1st Season
1997-1998

#1 Pilot
#2 Dance
#3 A Prelude to a Kiss
#4 Carnal Knowledge
#5 Hurricane
#6 Look Who's Talking
#7 Breakfast Club
#8 Escape from New York
#9 Road Trip
#10 Modern Romance
#11 Friday the 13th
#12 Beauty Contest
#13 Breaking Away

Other Seasons
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6


#1 Pilot: Aired Tuesday, January 20, 1998

Introduction to Dawson Leery, a budding teenage filmmaker, his best friend Joey Potter, the girl next door, his other best friend Pacey Witter, the local ne'er-do-well, and Jennifer Lindley, the new girl in Capeside.

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#2 Dance: Aired Tuesday, January 27, 1998

Dawson is jealous that Jen is going to the dance with Cliff, Pacey smooches Tamara (!) and Joey is just all-around unhappy about Dawson and everything else.

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#3 A Prelude to a Kiss: Aired Tuesday, February 3, 1998

Dawson gets a kiss from Jen. Joey gets a kiss from Anderson Crawford. Pacey loses his virginity to his teacher, Tamara, and whole town seems to know about it (uh-oh).

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#4 Carnal Knowledge: Aired Tuesday, February 10, 1998

Dawson finds out about his mother's affair with her co-anchor AND about Jen's sketchy past in New York AND about Pacey and Tamara's affair. What a week!

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#5 Hurricane: Aired Tuesday, February 17, 1998

A hurricane hits Capeside (whatever -- it never even seems to rain in Capeside) and emotions run high for everyone.

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#6 Look Who's Talking: Aired Tuesday, February 24, 1998

Grams, Jen, Joey and Dawson all help to deliver Bessie's baby while Tamara faces the school board for her alleged affair with Pacey.

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#7 Breakfast Club: Aired Tuesday, March 3, 1998

The Capeside gang, with the help of Abby Morgan, live out their own version of The Breakfast Club.

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#8 Escape from New York: Aired Tuesday, March 10, 1998

Jen's ex-boyfriend Billy shows up in Capeside hoping to win her back. An overworked, underappreciated Joey gets smashed at a beach party. Jen breaks up with Dawson.

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#9 Road Trip: Aired Tuesday, March 17, 1998

Pacey and Dawson join Billy on a road trip. Jen and Joey gang up against an obnoxious jock (apparently, all jocks in Capeside are obnoxious...).

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#10 Modern Romance: Aired Tuesday, April 28, 1998

Dawson cooks up a plan to win Jen back: go on a double date with her and Cliff. (Yeah, right, Dawson. Good idea.) Meanwhile, Pacey develops an itty bitty crush on Joey.

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#11 Friday the 13th: Aired Tuesday, May 5, 1998

For Friday the 13th, Dawson has a seance party at his house while his parents are away. Jock-boy Cliff asks Jen out, but then asks Dawson's advice on how to show Jen a good time, and Dawson recommends bringing Jen to the seance. Meanwhile, a murderer nick-named the Ladykiller is making his way down from Boston. He is known for stalking his young female victims with notes and phone calls before cutting out their hearts. Dawson plays jokes on his friends to scare them, and Jen is upset when she isn't included. Then Jen receives a scary note and phone call, and although she's honestly spooked, she believes they are from Dawson. Pacey and Dawson leave Joey in the car while they shop for munchies for the party, and Joey ends up helping a strange man with directions. Pacey meets a wild older woman named Ursula with a crazy violent boyfriend, and brings her back to Dawson's along with the bottle of wine she lifts from the store. During the seance, everyone gets spooked when Ursula tells a scary story starring herself as a disturbed woman with a knife in her purse. Then the lights go out and the phone goes dead. The gang gets together to pull the ultimate prank on Dawson, and scare him thoroughly. Then Ursula's boyfriend attacks the house, and after Joey bangs him on he head with a frying pan Ursula tends to him and leaves with him. Jen finally figures out that it wasn't Dawson who spooked her, it was actually Cliff, and she is unamused. Joey and Dawson watch the news and find out that the weird guy Joey talked to earlier has been arrested as the Ladykiller.

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#12 Beauty Contest: Aired Tuesday, May 12, 1998

It's the annual country club Miss Windjammer beauty pageant, and Jen, who is reaching out to Joey as a friend, convinces Joey to enter to try and win the $5,000 cash prize as nest-egg for college. Pacey also enters the competition, hoping to the win the money so he can move out of his parents' house, and Dawson, who is covering the story for his mom's TV station, eggs him on to make the pageant a bigger story. Dawson continues to try to win back Jen, even while Pacey tells him that he really needs to reconsider his relationship with Joey. At the pageant, Jen does an amazing job of transforming Joey into a beautiful and elegant young woman, and Dawson, who earlier said he only thought of Joey as a sister, suddenly sees her in a new light. Joey wins 1st runner up, and after the pageant, Dawson gushes over her, saying that he feels like he's seeing her for the first time. Joey is weirded out, because she wanted Dawson to fall for her for her, not for some one-night made-up evening-gowned version of her. Pacey finds out that he has some things in common with local rich bith Hannah Von Wenning, who wins 2nd runner up and feels like a failure in her family's eyes. Later, Jen asks Dawson if he'll give her a second chance, but he tells her that her timing is bad, and right now he has some things to figure out.

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#13 Breaking Away: Aired Tuesday, May 19, 1998

Joey gets offered a summer scholarship program in Paris. On her father's birthday, Joey reluctantly visits him wih Dawson, but she runs away minutes after sitting down with him. Dawsons ends up telling Mr. Potter how amazing his own daughter is. Pacey has it driven home that he's failing in school, and is an embarrassment to his family. Jen's grandfather wakes up from his coma, but then quickly has another stroke. Pacey convinces Joey to go see her father again, while Jen turns to Dawson for support and ends up sleeping at his place... just as friends, although Jen wants something more. Joey finally really talks to her dad, and he tells her that Dawson loves her, and if she loves him back, she should tell him. Joey goes to talk to Dawson, but sees him with Jen and runs away. Dawson spends all day hunting for Joey around town, but then finally finds her hiding in his own room. He tells her he hopes she won't go to Paris. She tells him she needs a reason to stay. They talk about if they're really ready to be honest with each other... and finally Dawson kisses Joey... and she kisses him back.

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Other Seasons
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6