewhere. But Joey expressed a lot of fears and trepidation about getting involved with Pacey again, and all those same fears were adddressed in the finale.

What Kevin Williamson's commentary will explain is that, since these characters had grown and experienced so much over the years, a Dawson and Joey ending did not make sense if you looked at the series AS A WHOLE, not just the first two seasons. There were FOUR seasons that followed, and the finale takes those seasons, as well as the Pacey and Joey relationship into consideration, as well it should. Even Williamson and the show's producer Paul Stupin agree in the DVD commentary that the true great romance of the show AS A WHOLE was Pacey and Joey. (And Williamson also carefully explains that the second hour of the show was rewritten for Pacey and Joey to end up together, so Joey's dialogue in their last scene was written for Pacey, not someone else.)

It is a very interesting commentary, to see how the creative process works, to see how a writer can let the story naturally take him where it should, rather than where he thought it was supposed to go when he sat down to write it. Williamson seems delighted with how it ended up, as did the actors who played the roles, which is nice to know. In Joey's last words: "PERFECT"

The plot of the TB show revolved around 6 friends (Dawson, Joey, Pacey, Jen, Jack, and Andie) and how they loved, laughed, and cried during the teenage years growing up in the small creek-side town of Capeside.

The Finale takes place in 2008, Five years since the friends have last met. The gang all comes back for the wedding of Mrs. Lerry, but very soon on they learn that one of there friends has been harboring a heart-breaking secret.

This is probablly one of the best series ending episodes I have seen, and although its a little of the Depressing side It is totally Dawson's Creek and totally perfect.

It takes place four years in the future, which I thought was a great idea. It let us see our favorite characters in the real world after college, and it was good.

Joey's now an editor, Jack's an English teacher, Dawson is the writer and director of his own show The Creek, which was based on the indepedent movie he made during the second season of the show. Jen is a mother to a beautiful baby girl, Amy. It's said that her boyfriend knocked her up and then left her. I would assume that the boyfriend wasn't Jensen Ackle's character, who we last saw her with because he seems like too nice of a guy to do that, but they never really say who it was.

The gang is in town for Dawson's mother's wedding, and the first hour has to do with the death of one of the cast, which is very heartbreaking, I cried many times, while the second deals with the love triangle that is Pacey, Joey and Dawson.

I loved the finale when it aired in May, but when I heard that there were deleted scenes in the dvd, I had to buy it even though I had the other on tape. It was well worth it, if just for the return of Meredith Monroe as Andie. The best addition was at the very end when they show clips of all of the most important scenes of the last 6 years. It's very touching.

I would definitely recommend buying this whether you saw it when it aired, or if you have yet to see it.

It is an excellent episode.