Dawson's Creek - Season 2, Episode 4

"I'm baaaaaack!"

"Tamara's Return"
Original airdate: 10/28/1998

Episode summary: Tamara returns to Capeside for one last smooch with Pacey. Abby accuses Jen of stealing her new man. Joey rails incoherently to Dawson about why she's so irked by their romantic relationship.

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Recap: Joey tells Dawson to slow down with his smoochy amorousness 'cause this 'making out outdoors' thing isn't working for her. She complains about the cold air and all the bugs buzzing around, so Dawson reminds her that making out at each other's houses isn't an option anymore, then says that he personally finds the park to be a very romantic setting for their PG action.

The next morning, Mitch is downtown with Dawson, waiting to meet up with the property owner of a vacant warehouse (aka a possible location for his new restaurant). The property owner ends up being Tamara, who explains that she's back in Capeside for a few days to sell the property and lock lips with Pacey one last time...and Dawson stares at her with a lock of horrified shock before rushing off to school. 

At Capeside High, Dawson tries to tell Pacey about the Tamara sighting, but Pacey does that annoying TV tropey thing where he babbles non-stop while completely oblivious to Dawson's urgent desperateness to tell him something really super important, then exclaims that he's late for class before racing off down the hall. TV trope aside ... Dawson, dude, it would have taken you two seconds to just blurt out, "Tamara's back in town."

Abby joins Jen in the cafeteria and waves around a ridiculously large wad of cash that is her allowance, then tells Jen she really really wants her to keep her company while she blows it on crap she doesn't need. Jen grumbles that she doesn't feel like shopping and would much rather hide under the covers, and Abby rolls her eyes and says she hopes this depression isn't Dawson-related 'cause there are plenty of other guys in the world who are actually worth mooning over. Jen whimpers that getting rejected hurrrrrts, and that she's not enjoying being on the outskirts of the Joey/Dawson/Pacey clique. Abby dismisses the threesome as boring, then tells Jen to finish nursing her bruised ego and then come out to the mall with her, 'cause being dragged from store to store while someone else shops is super fun.

"I'm so depressed about Dawson rejecting me that I'm going to pine, mope, and hide under the covers until further notice."

"Did I ever tell you I've trained myself to fall asleep with my eyes open?"

Pacey suggests to Andie that they stroll downtown together...and when he assures her he's not joking about wanting them to spend some quality time together, she happily agrees.

Joey has dragged Dawson to a lecture (given by Laura Weston) about abstract expressionism. After the lecture, Laura urges Joey to sign up for her art classes...and once she's out of hearing range Dawson contorts his face in a 'wow, that was one boring lecture!' expression and tells Joey he definitely does not get that kind of messy looking art.

Pacey and Andie are strolling downtown when Pacey spots Tamara heading his way. She smiles, says hello, and asks to be introduced to his little friend...and when Pacey just mutely stares at her in stunned bewilderment, she introduces herself to Andie as Pacey's former teacher/squeeze. She then breezily says it was nice to see him before sashaying off, and a perplexed Andie asks Pacey whassup with his reaction to seeing that woman 'cause he looks like he just saw a ghost. Pacey's like, "I gotta go" and chases after Tamara.

"Hello, lover!"

"Holy fucking shit."

During art class, Laura marvels at Joey's work and tells her she's very talented, and says if she wants to pursue art as a possible career choice, she can recommend classes that can help develop her talent. When Joey says she learned to draw from her late mother and then just shrugs all self-deprecating-like, Laura urges her to take herself more seriously and that she owes it to herself and the world to not let her natural born artistic brilliance go to waste. 

Andie drops by Dawson's house under the pretence of asking him about an English assignment...then admits that the real reason she came by was to find out on the down-low if Pacey likes likes her. Dawson says he has no idea 'cause Pacey's never mentioned anything about liking her, then hastily adds it doesn't mean he doesn't. He urges Andie to just come right out and tell Pacey she digs him, but she makes a blech face at that suggestion and says he's too much of an obnoxious pig...and Dawson points out that this pig behavior could be an attempt at flirtation. Andie mulls that over and says she likes the sound of that theory.

