Again With This: Beverly Hills, 90210

As the news of Abby's passing spreads through Capeside, everyone gets a chance to make it about them. Girls at school who were definitely not Abby's friends distribute yellow armbands in her memory. Jen displaces her guilt onto Andie, then starts drinking. Andie -- worried that Jen might be right when she says Abby would still be alive if Andie hadn't kicked her and Jen out of the wedding -- doesn't correct Mrs. Morgan about her supposed friendship with Abby, AND agrees to deliver a eulogy at her funeral. Jack realizes he may have been the last person to kiss Abby before her death.  Joey tries to keep a lid on her feelings so old grief about her mother's death three years earlier doesn't boil over. And Dawson takes the opportunity to rewatch all the footage he shot of Abby for Creek Daze -- which he might as well, if only to take his mind off the possibility that Gale is going to take a fancy network job in Philadelphia and leave him behind. Find a comfortable spot (satin pillow optional) and join us for our

The Icehouse caters a wedding for Capeside blue-bloods! What could go wrong?! (Actually, it's...mostly fine.)

Dawson has a new teacher for film class, and (presumably) unlike Mr. Gold, she has an actual track record: Nicole Kennedy (Mädchen Amick!) is in town on sabbatical to write a screenplay and is just teaching as a lark? Also teaching as a lark: Mitch, who has apparently taken over Mr. Peterson's course load. Dawson's being as normal about it as he is able, but Mitch is not able to be normal about him, and bragged so much about his movie in the teachers' lounge that Miss Kennedy asks Dawson about it. He's excited...at first! Joey and Jack have fallen into the post-breakup friendship groove she and Dawson couldn't quite manage. At the fair, he urges her to talk to another artist -- a college freshman photographer named Colin -- and he ends up being so taken with her beauty that he gets her to pose for him. Andie seeks a reading from a psychic at the fair, then wishes she hadn't. And Jen tries to make a love connection for Grams and Whit, another vendor at the fair that Grams already knows -- but is she ready to c

Dawson Leery makes the world bend to his will most of the time, so you can just imagine how much more of a monster he is around his birthday -- or, actually, you don't have to, because that's what this whole episode is about. As if Joey doesn't have enough on her mind right now in the hours after her second-ever boyfriend came out as gay, Dawson has decided that the thing that will make him feel complete is getting her back. Joey is, in fact, working harder on their friendship, including throwing a surprise party for him, which is why Pacey makes plans to get Dawson out of the house during party setup. Unfortunately for Pacey, Dawson is coming to their night out straight from getting shot down by Joey in an attempt to reconcile; also unfortunately for Pacey, Andie's coming with them and she's on therapist's orders to have a night of imperfection. Both Andie AND Dawson throw themselves into acting out, with disastrous consequences for both the party and for the musical art form known as The Blues. If what YOU

As Pacey wraps up his week's suspension, Capeside High is still abuzz with speculation about Jack's sexuality -- including from a very offscreen Mr. Milo, who's given up on getting Mrs. McPhee in to the school to discuss the situation (thanks to Andie running interference) and calls their dad to make his first-ever on-camera visit to town. Mr. McPhee endures Andie's nonstop chatter over dinner, then turns his attention to Jack to make sure he knows that if he were gay, he would take it as a personal insult. Elsewhere, Joey is, seemingly, under near-constant torment as to whether the rumors about Jack could be true, and getting moderately bad advice about it from, who else, Dawson. Ty also decides to weigh in, telling Jen he doesn't know why Joey would waste her time with a "fruit fly" (no) like Jack. The answer to what you should spend your time on today is: our episode on "...That Is The Question"! NOTES

Jack is suddenly in Mr. Peterson's class with Pacey and no one else we know for not-at-all-contrived reasons: everyone is assigned to write a poem, but Jack is the only one Mr. Peterson calls on to read it aloud. Jack is upset enough by the reading to flee the class crying, and that combined with the fact that the subject was male causes the rumor to spread with lightning speed: Jack is gay. Joey shrugs it off until Dawson urges her to ask him. Pacey can't help noting that Andie isn't being very supportive. And the next day, when Mr. Peterson isn't done victimizing Jack, Pacey gets involved, and so do his mucus membranes. After taking Jen to Bible study didn't exactly inflame her desire to see Ty again, he decides to show her there's more to him than reading scripture for fun. Tisn't nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune: duck and listen to our episode on "To Be Or Not To Be..." instead! JOIN THE AWT CLUB

