Synopsis of Hopeless
Written by Tamara Jaron
Mrs. Leery is reprimanding Gretchen for making personal calls during working hours. Apparently they've run out of wine and she blames Gretchen for not being on top of it. As she walks away, Dawson appears with a new case of wine and Gretchen asks him if his mother has something personal against her. Perhaps she's not keen on them dating? Dawson reassures her that it's just a case of fluctuating hormones having to do with her pregnancy. Gretchen isn't so sure -- she thinks the age difference is causing a problem with Dawson's mother. Dawson doesn't think it matters because he doesn't have a problem. Gretchen agrees and suggests that they take their relationship to the next level: She wants to hang out with some college friends. Dawson is hesitant because he's not sure he's ready for that big a step, but now it's Gretchen's turn to reassure. She's planned a night out for the following night and she thinks that Dawson is going to impress her friends. They share a kiss just as Dawson's mother returns to the bar.
At the yacht club, Drue is getting chewed out by his mother. Joey arrives to speak with Mrs. Valentine, but she is scared by her apparent bad mood. As she turns to leave, Mrs. Valentine asks her if she's come to ask for the weekend off for the upcoming senior class trip. She's guessed correctly, but Joey suggests that maybe she should come back at a later time, when Mrs. Valentine is more likely to be in a good mood. As it turns out, Joey has caught her at a good time. Mrs. Valentine is more than willing to give her the time off in exchange for a little favor. She wants Joey to go on a double date with Drue and the daughter of the yacht club's board president. Apparently, she thinks that Joey and Pacey are the perfect couple and it's imperative that this girl has a good time. If she does, Joey will get the time off. Seeing she really has no other options, Joey agrees.
Dawson is hanging out with Mr. Brooks who is finally showing signs of his illness. He now spends most of his time in a wheelchair. Mr. Brooks feels uncomfortable that Grams has taken on a role as his caregiver and he asks Dawson if he wouldn't mind going to fetch his medications so that he doesn't have to ask her to do it. Dawson hesitantly agrees, and Mr. Brooks makes him sign some legal mumbo jumbo that he claims gives Dawson permission to fill his prescriptions. As Grams enters the room, Mr. Brooks hastily hides the paperwork as not to "hurt her feelings."
Dawson leaves and Grams takes over as nurse. She gives Mr. Brooks his pills, and he pretends to take them. She does not notice this, nor does she think anything of the fact that he has not bothered to pay for his next month's worth of visiting nurse care. He shrewdly claims that he sent in the check already and she believes him.
Gretchen is getting ready for her night out with Dawson and the gals. As she walks into the living room, Pacey objects to her outfit -- a revealing fuschia sweater that bares her midriff and shows off her more than ample chest.
"No, no no," he says in dismay.
"Are you offering a fashion opinion here Pace, 'cause you'll have to excuse me if I find your credibility in that department somewhat lacking."
"I'm offering a brother's opinion, okay? And as a brother I can tell you that that is not a going-out-of-the-house outfit. It's maybe the bottom layer of something that could become a going-out-of-the-house outfit, but not until you put on a sweater or something."
"This is a sweater," responds Gretchen.
"No it's not. A sweater is a big baggy shapeless thing that hides the human form. They're specifically designed for sisters who are about to go out on dates."
"This isn't even a date, it's a group activity. Keira and Jessica are about to pick me up any minute. And what are you still doing here anyway?"
"Well I was just getting mentally prepared for yet another night of being the perfect boyfriend. It's a thankless job -- long hours, very few rewards. Not that I'm in it for the rewards of course."
"No, of course not. True love waits," says Gretchen.
"And waits, and waits," replies a grumpy Pacey.
"Is something up?" asks Gretchen.
"No."
"Because if something were up..."
"But nothing's up," interrupts Pacey.
"Well if something were up and you wanted to talk about it..."
"Then I would. I absolutely would. But I'm not going to because guess what's up?"
"Something."
"Nothing."
A car horn sounds.
"You are so saved by the horn," says Gretchen as she heads for the door.