After Abby blows her allowance, she and Jen go to a marina restaurant for something to eat. Abby remarks on how much happier Jen seems today, and Jen smilingly says she's really digging going back to being the kind of bad seed she was during her slutty New York days. Abby glances over at another table, notices a hottie who looks like he's well into his twenties, and asks his name and if he'd like to join them. He tells her his name is Vincent, but that he has to decline her invitation 'cause he's an out of town fisherman who has to get back to his boat. Abby recites her phone number, and Vincent pretends to make a mental note of it while smittenly telling Jen it was nice meeting her. Uh oh.

Joey is sketching in the park when Dawson bounds over and asks her what she's doing. She hastily shuts her sketchbook and says she's not yet ready to share her work with him...and when he says he wants to be supportive of her hobby, she asks him why he refers to filmmaking as his life's passion and art as her hobby. A sheepish Dawson says he knew that that was going to be a boneheaded thing to say as soon as it popped out of his mouth, and a perturbed Joey reacts by packing up her stuff and huffily storms off.

Pacey finds Tamara visiting her old beach house and staring out at the water. He ambles over to where she's standing and tells her how awkward it was when they ran into each other downtown. Tamara says it's perfectly normal to feel awkward after the grisly Season 1 pedo-on-boy story arc [that could not end soon enough for me], then describes the current awkward silence between them as "a Pinter moment" 'cause sometimes there's too much emotion for them to adequately express what they're feeling. The two then stand next to each other while silently staring out at the water...and eventually Pacey gets bored by the illicit sex they're not going to have this episode and ambles off.

"What we're experiencing is a pedo-on-boy Pinter pause."

"Sounds hot."

Mitch asks Dawson how things are going with Joey, and Dawson grimly says he can't seem to say or do anything right when it comes to her sudden passion for art. Mitch dickishly chalks it up to the erratic nature of the female brain and suggests that maybe her bitchiness has nothing to do with her art, and urges Dawson to talk it out with her. Pacey drops by to tell Dawson that he just visited with Tamara and realized that he isn't entirely over her...and Dawson strongly urges him to stay as far away from the cougar as possible, 'cause he should be hanging with girls his age - like Andie, for example, who stopped by his house yesterday to find out if he likes her. [So much for agreeing to keep it on the down-low, big mouth.] Pacey points out that Andie is a girl, while Tamara is a woman, and Dawson reemphasizes that he should be with a girl, then begs Pacey to not "go there" with Tamara...'cause fuckin' blech, the disturbing spectacle of those two getting it on in Season 1 is forever tattooed on my brain.

Joey asks Bessie if she can take off early from her Ice House shift and head over to the museum to catch the new abstract expressionism exhibit, and Bessie gives her the OK and suggests she also take Jack with her. 

Mitch tells Tamara he loooooves her warehouse property and could see it working as his new restaurant, and she lays her cards on the table and says that since she's so eager to sell, he's guaranteed to get a good deal.

Abby drags Jen with her to the docks so she can look for Vincent. Jen rolls her eyes and points out that he's much too old for her, but Abby reminds her that this show has set a creepy precedent of a developing an entire storyline around a grown adult committing a felony by knowingly hitting the sheets with an underage dimwit.

Over at the museum, Jack demonstrates to Joey his deep love, knowledge, and appreciation of abstract expressionism and coos about how emotionally affected he is by the seemingly messy paintings in which he can sense the artist's passion and intelligence. Joey looks startled, then entranced by his strong reaction to the exhibit...and apologizes for assuming that he was little more than a clumsy, inept waiter.