It's so fortunate that Dawson happened to stop by Joey's art class the day she was sketching nude female Devon (Rachael Leigh Cook!) because it turns out she's also a drama student at the college and she's PERFECT to play "Sammy" in his movie...which is starting production mere hours after Dawson casts her! Jen's been busily lining up volunteers. Jack agrees even though he and Dawson only stopped openly hating each other in the last episode. Ty agrees because he's got a crush on Jen -- and she seems just as interested in him. Andie agrees even though her meds (an empty bottle of which Pacey finds in her trash) don't seem to be calibrated quite right. Grams agrees, and yay, it's been weeks since we saw her! Joey agrees, not knowing how uncomfortable it's going to be to watch people she barely knows perform barely disguised scenes from her real life. It's a real bad time for nearly everyone. Boston Film Festival, you have a LOT to answer for. Our latest episode on "His Leading Lady" will tell you whether She is

The Capeside we heard way back at the end of Season 1 was wrapping up its tourist season is, months later, having a fishing contest. Pacey is going with his father John even though they hate each other. Mitch is going even though he knows nothing about fishing, so Dawson is going too, for the bonding. And: surprise! Jack is also going because Andie asked Pacey to invite him, and whoops, Pacey forgot to warn Dawson that his nostrils were in for a workout well before he gets anywhere near smelly bait. Back at home, Jen comes up with a segment idea for Gale's newscast (?) about teen girl consumers (??) and invites some teen girls she knows, including Abby (???). Gale's ability to tolerate Abby is limited even though Joey is being almost as bitchy as the show's designated bitch. Don't bother with a map: you won't need it to find our episode on "Uncharted Waters"! JOIN THE AWT CLUB

Conveniently -- almost TOO conveniently, you might say -- Mr. Peterson's English class has arrived at its unit on mysteries. Abby blows off his first attempt to get her to give her presentation. Then, thanks to Chris's eagle-eyed spotting of a folded note abandoned on the classroom floor, a mystery falls into her lap and inspires Abby to attempt a project that's a little unorthodox: solving the mystery of who wrote this letter about the sex they just had and why they and their partner should cool it for a little while. She determines that it's one of three couples in and near the class: Jack and Joey; Jen and Dawson; and Andie and Pacey. Who will Abby's nosy investigation expose (as it were), and will it be enough to keep her from flunking the assignment and consigning herself to summer school?! Cozy up to the mystery with our episode on "Sex, She Wrote"! JOIN THE AWT CLUB

Upon Andie's request, Pacey has gotten an HIV test, and presents her with his negative results. She makes sure he understands this isn't an immediate green light for them to have sex, and he's like, "I know, that's fine," and she's like, "Wait, you DON'T want to have sex with me?" and suddenly it's the only topic they're talking about -- other than when he runs into her in the drugstore and accosts her to interrogate her about the prescription she just picked up. She claims the anti-anxiety meds are for her mother, with whom she shares a first name, but: watch this space. Art student Joey has progressed to nude figure drawing; Jack is very complimentary about her first attempt, which is why it's unfortunate when FAMOUSLY CLUMSY JACK spills his drink all over it. He doesn't want her to fail the assignment, so there's just one thing for it: he will pose nude for her! What could go wrong? Dawson has finished his script and started auditions with his new producer Jen. He does not appreciate literally everyone tel

We’re off this week but we bring you two Again With Again With This episodes full of Melrose peeps and swimwear. AWAWT 141: Let’s Watch David Charvet And Brooke Langton On Baywatch! Baywatch S03.E01: River Of No Return, Pt. 1, isn’t only Charvet’s debut on the dominant syndicated T&A show of the nineties; it’s also Nicole Eggert’s…and Pamela Denise Anderson’s, so there’s a lot going on. Not in terms of the episode director guiding young/bad actors, however; we’ll talk about that, Brooke Langton’s shiny hair, TV pregnancies, believable lurking, and more. AWAWT 153: Let's Watch Cheryl Pollak And Jack Wagner In Swimsuit! Saltaire Swimwear is looking for fresh faces for its new campaign! Among the aspiring models are Rosy (Cheryl Pollak), discovered at her burger-joint job; and Scott (Paul Johansson), a washed-out finance bro. Among the love interests? Jack Wagner as department-store magnate Hart Chadway, and no, that’s not a typo. Dive in! JOIN THE AWT CLUB

