Joey stays up all night pouring her heart into an email to Dawson, but then accidentally sends it to the entire campus instead of to her old friend. After a hellish day where here literature professor, Hetson, dissects her email in class, and she overhears other students giggling about her everywhere she goes, she blows off some steam to Eddie on her first night at work at Hell's Kitchen, and finds out that Eddie isn't such a bad guy. She also learns that Professor Hetson is a regular at Hell's Kitchen. After an illuminating conversation with the professor in the bar, Joey has an easier time bantering with him in class the next morning. Pacey's first day on the job starts out rough, but he triumphs when he actually manages to sell stock to a notoriously tough buyer. He is crushed, however, when his mentor, Rinaldi, takes credit for the sale. Pacey decides to buckle down and perform all that much better so than no one can question him. Jack waxes poetic about how much he likes his pop culture class to his professor, Freeman, who realizes that Jack may have slightly more personal feelings for him. Audrey blows off a whole day of classes at Worthington and instead hangs with Jack and Jen at Boston Bay. Emma settle into living with two boys. Dawson struggles with composing his own email to Joey.

Pacey has to cancel evening plans with Audrey to study for his Series 7 exam, but then gets dragged out by his coworkers. When Audrey runs into him, she is pissed that he cancelled with her to go out with the boys from work. Audrey, at a party with Jen and Jack, gets wasted and a guy entices her upstairs to a bedroom. Luckily Jen, with some muscle help from CJ, saves her friend. Pacey apologizes to Audrey and spends the rest of the night holding her. Jack runs into Professor Freeman at the party, and they spend a fun night talking. Freeman tells Jack that he's married and he just found out that his wife is pregnant, but then admits that he came to the party tonight hoping to see Jack. Jack is a little weirded out by this. Dawson picks up his ex-girlfriend, Natasha, who is also the star of the movie that he's working on, at the airport, and she is drunk and angry at him and keeps messing up her scenes. Joey and Eddie show to with food for the movie set from Hell's Kitchen, and Natasha loses it and makes Todd fire Dawson. Dawson and Joey talk about what might have been, but then go their separate ways. Natasha feels sorry for Dawson and gets him his job back. Joey impulsively kisses Eddie as they're closing the bar, but he tells her he thinks she did it because of Dawson.

Joey is embarassed about the kiss she gave Eddie last week, but that is quickly overshadowed when she finds out that Eddie isn't actually a student and was sneaking into Professor Hetson's class. Audrey won't talk to Jen or Pacey about how she was almost taken advantage of while she was drunk at that party last week, but Pacey notices that something is up with her. Emma invites Audrey to be the lead singer in her all-girl punk band, Hell's Belles, and during their debut peformance, Audrey is quite good. Audrey is disappointed when Pacey, who was up the whole night before studying, falls asleep and misses the show. Jack is surprised when he gets his paper back from pop culture class, and he got a C-. He confronts Professor Freeman about both the grade and his sexuality. Freeman tries to justify being in the closet, but does end up changing Jack's grade to a B. Dawson scrambles to save the film and Natasha's job when Heather, the producer, shows up and threatens to shut down the film and re-cast the female lead. Dawson and Todd manage to convince Heather not to do any of those things, and Dawson and Natasha begin to renew an actual friendship rather than the uneasy peace they had before.

Pacey and Joey continue to dance around one another without making any decisions. Joey agrees to look after Hetson's daughter Harley for the afternoon, and spends most of the time fighting off Harley's amorous boyfriend, Patrick, and remembering what it was like to be 16 herself. Pacey finds himself rushing back to Capeside because his father is in the hospital. His father is okay, but his brother Doug is bitter about Pacey now being the prodigal son. Dawson is back in Capeside too, visiting his old film class and meeting a student that reminds him of himself at that age. Pacey and Dawson meet up and compare notes on how strange it is to be adults.

Pacey and Joey awkwardly try dating, but when Joey comes to visit Pacey at work after he gets a promotion and his own office, she ends up as his temporary secretary while she's on spring break. Between their jealousy and their passion, Pacey and Joey make terrible workmates, and the two agree to end their working relationship and concentrate on their romantic one. Just as Joey is closing up the bar and preparing to go over to Pacey's apartment, Eddie shows up. C.J. wishes there were more sex in his relationship with Jen, while Jen is trying to have a mature relationship with C.J. and is worried that all he wants is sex. Over a sullen dinner with the couple, Grams manages to get them to see each other's points of view, and they patch things up. Dawson tries to pitch his new movie idea, a coming-of-age flick that basically mirrors his own life, to Todd's old producer Larry Newman. Larry greenlights Dawson's project, with Dawson as director, partly because Dawson managed to get Natasha into the sack, and partly because he's assured the movie will be about a teen stripper and will have lots of nudity. After consulting with Todd, Dawson realizes that he can't sell-out that badly and pulls out of the deal, hoping to figure out a way to make the movie on his own.

Eddie tells Joey he wants to be with her, but Joey tells him she's moved on. Joey doesn't go over to Pacey's place that night, but the next night, Pacey accompanies her when she chaperones Harley's school dance. After spending a fun night mending Harley's strained relationship with her cavalier boyfriend, Patrick, Joey realizes that she can't be with Pacey. She tells Pacey this, and over his protests, admits that Eddie is back in town. After a last dance with Pacey, she goes to Eddie's house and they finally have a passionate reunion. Jen starts questioning Grams when she finds out that C.J.'s Uncle Bill has had his heart broken. Grams finally admits to Jen that she's been diagnosed with breast cancer, and will be undergoing radiation therapy. Grams is surprisingly uncommunicative, but Jen's fear finally prompts her to assure her grandaughter that she's not ready to die. Dawson approaches Pacey with his savings from Todd's movie, and asks Pacey to invest it to make enough money to finance his coming-of-age film. Pacey is hesistant to mix business and friendship, but finally tells Dawson he'll help. Dawson's mom is worried that Dawson doesn't have a backup plan if directing doesn't work out, but Dawson convinces her that his going headlong into directing without another thought is the only way he's going to be able to pull it off.