"Have fun working the boulevard," says Pacey.
Tobey comes to Jack's house to ask him if he'd like to join a community service group. He's looking for people to help tutor kids how to read. Jack is hesitant because he doesn't want his homosexuality to become an issue like it was with the soccer team. Tobey assures him that it won't be an issue. Jack says he's not interested, but Tobey still gives him the information in case he changes his mind.
Joey and Pacey meet Drue and his date, Anna, down by the docks. Pacey is not looking forward to the night, but Joey makes him promise that he'll be on his best behavior. He promises and they kiss as Drue and Anna pull up in a car. Drue is already bickering with Anna as soon as they step out of the car. He's his usual caustic self. Pacey is immediately taken with Anna, although it's unclear whether he's attracted to her or he just finds her to be a riot. Anna mistakes Pacey for Joey and when Pacey does not correct her, Joey steps in to clear up the confusion. As they all head for the car, Pacey opens the door for Anna and Joey takes note. Pacey says he's just trying to be nice and Joey does not believe him.
Dawson's movie is finished. He doesn't think so, but Mr. Brooks thinks it's good as is. They stop working for the night and Dawson wheels Mr. Brooks into the living room so that he can listen to some music. Mr. Brooks asks Dawson about his new girlfriend and Dawson is surprised by his sudden interest in his personal life. Dawson tells him they're taking it slow.
"Don't take it too easy," says Mr. Brooks. "You're not my age, you hear me?"
"I hear you," says Dawson.
"You're still young enough to fall in and out of love a few more times before you get it right."
"That doesn't sound like a lot of fun," says Dawson.
"It isn't, and it is, and it isn't," replies Mr. Brooks. "It's worth it every damn time."
"Someone's on a prophetic role this evening."
"Pancreatic cancer will make a prophet out of anybody."
Dawson makes a move to head out, but Mr. Brooks asks for his help getting out of the wheelchair. As Dawson helps him stand and they embrace in an awkward attempt to get him situated in a chair, Mr. Brooks grabs him in a hug. Dawson is momentarily taken aback, and as Louis Armstrong croons in the background, he begins to hug back. In what is perhaps the most touching and well-acted scene this writer has ever scene on this series, Brooks holds Dawson like a father and his eyes begin to glisten. As he pulls away and falls into the chair, Dawson is left standing with the purest look of surprised emotion on his face. He is truly touched by the unexpected gesture and looks on Mr. Brooks as a son would look on his ailing father.
"There you go," says Dawson, suddenly finding his voice.
"Yeah. Picture's not half bad," says Mr. Brooks. "Not just because it's about me, either."
"We should make another one sometime," answers Dawson.
"Anytime, kid. Anytime."
Dawson heads out and Mr. Brooks fights back his tears.
Gretchen comes with her two girlfriends to pick Dawson up from his house. His mother comes downstairs with a scowl on her face, and as Dawson puts on his coat to leave, she starts to grill him about his plans for the night. She is nervous about letting him go out to a place where there will be drinking, and Dawson assures her that he will be fine. She says that she wants him home by 1am and they begin to argue. Dawson is getting pretty worked up and he is starting to feel embarrassed in front of the older women. He asks Gretchen and her friends to wait outside with him and then he speaks with his mother alone. He is angry that she is imposing a curfew, something he's never had before. His mother says she is just trying to protect him from Gretchen. Dawson gets upset by her sudden over-protectiveness and storms out of the house.
Joey and Pacey's double date is headed on the fast track to disaster. At the miniature golf course, Drue is continuing to be mean to Anna. Joey tries to cool him off while Pacey has a little one-on-one golf instruction time with Anna. Joey is starting to get a little nervous about Pacey's over-exuberance towards Anna and Drue just fans the flames.
Jack turns up at the community service center -- he's changed his mind about volunteering. Tobey is happy to see him.
Dawson is suffering in the backseat of Gretchen's car. He's being forced to hear all the sorted details of Keira's sex life and he's starting to realize just how young he is. The girls are all reminiscing about their college antics, and Dawson is feeling pretty left out.