The school year is nearly half over, so naturally it's time for the current sophomores to vote on who will represent them for, oh, six months or so. Andie understands that, as a new student, she's going to be at a deficit just because people don't know who she is, but she's also already looking ahead to her college applications so she's willing to risk it. She's also SO new that she thinks her ticket might get a lift from adding Joey, forcing Joey to explain that she's very unpopular and she would rather not run. Then frontrunners Chris and Abby post up at the Icehouse to talk strategy; Abby overhears Jack urging Joey to change her mind, then runs her mouth so much about what losers they are that she goads Joey into running after all. Things seem like they're going to go well...until the debate, when Abby disgorges all of Andie's family secrets. Elsewhere, Dawson has completed his next script. First reader Jen thinks it's hampered by Dawson writing teens like a middle-aged man, and offers to help him discover

Though his life has mostly sucked lately, Dawson gets some good news for a change: his horror movie won a special award at the extremely offscreen film festival in which he entered it, and the prize is a not insignificant amount of money to help him make his next movie. (Oof, the threat inherent in that phrase: Dawson's NEXT movie.) He's excited to reunite with Joey, his producer on the last film, but since they worked together she's developed her own interests and isn't going to have time to be a helpmeet on his. Dawson actually responds to this in a very selfless way, but then he sees Jack walking up to take Joey out on a not-quite-date and decides maturity is for chumps and he'd rather go to a "kegs and eggs" party with Jen and all the other degenerate local teens. Pacey and Andie are getting close enough for her to let him come study at her house and interact with her mother, which is how he happens to be in the right place at the right time to help Andie manage a crisis. We hope you don't feel reluctant

Mr. Peterson, in whose English class everyone but Jack is enrolled, makes such a big, apocalyptic deal about the imminent midterm that all the students we know head straight for his afterschool study session. He's too sick to show up himself, however, so new lothario Chris Wolfe (future Roswell star Jason Behr) offers the use of his giant, currently parentless house for an off-campus cram. Andie does what she can to stay on task, but the rest of the loafers she's trying to herd would rather eat pizza and play grab-ass, and things only go further south when Chris notices Andie's issue of Jane because then everyone has to take the purity test she was flirting about with Pacey earlier. This relic of the past -- which, if you weren't alive for its heyday, is exactly what you think it is -- forces everyone to get real about their sexual histories, then immediately regret it. YOU won't regret listening to our episode on "The All-Nighter"! JOIN THE AWT CLUB

YES, this is a new episode; the dance episode in S01 is just called "Dance," and yes, it was a terrible idea for two episodes of the same show to have nearly identical titles, but here we are. All our opening-credits cast nonconformists know, as Andie does, that the Homecoming Dance is coming up. Unlike Andie, they don't care, until she points out that dancing can be a form of foreplay and all their horny asses get on board. Seeing Jen in the hallway still hanging out with Abby, Joey gets concerned that Abby's a bad influence and suggests asking Jen to join them at the dance, since they're all going as friends. Dawson's not so sure until Andie asks to invite Jack, and over Pacey's strenuous urging for them not to try to set up two people who don't know each other at all and have nothing in common, it's on. Dawson could use the distraction of a dance, because his parents have told him that they're finally ready to quit their marriage, and Mitch is moving out. But if Dawson had hoped for some drama that could t