Abby and Jen find Vincent working shirtless aboard his boat. Abby sassily invites him out to a popular watering hole this evening, but he passes and comes right out and says he has zero desire "to play blue collar pin-up for some over-sexed, condescending teeny bopper". As Abby stares at him incredulously and is all, "Excuse me?", he sarcastically thanks her for slumming it by coming to the docks to ogle at him while he labors aboard his boat. As Abby stomps off, Jen explains to Vincent that sometimes Abby comes across as a vapid, self-entitled nymphet - but that she mostly means well and that he should give her a break. Vincent says he finds Abby to be a stuck up and phony tart, and that he's way more into her (Jen) and wouldn't mind taking her out...but only as long as she leaves Abby at home. Ouch. And ew. 

"I don't hang out with snooty twats who are still in high school."

"I find myself even more turned on by your brazen rudeness."

Back at the museum, Joey tells Jack that lately she's been trying her hand at sketching, and Jack says he'd love to see her work and encourages her to draw what most inspires her. As she mulls that over, Dawson arrives and tells Joey he'd love to pretend to share her interest in abstract expressionism by checking out the exhibit with her - but she tells him she already looked at the paintings with Jack 'cause she knows it's not his (Dawson's) thing. Dawson apologizes for being so flip about her passion and stupidly explains, "I'm just trying to be us" and urges her to argue, debate, and put him in his place the way she always does - but an irked Joey says she's soooo tired of them being exactly the way they've always been, and huffily storms off. 

Pacey stops by Tamara's warehouse property as she's cleaning up, tells her he read up on Pinter pauses so he could understand what the hell she was talking about earlier, then assures her he's definitely over their May-December grossfest. He declares that he's all grown up now, and that this will be their last goodbye...and Tamara agrees and says, "Goodbye, Pacey" - just as he pulls her to him so that the two can indulge in one last passionate smooch for me to barf at.

After the commercial break, a discombobulated Tamara says she has a prospective buyer coming in an hour and needs to continue cleaning up. Pacey assures her he knows it's over between them, then asks her if she misses teaching. She admits she does, then wistfully smiles at him at he turns and saunters out of the warehouse.

At Capeside the next day, Abby snarls at Jen for stealing Vincent from her, but Jen argues that she did no such thing, and that Vincent was the one who rejected her. Abby denies being rejected, despite clearly having been rejected, and bitchily retorts, "That's your specialty, not mine."

In the park, Joey offers to explain her recent prickly behavior to Dawson by nattering about how both he and art are very very important to her. She says that being his sidekick/confidante/other half since childhood has been fun and all, but that she also needs something that belongs to just her and has nothing to do with him. She then shows him a drawing of what she thinks inspires her most, and he's pleased to see that it's a rendering of his mug. She then nonsensically babbles that she doesn't want to lose him, but at the same time lives in fear of going nowhere in life. She insists that all of the fighting and huffily storming off she's been doing this episode has been her fighting with herself...and by fighting with herself she says that a part of her wanted to send him off running, while the other part wanted to clutch him tightly. Dawson looks alarmed and asks which part of her won out, and she doesn't answer and says that for now her contrived sounding inner torment remains unresolved. The two sadly hug as a worried looking Dawson wonders what in blazes is happening to their budding romance, which seems to be turning into more of a mindfuck by the day.

"I can't figure out which half of me doesn't want to send you packing."

"And I can't tell if you're breaking up with me or just having a prickly mood swing."

Pacey finds Andie in a downtown café and seats himself at her table looking more smug than usual...and Andie asks him if Dawson spilled the beans about her digging him - but he pretends to have no earthly idea what she's talking about. She rolls her eyes and tells him not to get too smug about her feelings for him 'cause they may very quickly pass. A few seconds later, Pacey glances out the window and notices Tamara getting into her car and (mercifully) leaving Capeside for good. He tells Andie he used to know the pedo/cougar/statutory rapist, but doesn't anymore...and then the camera pans out as he shifts his attention back to his age appropriate girlfriend, looking newly fascinated by whatever they're chatting about.

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