Again With This: Beverly Hills, 90210

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

We pick up with Dawson and Joey where we left off in the S01 finale: they kissed! They like each other! They're going to talk about it a bunch, misusing a lot of five-dollar words in the process! But...what does this mean? Are they immediately boyfriend-girlfriend? Is sex on the table? Is Jen going to be weird about it -- that is, when she's not being weird about Grams doing a bad job mourning Gramps? Pacey has a literal run-in (of the automotive kind) with Andie, a new transplant from Rhode Island; after he poses as a cop to freak her out, she sees him at school and extends their relationship via Pacey's latest crush, Kristy Livingstone (Ali Larter!). And Mitch and Gale are still on the rockzzzzzz..... No need to pucker up for our podcast on "The Kiss"! JOIN THE AWT CLUB

Deep in the background, Pacey's dad is not only still being a jerk to him but enlisting Doug to do it in his absence. But in the foreground, a lot is going on with his three best friends. Joey and Dawson are still very confused about their feelings for one another following the beauty pageant, so when Joey is offered the chance to spend the next semester in France, he doesn't want her to go but also doesn't feel comfortable saying why. Joey ALSO has to make the decision about going on either side of a forced visit to her dad, celebrating another birthday in prison. And Jen's Gramps wakes up, yay! But he's very old and weak and no spoilers but it's probably a good thing he immediately goes back to the hospital for some tests. We hope you will decide to join us for our podcast on "Decisions"! JOIN THE AWT CLUB

Capeside is closing out tourist season with Windjammer Days, a town-wide festival of which we see absolutely nothing except the climactic Miss Windjammer pageant. Dawson thinks Jen should enter, which she takes to be a backhanded compliment about her vanity. Jen thinks Joey should enter, because her tips are drying up and she could use the $5000 prize as the start of a college fund. And Pacey thinks Pacey should enter, because his dad is ready for him to become an emancipated minor and move out on his own. Who will be permitted to enter? How will Dawson humiliate himself? And what Broadway standard will be slaughtered in the process? Find out as your two favorite Miss Congeniality washouts bring you a podcast on "Beauty Contest"! JOIN THE AWT CLUB

The 90s Melrose Place era has come to a close on Again With This, so before we leap into Dawson's Creek with ALL our feet, we're taking some questions and comments from our hotline. Listen to find out what your fellow listeners wanted to know, like what Kimberly could have gotten up to in Seasons 6 and 7, which props we would have bid on at the show's official auction, and whomst among our three shows' male leads is actually the most noxious. Plus: much more! We promise nothing will explode. JOIN THE AWT CLUB

The rumors about what really went down the night Kent Damarr died simply cannot be contained. At first, it seems like Eve just wants the truth to come out. But pretty quickly, she changes her mind and hatches a plot for revenge that involves tying Lexi up and dropping her in the tub before stalking Amanda and Peter with murder on her mind. (Why did she have to remove Lexi's clothes first? Presumably so that Jamie Luner could give us all one last look at that bangin' bod, and who can blame her.) Terry's kidnapping plan is foiled by her own distracted driving, and everyone decides to let bygones be bygones -- there's no time for consequences! Jane tells Kyle about her pregnancy right before her doctor tells her a little news of her own, like when Jane actually conceived and whom she was sleeping with at the time. All this and more in our EXPLOSIVE podcast on the SERIES finale, "Asses To Ashes"! JOIN THE AWT CLUB

For Mike White's second credited episode, it's Friday the 13th! Apparently, this is an occasion Dawson's friends have long known is one he likes to mark with scarifying pranks, and that telling him in so many words that they don't like it will not make him stop. Given her new status as Dawson's platonic friend, Jen assumes she will also be on the receiving end of some of this mischief, even though Dawson keeps telling her he actually had nothing planned. Cliff doesn't have anything planned either, beyond just asking Jen on a date and then immediately getting stressed out about it because he doesn't know if he'll be able to live up to the standard set by...Dawson? (Again we must ask if Cliff knows he's a character being played by Scott Foley.) Who will be at Dawson's Friday the 13th séance, and what will go down? Find out in our podcast on "The Scare"! JOIN THE AWT CLUB

You might think Lexi would decide she had enough on her plate dealing with Tony's corpse while also making sure she didn't lose the business he agreed to in his final moments. But, in fact, seeing Eve rapidly unraveling psychologically just convinces her to add a new scheme to her schedule: she can certainly take advantage of Eve's instability and use it against Amanda! Mark L. Taylor manages to cash another Melrose Place check as Dr. Visconti gets involved. Terry's feelings for Ryan continue to linger, such that she creates a seemingly awkward situation for Megan to walk in on and call off the engagement (again), but surely both McBros will close out the series deliriously happy with the blondes they were always destined to be with...right? Listen to us talk at length about all of this and more in our podcast on "Dead Men Don't Shut Up"! JOIN THE AWT CLUB