Dawson's Creek: Highway to Hell (5.17)

The same kinds of themes that made In a Lonely Place something of a drag appeared this week, too; characters coming together, falling apart and finding each other. Typically for season five, there's this erratic quality to a lot of the stories, the writers seemingly unsure of where exactly things are going, and I'm still none the wiser over whether we as an audience are supposed to support, say, Joey growing close to Charlie. For the first time in the history of the show, I feel alienated to the point of strangeness, failing to understand what the show is really trying to do.

Can I first just say: the show needs to stop giving Katie Holmes opportunities to sing. I hate to be mean to her, but her voice is horrible. It's really little-girl-ish, crushingly weak and flat. One of the most famous Dawson's Creek scenes is her season one rendition of On My Own, but that's a very small song, so it wasn't a huge problem. But this is the second time in a couple of weeks where she's sung these energetic pop-rock numbers, and they only expose her vocal weaknesses. It's cringe-worthy-as-all-hell and needs to stop, like right now!

Phew. Rant over. Highway to Hell splits off into two camps, one seeing Joey, Pacey and Audrey joining Charlie on the road, Joey singing with his band at a biker bar, and the two couples making new strides in their relationships. Pacey and Audrey are still cute together, the episode ending with Pacey buying her a cupcake to celebrate their first night together that isn't spoiled by worry over being caught. On the other hand, Charlie is still barf-worthy, and I don't understand Joey's attraction to him. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with casual sex or sex based purely on physical attraction, but for somebody of Joey's nun-like morals, it's out of character for her to be won over by somebody so douchey. And, no, owning the fact that you're a manipulative asshole doesn't make you come off any better, Charlie.

The other story this week involves Dawson and Jen journeying to Capeside for Lily's first birthday. There's some angst with Gale's new love interest, who seems like a nice guy, but who understandably makes Dawson crazy, but the bigger issue is Jen's lingering feelings of doubt when it comes to her new relationship. Yup, I still don't totally understand her, even if their final break-up is performed well enough to let you excuse some of the nonsensical emotions that Jen has been experiencing of late. So they're done. I really thought the show would play around more with these two, but in the end it became something of a non-event. I guess the main goal was having Dawson lose his virginity, and not the two of them actually getting together long-term. Blah.

There's still this detachment recently, the characters difficult to understand as they do things that seem to go against what we know of them as people. Only Pacey and Audrey seem entirely focused and well-written. Highway to Hell is better than last week's episode, but the show is still drifting. C

Credits
Guest stars Busy Philipps (Audrey Liddell); Chad Michael Murray (Charlie Todd); Mary-Margaret Humes (Gale Leery)
Writer Anna Fricke Director Sanford Bookstaver