It's a full moon! Joey is pretty sure it's going to cause out-of-character behavior in the townsfolk, and she might be on to something: Mitch and Gale are so testy about one another's totally innocent visitors (Tamara in his case; some reporter colleague named Gary in hers), repeatedly making reference to THURSDAYS, that Dawson can't help noticing and demanding to know what is actually going on with their marriage. Elsewhere, a dead shift at the Icehouse gives Joey nothing to do but talk to Jack, and resume noticing that he is more sensitive than she initially gave him credit for...and maybe more sensitive than her boyfriend? Vincent and Jen make a coffee date, which is tough on Abby, who can't decide whether she actually wants to be friends with Jen, or just have someone around to bounce her crazy off. And since the coffee date isn't at the new café we keep seeing but at Grams's house, things percolate dangerously. Pacey has well learned the lessons of the previous episode and makes an age-appropriate date w

As we saw at the end of the last episode, Tamara somehow has the nerve to show her face back in Capeside AFTER EVERYTHING. Officially it's to sell her house and also a warehouse (???), the latter possibly to Mitch for his fake restaurant, which is why Dawson is the first credits-cast Capeside High student to see her. He does TRY to warn Pacey, but not hard enough, since as we keep saying, he's a bad friend. And while Andie does pick up on a vibe when she witnesses Pacey running into Tamara totally unprepared (bad friend, is what he has), she's too worried about sorting out how Pacey feels about Andie herself to interrogate why he's so thrown by a chance reunion with an old teacher. Laura continues her mentorship of Joey through an art lecture and then a drawing class, strongly encouraging Joey to consider pursuing art study more seriously. Dawson seems to think this possible new "hobby" is absolutely adorable, then can't figure out why Joey is insulted by his tone. Undeterred by Dawson treating her like a pre

Nearly all our teen leads happen to be taking the same Econ class, in which Mr. Maddock NOT ONLY demands that students pair up for a project on household finances, complete with character briefs and backstory; he's ALSO not letting them choose their own partners, which is how Andie ends up with Pacey, Jen with Dawson, Abby with a nerd named Kenny, and Joey on her own. You'd think Joey would go straight to the person she already knows as a solo head of household, but no, she rudely dismisses Bessie in favor of Laura (Tamara Taylor!), a successful local interior designer who seems all too ready to take on a protégée. Andie and Pacey predictably bicker over whether they need a comfortable house for their three children more than they need a Viper. Abby orders Jen to use her forced proximity to Dawson to try to get a leg over him (while also ordering Kenny to do the project without her and stick her name on it). Can Dawson resist the urge to touch Jen's boobs the first, third, or 47th time she finds an excuse to

Dawson and Joey are settling into the new phase of their relationship in the typical teenager way: totally oblivious that other people exist, rolling straight from Mitch and Gale catching them making out all over Dawson's bed to Dawson forgetting Pacey's 16th birthday. Pacey gives Dawson multiple chances to redeem himself -- including by throwing himself a party -- but it's Andie who actually comes through in the clutch. While this is going on, Dawson decides to help himself to a perusal of Joey's journal, in which she's written that she thinks his movie sucks. Cue the happy couple's first fight: it's "you don't believe in my talent" vs. "you violated my privacy." Andie's newly introduced brother Jack shows up in the middle of this, not that we're sure Dawson registers his existence on any level. Jen's well into her nihilist phase, which means she needs someone to hang out with who's going to join her on the dark side. Welcome back, Abby Morgan, and Abby's bottle of champagne! While all this is going on, Mitc

We're off this week but we bring you two Again With Again With This episodes full of Canadianosity. AWAWT 149: Let’s Watch Kathleen Robertson In Maniac Mansion! We're heading back to the early nineties (again) with an episode of weird, energetic cross-border fam-com Maniac Mansion, which was loosely based on the videogame -- and starred a young Kathleen Robertson as teen brainiac Tina; Mr. Weir as her dad; and a grouchy styrofoam meteor as the villain of the week. How did Robertson do? And should you watch? AWAWT 150: Let’s Watch Jason Priestley In The Series Finale Of The Fantasy Island Sequel! Nobody really watched FOX's Fantasy Island sequel except Tara, which is probably why it got cancelled, but we're contemplating the series finale -- and Jason Priestley's one-off turn as a jerky cheater who gets his thanks to a revenge spell. Weirdly abusive mermaid girlfriends with great butts, baffling timelines and memory tricks, and inconvenient beach heels all somehow added up to a fun time, and JP knew his ro