Continuing the double date from hell, Dawson, Pacey, Drue, and Anna have moved to an arcade for some snacks. Drue continues to rail on Anna, only this time he takes it a little too far and insults Anna's intelligence. Pacey decides that he's fed up with Drue and wants to call it a night. Anna thinks that the whole thing is her fault -- turns out she slept with Drue. Maybe we shouldn't feel so bad for her after all. I mean, what was she thinking? Pacey and Joey are shocked and Drue is embarrassed for once.
When they arrive in town, Gretchen asks Dawson how he's doing. He admits that he's not doing great.
"Honestly," he says, "I've never felt so 17 in my entire life."
"My God, are you really 17? What am I doing with you?" jokes Gretchen. She assures Dawson that the worst of the night is over, but they could have at least seen the next bit of humiliation coming. When they arrive at the club, Dawson has to have his hand stamped "under 21" in order to gain admittance. He is now marked with shame.
"You have no idea how perfectly this encapsulates my life right now," Dawson tells the bouncer.
"Please tell me that you're not shedding so much as one tear over Drue Valentine. The man is a world class moron." says Pacey. He's come out to the docks to cheer up a depressed Anna.
"Yeah, well if that's the case, shouldn't we be perfect for each other?" asks Anna.
"You know how some people are good at books? I'm not at all good with books. People like you and I, we just have to figure out what our thing is and then become good at it."
"I know what I'm good at. Men."
"Well, I suppose it's a good thing that you've already figured that out," says Pacey. "But there has to be something else that you're good at."
"Not really," replies Anna. "It's always been the easiest thing for me. But with Drue, I wanted him to like me for more than the way I look."
"I don't know that he doesn't," says Pacey.
"Yeah, but now I'll never know. I blew it. I fell into bed too easily. If I hadn't, do you think he might have liked me?"
"I can't answer that. But I can answer you this, I have only just met you and I can already tell that there are a lot of nice things about you. Besides the way that you look. And if Drue Valentine can't see that, well then that's his loss, not yours."
Job well done Pacey. Anna is successfully cheered up.
The misery is continuing for poor Dawson. The girls are now discussing their illustrious sexual histories over drinks at the bar. Apparently, they all keep a running tab of all the losers they have dated. Gretchen has had six losers in her past and according to Keira, she is not the best judge of men. Seeing that Dawson feels put down by this, she insists that he seems like a nice guy. Dawson doesn't like the "nice guy" label.
"Why does everyone keep saying that? I'm not really that nice," says Dawson.
"Well Dawson, I think she just means you're not the kind of guy who would take me to a concert, meet another girl in line, then dump me, leaving me to find my own ride back to school."
"That actually happened to you?" asks Dawson.
"Oh yes, loser number two."
They continue to share notes about the losers that Gretchen has dated.
"That's why I'm so happy to have Dawson, you know," says Gretchen. "At least I know he won't shred my heart."
Dawson is not thrilled. The band begins to play as Gretchen snuggles close to Dawson.
At the community service center, Jack is trying to tutor a young boy who is having a hard time reading. In order to get him more enthusiastic, Jack encourages him to come up with his own story, only using words that he knows how to spell. The kid agrees, and the boy starts to dictate his story. When he can't spell a word, Jack makes him look it up. The boy is having a great time, and Tobey is impressed with Jack's ability to inspire.
Drue has by this time moved on to greener pastures, scumbag that his is. He's scoped out a couple of beauties and is trying to get their numbers. Joey comes over to have a word with him.
"Drue," she says, "I think it's time we talk about the baby. I think you need to take responsibility and marry me." She successfully scares away the girls and Drue is pissed.
"You know, everyone here thinks you're so sweet, but I know better. You're really a minion from the deep sent here to make my life a living hell."
"Hell would be too good for you," says Joey. "Think you could try to explain to me how you could sleep with her and then treat her like that? Have you no capacity for human kindness?"
"Very little."
"How does someone like you end up so..."
"Damaged?"