Audrey comes back from rehab, Eddie wonders why Joey won't have sex with him anymore, and Jen breaks up with C.J. out of the blue. Dr. Drew Pinsky and Adam Carolla come to Boston Bay College to do a live episode of Lovelines, and Jen hosts. David is upset when he's late meeting Jack for the show, and Jack has given away his seat to this cute guy named Fred with whom he's now chatting. Audrey has a crush on Dr. Drew, and rebuffs Adam Carolla's advances. During the show, C.J. brings up the subject of why Jen dumped him, Eddie and Joey end up on stage talking about Joey's abandonment and trust issues, and David publicly complains about his boyfriend flirting with another guy. After the show, Jen finally admits to C.J. that she just freaked out because Grams is sick. Eddie tells Joey that he loves her and she can trust him, and she decides to take a leap of faith. Jack doesn't think he has anything to apologize for, since he wasn't flirting with Fred, he was just being friendly, but David gives him an ultimatum: apologize or they break up.

As Stepatech stock continues to rise, Pacey's life just keeps getting better when he starts sleeping with Sadia... even though she has a boyfriend... actually, a fiancé. Pacey is crushed when Stepatech's new drug doesn't get approved and the stock crashes... and he doesn't know how to tell Dawson that he lost all his money. Pacey asks his boss for a loan, and when Rinaldi just laughs at him and mocks him, Pacey starts a fight and Rinaldi fires him. Joey takes her final in Professor Hetson's class and aces it. Eddie surprises Joey with a plan to spend the summer together in Europe. While Joey is excited, she's not ready to just throw away an entire summer irresponsibly, and she and Eddie end up fighting about it. After a lesson in spontanaeity from Professor Hetson, Joey changes her mind, but it's too late... Eddie's gone. Jack tries to get David to talk to him, but when he finally does, David breaks up with Jack, telling him that Jack was really just going through the motions of being in a relationship. Audrey finds out that, due to her stint in rehab, she has to take summer school.

Joey returns to Capeside to find Dawson's script on her doorstep and is overwhelmed that he has written a story about three friends, but Dawson's movie-making dreams are shattered when Pacey comes clean about losing Dawson's money. The ensuing fight opens old wounds and leaves the three friends believing their friendship will never be the same. Back in Boston, Jen has invited her mother (Mimi Rogers) from New York with the intent of telling her that she, Jack and Grams are moving to New York so Grams' can get the medical care she needs. Peter Kowalski directed the episode written by Anna Fricke.

Rating: 2.7/5

With no money to make his movie, Dawson gives up on his dream and instead, toils away at his mother's restaurant. A very determined Joey rallies all of Dawson's friends to make the movie a reality, even with next to no cash. They all spend the beginning of their summer re-creating the first season of Dawson's Creek, with Harley playing Joey and her boyfriend Patrick playing Pacey. Even Pacey, who has been a slug on Doug's couch and whose friendship with Dawson has fallen apart, goes around to local businesses in Capeside and gets them to invest in the movie... he also meets an old crush from school, Kristie, who has a drink with him. Jen, Jack and Grams depart for New York. Dawson and Pacey finally begin to mend fences when they realize that they both sacrifice their friendship because they're in love with Joey, but all Joey wants is for them to be friends. Jen and Jack start the school year at NYU. Pacey goes back to working in a restaurant. Joey finally makes it to Paris.

Five years in the future, everyone returns to Capeside for Gale's wedding. Pacey is now running the Icehouse restaurant and sleeping with a married woman. Joey lives in New York with her boyfriend, Christopher, and is an editor. Jen is a single mom, having been abandoned by the boyfriend that knocked her up. Jack is a teacher in Capeside, and is dating Doug Witter, who is unfortunately still closeted. And Dawson is the producer of a TV show in Los Angeles called The Creek, which is, of course, just like Dawson's Creek. Pacey gets beat up by his girlfriend's husband, and he, Dawson and Joey quickly fall back into their love-triangle ways. Jack gets fed up with dating someone in the closet. Jen doesn't tell anyone that she's having heart problems until she collapses at Gale's wedding. Then she admits to Jack, who tells their friends, that she's dying.

Realizing she still has feelings for the men from her past, Joey breaks up with Christopher over the phone, and Jen tells Joey that it's her dying wish that Joey make up her mind between Dawson and Pacey. Jack tells Jen that he definitely wants to fulfil his god-father duties and take care of her daughter, Amy, after she dies. After Dawson films Jen giving a message to her daughter, he starts to feel like his Hollywood life is silly and meaningless, but Joey assures him that being able to re-live his life through his television show is a blessing. Jen dies, and at her funeral, Pacey tells Joey that she's off the hook, and he just wants her to be happy. Joey starts to tell Pacey that she doesn't necessarily want to be off the hook when they're interrupted. Joey and Dawson admit that they're soulmates, and that their relationship is much more than being friends, or even lovers. However, it's Pacey that's in New York with Joey watching the season finale of The Creek.