"Completely."
"Lucky, I guess," says Drue.
"You have this whole witty Drue routine you do," says Joey. "But it's just a front for some really scared kid who's desperate for people to love him and desperately trying to keep any sort of intimacy away."
"How insightful," says Drue, sarcastically.
"It doesn't take a Ph.D. to interpret your behavior," responds Joey. "It's classic first grade. You know what, you keep acting like this and your worst fear is going to come true. You're going to walk through life alone."
Her words have finally hit home. Drue starts to open up.
"I'm not really good with girls," he says. "I'm actually incredibly bad with them."
"How come?" asks Joey.
"My guess? Spending my formative years in all boys' institutions. Pretty much all I know how to do is pick on women or sleep with them. I was never around them much long to get good at doing anything else."
"You're doing something else right now. I mean, you're being honest and real. You should work on that," says Joey.
Apparently Drue isn't good at taking a complement. He looks up and sees Pacey and Anna.
"They look kind of cute together, don't they? They kind of have that warm wondrous glow of two people who've had sex. Not with each other, of course, separately -- you get my drift. Oh whoops, I forgot, that's a subject you know nothing about."
Drue has once again killed a special moment.
Jack is finished with his tutoring. It was a success. Tobey is happy that Jack had a good time, and he invites him out to coffee with some of his friends. Jack is hesitant, but he agrees.
Dawson, Gretchen, and her friends have left the club, but the girls are not yet ready to head home. They suggest going to another bar, but Dawson reminds them that he won't be able to get in. Instead he suggests that the girls go without him and he'll just take a cab home. Gretchen fails the first girlfriend test when instead of insisting that he stay and they find a place where they can all hang out, she suggests that he take the car instead since they've been drinking. Dawson is disappointed by her willingness to let him go, but he takes off anyway.
The double date is finally coming to an end, and Drue is trying hard to be a good guy. He and Anna bid Pacey and Joey goodbye and then he apologizes to Anna for his behavior. Anna accepts his apology and they kiss.
Grams and Mr. Brooks are playing scrabble. Mr. Brooks is reflecting on his chance meeting with Dawson. If Dawson hadn't wrecked his boat, he would not have made such a good friend or met Grams. As Grams gets up to put away the scrabble board, she discovers his pill stash. She is upset that he is not taking his medication and begins to rebuke him.
"Please," he says, "I knew you'd understand."
"How could I possibly understand something like this?" asks a horrified Grams.
"Because you know that living without dignity is not living," replies Mr. Brooks.
"This is in God's hands, Arthur. There is a natural course of events."
"As long as I can think for myself, I determine them. I mean, this doesn't belong in God's hands or in yours. It belongs in mine. Look, with all your faith. Would you really want any less for yourself?"
Grams kisses him and they say goodnight. Their hands touch for an extra moment before she leaves.
Jack and Tobey arrive at the coffee shop, and Jack discovers that Tobey has taken him out on a double date.
"Can I talk to you," he asks Tobey, pulling him aside. "You didn't tell me we were meeting another couple."
"I didn't think it was important," says Tobey.
"Yeah, it kind of is. It's Saturday night, late, you want me to meet your friends. I'm beginning to think this is more than just coffee to you. Is it?"
"Actually, I'd really like it if it were," responds Tobey.
"The tutoring thing, did you start that because of me?"
"It's possible that it may be part of the reason. Well, a big part. I thought it was something we could do together."
"So everything you said about being friends...it was just a setup to be with me."
"Jen said that if I wanted to get to know you I should try to be your friend, so I'm trying, that's all."
"Friends, yeah that's fine. But I want to make something clear -- that there's not going to be anything more, ever."
"Why not?" asks a brokenhearted Tobey.
"Tobey, we don't click. And even if you wanted to change that, you couldn't. That's just the way it is. Look, I know this isn't going to make you feel any better, but I really do wish we had something. I don't know if it's such a good idea for us to do this tutoring thing together."
"Jack, you're great at it. You've got to keep going, I'll find something else."
"Forget I said that, that's crazy. There's no reason for either one of us to quit. As long as you have no problem with us just being..."
"No, I'm fine. That's fine," lies Tobey.
"See you next Saturday," says Jack as he walks out of the coffee house.
Dawson arrives home to find his mother waiting for him, asleep on the couch. She asks him if he had a good time, and he says no. He's afraid he's going to end up the seventh loser on Gretchen's list. He thinks his mother was right. She disagrees. She admits she was just being too protective -- she was not ready to let Dawson go. Dawson is not sure he wants to continue with Gretchen, he's afraid of being hurt. His mother says that he has no choice but to risk it if he wants to find love.
They are interrupted by a knock at the door. It's Gretchen. Turns out she came home right after Dawson left. Dawson's mother says goodnight to them both, but not before telling Gretchen that Dawson will never be number seven on any list.
Gretchen admits that she felt bad about letting Dawson go home. She says that her friends were very impressed with him. Dawson asks if the age difference bothered them and Gretchen says that even if it did, she wouldn't care because it doesn't bother her.
"It bothers me," says Dawson. "There are things that I want to do with you. Take you to a real club, order a bottle of wine at dinner, go to a bar with your friends -- I don't want to be some guy who's holding you back from what you want to do."
"I'm doing exactly what I want to do. I'm with you."
"Earlier tonight, you said that I would never be the kind of guy who would shred your heart. I would never intentionally hurt you, but I can't be the nice guy that you date after a bad relationship because there's no risk involved. I need to know that I've made some sort of impression."
"It's already done," says Gretchen, leaning in close.
"Really?" asks Dawson.
"Oh yeah," she says, kissing him.
"So when do I get to see lucky?" he asks.
"We'll see."
Pacey and Joey are cuddling at Pacey's house and talking about the night's events.
"So in his own Drue-like way," says Joey, "he was just freaked out because she liked him back."
"Well, that kind of freaks me out too, thought," says Pacey. "Why on earth would she give him another chance? She seemed like a perfectly reasonable girl, you know. It kind of makes you wonder." (Thank you!)
"Yeah, sleeping with somebody you just met is totally reasonable," says Joey.
"Maybe it's a little rash, but to be perfectly honest if two people do something that they both want to do, it's completely natural. I don't exactly think that's crazy." Uh-oh.
"Unlike what we're doing?" asks Joey, climbing off of Pacey.
"What are you talking about?" says an innocent Pacey.
"The thing that we don't talk about, Pace. We have a problem."
"Yes we do," admits Pacey. "I mean, it used to be this little problem that we could easily ignore, but by doing that all we really did was make it bigger, and now unfortunately it's so damn big it's starting to obscure my view of you." What happened to sensitive Pacey? He's turned into horny teenager Pacey.
"So basically you're saying that if I don't sleep with you soon, we're going to break up and it's going to be all my fault?"
"No. No, not at all. I'm agreeing with you. I'm saying that we have a problem and this is something that we need to talk about. I'm not saying in any way that it's your fault that we haven't..."
"Because it's not," interrupts Joey. "I mean we talked about this Pacey, and you were fine with waiting." She is getting upset.
"I have been fine with waiting," says Pacey. "I'd have been too scared to sleep with you too soon. I don't want to do anything that is going to jeopardize the most amazing relationship that I've ever had. Joe, I am happy that you and I took the time to really get to know each other. But we're here now, Joe. This is eight months and counting. So I just want, I need for you to know that if our relationship is not going to be progressing onto that next level, it's not because of me."
"Pacey, I want you, I really do," says a teary-eyed Joey.
"I need to know that."
"Know it? I don't really know what's wrong, but I just keep holding back. I'm sorry, but I'm scared."
"Well good. Do you think I'm not scared?" asks Pacey. "I'm terrified, Joe."
"You are?" she asks incredulously.
"Yeah."
Joey looks relieved. "So then, can we just be scared together?" They hug.
Dawson arrives at Mr. Brooks' house the next morning and finds him lying unconscious on the floor.
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